Defining Video Game Addiction 354
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.'"
Re:What a load of... (Score:5, Informative)
Alright that's just not true, I've met several MMORPG players who consider themselves addicted and are not happy about the amount of time they've spent on their games.
Personally I never got into the MMORPG thing, but I remember back when I used to MUD there were periods where I definitely exhibited the signs of addiction. That endorphin rush I got when I first logged in for the day is scary in retrospect.
Re:your assuming it's an addiction (Score:4, Informative)
ask wikipedia [wikipedia.org]
The term "addiction" is used in many contexts to describe an obsession, compulsion, or excessive physical dependence, such as: drug addiction, alcoholism, compulsive overeating, problem gambling, computer addiction, etc.
In medical terminology, addiction is a state in which the body relies on a substance for normal functioning and develops physical dependence, as in drug addiction. When the drug or substance on which someone is dependent is suddenly removed, it will cause withdrawal, a characteristic set of signs and symptoms. Addiction is generally associated with increased drug tolerance. In physiological terms, addiction is not necessarily associated with substance abuse since this form of addiction can result from using medication as prescribed by a doctor.
However, common usage of the term addiction has spread to include psychological dependence. In this context, the term is used in drug addiction and substance abuse problems, but also refers to behaviours that are not generally recognised by the medical community as problems of addiction, such as compulsive overeating.
The term addiction is also sometimes applied to compulsions that are not substance-related, such as problem gambling and computer addiction. In these kinds of common usuages, the term addiction is used to describe a recurring compulsion by an individual to engage in some specific activity, despite harmful consequences to the individual's health, mental state or social life.
Re:your assuming it's an addiction (Score:4, Informative)
In 2005, Lee Seung Seop of South Korea died after playing StarCraft for 50 hours. In 2007, Xu Yan of northeastern China died after playing various online games for 7 days. Just six months later, an unidentified 30-year-old in Guangzhou province died after playing in an Internet café for three straight days. Addiction to videogames: It's happening to them, and it could be happening to you, too!
Well, OK, not really. Game addiction is a term that's thrown around pretty liberally these days. Horror stories of people spending their entire lives in front of World of WarCraft are even making it to the TV news. But for most of us, gaming's just a hobby -- even if it's a hobby that we tend to take rather seriously. The line between hobby and habit is a blurry one, though, and it's not easily understood. When it comes to doing something you enjoy, how much is too much?
Re:What a load of... (Score:5, Informative)
If it wasn't fun there wouldn't be a risk of addiction. Nobody ever got addicted to filling out time sheets, for example.
My wife freely admits to being addicted.. she sometimes looks back and wonders where the last 5 years went, tries to stop for a couple of days then back to raiding - she plays 18-20 hours a day, never leaves the house, or even the desk for that matter.. Not a lot you can do about it, except wait for the victim to get their act together and come out of it.
Re:What a load of... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:What a load of... (Score:2, Informative)
Actually Psychological Dependence (i.e. compulsive WOW playing) is generally considered to be a type of addiction:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_dependence#Psychological_dependency [wikipedia.org]
On Wikipedia. That's just because everytime someone takes computer related activities out of the section on psychological dependence one of the admins puts it back in a few minutes later. Even if it happens at 3am.
Re:What a load of... (Score:3, Informative)
A gamer doesn't want to quit. And if he/she does want to quit, they do
I think what you're describing there is "someone who enjoys playing a game" rather than a "game addict". From the sounds of it, it seems you believe that the latter doesn't exist, and only the former does.
I myself have next to no interest in games - I used to play a MUD quite a lot, and from time to time I still fire up Nethack, but it's pretty rare. When I did MUD however, I did find myself "bordering" on the addicted side when I decided to quit. I'd say to myself, "right that's it, not interested anymore" and then stop for a couple of days. After that, I'd say, "I wonder what everyone is up to?" or "Maybe they've tweaked a quest I can do" or something that like that and then I'd log in again. I didn't really WANT to play, I just found myself getting a bit worried about what was going on in the MUD if I didn't play.
I haven't logged in to that MUD (or any other) in close to a year now, and it really doesn't bother me anymore, but it definitely did for awhile. And I've seen people in MUCH worse states than that. As one poster above wrote (humorously, but not without the strong hint of truth), there are people who stand around all day on World of Warcraft complaining that they're bored. Clearly they're not enjoying playing, but they don't log out - they just stay online and complain about it. I'd say that's pretty sure evidence of addiction in action.
Addictions aren't always physical/physiological... I'm addicted to nicotine - that's a fairly classic addiction. However, it's also possible to be addicted to "non-addictive" substances as well - I used to take a lot of LSD in my younger days (I still enjoy it from time to time, but nowhere near the excess that I used to), and I would find myself sometimes saying "this evening would be so much better if I were tripping". That led to a rather bad situation where pretty much EVERY weekend, I'd be in an altered state. LSD is non-addictive (physically and physiologically), yet I was definitely psychologically addicted to it. The same can apply with games.
Re:What a load of... (Score:3, Informative)
If you got that, and were just going on off on a tangent, please disregard this post.
Re:What a load of... (Score:3, Informative)
Ah, but there's the difference between a single-player game an a MMORPG. It doesn't matter how much of an addict you become, eventually you beat the game and it's not fun anymore. "All the greatest armor and weapons" is a moving target in MMORPGs, you can always throw on another set of ultra-rare epics only gotten by endlessly raiding the superultraboss. Remember, you got someone with a very strong interest in not letting you reach your goals...
Re:smoking. & food (Score:3, Informative)
This whole thread has serious Apples & Mangoes problems.
You became addicted to cigarettes ... because you enjoy them. You have reached a plateau, so you still enjoy them, meaning the activity is not escalating into the next severity class. However, if you found yourself up against an important reason to quit, then the physical-addiction side would kick in.
"Addicted to food" is different, because whole the baseline quantity of cigarettes is zero, there *is* a baseline of food. So attempting to take that minimum amount away creates a logical fallacy because then it becomes a problem again, but in the other direction. (Anorexics have a mis-calibrated food baseline.)
Modern USA *is* addicted to *excess* food, because this is encouraged by brutal social pressures from advertising to Increasing Sales discussions in boardrooms. If you wake up one year and discover you are overweight, and try to cut back, the level of dificulty experienced is the measure of the food addiction.
Re:Videogames are not addictive. (Score:3, Informative)
This means that you need a critical mass of people who are, in fact, playing 40 to 60 hours a week, a hardcore contingent, to provide much of that sense of persistence and mutual recognition.
No. MMOs need people to be online, but we don't need them to be on for long periods of time. During "peak hours", a game has between 10-30% of the total active accounts online once it has matured. So, people will be online during most of the time. Also note that "critical mass" is much lower than "expected populations" for a well designed game. For my own game, Meridian 59, critical mass on a server appears to be about 30 or so players online, so in my case I don't need to snare a large number of people to keep the game reasonably healthy.
Also, note that the average person in WoW spends about 2 hours per day in the game. (Reference: Blizzard vs. WoWGlider lawsuit, quote at: http://elitistjerks.com/f15/t28385-blizzard_wins_lawsuit_against_wowglider/#post812739 [elitistjerks.com]) If we were looking at a true epidemic here, I would think that the largest game would have figures that were much higher than the average hours of TV watched if we accept that TV watching is not similarly addicting. The 40-60 hour per week people are statistical outliers, many sigma away from the average. In WoW, every person playing 40 hours per week needs 3 people playing only 1 hour per week to balance things out to the average.
And, carefully consider what you are saying. Your core argument in this post is that socializing and feeling like you have social obligations is bad. Few rational people are going to agree with that position. The fact that people do engage in social activities online is a good thing. The fact that people do stupid things in social situations, such as when trying to find a potential mate, doesn't mean that the activity is generally harmful. It means that some people just need a bit more help than others.
Have fun,