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The Lure of Heroinware
blankmange writes "news.com reports: When games stop being fun; where the line between reality and fantasy blurs. Another story about games and the adults who can't stop playing them. It seems that we can't be held responsible for our actions -- it must be the 'heroinware' that game companies are producing...." Mmmm, Evercrack. T. pops in: Don't worry, games aren't addictive, but here's the announcement of a 24-hour gaming TV network for those unexplained late-night cravings. (Thanks to joestump98.)
I have never ever been into gaming of any sort, but now I have gotten addicted to Yahoo! Pool (games.yahoo.com). I have played like 1500 games... and I have seen some people on there with over 3000 games under their belt. I talked to a couple of people I played against, who admitted they have been playing for 6 hours or more straight.
Luckily Yahoo! is starting to charge $10 a month of special privileges, like set tourneys. I have forced myself to stay away from those, and the "ladders".
There is nothing really that great about this game, except that its free, and loads up easy into the web browser. Just goes to show that a game doesn't have to be great to be addicting.
Stay away from Yahoo! Pool!
Anything that provides the opportunity for escape or is mood-altering can become addictive. In that respect I don't think the immersive video games are much different from other things people can become addicted to--drugs, alcohol, pr0n, traditional paper-and-dice roleplaying, etc. There's a good reason that even huge fans of the game jokingly agree with the term "Evercrack." But it's important to note that people can become addicted to just about anything--watching those 24-hr. cable news stations, posting to Slashdot; anything which alters the mood, takes the mind off real life or personal life, or makes someone feel special or important.
That's not to say that it's inherently dangerous or addictive--most people can drink or smoke pot or watch pr0n or play Everquest or D&D without becoming addicted. It's a very small percentage with personalities susceptible to addictions who develop real problems, while almost everyone else can successfully have a few drinks or play a few games without it interfering with the rest of their lives.
So, it's the addictive personalities which are the real problem, not alcohol or games or pr0n or drugs or cable news or whatever one's addiction is. When I read the following paragraph, I had an intersting thought:
> While such cases are rare, mental-health professionals say the fantasy worlds
> offered by computer and video games can become the stuff of very real addictions that
> destroy marriages and careers.
The thought was--what is it about these people's real lives that's so boring or bad that they want to escape into the make-believe world of power or pleasure offered by a computer game or a syringe of heroin? That's what we need to blame and address, not the games or the pr0n or the alcohol or drugs. All of those things can and are used in moderation by most people, to bring them additional pleasure; some people have no or insufficient real-life joys, and rtreat into their favorite "opiate." These deficiencie in their lives, which enhance susceptibility to escapism, are what need to be addressed and improved.
Think of the teenage Everquest addict's likely profile--a smart geek with a lot of ability but no respect in real life. Our society--particularly our highschool society--accords brainless people with athleticism limitless respect, and people with tremendous minds but not so impressive bodies almost none. It's therefore understandable if one falls into the lure of finding that respect in a make-believe world, since the real one refuses to provide it.
It's like with Columbine, how not a single step was made to teach kids to be more egalitarian and accepting, and instead the pressure was turned up and people who didn't fit in perfectly into the social machine were shunned and harassed even more. No one wants to see underlying problems--they want to blame the game or the substance instead of the deficiencies in our society. It's sad and alarming, and is getting us nowhere. We need to see the problems in our society and work our best to fix them--not blame that which brings the problems to light.
Chasing Amy
(We all chase Amy...)
"The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws"-Tacitus
Try going a week without going online for recreational purposes. And yes, slashdot counts as recreational under all circumstances.
Try it. I dare you.
Yeah! ...and you forgot to mention, these heroineware-dealing corporations keep their employees addicted with rewards of equipment, money and status, to keep them playing. By playing the "work game", these unfortunate addicts build up their inventory and equipment, accumulating items such as cars, houses, furniture. These items allow them to "awe" their fellow players, thereby achieving a sort of social approval that they otherwise would not be able to get.
The organizers of "work-games" also set up "quests" and "meetings" in which players assemble and engage in social interaction, all within the context of furthering their game goals. The quest for magical items and treasure brings together individuals who otherwise might not have much social interaction.
Yeah, it does suck to be me.
I was at one time totally addicted to Utopia until I realised that it was not a good idea to cancel a week-long vacation to play the game so I snapped out of it, killed my kingdom and quit. If I was able to get broadband where I live, I'd probably be addicted to Asheron's Call or Everquest at this moment.
I have come to believe that what is really required is education. Most people are not aware that gaming can be addictive and thus they don't consider the chance that it will happen to them. I didn't. But if people recognise that they have addictive personalities like mine, then they will be able to regulate themselves more effectively.
I know that such things are dangerous for me so I try to avoid things like "Evercrack" especially when I have other things like university classes to take care of. I am afraid of casinos because I can just see myself being robbed by the slot machines ... I mean it is statistically possible to win big money. And if I just gave up after losing $40 that would mean that I was there for no reason except to lose money so it would be more logical to go and win it back. But as we all know, slot machines are overall tilted so that in the end, the casino always wins.
But everyone knows about gambling addiction, especially since there was a Simpsons episode where Marge got addicted.
So how can gaming addiction be reduced? Educate, I say. Even if it means playing corny videos to schoolkids. Being able to identify a problem is the first step to solving it. "Because knowing is half the battle."
First, the causes: there seems to be two camps, personified by some other comments to this story. The first response, which I suppose we can call the socio-cultural cause, implies that people become addicted to these games because society has created an environment in which the individuals feel no particular motivation to participate in what we would call normal behaviour patterns. The post in this example has claimed that in fact individuals who are not shown basic respect tend to withdraw to their own space. I think that this is largely true. But to claim that individuals who have so-called addictive personalities should not accept responsibility for their behaviour is also not quite right. Of course, the poster that I have referred to did no such thing but the next poster that I will refer to seems to imply that that is the case.
So this is the second comment, and it is one that essentially berates individuals with addictive personalities as being weak-minded, lesser people because of their difficulties. This too is the wrong approach. As with everything, the truth usually lies somewhere in the middle. It is probably true that socio-cultural factors have a lot to do with the creation of not only people with addictive personalities but in fact with personalities, period. Many theorists have suggested this and I think it's clear that the evidence bears it out. Put simply, when talking about selves or, if you prefer, subjects, culture is both the constructor and the constructed. The point that I want to make, however, is that in the case of addictions and addictive people, this fact ought to be made aware to them in a proper setting, such as a therapists's office or in the confidence of a close and trusted friend. What I mean to say, of course, is that a person with an addiction problem needs to be treated with respect and understanding such that they may be able to come to realize that, once they are made aware of the elements of the world around them that construct their realities, they can and should choose to alter their outlook and thus alter their behaviour.
So really my point is just that while personalities are socially constructed they are also able to be reformed by people who become intellectually aware of their situation. This is an important point, and it's the point that, I think, bridges the gap between mosch's point and Chasing Amy's point. Also, I want to suggest that there is a good reason to begin to examine in empirical detail how it is that culture shapes subjects and thus how we need to change our culture to change how subjects are. This would seem to alleviate a large number of our problems, if it could be done.
Also keep in mind that the addiction that is talked about in the news.com article is pretty serious. It's probably not a good idea to confuse occasional game-playing with real addiction.
-- This sig is.
When was the last time you heard a european or a japanese person bitching that a game "ruined" their life.
You might be hearing these people saying that stuff ALL THE TIME, but if you don't speak Japanese, you'd never guess it.
If tits were wings it'd be flying around.
You need to read japanese newspapers more often - I'd recomend the english (side at least) rag mainichi daily news (mainichi literally means every day around the clock). At any rate - I've found that in my Japanese studies they suffer from a lot (not all) of the same things we do.
http://mdn.mainichi.co.jp/
It's an attitutde problem. Life is as exciting as we choose to make it, but our attitudes about life make it seem narrow and confining. If we were as open to trying things in life as we were in games I think a lot of us would be more fulfilled and engaged. Is it just that games give us the ability to take chances without the fear of consequences? Maybe. Nobody ever died for real playing a video game, no one was *really* humiliated for real because they did something stupid in EverQuest. Maybe it's more of an ego problem than an attitude problem....
-- thinkyhead software and media
I remember a wired story from way back talking about tetris being a pharmogenic drug. Apparently, the part of your brain that does that kind of stuff always gets the same amount of sugar, and the more you play tetris, the more efficient that chunk o' noggin becomes. The surplus in sugar due to increased efficiency gives it a bit of a kick...the cycle continues-more tetris, more efficiency, more kick.
So yes, some video games have been classified as being physically addictive. Explains all the tetris dreams I had when I was younger.
"Let him go, Ralph. He knows what he's doing." --Otto Mann (simpsons)