Defining Video Game Addiction

1Up has a feature discussing where the line should be drawn when it comes to game addiction. The author speaks to researcher Neils Clark about some of the common characteristics of addiction, and how the high level of immersion in many modern games contributes to the mind's ability to drown out mundane tasks. We've discussed game addiction many times over the past several years. Quoting: "If we're not all dribbling addicts, then why are we playing so much? Clark puts this down to a theory proposed by The Lord of the Rings author J.R.R. Tolkien — primary and secondary worlds. The primary world is our own real life. The secondary is the fictional world: literature, film, videogames, and so on. 'It used to be that the imagery and artistic intent had to be fully available before you could really "find" yourself in a written story,' Clark says. 'Immersion has progressed to the point where entering a world [inside a game] is almost automatic. At the point we're at, playing healthy not only means understanding immersion but [also] recognizing that these secondary worlds are designed to be more fulfilling than the primary. Learning to balance them is its own technology. It's something that humankind is in a process of developing, even if on a subconscious level for most gamers.'"

What a load of...

[QuantumG]

It seems obvious that the only people who think MMORPGs are addictive are the people who haven't played them.

I'd come up with a thoughtful reply

[SirLurksAlot]

but I have a number of auctions to check on in Ironforge and a bunch of mining to do. That Jewelcrafting skill won't level on its own you know!

Re:fuzzy area

[Anonymous Coward]

And puzzle games make you smarter or whatever

Smarter... or whatever.

Please, please, please play some puzzle games before you post again.

Re:What a load of...

[Anonymous Coward]

Sounds like you've got your self a real winner.

Re:What a load of...

[Hal_Porter]

On the upside she's very unlikely to cheat on him. Plus if she gets too fat he can just hide cheetos for a couple of days.

seriously...

[Anonymous Coward]

i can quit anytime i want.

Re:Addiction....

[plasmacutter]

can i have this "work" you speak of?

Re:i can define video game addiction in two words:

[meringuoid]

How do you play Civ 4 for twelve hours straight? Even a Marathon game on the largest map should be over in less than that. Are you firing up a new empire the moment you finish the last one? Chain-civving? That sounds like you have a problem :-)

Re:What a load of...

[albyrne5]

It took me a long long time to realise that the very first time I got super-duper stoned was the best and could never be topped. Man that was some funny night. I still take an occasional toke, once a month say, but it's only ever one mild toke.

Nothing compared to the mind-bending sessions of old. Ah but that first night ... when I could actually hear my thoughts echoing around my head, and I single-handedly invented (only to my uneducated-mind of course) several fields which I now know to be Evolutionary Psychology, Cellular Automata, Process Physics. Magical memories.

Re:Blur the line.

[The_reformant]

Are you suggesting that the first transhumans will being doing if for "teh epic lootz" and "ganking nubz"?

Re:Television is addictive

[Anonymous Coward]

Smokers hold down a job, and remember to eat. Are they not addicted?

Sure, they're addicted to food and money!