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Fighting the Scourge of Gaming Addiction
speby writes: "With the growing popularity of LAN parties and other such channels to game (which the article at Wired doesn't mention) is it possible that gaming has become a real addiction? How can a person become addicted? And why?"
As a 'pusher' (game developer), I hope they never find a cure. :)
People with 'addictive personalities' can become addicted to ANYTHING.
Period. End of story.
"And like that
The last game I played was Metal Gear Solid 2. Nice game, but my wife got addicted to watching it because of the stupid long movies. When I finished it, she asked me to play it on a higher difficulty level so she can watch it again. :-/
I didn't know what to do with all the time on my hands. So I picked up a copy of Diablo. I don't remember exactly when she left me, but I know I had at least 3 battle.net characters that could fucking own on hell level!
After I got bored with Diablo, I thought it was over, but things only got worse. My next girlfriend became an ICQ whore. Chatting with all types all over the world until god only knows how early in the morning. I found this great thing called EverQuest and I haven't really seen her, or my shoes, since.
The downhill slide having begun, I was hooked. My CS skills are feared far and wide at LAN parties and my tollerance is so high that I can stare at a CRT for hours without blinking. Even those old ones with the 72 mHz refresh rates.
These days, it's just get up, stumble to the fridge in the morning. The whole time I'm thinking about what the proper Civ3 build order is for a city on my cultural boundry. I lay awake at night thinking about optimal artillary placement in Empire Earth.
If only Betty Ford had a program that suited me ... with phat net access and flat screens.
-- RLJ
When I was in college, I "lost" several of my friends for a few weeks because they discovered a MUD (Multi User Dungeon for the uniformed). They spent every waking hour down in the computer labs, only coming up for food when the delivery boy came. They neglected class, sleep, and basic hygeine, all so they could power up these non-existant characters which they would eventually no longer use years down the road. It was a pretty pathetic scene, and a couple of them actually dropped out of school because of it.
There's a difference between playing a game all night once in a while and completely cutting off friends and family. In terms of mental disorders, it becomes a problem when you cause distress to yourself and those around you. I learned early on to walk away from the computer once in a while, and I completely avoid MUDs and MMORPGs because of their potential to addict. It's fun to escape once in a while, but when the escape becomes your life you need help.
Electronic Frontier Foundation for online civil rights information
From the article:
;)
The "EQ Wids" commiserate over tales of woe (one husband insisted on playing the game in the delivery room while his wife gave birth) and offer each other encouragement and company.
In my honest opinion, if you can't stop playing a video game to assist/be with your wife during labor, then chances are you have several other problems that are much deeper-rooted than your addiction to video games!!
Seriously though, as much as I love video games, they don't come before my family, friends, or my health. If you can't pull yourself away from a game for the things that really matter in life, then you do need to get help.
That's what is interesting about this question. Most games have some sort of "payoff" device that is implicit when you play it. When you get that payoff, whether it is the final goal or some sort of intermediary plateau, you take a breather and appreciate your accomplishment. If a game defers that payoff and continues to promise it, it will become more and more of a time-sink. THis fairly much appeals to the natural structure of human motivation - it's *designed* to generate obsessive behavior.
This is all so true. I have found myself regularly addicted to various pursuits since I was a kid. I have found that the games to avoid are the ones with more long-term goals/payoffs. For instance, I'm not really addicted to UT or Q3. On some particular night, I may find it hard to tear myself away from "just one more" deathmatch, but that's it. Eventually I go to bed and I may not play again for 2 months.
But then there are games where that's not possible. We all know the examples (usually RPGs, quest style, or puzzle games in general).
Basically, here's what to avoid (I'm not a shrink, but this works!): Any game or activity with a non-determinate payoff pattern. In other words, avoid random (or semi-random) reward systems. UT doesn't fit in this category because I generally know how long a match will play and I usually have a good idea of who's going to school who. Zelda? Forget it. You never know when you're going to find the very next quest item.
This is basically the same problem as an addiction to gambling. Don't subject yourself to the overall patterns, and you should be ok.
Oh, and to everyone who thinks this isn't a real problem, good for you. It just means you haven't been bit yet. Good luck ignoring the problem though.
Please mod this post only if you think others should/n't read this. I have enough ego^H^H^Hkarma. Thanks!
While I didn't play on many arcade machines when I was younger, I spent countless hours on my C=64, and then on my XT, playing games. True, my case was mild as I wasn't able to monopolise either the TV or the computer, but I am sure there were others who had problems with severe addiction.
One of my favourite episodes of News Radio is when a "Stargate Defender" arcade machine is brought in to the office and Dave recalls the time when his SAT scores suffered because he stayed up all night playing that game. It's funny because it's true.
ian.
ian
The 3 analogies you mention just don't work, since they all involve people creating something. The people playing Everquest aren't creating anything, they're just playing a game.
And just because it's profitable doesn't mean it isn't an addiction. We've all heard the stories of people losing their wives, friends or their minds through an over-zealous commitment to their work.
The truth is, the world is pretty fucked up. And we get into our little inward worlds to try and ignore that. Some of us are workaholics, others watch TV incessantly, etc. Every different thing has it's angle. Video games are addictive especially to the technophile crowd because face it, we geeks like flashy stuff (no rhyme intended). We want feedback, interactivity (another "duh"), eye-candy, excitement, etc. But when it comes down to it, these are just desires that get filled the same way as anyone else fulfills them: abuse. I would argue that 70% of Americans are television addicts.
The point I'm getting at here is that we are a nation of hedonists because we don't need to worry about the consequences of our consumerism, apathy, etc. (bear with me as I get a bit political) Not to induce a guilt trip here, but I don't think anyone in Somalia has a problem with buying too much crap, watching too much TV, or spending too much time jerking their thumbs in front of CRT's. But they have all their own problems to worry about: AIDS, drug warlords, starvation, etc. What do you do in a situation devoid of all pleasure? It probably would involve heavy, heavy drugs. I, for one, would not be able to sit through 6 hours of Metal Gear Solid while two gangs have a firefight next door.
My point is, people find outlets for their frustrated desires everywhere. Very seldomly do they have the courage to actually seek out the root causes of those desires. Here in the States, I think most of people's anxieties are caused by:
- working too much and taking it too seriously (ie. "miserable-ism" as termed by the Situationists)
- depending on others to make decisions for them ("pathological fascism" as called by Deleuze & Guattari)
- rampant commercialism driving down our self-esteem (and driving up demand)
To relieve this we watch: movies/shows about cops, criminals, rich people, sexy people, futuristic people, fantastic people, etc. (I'm talking mainstream, here, not "Clerks"-style stuff). All these movies/shows whatever romanticize these roles that only a few of us get to ever do. Since we're NOT those people, we feel more like a piece of shit, thus leaving us vulnerable to subconsicious suggestions that Diet Coke will instantly bestow us the sex appeal of Victoria Secret models.
So of course we want to feel like heroes, or drive ultrafast cars, or be the super-killer-soldier with the most frags: video games fulfill those vicarious pleasures because the media industry has successfully planted all those desires in us already!
So naturally, the best way to break a video game addiction is to withdraw from Hollywood/Viacom/AOLTimeWarner/Disney in every conceivable form. Or at least develop enough of a cynical veneer to be able to look someone in the eye and say, "The Matrix was good...for a Hollywood film."
[pink beam of light]
It frustrates me greatly that people try to claim victim status when they are victimized only by their choices.
According to the listed standard, I think I could be described as sleep addicted, food addicted, air addicted, and for that matter addicted to converstations with my wife and playing with my kids!
I enjoy computer games. I know what it's like to drag my butt in to the office and lack productvity all day because I was up until the wee hours of the morning playing video games.
My point is this. We make many choices which reflect a person's values and priorities. When I watch the movie or stay up late playing RTCW, I pay the consequences. As a result, I choose not to do that very often! When I choose to do that, I blame myself, not some psychological condition.
Choosing to value the wrong things is simply a lack of discipline. Lack of discipline is a character problem, not an addiction over which the person has no control.
The problem is a lack of will, and the consequences are simply the results of bad choices.
Take control of your life by taking responsibility for your choices, values and character! Choose to put down the controller, or even to get rid of the console.
Get involved with people. It's harder, and hurts more, but is far more rewarding than having the perfect score in Pitfall!
But Herr Heisenberg, how does the electron know when I'm looking?
Yes, gaming addiction is real. So is information addiction. It's pathetic the amount of time I spent sucking down worthless piles of information on the net.
/., k5, Drudge, Shack, .5e, x-e, penny arcade, SA, POTD, Filthy, The Atlantic, TNR, HowStuffWorks, Ars, Onion, Blogdex, CNN, check e-mail, rinse, repeat until dead.
Fark,
The 2 hour morning web surf through my first two classes and before the shower is probably the most depressing after its over.
The only thing worse than having a day go by in front of the computer is having that day go by with the end result being that you got farther in a game or read a bunch of meaningless drivel by some web admin or forum-goers. See, I'm doing it right now!
The only way I feel like I'm using the computer effectively is when I'm doing homework or coding a personal project. Everything else is worthless, except maybe a regular check of the daily news (since I have no TV.)
I spend days, hell, weeks sometimes, away from the web and realize how stupid it is and what a waste of time it is. Too bad I never learn.
Don't even ask about what happened when Quake 3 fit itself into this routine two years ago. I finally got over that one this semester when my cable provider decided to suck. I should be thankful.
--
I think the term addiction is being misused in this case. Addiction used to be a meaningful medical term. Some substances are addictive because they build a physiological tolerance, requiring greater use for the same effect, and which, if use is stopped, turns around into physiological withdrawal symptoms. What you're calling an addictive personality is really an obsessive-compulsive personality. The obsession is the inability to get away from the whatever mentally, the compulsion is to engage in the behavior the obsession leads to. It's significant because addiction means bad and it is used to vilify all sorts of things that are really value neutral. Plenty of OCD types clean obsessively but you don't see anyone talking about "Cleaning Addiction" or suggesting that cleaning is intrinsically bad. No functional difference between that behavior and playing Everquest all night.
It Is the Nature of Information to Transgress Artificial Boundaries
I was literally stopped in the middle of the street jaywalking by another lawyer who wanted to tell me I was his hero for finding a way out. They want out; they just can't face the pay cut. Grad school was a 90% cut from what I would have made the next year--and worth every penny. (I also had to give up the 35 hour work week . .
I razzed another lawyer, a litigator, about eating the fish rather than the red meat at our 20 year reunion. He can't *digest* it, it makes him ill due to his stress. So why does he continue? He can't give up the money and lifestyle.
A great many lawyers are caught in a living hell. They give up everything to stay in--family, health, sanity (yes, I know at least one who just plain cracked). And for what?
Yes, I am still a lawyer, and have kept my licenses. I'll take antitrust issues and other matters which really want an economist with a law license. But I'll dig ditches before I return to general practice.
hawk, esq.
Its just the games that have changed. Everquest is no more addictive than Quake, which is no more addictive than Civilization, which is no more addictive than Nethack, which is nore more addictive than Zork, which is no more addictive than TinyMud, which is no more addictive than pac man, which is no more addictive than space invaders, which is no more addictive than combat, which is no more addictive than pong. Each had their addicts that had the journals, the "Wired"s of their day, all claiming we'd all end up "game-heads" by the end of the century...
well, the century is over, the games are still around, and so is society. Unfortunately, so is Wired.
And its not so much a psychological "mystery" as so many have tried to paint it as. If it was, then Psychology Today would still be arguing about it like they did over the Pac Man fascination.
Yes, a gamer can be in a "zone" where nothing but the game matters during that time, but that "zone" as an ASC is the same kind of zone that anybody gets when concentration on a single topic is at a high (literally and figuratively). Its the same zone that hackers get (see "Peopleware"), its the same zone a musician gets when the music takes over his body and spirit, its the same zone an author gets. Sometimes the zone is productive, sometimes its an escape. But the zone is the same.
Basically its like this. Reality sucks. Its hard. Its painful. Its a fucking bitch at times. For geek guys, its full of bitches. Games are fun. Games have rules that don't change. Games have NPCs whose behaviour can be relied on.
So play games 'cause its easier than reality. People suck 'cause they and their expectations are always different from one day to the next. Games don't change. 'til you download a new update. when YOU want to, not when "they" do it.
And you keep playing games because games stay fun and reality never improves. (now mind you, the fact that you never do anything to change your reality because your always playing games doesn't help, of course, but when you're playing games, you can't see that).
And they knew this 25 years ago when Pong hit the streets. Hell, you think Thompson and Ritchie would have gone to so much fucking trouble making an O/S for an empty computer to play Space War was done for the "intellectual excercise of it"? Hell no. They were addicts who needed a fix. They just managed to get better and keep up with reality as well, as most of us do. Usually its because you finally get bored with games, and you keep thinking "the new games suck...they aren't nearly as good as the games I used to play".
Irrellevant Postscript: Back in "the day", I was a moria addict...'til i got a D in English 102. I saved the graveyard scene (you could do that, at least on vax-moria), and modified it so that it said "Rest In Peace : My English Grade" in the tombstone.
"But remember, most lynch mobs aren't this nice." (H.Simpson)
-- Joe