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On Online Backgammon And Gaming Addiction

Posted by simoniker on from the detox-with-yahtzee dept.

Thanks to the New York Times for its article (free reg. req.) discussing game addiction as it relates to playing backgammon online. The author, who found "a deep, narcotic satisfaction in online backgammon" at sites such as Itsyourturn.com and DailyGammon, tries to discuss what gaming addiction is, and whether it's healthy. Dr. Eric Hollander, the director of the Compulsive, Impulsive, and Anxiety Disorders Program at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, argues with regard to this addiction: "Everyone has their own optimal level of arousal... If you're understimulated, you're bored, and if you are overstimulated, you're uncomfortable. This is a way of regulating that process." [However, Dr.Hollander did also say "I recently got a BlackBerry, and I have this compulsive e-mail checking [habit] now."] Can you relate these 'casual game' addictions to more often discussed MMO addiction, and if not, how do they differ?

4 of 42 comments (clear)

  1. Animal Crossing by MBCook · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Animal Crossing is like crack!

    I've never been one to get hooked on anything, but after I discovered Animal Crossing a few years ago, I quick got hooked on it's charmed. I played it every day for months (very unusual for me), and I wouldn't be suprised if my highschool GPA would have been a little higher if I hadn't discovered it.

    Eventually it started to get boring and while I still liked playing, I didn't care nearly as much. When I eventually quit, while I didn't have a problem quitting, I felt this weird guilt that I left everyone in my town without me.

    I can't wait for AC 2 :).

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  2. They have the internet on computers now? by vehn23 · · Score: 4, Funny

    What a terribly written and postulated article of what can only be a horribly bored person who just recently discovered that when you "wire" a "network" of computers together, it can be used to play games! Wake up the president!

  3. Whether it's healthy? by Rufus88 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Since when has any addiction ever been healthy? It seems to me that the relevant question is not whether it's healthy, but rather, how unhealthy is it?

  4. Slashdot by complete+loony · · Score: 4, Funny

    I suppose most of us would include reading Slashdot.

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    09F91102 no, 455FE104 nope, F190A1E8 uh-uh, 7A5F8A09 that's not it, C87294CE no. Ah! 452F6E403CDF10714E41DFAA257D313F.