POLL: A Video Game Addiction Poll

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Following the Video Game Addiction thread, I thought it would be fun to post questions aimed at determining whether someone is addicted to games or not...

Poll Information
This poll contains 10 question(s). 54 user(s) have voted.
You may not view the results of this poll without voting.

Poll Results: A Video Game Addiction Poll (54 votes.)

Do you neglect relationships to spend more time playing video games? (Choose 1)
* Yes - 37% (20)
* No - 63% (34)

Do you struggle to keep up with your schoolwork/professional responsibilities? (Choose 1)
* Yes - 43% (23)
* No - 57% (31)

Have you ever taken a “sick day” to play your favorite game? (Choose 1)
* Yes - 30% (16)
* No - 70% (38)

Do you lie to others about your video game use? (Choose 1)
* Yes - 28% (15)
* No - 72% (39)

Have you ever been criticized for spending too much time playing video games? (Choose 1)
* Yes - 87% (47)
* No - 13% (7)

When you’re not playing video games, do you feel angry or depressed? (Choose 1)
* Yes - 11% (6)
* No - 89% (48)

Do you spend your time wishing you could be playing your favorite game? (Choose 1)
* Yes - 39% (21)
* No - 61% (33)

Do you get so engrossed in video games that you neglect to eat, sleep or shower? (Choose 1)
* Yes - 48% (26)
* No - 52% (28)

Do you suffer from backaches, dry eyes, or headaches after playing video games? (Choose 1)
* Yes - 31% (17)
* No - 69% (37)

Have you been diagnosed with carpal tunnel syndrome? (Choose 1)
* Yes - 4% (2)
* No - 96% (52)

 

Some problems...

2. Can have absolutely nothing to do with video games; some people are just lazy when it comes to doing work.
3. Depends on whether you count sick days where you end up playing it, rather than sick days you called in specifically to play it.
6. Again could have nothing to do with not playing video games. Even though the answer for this was yes (and would be for anyone, since everyone will have gotten angry or depressed about something while not playing a game), I answered no because it never had anything to do with video games.
10. I haven't been diagnosed, so no, but I'm pretty sure I'm on my way. Again, this could have a lot more to do with using computers as a job, rather than playing video games. My mother was a Systems Analyst and has carpal tunnel, despite never having played a video/computer game in her life (unless you count Solitaire ).

 

Question #3 and #4 doesn't determine the level of addiction clearly. It has as much, if not more, to do with honesty.

Question #5 is a bit tricky because you may be criticised for playing by people who don't really understand you're working.

Question #10 see above. You're more likely to develop carpal tunnel syndrome from work than from games.

It's also important if it's a valid sick day or not. You may decide to use a valid sick day for games instead of going to work despite being sick like you normally would because most sick-day-worthy "diseases" aren't enough to keep you down.

 

Answering that poll was scary.. although im proud to say ive never neglected eating, washing or sleeping. Or gotten depressed when not playing a game apart from that i need to lay of the dice and mice.

 

Where's that game addiction help place? I need to enroll myself after that!

 

I agree with Fel and Chevy. Once I was sick enough not to go to school and I decided that spending time with a hot tea and Final Fantasy VIII was a good enough remedy. So in the absolute term *yes* I spend a sick day playing Video Games.

Neglecting Hygiene is just too awful despite the fact I love video games

 

The point isn't to take apart each and every question. An addiction questionaire isn't the sum of its parts. It's the whole. The bottom line is if you answer "yes" to enough of those questions then you have a problem. A single, or even 2 or 3, "yes" answers would be perfectly normal.

 

1: Seeing as I'm 35, and live with my parents (that's also where my job is) sort of puts a damper on any attempts at dating...

2: I do, but I think it also has to do with a bad back and ADHD...

3: No, but what the hell am I going to do when I'm too sick to work. It's been 20 years since I've been unable to play while I was sick.

4: Not really, in fact, I'm usually talking about my current games on the go...

5: Yes, but then again, my critics tend to be work-a-holics.

6: Yeah, but what if life really sucks that bad?

7: Yeah, but my life is rather boring...

8: Sometimes I glance at the clock and realize how long I've been playing and then understand why I'm so hungry-tired-you get the picture...

9: Sometimes, but I didn't have problems like that before I hurt my back.

10: Not yet, but I wouldn't be surprised if I did.

Like I said in the previous thread, if there is a void in our time/life, we will try to fill it, and video games are a fun way to do that...

 

I don't think I could ever forget to eat or sleep due to a computer game. That's nuts. But I have definitely had headaches and dry eyes from too much playing.

 

I'm that 'horrible'? 90% of my answer where yes
(Me goes back to my video games)

 

I have no professional responsibilities. I do home improvment projects for people and they pay me accordingly. Currently I'm not scheduled for any jobs. I only spend about 5 hours a week or less playing video games.

Seeing as everyone so far has been criticized for playing video games too much, it is clear that we all have relationships with someone who doesn't understand video game playing. My mom criticizes me for playing video games, but she'll kill an hour or more every night playing Hearts or Solitaire or something. Difference is I tend to only play one day out of the week but play for a few hours at a time. I think anyone with time enough to spend doing anything other than video games who chooses instead to play video games invariably is a video game addict.

 

i was a jerk

 

If you always choose to play video games, you probably ARE an addict. Nobody said that was a particularly bad thing. If you say "I could stop if I wanted to, but I just don't want to", then that's exactly what an addict would say.

 

also really dumb

 

It's not addictive behavior to choose the most fun thing to use your spare time on. Addictive behavior would be doing it to the detriment of other things, like work, school, keeping up your home, and most important of all, browsing the BoM.

But saying it doesn't make you an addict. It being an untruth makes you an addict. I've gone without games for months or years straight, thanks in most part to a father who couldn't come up with any other punishment, and there are always other ways to fill your spare time. Games are just the best option (for some at least), and it's more than logical to do that which gives you the most enjoyment in the precious little time you have off, as opposed to doing something which will give you less enjoyment.

 

No on every count but #5.

 

I answered "no" to all the questions but if I were answering for my husband I would be all "yes" except for the carpel tunnel. We are all much happier when he is in the basement anyway.

 

As long as you don't mean you murdered him and dumped the body down there...

Anyway, I answered "yes" to a scary proportion of those questions (8/10 I think). Not that I expected different, mind you, but still a tad worrying...

 

For some of the counterpoints that others have brought up, I think it really comes down to logically interpreting the intent of the question.

For example, I interpreted the question of playing video games on a sick day to mean that you called in "sick" when you weren't really sick, with the specific intention of playing your game. With my interpretation, I answered "no". However, if you interpreted that question as "have you ever played a video game on a day that you called in sick", then I would have had to answer "yes". However, I think the former and not the latter was the intent of the question. I have played games on days I called in sick, but the point of calling off was because I was sick, not that I wanted to play my game.

I would also like to point out that anyone who likes to game has probably been told by someone at some point that they play too much. Pretty much anything that you spend significantly more time doing than the average person will probably get you told be someone that you're doing it too much. I've also been told that I work out too much for example.

I also had difficulty aswering #1 because I'm not sure what qualifies as neglect. I suppose that at any point I'm playing a game I could be spending that time with my wife, so because of that am I neglecting her? We do eat dinner together every night, and spend time together every night, but does the fact that I'm downstairs for an hour or two almost every night mean I'm neglecting her? That's an example of where it was difficult to determine what the logical intent of the quesiton was.