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Games Entertainment

A Different Perspective on Gaming Addiction 62

Posted by Zonk from the i-can-quit-anytime-i-want-to dept.
Doomstalk writes "With all the negative press that gaming addiction has received as of late, it's interesting to see things from a different perspective. The Escapist has an article posing gaming addiction as a symptom of a larger problem: 'Are you doing it for the pleasure of the game, or the distaste of something else?'" From the article: "Why else would we routinely drop $50 on the latest iteration of games like Madden, Final Fantasy and Unreal Tournament - games that are, usually at their core, just like their predecessors? Why do we continue to spend upwards of $300 on the newest 'next generation' console? Why is it that, like kids who shovel out the basketball court in the middle of the winter, we line up outside retailers hours, if not days, ahead of time for worldwide console releases?"
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A Different Perspective on Gaming Addiction More

A Different Perspective on Gaming Addiction

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  • Is this even a question? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by keyne9 ( 567528 ) on Saturday January 14, 2006 @03:49PM (#14472165)
    Why do people shell out $25 for the latest and greatest books? Entertainment.
    • I've always been fairly frank about this with myself and others; I buy books and video games to escape a disapointing reality. That's a bit different from just "entertainment"
    • They don't usually shell out $25 for a new edition of the same book every year, even if it contains corrected typos or a new 1-page introduction by the author. Certainly not en masse, as people do with [sports title] 200X. Fans of a particular book might buy a new copy when their current copy becomes unusable from wear-and-tear (pages falling out, etc.), but games certainly don't become unusable on an annual basis.

      Many existing games are as entertaining, if not more entertaining, than the new games, even ma

  • What do you mean why? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by NiTr|c ( 130325 ) <hackop@inum[ ]te.net ['bra' in gap]> on Saturday January 14, 2006 @03:50PM (#14472171) Homepage
    Because society has turned into a gigantic media whore. We're so engrossed in forms of entertainment, moreso than we've ever been before at least. The corporations don't help this, of course. They're out to make enormous amounts of money off our willingness to believe we need their products for a better life.

    It all seems to boil down to getting people to stay pacified by moving picture boxes so we don't care about anything else. We may call this an addiction, but I'm sure from someone's eyes, it's plan gone far better than they thought possible. Call me paranoid, but I try to distance myself from anything TV / Radio related, not only because 99% of it is trash, but because I feel it just doesn't contribute anything healthy to one's life.

    Obviously this isn't just related to games. It's all forms of media, really. I'm not saying it's all evil and bad, but people should step back and really analyze how they're living in the midst of it all. We used to own devices, the games, the tv programs, etc. Now, it seems, that they own us. That doesn't sound like such a good place to be.
    • It all seems to boil down to getting people to stay pacified by moving picture boxes so we don't care about anything else.

      Fahrenheit 451?
    • Try some of the indie games that were posted here from GameTunnel's Best of 2006. Games made by gamers, and it shows. Oasis and Democracy are awesome - I have purchased both.
      • I purchased it too. I wouldn't call it a completely disappointing purchase, but I wouldn't call it awesome either. Why do you think it's awesome?

  • I don't believe gamers are "addicts". (Score:5, Insightful)

    by TechieHermit ( 944255 ) on Saturday January 14, 2006 @04:08PM (#14472261) Journal
    Gamers are people who enjoy a particular activity, which is immensely fun and enjoyable, improves their hand-eye coordination, exercises their problem-solving skills, and lets them get away from the tedium of the real world for a while. IT'S JUST ENTERTAINMENT.

    Before you convince me that gamers are "addicts", you'll have to demonstrate how gaming is worse or more evil than the couch-potato TV watching most of the rest of the population does for five hours a day. You'll also have to constrast gaming with ALL of the other hobbies people have engaged in over the past thousand years or so. Hobbies like fly fishing (mentioned in the article), model ship and plane building, wood carving, playing a musical instrument, and studying history.

    Because THE TRUTH IS, human beings (and almost all other animals with any intelligence, like apes and large monkeys) enjoy spending their leisure time in imaginative, playful activities. We just do. We don't live to work, or eat, sleep and fuck, we spend a lot of our time simply exercising our brains. AND WE'RE MEANT TO. It's our inner nature! It's WHO WE ARE. And all of us, from the dowdy housewife who collects Beanie Babies to the military buff who lusts after R. Lee Armey, to the gamer playing Halo 2 online, ALL are simply behaving properly according to our species' emotional and intellectual needs.

    The ONLY reason gaming has been singled out as "addictive" and negative in context is that the majority of our population is very closed-minded and can't wrap their mind around an activity that doesn't involve sports or television sitcoms. If you want to take the gloves off and deal with the issue honestly, that's it in a nutshell: gamers are "different and weird" and Must Be Stopped. It's the "You damn kids today!" mentality. A generation from now, we'll be pissing and moaning about some new technology and decrying IT as the end of the world.

    It's boring, people; can't we talk about something more interesting?

    P.S. YES, I know there are obsessive-compulsive people who game until their fingers bleed. But there are ALSO obsessive compulsives who engage in every other activity under the sun. It's not the gaming, it's the obsessive with a mental problem, correlation, NOT causation.

    • uh, hello? tfa is about detrimental habits, the negative ones, not the positive side of gaming. So, like, chill out. I can see that you've had it up to here with people and their opinions, so I think you should ignore the issue entirely from now on.

      If you want to take the gloves off and deal with the issue honestly, that's it in a nutshell: gamers are "different and weird" and Must Be Stopped.

      Oh, ok. So that whole "video games causes aggressive and violent behavior" opinion simply boils down to: those damn
      • The article stated that gaming was an addiction; I'm calling bullshit on it. You're going to dare to tell me I'm not allowed to counter his opinion, in the same breath with which you try to counter mine??? Ha, ha ha... Thanks for the laugh.

        And, don't talk to me about revenue; you can't move from revenue to "mainstream", it's a non sequitur. Videogames are mainstream when old people, young people, and middle aged people all agree that gaming is normal, healthy, and fun (and not a sign that you're a loser abo
        • The article stated that gaming was an addiction; I'm calling bullshit on it. You're going to dare to tell me I'm not allowed to counter his opinion, in the same breath with which you try to counter mine??? Ha, ha ha... Thanks for the laugh.

          I felt you missed the whole point of his article. But obviously it makes you upset, and I think you need to think about that. Feeling defensive having your lifestyle attacked?

          Videogames are mainstream when old people, young people, and middle aged people all agree that ga
          • I'm relaxed, I'm just debating you. It's not personal or anything.

            But my problem with YOU is, keeping in mind that it's an intellectual consideration and not an emotional one,

            1. You KNOW you're on Slashdot, which exists so we can amuse ourselves by disagreeing over whatever gets posted, and have a nice, lively debate;

            2. Instead of debating me, you try to shut me up with some cockamamie, condescending hippie talk about how I'm fed up with other people and their opinions, and in your view I should just Go Awa
            • Fine. But you have to debate too, which you haven't done. Your first reply to the article seemed like you were simply reacting to the word "addiction". But whatever. You said:

              The ONLY reason gaming has been singled out as "addictive" and negative in context is that the majority of our population is very closed-minded and can't wrap their mind around an activity that doesn't involve sports or television sitcoms. If you want to take the gloves off and deal with the issue honestly, that's it in a nutshell: gam
              • Well, that's what I was looking for. Thanks for some conversation!

                I wasn't really getting into the reactions people have to violent games, I think that's a separate issue and a more complicated one to boot. Another poster in this thread has been arguing that point with me, and it just isn't that much fun. People tend to take the position they think makes them more mature or reasonable, and you're arguing with a role, not a person, so it kind of kills the joy for me.

                What I'm really trying to touch on here is
                • I wasn't really getting into the reactions people have to violent games, I think that's a separate issue and a more complicated one to boot.

                  It is, though I imagine it colors perception ever since the hype about Eric Harris making Doom II levels. let's leave it though

                  Where I live (Albany, NY) most of the people I meet on the job are very staid and square. Government workers, you know? They look at video games as a silly thing children do, but which isn't suitable for grownups.

                  Ok, I hear you on this one. I wo
                  • "Don't your coworkers kill time in waiting rooms or whatever playing cell/pda games? Or solitaire on the pc when nobody is watching? no online gambling? not even fantasy football/golf etc.? brickout on their iPod? No palms or pocket pcs? I'd be surprised."

                    Heh... I KNEW you were in a more modern environment! The fact that you take such things as normal proves that you're in a pretty good spot.

                    In my last job, very few people even OWNED a PDA, much less were good enough with one to install and play a game on i
    • In response to:
      "..animals with any intelligence,like apes and large monkeys"

      Apes and large monkeys, as well as their offspring, do not spend their "imaginative time" making a choice to murdering or not to murder a prostitute in a video game like human offspring do.

      Guess which is is the smarter spieces.



      Nuff said....



      ---
      • Before you get all excited about the "noble great apes", you should realize that chimpanzees have been known to murder the young of other chimpanzees to ensure that their own line succeeds. As horrified as you may be by kids killing imaginary pixellated hookers in Vice City, at least they're not murdering the neighbor's kids with a rock.

        Just a thought.

        • "chimpanzees have been known to murder the young of other chimpanzees to ensure that their own line succeeds."

          But they do not murder for fun as we have seen kids do on national news lately.

          "at least they're not murdering the neighbor's kids with a rock."

          No they are not.
          But they are beating homeless people to death with baseball bats as we have seen all over major national news reports. And they are taking guns to school and killing everyone in their sights. Fathers are taking their son's into the
          • Oh, come on.

            You want to debate me with a story about a little league dad who freaked out and hit the ref? You have GOT to be kidding me! What the hell does that have to do with video games (or anything else we've been discussing)??? Let alone the fact that sport-o jock types hardly play videogames at ALL, and that the "hit the ref" thing has a lot more to do with fat, middle aged guys trying to recapture their youth through their poor, doomed kids than it does with anything else...

            I feel like you're not eve
            • "You want to debate me with a story about a little league dad who freaked out and hit the ref? You have GOT to be kidding me!"

              No,i'm not kidding you! But i do want to debate you that violence in games, movies and in the media contributates to the rise in violence we see today. If i am wrong, then explane what you think is the reason for this rise in violence.

              "The best you came up with was a lame-o urban legend about kids beating homeless guys to death with baseball bats."

              This was no legend. It w
              • Ok... Since you're serious...

                I don't believe there has been ANY change in violence levels in our society. I simply believe that the media has gotten so expanded in its scope that it NOTICES violence much more than it used to. And what the media notices, we notice.

                If you really want to know how "violence" has changed over the years, look up the murder rates for major cities. You'll notice that they've been dropping in most localities every year.

                Violence hasn't increased; our notice of it has.
                • BY THE WAY: Here's a link. http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0873729.html [infoplease.com]

                  You'll notice the murder rate peaked in 1980, with some other highs in the 1970's, and is currently at about half the peak rate.

                  You'll ALSO notice that the peak years for homicide in this country were years in which there WERE NO REALISTIC VIDEO GAMES AVAILABLE.

                  Please explain how this affects your theories. :)


                  • "Please explain how this affects your theories. :)

                    Do you actually believe the crap at that link? You seemed smarter in your postings.

                    If crime was not on a major rise in this country, then explane why we had bills passed in congress (during the clinton Administration, a 30 billion dollar 1994 crime bill)
                    See http://www.cato.org/testimony/ct-mr-3.html [cato.org]) that increased law enforcement budgets across this country in astronomical amounts?(because people were afraid, thats why)

                    And why did almost eve
                    • Oh, man, you've got it bad.

                      Look, see, there's this thing called PROPAGANDA.

                      So the government wants to expand its powers. Less of those nasty "rights" to get in their way when they want to pinch someone, for example, or maybe ridiculously long prison sentences for some poor schmuck who got caught with a pot cigarette. Whatever. Those in power want more of it. Now, how do they con the rest of us into letting them have more power?

                      Simple. First, they put a scare into rubes like you. OH MY GOD, they yell, POTHEA
                    • Tsk..Tsk...
                      Ok, to prove my point, i will use one of your own links.(though i could have used something from all of them)

                      From:
                      "United States Crime Index Rates Per 100,000 Inhabitants" http://www.disastercenter.com/crime/uscrime.htm [disastercenter.com]

                      In 1960 there were 60.1 robberies Per 100,000 Inhabitants
                      In 2004 there were 136.7 robberies Per 100,000 Inhabitants which is more then double. Which is down from a few years before that but the amount per 100,000 Inhabitants has steadily increased when you look at the e
                    • So, you counter my point that violent crime has dropped by half with a rambling about NON-VIOLENT crime, then re-iterate your assertion that violent crime is on the rise?

                      You, sir, are a ding-bat. Congradulations. You're the first person I've met recently who has earned that very silly, old-fashioned title.

    • How good it would be, if only 5 hours a day... in Germany, the AVERAGE has passed the 8 hours... :/
    • Speak for yourself! I live to fuck ;)

  • final fantasy... (Score:2, Insightful)

    by rlbond86 ( 874974 )
    Final Fantasy games are hardly like each other.
    • Yeah I thought it was strange they mentioned that series as well. I think Final Fantasy gets a lot of strife because it's just another long-running series in this medium. I'm not as big a fan of it as I used to be, (specifically because of the drastic changes in it) but I do give Square credit for reinventing the series and it's accompanying game mechanics with every iteration.
      I can't think of another company that has had the guts to do that. Most other studios would see that as a massive risk not worth
    • I disagree, especially after reading an article by the creator of 8-bit theater [nuklearpower.com]. Here's an excerpt:

      Now some of you are probably saying "Oh Brian, you're just stupid because you are so obviously biased against 3D games!!!!!!11" Nope. For instance, here's a quote from Craig, an avid FF7 and 8 fan who e-mailed me about the FF series. In fact, our correspondence became the basis of this very essay. Craig says, "Indeed. FF6 was so bright and shiny and expansive and pretty compared to FF4 that nobody really rea

    • Agreed. They used to be good.
  • "Why else would we routinely drop $50 on the latest iteration of games like Madden, Final Fantasy and Unreal Tournament ... Why do we continue to spend upwards of $300 on the newest 'next generation' console?"

    Why do we even get out of bed in the morning? Why do we do anything at all? I mean, life is basically pointless, right?

  • We don't (Score:5, Funny)

    by dascandy ( 869781 ) <dascandy@gmail.com> on Saturday January 14, 2006 @04:29PM (#14472362)
    > Why else would we routinely drop $50 on the latest iteration of games like Madden, Final Fantasy and Unreal Tournament

    We don't. We're still trying to find the amulet of Yendor, you insensitive clod.

  • Why (Score:5, Insightful)

    by nacturation ( 646836 ) <nacturation AT gmail DOT com> on Saturday January 14, 2006 @04:40PM (#14472410) Journal
    Why do people shell out $50 for a bottle of wine that they consume over the course of a couple of hours and then it's gone forever?

    And somebody shells out $50 for the next version of Unreal Tournament because they enjoy the added features (like vehicles in Onslaught) which they get to enjoy for countless hours over the course of years, and some fool on the internet with an opinion takes offence? Why, oh why won't somebody think of the children!
     
  • posing gaming addiction as a symptom of a larger problem

    I know that all the entertainment I look for is to get away from the real world as far as possible. I mean, some people like to read travel stories or trade stock un their spare time. I like to play adventure games like Myst or The Longest Journey, and I like Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels. I think I have a "larger problem." This world is just not interesting enough for me, or maybe so scary that I want to get away. What I mean to say is that to me

  • Yeah games are so expensive and dangerous (Score:5, Insightful)

    by SmallFurryCreature ( 593017 ) on Saturday January 14, 2006 @05:07PM (#14472439) Journal
    When I was a little kid an uncle used to collect miniature trains. Do you know what these tiny pieces of cast iron a bit of plastic and a crap electric motor go for? AMD/Intel would be ashamed.

    A co-worker bought a new boat. Or rather bought a not so new boat that he spend the entire summer stripping and painting. Super healthy stuff that standing in a shed sanding of marine paint and applying it in one of the warmest summers we have had in holland.

    A friend likes to dive. In water with sharks. He spends all year saving up for a long holiday submerging his body exposing it to pressures it is not designed for breathing air under pressure surrounded by critters that think "Yummy, a hairless seal".

    As for the people who party hardy shooting themselves full of drugs to dance throughout the weekend. Wohoo! Cheap chemicals, sign me up.

    Oh and what to think of that image next to the article. That ever sane person who takes up fishing as a hobby. Standing with your balls in freezing water with a 1000 dollar carbon fibre rod to get a diseased posion laden half death fish. If your lucky.

    Nah, gamers are the sane one. I have had this conversation more then once "Boss: You spend your christmas bonus on a vidcard?" "Me: yes thank you should last me all year." "Boss: insane Oh, you seen the new rubbers for the windows on my classic porche" "Me: yeah".

    Life is short, enjoy it anyway you can. If it is gaming, well who cares how much it costs, is not like you have a girl to waste it on.

  • duh (Score:1)

    by The NPS ( 899303 )
    Of course video games are a form of escape. I don't sit at home and play video games all day when I'm happy with who I am and life is going swell. It's no different than all the other forms of escape that people bury themselves in ... gambling, porn, prostitutes, TV, movies, books (although books tend be engaging, there's a lot of trashy literature out there. For me, mass-video game playing is like the last resort. I'm unhappy, I'm anxious, etc, so I video game it up. If I'm happy, if I'm doing well, t
    • You can find an escape in ANYTHING. My mother, when she is stressed, will clean the house and get very involved in it. It's a natural human reflex, to release tension and anxiety. The fact that some humans release it through less physically active means does not necessarily indicate that this is a waste of time. In fact, it may be LESS of a waste of time to release stress by completing challenging game puzzles, or hone your reflexes on that first-person shooter, than it would be to release stress by liftin
    • Atheistic Amen to that, brother.

      I love videogames. But the fact is that when i'm happy and fulfilled, I just don't have the time to play them, and don't exactly miss them either. Case in point, I'm at a particularly low point these past couple months, and since Dec. I've blown through Prince of Persia 3, Jade Empire, Psychonauts, Baldur;s Gate, the latest Splinter Cell, countless hours of Halo 2, and a few others. That's a lot of hours. While I enjoyed it, i know i wouldn't be doing it if i was out and

  • Why else would we routinely drop $50 on the latest iteration of games like Madden, Final Fantasy and Unreal Tournament - games that are, usually at their core, just like their predecessors?

    Once the publisher pulls the plug on the official online matchmaking server for Madden 200x - 1 or Unreal Tournament 200x - 1, people are forced to upgrade. Case in point: Sony and Harmonix shut down the online portion of Frequency to migrate players to Amplitude.

    Why do we continue to spend upwards of $300 on the n

  • Zonk Missed the Point (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Doomstalk ( 629173 ) on Sunday January 15, 2006 @03:11AM (#14474638)
    Ok, time to come clean: first off, the author of the article is my older brother; secondly, I edited the piece for him before he submitted it for publication. As such, I've read the article many times- enough to see that Zonk missed the point entirely when he selected a quote. Yes, the article posits that gamers are usually addicted to their hobby, and as such willing to sometimes do some extreme things- much like devotees of other amusements. But that's far from the main thrust of the article.

    The point is that, when he let his gaming habits get out of hand, my brother didn't do it because it was fun, so much as it was better than what he was supposed to be doing. Instead of investigating <i>why</i> games are so addictive for some of us, he argues that a severe addiction can be a proverbial dead canary for your normal life. He wasn't doing something he really enjoyed, so he escaped into games instead (it didn't help that there were six PCs, two Playstations, two Saturns, an N64, an SNES, and six people in a space smaller than your average living room- but that's beside the point). Much like I said, his gaming was a symptom of a larger problem, rather than a problem unto itself. His tale is meant to serve as a warning: if you're spending too much time on your hobby, take a look at your life- you may find something in dire need of fixing.
  • I swear.

    I can stop playing video games whenever I want. I just don't want to...

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