Coping with Gaming Addiction 632
Several readers submitted this story in the Washington Post about gaming addiction in adolescents and adults. The main sources of the story are two people who get paid for solving this problem, so they have an incentive to make it sound scary and widespread, but on the other hand, most Slashdot readers probably have a... friend... who spends too much time playing video games.
We're supposed to worry -- why? (Score:5, Funny)
Here's a hint: if you're one of those idiots who insists on giving your kid a name with "unique" spelling, at least don't pick a "gaye" name.
Re:We're supposed to worry -- why? (Score:5, Funny)
--
some linuks-luser
Re:We're supposed to worry -- why? (Score:5, Interesting)
I've managed to peel myself away for a little bit last night to play Doom 3, but I know I'll be back on that WolfET server soon!
Re:We're supposed to worry -- why? (Score:3, Funny)
I also liked how he turned into a corpse that would sit in front of Elliot's house at the end of the game if you died. You could even make the corpse wiggle around with the controller.
If you can derive that much entertainment from the game after all these years, you are definitely in need of professional help.
. .
he
Re:We're supposed to worry -- why? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:We're supposed to worry -- why? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:We're supposed to worry -- why? (Score:5, Funny)
Names in "da ghetto" (Score:3, Funny)
I swear that most of the little girls are named after cars (Lexus, Diamanti, Kia, Allante, Sonata) and most of the little boys are named after DuPont products or similar sounding words (Jermal, Nylon, Teflon, Kevlar)
It's a shame but when I hear some fat mama call Nylon and Kia, I can't help but laugh.
Even more amusing... (Score:5, Insightful)
Amateur.
Joking aside, if he spent six hours a day watching tv it would be considered no big deal. If he spent six hours a day reading slashdot, it would be...okay it would be pretty freaking weird...but still it would be considered no big deal.
But no, he plays games, which, as we all know, are the devil. They have warped his fragile mind. He needs psychological help! Yadda yadda yadda.
Like the violence on TV is different from the violence on a game, and like...seeing...violence makes you an evil monster.
Hell I've been to LAN games that started on friday and didn't end until Sunday around five o'clock. Went to work the next day, did fine. Is it an addicition? No, because I didn't bust down the walls trying to get my fix at any time during the work week. I don't do it often. It's a hobby. It's fun.
God forbid you're not a vapid consumer of "Friends" and "Will and Grace". Games'll rot your mind, you know.
Now go watch some damn TV.
bad analogies (Score:5, Insightful)
This is different than someone who goes to LAN parties, which is basically a social function. Like you said, you went to a LAN party and then went to work the next day. This is like a late night party with a lot of drinking. It doesn't necessarily indicate a drinking problem because there is no pattern and it isn't necessarily interfering with the rest of your life.
Kids who spend six hours a day playing video games are missing real life experiences. I know this from experience, because I was a compulsive gamer when I was young. I think this problem should be recognized so that kids and their parents can starting doing something about this problem.
Re:bad analogies (Score:5, Insightful)
Quick newsflash: Video games are as much a part of 'real life' as anything else. The fulfillment, enjoyment, and socialization is completely real, just different. Many of my friends these days are people I've played video games with competitively for 5 years now. Some of us come and go, some of us find other things to do, but this is no different than any other hobby.
People need to get over referring to communication and socialization over the internet as not being a part of 'real life'. It's very real, people have gotten married based on internet-founded relationships, people have gotten divorced because of them, and the gamut of experience is far wider than that. It may not seem normal, or healthy, but that's your own opinion to deal with.
For the purposes of disclosure, I've been playing video games almost compulsively since I was a child. I have been diagnosed with ADD, and at one point they went so far as to suggest I had a particular disposition to impulsive/compulsive behavior. Yet I still live a fairly cultured life. I go out on weekends, I enjoy beautiful weather, I absolutely love trying new restaurants, I enjoy independent movies - most of which I watch in a theatre, not on my computer. I've been in a happy, steady relationship with someone for just short of 4 years. I hold a full-time, well-paying job in the Software industry. I finished school.
Yet, there are frequent nights when I play 5-6 hours of video games, and occasionally on weekends I'll spend most of the day playing them.
The point here is that there is no disconnect between my 'real life' experiences and my video game experiences, because there's no disconnect between the 'reality' in both. I got hooked on the internet at the age of 13, some 11 years ago, and I've been there ever since.
Part of the reason for that is that these precious 'real life' experiences you're suggesting were one or more of the following: trite, unfulfilling, unwelcome, overrated, or destructive. It wasn't until I reached young adulthood and found that the barriers of who I associated with were based less on age and more on character that I really started to enjoy 'getting out'.
Re:bad analogies (Score:4, Funny)
Somebody smells like a level 7 magic-user...
Hey I don't disagree with your point, just thought I'd help the cause
Re:Even more amusing... (Score:3, Insightful)
TV Is also an addiction too. So is almost anything. But Games can be much more addicting because as the article stated there is a quick response time for doing something. Espec
Re:Even more amusing... (Score:3, Informative)
Shocker: There has always been people who can't cope with the real world.
And if some of those use video games as an escapism; it is somehow the video games fault. Remember, this crap is taught by the same legion of psychologists who the last two centuries have given us such fantastic therapies as lobotomy, electro-shocks etc. I am so not impressed.
Seems absurd. (Score:5, Insightful)
If someone smokes 3 cigarettes a day, who the hell cares? That guy is smoking less than a pack a week! I get more secondhand smoke than that!
So no, my argument is NOT faulty. Time and quantity is the heart of the whole issue. If your "addiction" doesn't interfere with your life, your job, or alienate your family, then its not a big deal, and YOU should get to worrying about something that actually matters, rather than spending your dissaproval on a moderate and in control habit.
Makes me sick. I've seen alcoholics that can take a quart of vodka A DAY, or a pack of cigarettes at ONE MEAL, and you talk about fiddling nothing habits? Addicts don't stop. Thats practically the definition. A smoker doesn't HAVE three cigarettes if he's addicted.
If you can't drag someone from his computer, if he gets the shakes when the power goes out or freaks out when the cable dies, yea, get him some counsiling, but just because he games 6 hours a day, that means NOTHING.
So spare me your moralistic babble. If I read 12 hours a day, which I do sometimes, you'd think it was great, but I've had a hell of a lot more trouble putting down a book than I've ever had turning off a damn computer.
Re:Seems absurd. (Score:3, Insightful)
People who have personal and mental problems often gravitate towards
As good a place as any... (Score:5, Funny)
henceforth known as a "Ghetto Name". A Ghetto Name implies a lack of education or sophistication
on the part of the one who gave the name. By no means is having a Ghetto Name indicative of anything
negative about the individual unfortunate enough to bear it.
The list applies only to those of us who are native born black Americans. I will leave the list of Red Neck names or
Trailer Park names to Jeff Foxxworthy or someone else. This list is mine.
#1. If your name is misspelled, it is a Ghetto Name.
#2. If your first name includes an apostrophe, it is a Ghetto Name.
#3. If your first name includes the sounds "eeta", "ona", "eekwa", "onda" or "eesha", it is a Ghetto Name.
#4. If your first name is an adjective or an adverb, it is a Ghetto Name.
#5. If your first name is the last name of a former president of the US, it is a Ghetto Name.
#6. If your first name consists of a regular name preceeded by "Ne", "La"
#7. If your first name begins with the sound "My"/"Mi", "Ty", or "Shy"/"Shi", it is a Ghetto Name.
#8. If your first name consists of a monosyllabic word repeated two or more times, it is a Ghetto Name.
#9. If your first name is the same as a City, State, Country or Emotion, it is a Ghetto Name.
#10. If you have never known of another human being who bears your name, it is a Ghetto Name.
LK
Re:As good a place as any... (Score:3, Funny)
If I were a child named "Bush" or "Johnson" I'd probably look for the quickest, easiest way to just end it all.
slashdot addiction (Score:5, Funny)
Re:slashdot addiction (Score:5, Funny)
I think the she gave away the lie more than anything else, now I know you are talking about a made up person.
I have a friend (Score:4, Insightful)
I think he's addicted to these games because it gives him a sense of accomplishment, something that doesn't come so easily for him in the real world.
could be that way with a lot of gamers...
How many addicted gamers do you know who have a life you would call satisfying away from the computer?
Re:I have a friend (Score:5, Insightful)
For starters, they charge monthly access fees to play, so you can bet they're going to do everything possible to cater to addictive personalities and keep people hooked on playing. With traditional games, they get your money up-front, so they could care less whether you keep playing over and over, months down the road. (In fact, they'd probably prefer you get "burnt out" on it after a little while, so they can sell you the next iteration of the same title next year!)
The mere fact that you've paid your subscription fee motivates you to keep playing, even when it's not really "fun" to do so. You're trying to trudge through the boring stuff in order to "level" your character, so he/she can do the "fun stuff" before your subscription is up for yet another renewal.
What makes mmorpgs so addictive (Score:5, Insightful)
"Ordinary" games such as first-person-shooters provide this sense of progression to a lesser degree. The more you play the better you get and when you perceive the progress you get your serotonin rush. However, after a while you get tired or hungry, your performance suffers and ends the reward of continued play. MMORPGS are less skill-intensive and continue to reward the player for button-mashing until they can no longer keep their eyes open.
The community of MMORPG players can also reinforce this addiction, by providing a surrogate to a "real life" community, thus making it easier to withdraw from personal contacts and harder to start them up again. Cults use much the same technique to make it difficult for members to leave and rejoin the larger community.
Re:What makes mmorpgs so addictive (Score:3, Informative)
Re:What makes mmorpgs so addictive (Score:3, Funny)
Whew - guess I'm safe from this addiction then
Re:What makes mmorpgs so addictive (Score:5, Insightful)
Absolutely not.
I've played EQ for 4 years (stopped just the beginning of this summer), and I can tell you that almost no one KEEPS playing for that reason.
The reason that you keep playing EQ is the same reason that people engage in any competitive real-world activity: the feedback from your peers ranging from kudos to jelousy, etc. It's the sense that you are achieving standing in a community, and that that community is "powerful" (in game terms).
The people who run around on their own and kill stuff to level quit within a year regardless of their success.
There are other categories, of course. For example, there's the social player who has a regular group of real-life friends (this is how I started). They will stay with it until that group finds something else to do.
People don't like to see that it's a social activity because that violates our idea of what "social" is.
Re:I have a friend (Score:5, Funny)
The only bigger waste of time is YOU SITTING THERE WATCHING SOMEBODY ELSE PLAY EVERQUEST.
The PA Link you know is coming (Score:3, Funny)
Re:I have a friend (Score:5, Insightful)
Personally I played Asheron's Call and other MMORPGS for years... When I look back on it, I was addicted. I suffered mood swings, anger when I couldn't play. Every moment I could spare was in front of the computer. May times I went to work the next day on a couple hours of sleep... My relationships with my wife and kids started to suffer. Luckily I clicked in before they were unrecoverable.
Even to this day I get the urge to play and have to force myself not to resubscribe. If thats not an addiction I don't know what is.
I wish I had a link to an article I once read that was prepared by a psychology student which compared MMORPGS to positive re-enforcement (or some such..) It made perfect sense as to why these games are addictive and why companies design them that way.
Re:I have a friend (Score:5, Insightful)
In the latter part of the 90s a group of us had a major Quake 2 addiction. Up to 8 of us would play after work everyday. We found as the day went on that we got less and less productive and about 2.30 people would start talking to each other about how long it was until Quake time. Some people even had to play in the morning before coming to work because they couldn't do anything else until they got their fix. There have been plenty of other games too that I've been addicted too, but I won't bore you with the details.
These days I have to be careful. I have an XBox, but rarely play it because I know I will get sucked in and not accomplish anything else, be it life maintenance tasks or spending time with the people I care about... who are far more important. I honestly prefer to spend time socializing or with family, or doing more selfish things like reading, or running (another addiction!), or pottering around... but games seem to over power that, even if I'm not enjoying playing at the time! I definitely will not buy XBox Live!
Nick Yee (Score:3, Informative)
Here you go... [nickyee.com] See "Ariadne" and the end of "Norrathian Scrolls".
Re:I have a friend (Score:4, Interesting)
Consider the difference between the alcoholic and the compulsive gambler.
The alcoholic is actually experiencing a change in brain chemistry. If he doesn't drink, he suffers actual physical symptoms: he gets the shakes, DT's, gets sick, etc.
The gambler just gets pissed off when he can't gamble. He suffers PSYCHOLOGICAL symptoms. He gets antsy, annoyed, tries to get to the track. He's unhappy. NOT PHYSICALLY ILL.
Hence the difference. One is a physical phenomenon. One is a psychological phenomenon.
Addiction is not the same as a compulsive behavior.
Now, to games: What you're describing is a little bit obsessive-compulsive, but it's certainly not an addiction. And, sure, you can get yourself in a whole lot of trouble being obsessive about something. Maybe if you find out that you literally can't stop playing a game, you've got a bit of a problem and you should back off (or maybe talk to a good therapist).
BUT, it's not addiction. No matter how often people try to frame it as such.
Re:I have a friend (Score:5, Informative)
Addiction is based on a genetic predisposition. Some people have it; some people don't. A good test for if someone is addicted is if the consequenses outweigh the benefits, yet the behavior persists.
For example, there are people who drink a beer every day, yet can quit should they need the money, or if their family starts to suffer because of it.
Then again, there are alcoholhics, who are unable to stop even when it costs them their spouse, children, job, and respect of their peers. That is addiction. Is knocking back some booze worth the loss of everything else in your life you hold dear? To an addict, the answer is yes.
The same thing can hold true for an MMORPG. Lots of people play them, and have no problems. In some cases, the game fills a need, and is rather enjoyable (and thus hard to give up, because there is no good reason to.) However, for some people, the game _is_ addictive. People have jost their jobs, and their families, because they could not get away from the screen. That is addiction.
Anything that fills a need can be addictive. Some things are naturally more addictive than others. However, whether you end up an addict is largely based on genetics. Come from a long line of alcoholics? You probably should not drink, as you are predisposed towards alcohol addiction.
Re:I have a friend (Score:3, Informative)
Re:I have a friend (Score:5, Insightful)
Then when you throw violence or antisocial behavior into the games... well, it's not good for anybody, but for kids it's the mental equivalent of a sugar-only diet. Any wonder why each generation is more troubled than the last? The most stable people I know had some degree of balance -- some exercise, some religion, some (usually wholesome) entertainment.
Our society is all about throwing temperance out the window because virtually all our media is an advertisement of some sort and marketing itself is about promoting hedonistic extremes.
Re:I have a friend (Score:5, Funny)
You did the right thing. I too would have taunted him. The wolves offer much better experience.
Re:I have a friend (Score:5, Insightful)
I started playing games back when I was about seven years old. It all started with my NES, and man did I love it. I played it hard for a while, about 3 or 4 hours a day. Not much longer, we got a computer, and I started playing Dune 2, I lost so much time to those games. By the time I got to high school, I was the biggest gamer in my school.
I remember back in grade eight, the teacher had us all write something nice about each of us on a piece of paper. Out of about 25 people, 15 or so all said either, he is good at nintendo or video games. I never realised that this was bad. I am naturally intelligent, and I did no homework or notes or studying for tests. I was able to pull about an eighty average, while playing these games.
Once I got to high school, I started to get more advanced games, I had an N64, SNES, and a powerful computer (heck, I am typing this on that computer) I was playing hardcore my Command and Conquer and zelda on the nintendos. My marks were slumping a bit, but I was not challenged by the classes and I didn't care. Then in grade eleven we got the internet. I started downloading so much junk, and playing online games like a crazed heiena on crystal meth. My marks were about eighty because I was "learning" so much from the internet. Then I discovered pokemon, Final Fantasy, and a few other games that I hardcore played.
I was logging on about eight hours a day on those things, that and downloading music. I never did any homework, all I was doing was playing games of half-life, and Total Annihilation. It was about halfway through my final year, and I started to really think about what I had been doing.
I was by far the most intelligent person in the school, but I wasn't going to get any scholorship because I did not work in the classes and that brought down my grades. (I ended up second in the class by about 1%) I have never had a girlfriend. I was drastically overweight. I had spent tons of money on games and internet connections. I had never learnt how to do homework or to study. My grammer and language skills were degrading and as were my skills in the real world.
After that I entered university, and I made a promise to myself. No more video games. I packed up my nintendos and my computer games and left them at home, while I went off to the university. Now in my second year, I am faced with the aftermath of my life I had when I was younger. I have already lost about 50 lbs in the last year and a half. I have made numerous friends. My self-esteem has skyrocketed. I will freely admit that I was addicted, but I have worked with it and now have it undercontrol.
Like all addictions, one never gets over it. I have on this computer very few games, like solitare, and I catch myself playing them, even though I try not to. I surf the web far to much, like right now, I am typing on slashdot instead of studing for my econ final tomorrow that is worth 100%. They are hard to deal with, and when I first stopped the games, I felt strange.
I still to this day have problems stemming from the games I played in my youth. I have poor workhabits, and at university that causes failure. I have never had a girlfriend. However, I do have some good things that came from the video games. I am a CS major, learning how to program in C++ probably inspired from all my computer games. I can hold my head up high and say to all my friends that I am a better game player than them. When I hear them talk about everquest, I laugh inside because I can see their addiction and they can't. They still get to beat thiers. I don't have the added wasted time here in universtiy of playing games, unlike some of them. I never watch TV, because I never got into it, and since I don't play games anymore, I have more free time than ever before. My work ethic is slowly growing better here in the University. My collection of video games it worth a lot.
True games have cost me alot, financally, physically, and mentally, but I have started to get out of the hole. I feel t
I can quit anytime I want! (Score:5, Funny)
I do NOT suffer from game addiction (Score:5, Funny)
try this (Score:5, Funny)
Occupational Hazard (Score:5, Funny)
but instead, play games all day.
Compulsive personalities (Score:5, Insightful)
If you don't know someone who's addicted to gaming or online chat, I'm sure you know someone who's a work-a-holic - not just a hard worker, but someone completely obsessed with the trivialities of their work.
A lot of people are addicted to television. People who literally can't cope properly without it. You've seen them. I saw plenty them the last time a hurricane knocked the power out around here.
Re:Compulsive personalities (Score:5, Insightful)
To me the mom was unhappy the kid was playing Socom instead of...playing basketball and going to football games? Because he wasn't socializing enough? Huh? Let's break this down: he was happy, he was not {getting drunk, doing drugs, making babies, killing, thieving, raping, pillaging}. It didn't even say his grades were slipping, which is a more common video game problem. So her problem was that he wasn't socializing? Man we should all have such problems.
So now he's on the road to being cured, and playing basketball and going to football games. Assuming he doesn't make the NBA (and probably won't), he can obsess about healhty things like football and go be the guy at the football stadium with no shirt, and a big beer gut wearing the clown wig and body paint with the letter "U" emblazoned on his stomach, but, he's ok, because he's standing next to his similarly clad friend who we'll call "F". I'm not saying that's necessarily bad/evil, just what makes that better than games?
It seems people who obsess about solitary activities certainly get into/cause a lot less trouble...
WTF!!! Is this an IQ test or what??? (Score:3, Insightful)
Are we supposed to spot the one which does not fit in? I found it. Making babies. Am I a genius?
Come on. When you typed "making babies" in a list of disasters that include "killing, raping, doing drugs etc...", didn't anything stop you? Didn't the thought occur that creating life is not as bad as destroying it?
And the worst is that your post has like 6 replies and nobody seemed shocked by that.
i don't have an addiction (Score:5, Funny)
This goes with spending all my free cash on them, dreaming about them, and of couse the occasional pleasuring my self over them.
So what.. (Score:5, Funny)
This isn't an epidemic... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:This isn't an epidemic... (Score:2, Funny)
Funny, that's just what an addict would say...
Re:This isn't an epidemic... (Score:5, Insightful)
Just half-kidding.
Yeah... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Yeah... (Score:3, Funny)
He shit on MY car after I beat him at the game. Sore loser.
Re:This isn't an epidemic... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:This isn't an epidemic... (Score:5, Insightful)
I am on the ass end of Gen-X being 26 years old. When I was a kid I did kid things. Climbing Trees, throwing rocks, sports, and alot of other out door activities fishing, pellet fights etc..
When the first nintendo came out. Played it a ton. Still did all the above.
When I got older and the little kid stuff was not appealing it comes down to two things. Having time to spend. Funds to do "Adult" activities.
Now adays its even worse. Us the parent prevent our kids from doing much of anything. They might get hurt playing like children.
They may even get kidnapped. We can't let them outside!!!
I mean seriously it is impossible to bring kids outside in a safe environment (In our own minds). There is no possible way. And I think this is probally the largest contribution to this "TV and Gaming addiction"
GL
Solution (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Solution (Score:2)
or just grow up (Score:3, Interesting)
I grew up with the quake world generation. In college I remember playing 8 hour stretches on CTF servers. Now that i'm an adult 29y/o with a job, bills, kids I just can't have the fun I used to. sometimes it's depressing. My 11 y/o however would willingly mutalate himself for an extra hour of warcraft. The way I solve this is simple turning it off and kicking him out of the house to get an hour or two of ruff housing sun and fresh air. Now that he is in junior high he joined the football team and has lear
Re:Solution (Score:4, Insightful)
Obviously, as with everything, moderation is key. Excessive punishment or punishments that don't fit the "crime" are just as bad as no punishment or too little punishment. It has to balance over time.
No, I am not a parent. So what do I know, right? Yeah.
Re:Solution (Score:3, Interesting)
Eventually got to the point where I just cancelled m
gamers anonymous? (Score:5, Funny)
I have a roommate (Score:5, Funny)
Re:I have a roommate (Score:5, Funny)
Scare you and your little cat? You little sh*t...I'll show you scared. Wonder what's cooking for dinner? I'll give you one hint...it tastes like chicken.
If I could figure out how to block porn through that little box of yours you'd be screwed. Oh, yeah, you always say you're studying in your room. I guess "studying" must really dry out your hands and give you a runny nose because I see how often you're picking up lotion and kleenex at the store. Little f*ck.
his therapist? (Score:4, Interesting)
"So the Perkinses turned to Jaysen's therapist, Kim McDaniel, for help."
Uh, he's already got a therapist? Oh boy...
Instruct your friends to help you... (Score:3, Insightful)
Worked for me when I was addicted to multiplayer starcraft and got myself within a hair of getting my ass kicked out of the University. I told my friends to drag me by my hair if needed if they ever saw me walking down the stairs that went to the computer lab where starcraft was installed in every computer... it's hard to resist the temptation of hours of uninterrupted 8-way starcraft...
Whatever (Score:5, Funny)
What do you mean "gaming addiction"? (Score:3, Funny)
In my younger years... (Score:2)
No such thing as game addiction (Score:5, Insightful)
Want a REAL addiction? Try crack or heroin or be quiet and learn some self discipline.
just like my grampa always said about alcohol... (Score:5, Funny)
just to clarify: (Score:4, Funny)
solution to a videogame withdrawl (Score:2, Insightful)
On the otherhand, if you actually want to try the great game of "life", it can be rewarding as well. Not to mention, when you level up and collect gold pieces in real life, you can buy mroe video games!
(currently addicted to civ)
Old Label (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm so glad that we now have a label for this kind of behaviour that helps show that it isn't their fault.
.
Parents are responsible (Score:5, Insightful)
It's pretty simple, parents need to take responsibility too.
That is, if they have good parenting skills =/ (Score:4, Interesting)
I went as a physics major since I got a 5 on the AP and aced the regents. Within one year I got so molested by engineering calculus that I was asked to leave for a while. At the same time I was getting sucked into playing the early network games (early 90's, on Macs... Spectre, in case anyone recalls). It got to the point where my friends had an intervention and removed the hard drive from my computer! I still ended up leaving for awhile, joining the USAF, living it up in California for 4 years while traveling the world, coming back to Cornell as a Psych major, and did OK.
My point is- Even though she meant well and I know she loves me, my mom didn't know the first damn thing about how to instill discipline in me at all! All she taught me how to do was to work in response to a very negative stimulus, and when that stimulus was removed (and suddenly), I was completely unprepared. To this day I struggle with motivational issues (and I verge on game addiction, but only when a cool new game comes out for OS X, which fortunately is not that frequently, heh).
So don't be so quick to blame the parents, unless you also have a plan to train them on how to instill motivation/discipline in their children. Unfortunately, there is no "parenting class", and as parents like to joke among themselves, "you are the best parent your kid will ever know." Most parents care a ton about their kids, but the natural skill seems to vary...
Definition clarification please... (Score:5, Insightful)
I think you answered your own question (Score:3, Insightful)
The opportunity cost of those 13 hours is in itself a "negative consequence". The time could have been spent in activities which can ameliorate, rather than reinforce a "social life slump". Withdrawal from society has a tendency to exacerbate such conditions.
Or (Score:5, Insightful)
Different peopel find different things entertaining and for some, games are the most entertaining. There is nothing at all wrong with that.
Part of the problem is we have a cultural overemphasis on being social. Being an extravert is seen as good and normal, whereas being an intravert is seen as bad and problematic. Now it's quite the opposite in, say, Japan. There being a quite introvert is valued and being an extravert is frowned upon.
This isn't to say that no social contact is healthy, we are a social species. However different peopel have different amounts they like. Just because someone is generally an intravert and doesn't want to be in social activities all the time, that's fine.
As the parent noted, it's only a problem and thus an addiction if it starts interfering with your life. If you are late to work and missing important events all the time because you are playing games, you have a problem. If you choose to spend your free time playing games, you do not have a problem.
"Addiction", -dkshn, (n.) (Score:3, Funny)
No, silly, an "addiction" is when you spend more time/effort/money than others think you should, doing something they don't approve of.
Easy cure (Score:3, Funny)
Thank you, thank you, I'll be here all week.
Re:Easy cure (Score:4, Interesting)
You joke, but this exactly what I did.
Not that he can't play games, but think of the evil that is me logged in the kid's computer from work with "top" running...keeping ol' Dad apprised of everything that kid is doing:
*phone rings*
"Hello?"
"Hi, Nick. It's Dad. Tell me why you're running Galeon."
"Oh, I'm looking up info for my natural disasters report."
*clickety-clickety-click* --Dad brings up the proxy log--
"Hmmmm.... so why did you go to games.yahoo.com?"
"Uhhh... what?"
*clickety-clickety-click* ps auxw | grep nick | grep -v grep | cut -c10-14 | xargs kill -9; passwd -l nick
"Well, you're grounded from the computer for 2 weeks. One for goofing off, and one for lying to me. Any questions?"
*silence*
(Cheerfully) "bu-bye then!"
Needless to say when I see things like "smacx" or "wine dotwine/fake_windows/Program Files/Starcraft/starcraft.exe" running when he's supposed to be working on homework assignments he's complete toast.
Re:Easy cure (Score:3, Interesting)
Bloody hell, good grud on greenie...
** I'm having a vison..... **
Nick leaves home at the earliest possible legal age to achive freedom from his controlling parents. He looks back on his childhood with unhappy memories, grows up to resent his controlling parents (even if it's just the father that's the controlling one, because he'll end up resenting his mothers complicity too) - who he rare
ADD/ADHD and game addiction (Score:3, Interesting)
I have argued many times that kids who are addicted to video games and play them all day are diagnosed as having ADD these days. Honestly, I know there were kids 15-20 years ago being diagnosed with ADD, but the number has skyrocketed. I have a friend who is a teacher (4th grade) and she says almost 1/4 of her class "has ADD".
These kids just need to get out more, and experience the wonders of being outside, and using their imaginations to play games. When I was a kid my mom only let me play games for a short time after dinner in the evenings. When it was nice out, I had to go out and get exercise. Kids these days are (on average) heavier, lazier, and play more video games. I honestly think most kids who are misdiagnosed with ADD are just not getting enough exercise because they're addicted to games. The 30 second attention span is gone, screw that now we have a 2 second attention span. You see it in games, TV, movies...
Let's get these kids outside and have them exercise and use their own imaginations to have fun, and not make them go on ritalin or some other drug (not sure if they still use ritalin) just because they aren't getting exercise.
Re:ADD/ADHD and game addiction (Score:4, Informative)
Tell me how long attention span would regular person has to have if someone with ADD can spend 16h/day 7days/week doing one thing for months at a time?
Damn people who throw around abreviations they don't understand and damn moderators who dare to label it interesting
Look,...
ADD does not mean that you have the attention span of a goldfish.
It means two things:
1. You are easily distracted by environmental stimuli. (making it difficult to focus on boring tasks)
2. You can go into "hyperfocus" mode, whereby you can focus massively intently to the exclusion of everything else on one thing and one thing only - which most people can't do. Most programmers will recognize this "flow" mode. It's a hallmark of ADD.
Attention Deficit Disorder is a very badly named term.
Re:ADD/ADHD and game addiction (Score:4, Interesting)
What they CAN'T do is focus on something they find boring or have to put serious effort into thinking about. Nor can they focus on more than one task at a time. Ever try talking to an Everquest-addicted buddy while he's playing? His sentences just trail off....and he doesn't even realize it.
Yeah, real problem with them ball games... (Score:5, Funny)
Poor guy. I understand the problem. A lot of sports, when practiced intensely, are linked to drug abuse [sports-drugs.com]. This poor kid is probably doped up to his eyes. His parents must, for his own good, take him off these dangerous sports fields and let him stay home! Why not buy him a couple of video games?
Hmmm... I don't buy it (Score:4, Insightful)
The article doesn't make clear what the difference between being "heavy into" something and being addicted. Isn't this kid just trading one "addiction" for another? Who's to say basketball isn't just less interesting to him than Socom (his video game of choice)? When was the last time you got out your crayons and colored in a coloring book? Perhaps he grew out of basketball?
Parents can discern between misuse and addiction if they notice two important telltale signs in their children: withdrawal and isolation.
Translation: If your child is not interacting with people you can see, [s]he's addicted. By definition you can't play a multiplayer game and not interact with the other players on some level. How many online gamers do you know that sit around in empty games? So aren't they seeking the company of others? As for people playing single player games being withdrawn and isolated, compare with reading a book: both spend hours alone engaged in a single activity and not interacting with others. Why aren't books considered addictive?
She founded Online Gamers Anonymous in 2002, after losing her son, Shawn, to suicide that same year. He had become addicted to EverQuest while being treated for depression.
The depression is what killed her son, not the game. There was a point in my life where I played Counterstrike over 50 hours a week, I just flat stopped one day and started doing other things that had greater appeal to me at the time. I didn't get headaches or a nervous twitch or classic signs of addiction withdrawl. You know why? Because it wasn't an addiction. Pulling the same thing with caffeine is a different story.
Coping with gaming addiciton is relitivally simple (Score:5, Insightful)
State run education comes in when it makes learning boring and monotonous compaired to videogames and TV. Really, the kids who play videogames are far better prone to be self-learners than slowed down by everyone else. Lord knows when I switched to learning on my own I started learning 3 or 4 times faster, and that's been steadily increasing over the past 2 years. Kids who watch TV just learn take what they're given and sit there until ordered to do something.
I think, mostly, it's getting them away from the games, advertising, TV and this whole screwey culture for a good 3 or 4 months. You'll notice that the kids who have no TV tend to have fewer social problems and fewer problems in life in general, namely because their identity of reality is based off of something solid. When you spend 6 hours a night watching TV, it becomes part o your reality. When you play games, likewise, it becomes a part of your reality. Gamers tend to become more dependant on their medium, namely becuase it integrates more throughly into their reality. By playing games (not shitty arcade games or football, we're talking the heavy stuff, doom, quake, evercrack, ect, games that require thought to win), you begin to understand intrinsically how a lot of things work and how to think through situations.
The last reason, I believe it happens, is becuase kids get something, psychologically, they don't get from the rest of their reality. If they have no control over their lives, then they may like playing a major RPG game or engauging in something that makes them feel important and in control. Same goes for adults. Some kids get a sense of social acceptance through the internet by playing games with other people. It can also be a heavily spirtual, if even tribal, experience where kids can hit an almost meditative, sublime minerva-type state. I know that, for quite some time, that was why I played games. It's hard to get to that high, but baby when you hit it is it ever so gooooooood (especially when you've got music pumping).
As for that article, it's truely scary. They're equating videogame addiction to crack addiction (which isn't as nearly as bad, imho, the word evercrack is satire afterall), then talking about "guides" to help parents "identify" the problem, from the sound of the article, it's the same thing with school teachers usingdugs to medicate problem kids. Really, it's about learning to like other things. When you're all consuming desire for 13 years is supposed to be slow, boring learning and sleep, games can become the number 1 thing you do. This becomes a problem, because kids just can't develop into real people like that, unless they're in a gaming clan inwhich older people usually talk to em' and help to set em' straight.
Hi, my name is [...], and I'm a recovering.... (Score:5, Funny)
When the session was over, one of the other recovering gamers approached me and told me going cold turkey was really difficult. He then asked me how I quit. The only answer I could give him was, "I got married."
Gaming OCD (Score:3, Insightful)
Most recently it has been Mech Warrior on the XBox and NWN: SoU & HoTU on my Linux PC.
It looks to me like everyone I've ever met has SOME form of an addiction. It could be cigarettes, soap operas, "reality TV", blogs, junk food, talk shows, golf, their car, religion, you name it. (Funny how so many revolve around television.)
Addiction is normal, relax and stop enriching psychologists needlessly.
-Charles
Nutjobs (Score:5, Insightful)
BLAME THE PARENTS...
First it was Ozzy Osbourne records, then D&D, now video games.
Case in point... This woolley lady...
The mother of a 21-year old EverQuest addict who killed himself last Thanksgiving morning is filing a lawsuit against Sony Entertainment on the grounds that the addictive nature of the game weakened her son to the point of suicide. Elizabeth Woolley of Osceola, Wisconsin says that her son, Shawn, was so addicted to EverQuest that he surrendered everything - his home, family, and job - to play the game.
Shawn had more than his share of personal problems - in fact, if you've been reading this site for a while, you can practically recite them along with me. He was diagnosed with "depression and schizoid personality disorder, symptoms of which include a lack of desire for social relationships, little or no sex drive and a limited range of emotions in social settings." He was also an epileptic, and according to his mother, his last eight seizures were due to computer use.
Woolley's lawyer is the "colorful" attorney Jack Thompson, who is most famous for the 1990 debacle over rap group 2 Live Crew. Thompson attempted to get the members of the infamous rap group thrown into jail because their album As Nasty As They Wanna Be contained numerous instances of words that he just didn't like.
Elizabeth Woolley wants a label on games like EverQuest, to warn people of the potential dangers of playing them for extended periods of time. This has two problems with it:
Woolley herself had no need of such a label, as she was fully aware of her son's mental and physical problems, and knew that his game playing was getting out of hand.
Neither Woolley nor her son were likely to heed such a label if it did exist previously, since they both seemed to have ignored the epilepsy warning that came with EverQuest - the same warning that is voluntarily printed in the manual for practically every video game on the market.
Lets blame Sony for making the game, Walmart for selling the bullets, Ozzy for making the records, and leave the innocent parents alone.
There are alot of gamers out there... Im one of them, I go to lan parties, have a ton of cyber friends, but I also have a girlfriend, a job, a car, and many friends in RL... because my parents taught me the ability to differentiate between REALITY AND FANTASY
I wish more parents would do the same.
Re:Nutjobs (Score:5, Funny)
No, bullets are made so that you can put them in a gun and shoot stuff. Incidentally, if it happens to hit a person, IT DOES DAMAGE. Probably doesn't kill all the time though.
I'd be impressed to see the ratio of bullets bought in the US to total people murdered. I'll bet the paper targets at the gun range are pissed for having holes in them, though....
Addiction or mental illness symptom? (Score:5, Insightful)
Any negative results those people experience are because of social and mental problems they have...not because they play games. If someone took away their computer, they'd spend all of their time reading, watching TV, working out or staring at a wall. They are depressed, suffer from OCD, anxiety issues, self-esteem issues...lots of things.
For example, if you know a man who washes his hands every 30 minutes, gets up in the middle of the night to wash his hands and mostly stays at home so he is able to wash his hands at regular times do you say that he is addicted to washing his hands? No, you recognize that he has a mental disorder and get him treatment. Does that make hand washing bad? No, its not the activity, its the illness that should be corrected.
I've been playing games for years and have managed to get an education, maintain a successful career and enjoy a healthy social life. Why? Because I'm a healthy person. I like myself and those around me, I enjoy my days at work, my evenings with friends and family and my evenings gaming. My gaming groups are just friends I hang out with.
In my time gaming, I've come accross people with social problems, anxiety problems, depression and severe self-esteem issues. I think the reason they turn to gaming is because it allows them to interact with others in a social enviornment where there is a barrier that keeps others at a safe distance and keeps their problems secret. They get a chance to be judged just on their gaming skills and their chat humor. They usually find people who like them and maybe who share their problems.
I spend a significant amount of time gaming and will continue to do so until I no longer enjoy it. I do not consider it an addiction and never will. For years, I've played games or read books instead of watching TV. While roommates and family have come home and watched mindless sitcoms and gameshows, I was in the other room reading or slaughtering my enemies. I think my time was better spent.
My father has played UO for 7 years. (Score:3, Interesting)
How I got over my gaming addiction (Score:5, Funny)
Who's to blame ? (Score:3, Insightful)
In many cases, games are similar to drugs because they are drugs, exactly as the article said. They give the player just what he needs: power!
Only today a friend installed Wolfenstein - Return to The Castle and I started playing for a bit, to see how it would behave on her hardware. Result? I tried to get past the same guards for 3 times and still didn't make it. I wanted to try again but she reminded me there was no time to play. When Doom came out, I had no idea that there were "cheats" for games so I finished it on my own. Few people believe me and that gives me a bit of self-confidence, I did things that others couldn't. In Wolfenstein, I only wanted to pass those guards, then I would have quit the game. Killing "the bad guys" and destroying monsters, saving the world and sometiems getting the girl sounds like fun, doesn't it? Who wouldn't like to be able to do that? The idea is that games tend to give you a reward for anything good (according to the game story) that you do. Delightful! The moment you do something good, you're rewarded. The moment you do something bad, you're punished, but it's OK, you can start over again. That's the world of the games, a perfect world. If you take the ability to replay a scenario, your game pack will never even reach the shelves. How many times have you done something very insignificant but very wrong? Wouldn't you like to go back and fix that? I have a feeling even the Pope wants to repair some things he did. In the real world there's no such thing as on-the-spot satisfaction. The story of the game moves on very fast, otherwise it wouldn't be playable while in the real world it takes a lot of time to get the reward for your actions.
Games can contain cool monsters, blood, weapons of mass destruction, space ships and abilities you never had. Let's face it, very few people will deal with any of the above in a life-time. This is what makes games attractive. Let's not get too Matrix-ed, but our actions are based on cause and effect. Our minds can hardly comprehend the fact that for something good that you've done, you'll have to wait days, months of maybe years to get the results. If children would understand that, everybody would have straight-A's in school, wouldn't they? They'd understand how useful what they're being taught will be in the future but there's no such thing as waiting days/months/years in games! Everything you do is rewarded on the spot, in a few minutes or hours. There's no greater satisfaction than doing something constructive and quickly seing the results, that's something basic in human behavior. This makes games similar to drugs. Their purpose is to relax you. Drugs do about the same (apparently). The results should be about the same
Sometimes games cause addiction, it's fun to save the world and get the girl, isn't it? In my opinion, everyone is to blame but in different manners. Game writers shouldn't make games so addictive, but they have to make money out of something, don't they? Blaming them is like blaming the tobacco industry for the fact that your child is smoking (which I'm doing right now
Addiction is a Reification (Score:3, Interesting)
The other connotation of addiction is the one we refer to in common speech - when a person repeats behaviors, regardless of the consequences or his/her own inclination to do so. So we speak of those addicted to shopping, grooming, sex, or any other behavior a person focuses on for what others would deem an unhealthy period of time (this behavior is almost always a vice, or capable of becoming one in excess). This is where our definitions overlap and the problem first appears. Any thought or behavior is necessarily biological. What's more, for all of human history, people have tried to resist pleasure, such as eating or sex, that is innately tied with both biological reward and negative consequences. And in this way, the reward and the strong drive to perform the behaviors that bring about this reward are abstracted on the basis of their biological similarity (the same brain rewards both behaviors) and the strikingly similar behaviors of those deemed addicted (when you want to do something, you do it). But when we do this, we overstep the bounds of the word addiction, and soon we start regulating all human behavior associated with pleasure, negative consequences, and an obsessive quality (games, sex, etcetc) into the category of addiction. Now, if you think that a reasonable definition of addiction is one that can apply to any pleasure-deriving activity, including every vice, that's your opinion. It just happens to be a very wrong one.
Listen, it's hard not to do the things we like. They make us feel the same (happy) as heroin makes heroin addicts feel (happy). And for all of human history, we've been trying to figure out how to supress the human tendencies towards pleasure that can hurt and destroy us. But when we talk like this, we cheapen the real meaning of addiction and blur the only real use of the word, and we replace deeper understand of human action with trivial and shallow definitions we read in magazines. I used to smoke cigarettes, I occasionally smoke pot, and I love math. When I quit smoking, I felt nuts, like I was losing something that my body depended upon. When you're a smoker, you can't remember what it was like to be a non-smoker - to go a day without thinking of a cigarette. It was the hardest thing I've ever done, and if you non-smokers could imagine that suffering, you'd know what we mean we when talk about addiction (and why we get angry when this pop psychology bullshit shits on our plight). But when I stop smoking pot, I feel upset that I'm not doing what I like to do, I feel urges to smoke, and very often, I will smoke once or twice again before starting my real month off. But I don't feel like I can't think, that my head is being smashed, or that I can't register anything other than my shaking and desire for a cigarette. There is a biological reality to real addiction. The rest is human behavior and the same old virture and vice discussions we've lived with for years. While this is necessarily biology, it comes naturally from human behavior, and is not caused by physical adaption to external agents and chemicals that act upon the biology of the body. This is a critical distinction, and not one easily understood by half-rate scientists, people who read magazines, and those who've never wanted a cigarette.
The TRUE explanation for all these "addictions" (Score:4, Insightful)
THEN, the activity becomes more popular. What was once a relatively minor thing becomes a phenomenon. The people currently In Power (tm), being old farts who have a hard time adapting to change, notice the phenomenon and are threatened by it. It is mysterious and strange, and like The Thing, it must be destroyed.
THEN, despite their best efforts, they fail to destroy it. People really like it, and tell them to get stuffed. They assume that people just don't understand the terrible thing they're doing to themselves, and they try to figure out a way to frame it so that they can bring social pressure down on the phenomenon.
THEN, usually, they invent some imagined syndrome, some terrible ailment caused by the new phenomenon. Recently, thanks to Hollywood's fascination with Heroin, "Addiction" is the popular ailment. The mainstream applies the ailment to the social phenomenon in an attempt to stigmatize it.
THEN, the stigma makes the phenomenon more popular. Inevitably, the phenomenon becomes mainstream, and the mainstream gives up trying to kill it off.
Examples: Rock and Roll, television, education, marriage (really! back in the years of the early church, it was considered bad for the soul), bathing, reading, printing books in the vernacular instead of latin, Science Fiction, video games, disco, folk music, and new age thinking.
Extreme example that hasn't gone mainstream yet: porno. Porno may never go mainstream in this country because of the puritan curse (the mindset passed down from puritans for the past several hundred years that sees sex as dirty and dangerous and sinful).
Interesting side phenomenon: goody-two-shoes types who were never really into the phenomenon (whatever the phenomenon might be) who deal with their guilt by buying into the ailment theory, and who try to claim social status by telling everyone within earshot that they've "overcome" their ailment.
Amazing irony: television, which is now mainstream, is considered "okay" to spend six hours or more a day with, remote in hand, brain in neutral. But when a person plays a video game (which engages their mind and imagination) for six hours, they are immediately pounced on by the "gaming as addiction" idiots.
Interesting side result: kids raised in gaming-friendly households will end up happier, smarter, and more alert than their television-addled counterparts.
Definately something to it. (Score:3, Insightful)
I used to play rogue spear a lot during college, especially online. However, I seemed to always manage to get homework and papers completed well enough to finish 158 hours in 4.5 years including summers. But the thing I liked about Rogue Spear was I could get on and play against the computer or others in games that typically lasted less that 10 - 15 minutes. So after reading a chapter or a handout, I'd play a game or two, then get back to work. Or read while people were messing around and the game loaded. Play, get killed and go back to reading until the game was finished.
Last year I used to hang out with people every saturday night that would Role play from about 6PM until 9 PM. I never saw the point and usually played Risk, watched a movie, shot the bull with others that didn't RPG and then they would order out pizza and break out HALO about 9 - 10PM and we'd play 4v4 halo until midnight or 1PM.
However, two people that continueally played online games and halo failed out of school. (most had graduated and had full-time jobs or worked part time and were in Grad school). They both ended up selling their X-boxes and one got to come back this fall. His present from his grandparents: an Alienware Laptop. A $1000 Dell would have been fine for school use, but Alienware is designed for gamers.
I was engaged at one point. I worked as a free-lance web designer during college and continued to do so to pay bills, but I was burned out of doing it after 8 years. I kept applying for jobs in the morning. Sending out resumes online and in paperform to local companies hiring, then in the afternoon I'd sit, watch TV, and play Rogue Spear: Black Thorn. Oftentimes forgetting to do chores like vaccuum. Ticked off my fiance (that worked a part-time job and was trying to start a wedding planning business that I helped with in the evenings and on weekends) to no end. Sometimes when she had a big wedding or was sub-contracting with someone else, I'd spend my nights playing the online game.
In pre-marital counsiling (required by the Church), she would bring it up. Ultimately it really wasn't a factor in our break-up. That was due to my Majors being International Business and German and to find a job meant leaving Springfield, Missouri which she didn't want to do.
Its something I watch out for. I like to play computer games, but anymore I get extremely board playing the same games. Its been fun dragging out TIE Fighter this past week. I've been thinking of getting an X-box, but I even hooked up my old Sega Gensises to the 65" HDTV I have and played it for about 4 hours one night just for kicks. (Okay two-nights, an old friend came over and we drug out mortal kombat).
I can remember playing Knights of the Old Republic and it logging I spent 48 hours playing the game over about 3 months at my friends. Then someone said I needed to play it again and do it dark side and I said, "Yeah, just tell me what happens because I've spent about 40 hours too long playing this game." I know someone else that spend the combined total of 120 days straight of EQ and had to quit. That certainly becomes and addiction.
At least when your playing Basketball, or in my case ice hockey, you are interacting with real people and getting excercise. I'm sure a lot of childhood obeseity these days are linked to kids doing nothing but watching TV, playing video games, as well as diet.
What really broke me was I spent 1 semester in Europe, Germany specifically. I had my iBook, no games, no TV in my apartment (I wish I had a TV so I could have listen to more German), but went out almost everynight for dinner from 7PM - 10PM and either watched Soccer or revived the lost art of conversation and debate over a smoke, tea and/or wine.
No, it's an addiction. (Score:5, Insightful)
Also, just because someone "bounces back" from an addiction doesn't mean they don't have a problem... alchoholics, compulsive gamblers, and others may have a cycle of trying to give it up every so often when things start get get really out of control, then relapsing once they've gotten their act together.
My father in law was an alchoholic, but had been sober for over a decade when he died. He told me that drinking and going cold turkey were both possible for someone addicted to alchohol, but that the sign of a true alchoholic is that they can't drink in moderation. The idea of drinking only one or two drinks per day is inconceivable to them... and I believe this is true for other addictions as well. This is why 12 step programs don't talk about being "cured"... you're always an addict, and you're either clean, or you're not. There is no middle ground.
The measure of addiction is not the impact it has on those around you- it's about your state of mind, and how easily you can quit. Your example of someone quitting a job and playing Evercrack until they're broke is a perfect example of this... outside circumstances (poverty) forced them to stop. I can't think of a better description of addiction.
-R
Re:addiction? No... it's a passion... (Score:3, Informative)
I stopped smoking cannabis for 8 years and it didnt bother me. I took cannabis all day every day for a year and then stopped one day for three months with zero withdrawal symptoms.
As I am now older I take (not smoke) cannabis for pain relief. Its the herb that keeps giving
Games RL (Score:4, Funny)
Yeah, someone once told me to get a life, so I did. RL is as boring as the Sims, but it's even slower-paced, and the speed-up key can only be used once a day, and it only works at night, when you're at home trying to game, rather than you just pusshing fast-forward during the day when nobody's home!
And there's no fucking save/restore feature either! Sepend six weeks setting up a menage-a-trois with you, your boss' wife and just one lousy goat, and you might as well pull out the old .45 and reroll.
RL is teh suck. I wouldn't even warez it.