Coping with Gaming Addiction

Several readers submitted this story in the Washington Post about gaming addiction in adolescents and adults. The main sources of the story are two people who get paid for solving this problem, so they have an incentive to make it sound scary and widespread, but on the other hand, most Slashdot readers probably have a... friend... who spends too much time playing video games.

Comments

We're supposed to worry -- why?

[plover]

Let me get this straight: she names her male kid "Jaysen", and sixteen years later she starts worrying if he's going to grow up normal? And we're supposed to feel sympathy?

Here's a hint: if you're one of those idiots who insists on giving your kid a name with "unique" spelling, at least don't pick a "gaye" name.

Re:We're supposed to worry -- why?

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't have any games. I'm using Linux.

--
some linuks-luser

Re:We're supposed to worry -- why?

[oscast]

He likes to play Gaymes

Re:We're supposed to worry -- why?

[gcaseye6677]

There was a kid in my 3rd grade class named Jack who definitely got made fun of. It didn't help that his last name was Goff.

Re:We're supposed to worry -- why?

[DrMrLordX]

My family got the ET game years ago for our Atari 2600. It sucked. It took awhile to figure out how to win the darn thing, and the most fun part of it was making ET fall in a pit and die.

I also liked how he turned into a corpse that would sit in front of Elliot's house at the end of the game if you died. You could even make the corpse wiggle around with the controller.

If you can derive that much entertainment from the game after all these years, you are definitely in need of professional help.

. . .

heehee

Re:We're supposed to worry -- why?

[ThaReetLad]

The groundsman at Lords Cricket Ground in London is called Mike Hunt. Also for years the RAF had a recruitment pamphlet where one of the guys was wearing a flight suit with the name tag "Ben Dover" on it.

slashdot addiction

[pronobozo]

pay me to do a slashdot addiction survey. please.

Re:slashdot addiction

[antifoidulus]

she, can quit anytime and never look back.
I think the she gave away the lie more than anything else, now I know you are talking about a made up person.

I can quit anytime I want!

[darth_MALL]

Oooh! Doom 3! [CARRIER LOST]

I do NOT suffer from game addiction

[grunt107]

I do quite well with it, thank you very much.

try this

[Coneasfast]

try and play doom3 on a radeon 9200 . that should scare you away from video games for a few weeks.

Occupational Hazard

[Anonymous Coward]

The main sources of the story are two people who get paid for solving this problem,

but instead, play games all day.

Believable

[Anonymous Coward]

but on the other hand, most Slashdot readers probably have a... friend... who spends too much time playing video games

Heh. As if claiming to have "friends" would increase the credibility of that claim... :P

i don't have an addiction

[rhino_badlands]

I don't have a video game addiction, I only make them, play them, and spend every waking moment thinking about them ...

This goes with spending all my free cash on them, dreaming about them, and of couse the occasional pleasuring my self over them.

So what..

[suso]

Call me when they have something to cure a slashdot addiction.

gamers anonymous?

[lawngnome]

Gamers anonymous would rock, atleast I could get some cheat codes and strategies while being "helped"

I have a roommate

[MinusBlindfold]

who is dangerously addicted to Warcraft III battlenet games. He works shifts and when hes not working, hes playing the game... and swearing constantly, banging his fists on the desk and using the F word quite excessively. It scares me and my cat. When I've had enough, I log into the good ole Linksys and block ports 6112 through 6120 and the problem is solved for a little while. At this point he does something constructive, like laundry or cleaning his room. This a good solution for those who have control over their home networks. :)

Re:I have a roommate

[Anonymous Coward]

So that's why my Warcraft III sessions have been so erratic! And here I've been wasting my f*cking time with tech support.

Scare you and your little cat? You little sh*t...I'll show you scared. Wonder what's cooking for dinner? I'll give you one hint...it tastes like chicken.

If I could figure out how to block porn through that little box of yours you'd be screwed. Oh, yeah, you always say you're studying in your room. I guess "studying" must really dry out your hands and give you a runny nose because I see how often you're picking up lotion and kleenex at the store. Little f*ck.

Re:I have a roommate

[Anonymous Coward]

"It scares me and my cat."

FAG

Whatever

[Antony.S]

I'm not addicted, I've /quit games hundreds of times

What do you mean "gaming addiction"?

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

I can stop whenever I want. Whoever says otherwise, I'll blow his head clean off with a BFG10K.

just like my grampa always said about alcohol...

[Narcocide]

"Its not a problem until you can't afford to pay for it anymore."

Re:This isn't an epidemic...

[cephyn]

I'm an avid gamer (at the age of 29) but it is not an addiction

Funny, that's just what an addict would say...

Re:I have a friend

[the Howard Dean Camp]

I watched him kill bugs for an hour in Everquest to build experience points (I made fun of him till he quit). I'm sorry but that's just a waste of time.

The only bigger waste of time is YOU SITTING THERE WATCHING SOMEBODY ELSE PLAY EVERQUEST.

Easy cure

[Mr. Sketch]

There's a easy way for parents to get their kids over a gaming addiction: Install Linux.

Thank you, thank you, I'll be here all week.

just to clarify:

[to_kallon]

i'm not an alcoholic. i'm a drunk. alcoholics go to meetings.

Yeah, real problem with them ball games...

[SysKoll]

From the article: "I used to be heavy into basketball," he says of his days before Socom. "Now I've been playing basketball again, I've been going to high school football games. I've been going to that youth group with friends. . . . We're trying to keep my schedule busy."

Poor guy. I understand the problem. A lot of sports, when practiced intensely, are linked to drug abuse. This poor kid is probably doped up to his eyes. His parents must, for his own good, take him off these dangerous sports fields and let him stay home! Why not buy him a couple of video games?

Hi, my name is [...], and I'm a recovering....

[cvd6262]

I attended an instructional technology conference last month where a doctoral student presented her research into Never Winter Nights. A brief discussion followed where several "former gamers" commented, I being one of them.

When the session was over, one of the other recovering gamers approached me and told me going cold turkey was really difficult. He then asked me how I quit. The only answer I could give him was, "I got married."

hmm...

[jspectre]

ok.. so a few short paragraphs into the article i see:

"So the Perkinses turned to Jaysen's therapist, Kim McDaniel, for help."

wait a minute. this kid already has a therapist? so he already has issues?

so much for being worried about such a wide-spread problem.

remember, video game cartridges don't kill people, sticking a fork in a toaster does.

Game industry ahead of the curve...

[Anonymous Coward]

I think the game industry is already addressing this problem... By turning out derivative, unoriginal crap. All the addicts will get bored sooner or later and give it up.

I've been *trying* to make myself a gaming addict over the summer while I've been out of school, I've always loved and played games, I've worked in the game industry, made games my liveleyhood, but lately I JUST CAN'T DO IT! No matter how hard I try and how much I want to game, everything I play is just so rehashed and uninspired I can't force myself to keep it up. It's gotten so bad I've actually substituted physical activity (weightlifting, powerlifting) and healthy eating habits for gaming. It's CRAZY!

Nick

Re:I'll know more about this in a few months . . .

[Anonymous Coward]

Get a girlfriend?

This is slashdot...

He may be addicted to a fantasy world, but it looks like you're living in one :)

Names in "da ghetto"

[Anonymous Coward]

Every month when the welfare queens get their welfare check, the supermarkets are flooded with "the ghetto'.

I swear that most of the little girls are named after cars (Lexus, Diamanti, Kia, Allante, Sonata) and most of the little boys are named after DuPont products or similar sounding words (Jermal, Nylon, Teflon, Kevlar)

It's a shame but when I hear some fat mama call Nylon and Kia, I can't help but laugh.

I'm convinced...

[bourne_id]

I'll call a counselor straight away to help me with my game addiction.

Right after I beat this level, I mean.

JMD

Yeah...

[No Such Agency]

At least when you're playing Madden NFL 2004 you know your dad won't yell obscenities at the other team, shit on the ref's car hood after the game, or beat you for not "giving it 110%". There's no chance of your coach molesting you, or of losing your first adult teeth to a cleat in the face. And the other players won't stick pine cones up your butt when you join the team.

Re:What makes mmorpgs so addictive

[radish]

clean your room etc

Whew - guess I'm safe from this addiction then :)

an easy way to fight addiction?

[xushi]

Switch to linux, with an ATI card =)

The PA Link you know is coming

[funny-jack]

Ob. Penny-Arcade

How I got over my gaming addiction

[gphinch]

I bought a Mac

Re:I have a friend

[aussie_a]

I watched him kill bugs for an hour in Everquest to build experience points (I made fun of him till he quit). I'm sorry but that's just a waste of time.

You did the right thing. I too would have taunted him. The wolves offer much better experience.

"Addiction", -dkshn, (n.)

[No Such Agency]

An addiction is when your "addiction" creates negative consequences in daily life.

No, silly, an "addiction" is when you spend more time/effort/money than others think you should, doing something they don't approve of.

Re:Nutjobs

[karnal]

Bullets are actually made to kill

No, bullets are made so that you can put them in a gun and shoot stuff. Incidentally, if it happens to hit a person, IT DOES DAMAGE. Probably doesn't kill all the time though.

I'd be impressed to see the ratio of bullets bought in the US to total people murdered. I'll bet the paper targets at the gun range are pissed for having holes in them, though....

As good a place as any...

[Lord Kano]

I have been developing a list of "Ghetto Names" and the following is the current incarnation. Take a look.

• The following list is made up of the criteria for determining if one has what shall be
• 
  henceforth known as a "Ghetto Name". A Ghetto Name implies a lack of education or sophistication
  on the part of the one who gave the name. By no means is having a Ghetto Name indicative of anything
  negative about the individual unfortunate enough to bear it.
  
  The list applies only to those of us who are native born black Americans. I will leave the list of Red Neck names or
  Trailer Park names to Jeff Foxxworthy or someone else. This list is mine.
  
  #1. If your name is misspelled, it is a Ghetto Name.
  #2. If your first name includes an apostrophe, it is a Ghetto Name.
  #3. If your first name includes the sounds "eeta", "ona", "eekwa", "onda" or "eesha", it is a Ghetto Name.
  #4. If your first name is an adjective or an adverb, it is a Ghetto Name.
  #5. If your first name is the last name of a former president of the US, it is a Ghetto Name.
  #6. If your first name consists of a regular name preceeded by "Ne", "La" ,"Le", "Ra", "De" or "Je", it is a Ghetto Name.
  #7. If your first name begins with the sound "My"/"Mi", "Ty", or "Shy"/"Shi", it is a Ghetto Name.
  #8. If your first name consists of a monosyllabic word repeated two or more times, it is a Ghetto Name.
  #9. If your first name is the same as a City, State, Country or Emotion, it is a Ghetto Name.
  #10. If you have never known of another human being who bears your name, it is a Ghetto Name.
  

LK

Re:As good a place as any...

[Zak3056]

#5. If your first name is the last name of a former president of the US, it is a Ghetto Name.

If I were a child named "Bush" or "Johnson" I'd probably look for the quickest, easiest way to just end it all.

Games RL

[Tackhead]

> Games are simply better than real life! In computer games, I can kill dragons, rescue Princesses, become a rich intergalactic trading tycoon, conquer armies and destroy worlds. I blew up the Death Star this morning while the people who wrote this were at work. Enough said.

Yeah, someone once told me to get a life, so I did. RL is as boring as the Sims, but it's even slower-paced, and the speed-up key can only be used once a day, and it only works at night, when you're at home trying to game, rather than you just pusshing fast-forward during the day when nobody's home!

And there's no fucking save/restore feature either! Sepend six weeks setting up a menage-a-trois with you, your boss' wife and just one lousy goat, and you might as well pull out the old .45 and reroll.

RL is teh suck. I wouldn't even warez it.

Re:Yeah...

[Lord_Dweomer]

" At least when you're playing Madden NFL 2004 you know your dad won't yell obscenities at the other team, shit on the ref's car hood after the game...."

He shit on MY car after I beat him at the game. Sore loser.

Re:bad analogies

[back_pages]

Quick newsflash: Video games are as much a part of 'real life' as anything else

Somebody smells like a level 7 magic-user...

Hey I don't disagree with your point, just thought I'd help the cause ;)

I need my fix

[nightherper]

I was addicted to this one game until my old machine died. I can't remember the name of it, but I would play for hours. It was a top down perspective shooter and you basically shot the hell out of these onrushing aliens, trying to stay alive and gain power-ups. If someone knows the name of this game, please let me know.

Re:bad analogies

[klokwise]

i spend seven and a half hours a day reading slashdot... though, officially i call it "being in the office".