Too Much What is a Sickness?

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Here's one for you...and no better place than here on SP. Let's imgaine I'm a teenager again (and that takes some imagining). I've locked myself in my room, away from all my family and friends (even my dog, Whiskers). But I'm not showering (gasp), which helps to explain why my family and friends, and even Whiskers, won't stop in for a friendly chat now and then. Also, I've stopped eating (so I guess I must be really thin too). Hold on, for the plot thickens - my grades in school are tanking (gasp again). Worst of all, I'm suddenly belligerent (probably because I wish to be like my idol, Dick Cheney, or from watching too many GWB speeches on Fox News).

Could it be that I'm locked in my room, reading my King James Bible, watching re-runs of my favorite preacher on The Christian Broadcast Network? Or I was reading and listening to all those great tapes and books I could purchase from all those "prayer-lines" for Jesus, with my parent's credit cards? Gee, would I need heath insurance to be "cured" rather than saved?

No, no and no - I would be playing too much Baldur's Gate. But I'm sure you already figured as much, since all of us here are anti-social, unaccomplished, poorly educated, really thin people with poor hygiene, who have little or no time for friends, family and pets (poor Whiskers).

We are not like average teenagers, oh no - who, btw, spend most of their time with their parents, when they are excelling in school (real prargons of knowledge, they are), and they are NEVER belligerent to each other (nor anyone else); they always eat regularly and have healthy diets (no Mickey-Ds for them), and they spend their spare time in the shower (not counting any time in the hot-tub with their significant others). Oh no, not them. They must be what "real" teenagers are like. Right?

You can read the rest of the nonsense here.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19354827/

[ June 22, 2007, 06:44: Message edited by: Chandos the Red ]

 

On some level, it's right. When we're playing video games, we're not getting the excercise we need to stay healthy (which may have something to do with my weight problem). When we ignore those around us, it's a problem. When we neglect ourselves or our responsibilities, it's a problem.

But is over-indulgence the problem or simply a solution? Is the rest of our lives so boring or unpleasant that we simply choose to play as opposed to do other things? I remember growing up with Tourette Syndrome and other disorders, school sucked, and I couldn't wait to get home, fire up the Commodore 64 and play games...

 

Ok, parts of this report are ridiculous.

Yeh know, maybe its more the fact your buying a 15 year old a bottle of jack daniels, instead of the fact that he is playing an online game...

 

My first reaction is to leap to the defence of video games, but some do seem to be serious problems. Your normal average video game - not so much. I'm sure everyone here has been addicted to a certain game and have played it for ridiculous amounts of time until you reach the end, then your life gets back to normal.

But that's the thing - MMOs don't end.

 

That article is one of the reasons I despise the main stream media. Once again they portray the exception as the rule. For every one kid who goes mental with video games there are thousands if not tens of thousands who are fine.

 

What I don't understand is why this is a surprise. People can be addicted to nearly anything; including the internet, porn, and video games (just to name a few).

Any addiction has those symptoms. And many of us has seen someone who has gone to those extremes (if even for a short time) over a video game. Most people will realize this is not a good thing and start to regulate their time on the game. A small percentage cannot seem to find such willpower.

I disagree that the article is nonsense; however, it is a bit alarmist.

I think the article is more a warning that parents should do their job and help children realize when playing games is acceptable and when it is not. The game should be a reward, not a babysitter. Children should learn that games are played after everything that needs to be done IS done.

Dalveen: Perhaps you should reread the quote. The woman is comparing the video game to alcoholism as a metaphor -- she did not buy him any.

 

Opps, yeh, sorry T2, i read it as "Its like WHEN i went out", instead of "it’s like I went out".

My bad, sorry.

 

Well of course it COULD be addictive - heck I play computer games almost every day - but just as there's a difference between popping open a beer when you get home from work in the evening as opposed to getting drunk every night, there is also a difference between playing a video game for enjoyment and having said game consume your life.

I play games every day. Am I addicted? Quite possibly. However, I would contend it is a harmless addiction since it doesn't take me away from my wife, my family, my job, typical jobs around the house, etc. Yes, if I called in sick to work to play video games, or ignored my pregnant wife (of course, if I was *that* addicted to video games, she probably wouldn't be pregnent ), stopped moving the lawn on the weekends, ignored friends, etc., yes it could be considered a problem. However, I know a lot of people who spend a couple of hours a day watching TV - and it doesn't appear that anyone is railing against that - and yet I can't see how sitting in front of a TV for that long is any more productive...

 

I've known a lot of teens who play video games (I myself am a geezer, of course) and while some of them get overly focused on them, as I have been known to do, I've never known one of them to be truly addicted. And the reason is not the great self-control and sound judgment of the teens but - surprise! - the willingness of the parents to set some sensible limits. As a psychologist I know pointed out to me, the judgment part of peoples' brains isn't mature until sometime in their 20's. That means parents have to step in and be their teens' brains for some things. Duh. This is not news.

We have an unfortunate tendency, at least in the U.S., to focus on individual behavior without attention to the context in which it occurs. If the teen is really addicted to video games that's a family problem, not just a teen problem.

 

Lots of the opposition to the oh-so-great evil of video games and the Internet comes from people who barely know how to turn a computer on if it at all, or those who only use one for writing. They imagine a number of things they accuse computers of and they ignore those same things in so far as they are present in those forms of activity which they don't have a problem with.

 

Somebody tell her to stop paying the monthly fee for World of Warcraft, 'cause God knows if he is addicted he won't find another way to pay for it...

If those people decide to throw their lives a way so they can play video games for a few more hours each day it's their choice. I don't think there is any addiction involved, it's simply something they continually CHOOSE to do, NOT need to do.

 

Should we perhaps define our terms? I'm not sure if revmaf's 'overly focused' is the same thing that I'd be calling an 'addiction', for instance.

A few anecdotes:
When I was in about grade 8 or so I was addicted to a MMORPG called Runescape (I'm sure most of you will have heard of it - standard level grinding nonsense), as were most of my friends. I played it obsessively for very long periods of time, and got to the point where someone would make a comment and I would automatically assume that they were refering to something in-game.

Fortunately I realised how pointless and wasteful the game was and dumped it on my own accord. Others didn't realise this for a long time afterwards, and I've heard some really insane stories. I wouldn't call this just normal enjoyment of a well designed game (the game was neither particularly enjoyable or very well designed), it basically seems like an addiction. I'm pretty sure that this is the basis of most other MMORPGs around - their gameplay is pretty much inherently addictive for reasons that aren't really worthwhile speculating about here.

Now for a more recent example - Fallout 2. I would say that I was addicted to this game in the sense of playing it obsessively with disregard for other things in life until I'd finished it. It's the same with most other games I've been really wowed by (BG, BG2, Ps:T, Geneforge, to name a few). I played these games in a pretty hardcore exclusion-of-everything-else manner.

However - after the final cutscene and credits - the spell was broken. There was a defined ending to my addiction, so it's not really a big deal (indeed - I think it's a pretty cool thing - to get so absorbed by something that everything else can be blanked out).

Hmm, now, is there a point to this lengthly story? Well, I guess the thing is that I don't believe that 'getting addicted to video games' in general is anything to worry about - it doesn't happen. Getting addicted to certain video games does - in my experience - definately happen. In cases where the addicting video game has a defined ending this isn't a problem, but in video games where there isn't one I think it can be.

I'm not advocating any action be taken against MMOs or anything, but I do think they can be a problem. There's enough anecdotal evidence floating around to suggest that something's up, anyway.

(And I'm pretty sure that it's not just a 'children problem' either. It seems quite possible for adults to be addicted - don't really see why everyone seems to eager to pass the buck to children here...)

 

Some of the symptoms described do indeed point to a psychological addiction (as opposed to a physical one, which would be pretty tough for a video game), and I would argue that such behaviour would be dangerous even in the limited form of a finite game (though it would also lend to a more likely 'addiction' to the next game), but what most of you are talking about when you argue about 'finite addiction' doesn't really seem like addiction. Sure, I've played a new game for 12+ hours straight, I've only paused to use the bathroom and grab another snack, but I've never played sick for work/school for the express purpose of playing the game, I've never stolen to buy the next game, or month of play on the game, I've never physically threatened anyone over taking the game away.

I think T2's post was right on the money, they are addicted and it shouldn't suprise any of us, but at the same time, that is a very small portion of the gaming population. Just like only a small portion of people who drink alcohol become alcoholics, only a small portion of gamers become 'gamaholics'. Should we not help them in the same way?

What's more, from my read of the article, I didn't even see it as particularly alarmist. They aren't saying, or even suggesting, that hundreds of millions of gamers are addicts, that every game is an addictive substance and needs to be controlled, just that there exists such a sub-set of the population that will have a serious problem with it and people need to be made aware of this.

 

Computer games smarter people make, you long circle the blue! Smarty smarty!

 

Number one, there is addiction for video games.
Addiction is a mental dysfunction. If one can choose to play or not to play, it is not an addiction. Here's the sickness, one cannot choose. This person would not "feel right" if he doesn't take enough dose of video gaming. If you forcefully take away his video gaming, he will forcefully show you his abnormal behavior.

Number two, what can we do about it?
I am sure some will debate about this but susceptible addiction is often a genetic problem. Some people can have all the alcohol they want and never get addiction, some get addicted as soon as they have their first slip. If we don't recognize the problem, we just let these people suffer. By acknowledging video gaming addiction, at least we can have people to lead the research of curing or preventing it.

 

Yeah, yeah - like a lot of other things, such as sports. You don't see a lot of hand wringing over too much football. Computer and vid games are just easy targets for all the "social nannies" out there with too much time on their hands, IMO.

 

Don't you think it is a good thing that they do so? Maybe yes, there is football addiction. But how do you recognize this? No one reports. How can you cure this? No one reports. No one cares.

 

I don't know, I've never heard of anyone having a mental breakdown because their parent's wouldn't let them play sports, or threatening their parents with physical violence, etc. It may have something to do with access. Very few people could actually play any sport for 10-20 hours in a row, both due to physical limitations and organizational ones. Maybe ping-pong...

 

Agreed and sci-fi writers were writing about that when we were toddlers. There's more and more immersion to the point when and where we will be indeed in the Matrix. Let's hope the traditional mouse & keyboard applications for those who actually just work will stay, so that not everyone and everything is pushed into virtual reality.