Slashdot Mirror
Only 15% of Gamers are Internet Addicts
Huckster writes "Jeffrey Parsons - a doctoral candidate from University of Iowa has resently conducted a research on MMORPG addiction. It took a while to get the results - but they are now available.
The study found that about 15% of gamers meet the criteria for Internet addiction as provided by Kimberly Young, a leading researcher in Internet addiction. Using more strict criteria, a minimum of at least 10% of gamers met criteria for Internet addiction. Compared to national studies of Internet addiction, this numbers are somewhat elevated. However, given the sheer number of hours MMORPG gamers spend online (in comparison to the general population), even a 15% addiction rate is somewhat low.
To illustrate the point, the college student spends 10 hours on the Internet per week. The average MMORPG gamer (addicted or not) spends 20-25 hours per week just playing MMORPGs, and an additional 10-15 hours per week in other Internet use. In other words, MMORPG players are spending 4x as much time online as non-gamers."
If 15% of people who enjoyed a cold beer or a glass of wine were considered alcoholics I'm sure the word "only" wouldn't be in the headline.
Trolling is a art,
Internet addiction is a made up/hyped up thing so Frauds can scam money from the gullible.
Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm
It took a while to get the results...
Perhaps somebody was fooling around on the INTERNET when they should have been working?
Jeez, I'm one to talk...
Why did he resent conducting the study? Did someone force him to do it against his will?
Gotta do something to fill the void of loneliness. And sometimes a steady regiment of Hotpockets, Mountain Dew, and cigarettes simply won't do.
The other 85% are porn addicts.
I might know what I'm talkin' about, but then again, this is Slashdot...
The net mean age in the survey is more telling, I think, than the subject of the survey: MMORPG gamers.
~ 23 or 24 appears to be the net mean age of all survey groups, and in my experience, and as someone from that generation, we spend a lot of time online for many different reasons.
I'm a programmer and an information junkie who's never played a MMORPG in his life. When I was interviewed for my job last year, I was told the company was looking for someone who "lives on the web." All these people focusing on games don't realize the most obvious phenomenon: the web as a lifestyle.
I Want To Believe
To me, how much you do something doesn't make it addictive, it's whether it starts interfering with normal life. I probably easily surpass the requirements, however I still have a perfectly normal social life.
This probably seems obvious, but the important point is, people who become addicted easily can become addicted to anything they come into contact with - drugs (legal or illegal), internet browsing, exercise/fitness, even possible reading Slashdot!
However, I think a disproportionate number of people with addictive personalities are drawn into gaming, especially MMPORGs, and for this reason you have this, actually relatively high figure for addiction.
Get a free iPod Nano 4GB!
Most Americans are addicted to driving their cars.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
Every game made today..
The first level is easy to accomplish.
Second level is marginally harder.
Before long, you have to press the lever 10,000 times to get your treat. By that time, you've grown old, wife left, dog died.. etc.
The games are DESIGNED to addict you. You don't make subscription money if you don't have a good core base of addicts.
MMORPG's are designed to last for years. The more addicting, and the ability to constantly provide rewards througout the game, will keep a guy hemmed up for years.
I can quit anytime I want to! I just don't want to *twitch*
I was afraid I had a problem with my gaming...
You wanna know who the REAL internet addicts are? People at work posting on slashdot... using Google... etc, etc.. I bet they match the "criteria"
I'd say that in many of these cases, the 20 some hours a week in the game is just displacing the 20 some hours a week previously spent watching TV. The games are not inherently evil, they just give us something to do other then watch the idiot box...
Slightly OT rant:
Why is every bad habit these days assigned a diagnosis of "addiction"?
I'll tell you why. Because if we can blame our bad habits on a disease, something out of our control, then we can absolve ourselves of any responsibility for it.
Face it, most of these purely psychological "addictions" that plague modern society can be corrected with a little behavior modification and a little willpower.
"Ask not what your country can do for you." --John F. Kennedy
And how many "regulars" of /. would be considered addicts by this?
The average college student only spends 10 hours a week? I had to use dialup the whole time I was in college, and I was still on it a few hours a day. And early on that was just doing USENET, IRC, talk. I'd probably average 10 hours a day if I was in college now.
...I am reporting that most (more than 85%) of gamers have fantasized about Lara Croft and a bucket of chicken.
Film at 11.
Tough day? How about a free Mac mini?
Is there any form of an authoritative definition of internet addiction? I mean, I spend a lot of time online a day, like probably many of the readers here, so my interest has been raised.
I personally do not believe that it can be determined quantitatively by how long one spends on the net; rather, perhaps some quality of the use may determine addiction.
As a student, I spend considerable quantities of time online performing research and consulting reference materials. For many things, it is just more efficient to do things online as opposed to performing inefficient information retrieval offline.
Even the Politburo concurs with Process of Elimination http://process-of-elimination.net
I'm an addict and I know why. The internet can give me whatever I want (from porn to news) when I want it. I don't have to listen to some idiots opinion on the news but I can get every side of the argument then do my own research to see which is true.
When I get this open else where I might care, untill then the Internet is the best resource for myself.
I like muppets.
an internet study on internet addiction? Not sure the volunteers will really be a representative cross-section.
Besides, most of the MMORPG addicts were too busy playing to take the 5-10 minute survey.
This comment was generated by a squadron of trained super elite albino ninja chickens for you.
Women gamers were more likely than men... to have children
In other news, male gamers are more likely to pee standing up.
The term 'Internet addiction' is far too broad. There are MMORPG addicts, chat addicts, porn addicts and so forth. In my eyes, the biggest sign that you are addicted to something on the internet is when it starts to cause big emotional responses. If you start crying because of someone you're chatting with who you will never meet, then you have a problem. If you start crying because some other character rolled higher for an item you really wanted, then you have a problem. If you start crying during porn, you have a problem (though its probably not addiction).
I'm almost willing to bet that more than 15% of the MMORPG population is addicted to it. What other reason would a person play EQ for 5 years?
I'm not sure I understand % of time per week on the internet as a good qualifier. I would imagine they have to be considering other factors as well.
I work as a Systems Engineer for an ISP, I'm on the Internet 40+ hours a week because of work, then maybe an addtional 5 to 10 of my own spare time.
I would hardly consider myself an addict as I lead a normal life outside of work, go out with friends and family, yada yada...
I used to scoff at Internet addiction until I witnessed it firsthand. My roommate in University was hopelessly addicted to MMORPGS. It got to the point where he was skipping class to play. Shortly after that, he started asking everyone to call him by the name of his Everquest character (I think it was StealthDemon or something rather lame like that). It was *extremely* uncomfortable when he got up in front of the Stats201 class to "announce" his name change. It didn't help that he was wearing a cape and a huge plumed hat at the time, either. Before I moved out, he had actually started keeping a pail under his computer desk to urinate into so he wouldn't have to miss any action. Pretty sad, really.
I always save my last mod point to mod up a good troll. You people are too serious.
In other words, MMORPG players are spending 4x as much time online as non-gamers.
Normal User: 10-15hrs
MMPORG User: 10-15hrs + 20-25hrs
If we're using the low end of the scale:
Normal User: 10hrs
MMPORG User: 10+20=30hrs
That's 3x the internet usage
If we're using the high end of the scale:
Normal User: 15hrs
MMPORG User: 15+25=40hrs
Again, that's 3x the internet usage.
I'm a programmer. I easily spend 30 hours a week online, and I don't game at all. Whilst holding my last job (tech support) I figure I spent about 70 hours a week online.
As writing this, I've realized that I am addicted the the Internet, and I can't just stop, unless surfing at work doesn't count. But it doesn't change the fact the racking up those kinds of hours is easy to do, even without gaming.
Implicit Evaluation with PHP
The Kimberly Young definition of internet addiction: http://www.netaddiction.com/whatis.htm
...are food addicts, sometimes eating as much as 3 times per day, or even more! And don't even get me started on O2 dependance.
Of course it's a bit low; they're already addicted to gaming. Go read a book.
Wasn't this guy the script kiddie who helped propogate the Blaster worm? How did he find time to get his phd at the University of Iowa? That must have been some rehabilitation. The prison system works! :)
The way that most good games work, it is not possible to be a top player without spending near 80 hours per week online. When I was playing serious, I played 40+ hrs per week, and my bot was on the rest of the time.
Granted, this article is a few years old, but the main point will always remain. There is no such thing as an "Internet addiction"
I heard one of the employees talking about the guild he runs. 200 members, and he plays Den-mom kicking members off that don't play weekly.
Man I wish I had the time to play games weekly. Parenthood REALLY puts a crimp on the time you call your own.
"Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus."
99% of the /. readers are internet addictive
I am harvesting funny/good quotes. Please help by putting them in your sigs
I think what I am should be considered an addict. I always tell myself I'm going to stop, but always find myself coming back to it a month later... I really hate this. I wish I could keep a balance between real life and the virtual worlds, but that just isn't what happens.
Thank god I have people around me who notice when I get sucked in... I know there are many others who don't have anyone around to keep an eye on their health.
And no, I don't think playing 6+ hours a day is healthy.
Anyone else think an internet addiction is the least of their worries?
Someone should check to see how many of these people have left the house in the last couple days. Or check their grip on reality by seeing if they still answer to their birth name (as opposed to 'Mordorf the wizard' and such).
the other 85% of gamers are porn addicts
When someone tells you that you have a problem because you played a game (MMORPG or not) between 6:00PM and 10:00PM the night before. And what did these people do during the same timeframe last night? They watched TV.
Gone on the road for two weeks, working 14 days straight for a total of 145 hours. Come back and play with friends on an afternoon, what's the verdict: I play too much videogames.
It really is mainly about some people's perception of valid use of your free time. My rule of thumb is not to tell any woman born before 1980 that I even know what a computer is.
I unsubscribed from world of warcraft yesterday. I'm a weekend player, but my friends/roommates are truly addicted to the game. Seeing them play day in and day out just made me hate the game. They go to college, and well, at least one of them is gonna flunk classes this semester due to that game. I have work during the week which leaves no time for the game, and well, I want to do something other than stare at a screen on the weekends. Anybody else unsubscribe from WoW for this reason?
I'm wondering how many of these people would be playing offline games for about the same amount of time if there were no MMORPGS? Wouldn't they be "Gaming Addicts" instead of "internet addicts"?
I know for myself that before I got sucked into the good MMORPG on the market today, I'd still spend hours at the 'puter playing "offline" games...
It's hard to take seriously a research paper that contains the word "irregardless." Goodbye credibility.
Any man who afflicts the human race with ideas must be prepared to see them misunderstood. -- H. L. Mencken
The average MMORPG gamer (addicted or not) spends 20-25 hours per week just playing MMORPGs, and an additional 10-15 hours per week in other Internet use.
/.
other internet use =
hack a day
I'd argue that it's possible to develop legitimate emotional relationships with people via Internet chat. Back in the "old days", people would have "pen pals" in other countries, who they knew they would probably never meet, but developed true friendships with them nonetheless.
If you've developed a friendship with someone over years of chat, then you find out they have cancer, I think an emotional response would be entirely normal.
How do they determine if you are online or not? Broadband has blurred the lines. If you refer to being online as being at a computer that's Internet connected, well then I'm online for nearly all of my waking hours. All the computers at work are hooked to the Internet at all times, as are my computers at home. If that's not it then what? When an Internet app is running? That's also almost all the time.
Also, how do you calculate time when things are done in parallel? Like if I'm doing something work related, but also chatting on IM. Is that being online? If so, what percentage does it account for, and so on.
Seems to me like it's probably so much BS (can't look at the site, is hosed).
Also, something I'd like ot know, is how the amount of time gamers spend playing games compares to the amount of time other people spend fucking off. My roomate, for example, likes to watch a lot of TV. He watches TV every day, and some days he specificly schedules time to watch it, since there's a show on he wants (huge reality TV fan). He also goes out to bars fairly regularly, I'd say at least once a week. He also plays console games, watches movies, and so on. In other words, all things that have no other purpose than to entertain (like MMORPGs), nothing things that are productive.
He seems hardly unique, everyone I know has things like like to do for fun. Vaires by the person, but TV and movies are very popular, though console games are also quite popular. Now I really can't see any different between these activities and MMORPGs or other comptuer games. It's all just activites we choose to spend free time on to amuse ourselves.
I'm willing to bet that you'll find that, on average, there is no difference across activities. Whatever the activity you'll get some people that do it to excess, and the exclusion of all other things in their life, some who spend most of their free time on it, but lead a healthy life, and some who just dabble once and a while.
I'm not sseing why MMORPGs should be looked at as any special kind of problem.
The whole concept of 'Internet addiction' is pretty laughable, IMHO, and certainly using 'hours spent online per week' is completely useless from any scientific point of view.
How do you decide when someone is online or not? When their computer is running and connected to the net? In that case, I'm online 168 hours a week. I better get help immediately!
If you say it's 'hours spent using the Internet', that's no better. When I go to sleep at night, I like to listen to BBC news. No station in my area carries it, so I listen to it streaming from KERA in Dallas to an Airport Express and a small pair of speakers in my bedroom (where there is no computer). Am I thus 'using the Internet' while I'm lying there asleep? Certainly, there's a lot of network traffic going on, but I'm just listening to the frickin' radio!
What about if I'm just sitting at my computer playing Solitaire? Am I 'online' during that hour? What if, unbeknowst to me, my anti-virus fires up and downloads a new set of updates while I'm doing it?
The concept of 'an hour spent online' lacks any rigorous definition whatsoever. And people that spend a lot of time trying to do math with those made-up numbers make me wonder what it must have been like back when the telephone was invented. Surely the business world today is filled with people who would have been considered 'addicted to the telephone system' by similar pedants back in the early 20th century.
This is just academics trying to put numbers on things so they can get funded to do a study. Ignore them, and maybe they will go away.
I'm almost willing to bet that more than 15% of the MMORPG population is addicted to it. What other reason would a person play EQ for 5 years?
Addiction has nothing to do with how many years you play something. I've payed and played a mud for near 7 years. But the main reason was FUN.
I wasn't addicted, it was just a fun spare time killer.
Currently I play WoW for 30 or so hours a week. I'm not addicted, I just find it very fun.
Then again.. Maybe I am addicted and just don't know it. *shrug*
I can stop, I know I can, damnit!
-- Sib
Tell that to my short lived City of Heroes addiction.
I hate Halo and GTA. Sue me.
Being unhappy about something and not being able to make yourself stop are the bottom line in deciding if you have a problem. I think most people don't get that. Thanks for your post.
p.s.
If we just used the amount of time one spends doing something as the criterion for addiction then that makes me a hapless job addict. I spend 40 hours/week doing my job ergo I am an addict.
I've been playing MMORPGs for a long time, and I am addicted (in the conventional sense).
The basis of this study is flawed, I dont think its fair to make a comparision between Internet addiction and MMORPGs. Why? Because to play an MMORPG properly, you require shitloads of time.
In other words, its not fair to call MMORPG players as "Internet Addicts". They are simply playing the game the way its MEANT to be played.
There is no such thing as a casual MMORPG player. If a guy plays an MMORPG 1 hour a day, there is no way in hell he can compete with a guy who plays 6 hours a day, regardless of his reflexes, skill, age, or whatever.
Also another point to note is; the veteran MMORPG players also spend a significant amount of their time away from the game, BUT still uses the Internet to resarch game related material. For exmaple, reading and writing on forums, research item templates for their character, organizing guild events, research skill trees, formulatig specialization points, etc etc. All this is done on the Internet, but still game related.
I can tell you this from personal experiance over the years. *takes a deep breath* MMORPGs arent games. Its lifestyle. A person who plays Counterstrike 10 hours a day is ADDICTED to the game. A person who plays MMORPG 10 hours a day, is simply leading a different lifestyle. As bizarre as it may sound... it is true.
Go read any of the BBs out there for mmorpgs, some people call 30 hours/wk 'casual' -- that's pretty much a job. They will adamantly talk about how I'm not an addict, I have a life, a job, etc. Well, so do lots of gambling addicts and alchoholic, doesn't mean a thing. Plus they are often posting to the boards that are filled with fellow junkies, looking for reinforcement of their behavior. And there's a lot of the 'well I only play 30 hrs, so and so plays 40, he/she is clearly out of control, but I'm fine'
I am a mmorpg player. I've played a ton of the d*mn things (EQ, AO, DAoC, CoH, WoW) they can suck up all your time, cut into sleep, etc etc. Luckily, with each new one I've played I found I quit them sooner and sooner and get bored more easily. Nonetheless, I still play them WAY more than I should, they are clearly unproductive timesinks, nothing more. Yes, I've had fun and met some cool people - but mmorpgs can get in the way of more important things for sure.
Some people though, live in these things. Sad but true story - there's a friend's friend who has been playing EverCrack ever since it came out like 5(?) years ago. He's late 30s lives with his mom, has no job, and plays EQ like 8-10 hours a day. He threatens to go back to get his college degree every now and again, takes one or two classes here or there - but usually has some excuse on why he can't finish, goes back to playing f/t and just lives off his mom (who should clearly kiss his a*s out, but that's another story...)
While his story might be a bit more extreme than most, I don't think his is unique.
'The unexamined life is not worth living' - Socrates
As future technology enables games to be more and more realistic, this will get worse.
What percentage of people were addicted to playing Trade Wars 2002 or any of the other 90's BBS games? How about textual based MUDs on the Internet? I bet it's far lower than 15%, and I also bet that as games become better and better that the number will be far higher than 15%.
I'm a big tall mofo.
I know for sure that i HAVE spent sessions of over 12hrs constantly playing q3 (normally through a saturday) and would reckon that i used to get about 20-30hrs a week on q3, with about another 10 going just online.
I wonder what other games have this kind of online presence....
- http://www.milkme.co.uk
And what qualifies one as an addict?
I would like to see that link... I would bet anything that the exact same qualifications, when applied to Televison, would make over 95% of the country Television addicts.
Its a good thing broadband doesn't charge per-minute use like dial-up used to. That'd be pretty rough for some of us WoWers!
Whose findings abstract (or was that the whole thing?) includes the word 'irregardless'.
They Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighbors!! They Have Come Back from the Dead!! Ahhhh!
10 hours. Gee what am i then? I'm probably 100 hours a week.
At what price learning? At what cost wisdom? The price is a man's peace of mind, and the cost is his life.
Well, maybe 'was' is not the right word, I still am, but I have notcied that I have been playing less lately, down to about 2-3 hours a night, and I take more breaks to go other things (visit friends/family, photgraphy, movies, etc).
On DaoC I see people that are on easily 15 hours+ a day, it is addictive, more so than normal games I would say. But as I saw someone else point out as well, Television is another huge time sink that people are addicted to. My father will watch easily 10 hours of TV a day, even when he whines that there is nothing good on. Go figure that one out, at least people playing MMORPG's are normally having fun :)
I spend all my free time playing Duke Nukem Forever on my Phantom console.
I'm not good in groups. It's difficult to work in a group when you're omnipotent. - Q
On those terms I used to have an addiction to chat then. I spoke to a girl once who ended up dying of cancer, we were friends for 2-3 years and played games together quite often. I got upset when she died, is that addiction?
I like muppets.
You can read it in full here:
http://iandanforth.net/pdfs/addiction.pdf
I can tell you right off that Young's definition of "addiction" has not been properly tested. In the first part of my paper I do a factor analysis to draw a distinction between addiction and engagement which is often ignored in behavioral addiction literature.
The second part of the paper deals with prevelance of addiction (far below 15%) and personality correlates to addiction.
I had a similar sample size, used players from the Asheron's Call franchise and did this as my undergraduate Thesis.
Ian Danforth
P.S. iandanforth.net itself is so comment spammed at the moment you probably don't want to bother. Just read the pdf
Let's think about this.... what about people who watch tons of TV or Sports...? What about people who go Hunting or Play Sports ....?
What about some who like to knit? Paint Pictures? Build Sculptures? Fish?
What does it matter if I like to play games while you like to Go Sit in a Deer Stand? Or Sit and watch a Soap? Does that make it BAD or something I should NOT do?
Drinking too much I can see can HARM your body and if you drive can hurt others but NOT playing games....
You get my point.
The sad thing? It's still better than 7 years of forgettable cable TV...
crazy dynamite monkey
We have a nation of people who watch tv for upwards of 30 hours a week but somehow interacting with other via a video game is given the bad name? Don't get me wrong, if your major social outlet is Everquest there is an issue, IMHO. But it's better than the millions of beer bellies that can't pull themselves from "the game" or Survivor long enough to help their kids with their homework.
What it comes down to it, dollar for dollar, 20 hours of Everquest a week is your best entertainment value, well, right after copyright infringement.
Dedicated Cthulhu Cultist since 4523 BC.
With the earlier report of how Halo 2 and XBox Live was forcing more reliable broadband service, I wonder how many console gamers are also Internet addicts . . .
"That kid was fucked up when I met him."
Apologies to penny-arcade. I'd much rather have people absorbed into EQ than to a bad meth habit or a gang. Not because it's necessarily any better according to real ethical standards, but it's much more sustainable and currently more socially acceptable. Not surprisingly, they have the same personality types - low self-esteems combined with identity crises. If it wasn't EQ, it was going to be something else.
And while I understand that there are plenty of people who truly are addicted, and my heart goes out to them, I wish to god people would stop confusing people who really are addicted with people who just play computer games a lot.
Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
If you start crying because of someone you're chatting with who you will never meet, then you have a problem.
I know people on the net who I chat with whom I've known for 5-6 years. Yet for practical reasons, I haven't been travelling the world to meet them, and they haven't met me in person. Now I'm not much for crying (not that I pretend to be macho, just not me), but got some really sad news about them (illness, accident, death) I'd be sad enough to make a woman cry.
If you start crying because of a relationship or something you've had via chat, then you have a problem. Anything that makes you that sad that happened online, really. But for me, it'd not be for my sake I'd be sad - it'd be for his. Hell, some people will break into tears if they see complete strangers or animals endure pain and suffering. For a friend you know a lot more about than the guy in the office next door, is that really that strange?
Kjella
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
What reason would a person watch TV for 4-5 hours a night for 40 years?
Entertainment/Relaxation.
I've been reading the replies to this topic.
Let me present a scenario, this might be a BIT offtopic.
A 30+ year old guy, living all alone, no job, living off his parents, etc. Plays MMORPGs/video games 10+ hours a day. Sounds life a loser to you?
Yes, hes a loser.
But... heres a small twist, what if this person is very rich in real life? What if his family has enough money to easily sustain him thruout his life?
The way I see it, this person is a lucky bastard who is living his life the way HE WANTS TO, without doing ANY work.
We might call this a pathetic way to live... but who are we to say anything? That person is living and enjoying his life, no matter how "pathetic" it may seem to you.
Ofcourse, one might argue... "but there is more to life than just computers/games/MMORPGs"... sure there is, and I cherish that stuff.
As long as a person is living life the way he wants it without disturbing anyone else - this person is living a DAMN good life.
Since half of the posts in response to this article will devolve into some sort of argument about what is and isn't an "addiction", I feel I need to define it.
An addiction is any behavior that someone does in preference to other things and which results in adverse effects on another aspect of their life (e.g. relationships, job, assets, etc). Both of those things are important. If you just prefer to do something but it's not causing a problem, it's not an addiction.
Note that there is nothing in the definition describing "withdrawal" or whether it's psychological or physical or anything like that. Most of those things come from people's half understanding of substance abuse terminology, and have nothing to do with it. There is confusion over "dependence" and "addiction", such that people can be addicted to drugs (using them and having life problems) and be either physically dependent (e.g. heroin), mentally dependent (e.g. cocaine) or neither, although the last one is rare with drugs (it more applies to things like gambling and such).
conducted by the Online Entertainment Users Association, it is found that only 15% of doctorial candidates are Academic Studies addicts. The study found that about 15% of doctorial candidates meet the criteria for Academic Studies addiction as provided by Joe A. Gamer, a leading researcher in Academic Studies addiction.
It is all a matter of perspective.
yeah - I knew those sorts in college, too - the ones that failed out of college because they were so close to being a wizard on DartMUD (or something similar). On the plus side, they were all skinny as rails because they never left the computer to eat, either. I have a feeling those days are over, now that we have /pizza (they didn't look like this guy, but they will now)
I, for one welcome our new internet overlords...
If eight year old Billy is playing so much WoW that his grades are dropping, maybe his parents need to give him a swift kick to the solar plexus; er, I mean restrict his computer usage.
I'm only concerned that if the parents won't do it, then the government will try to do it. We all know that 99% of the government is addicted to regulating our lives. Besides that, anyone can come up with a statistic. 14% of all people know that.
Warcrack is my life
According to the chart, they found a 69 year old female that plays MMORPGs!
/. too?!
I wonder if she reads
They need to invest points in Willpower
There should be a law requiring/prohibiting that (Please circle one)
If you start crying because of someone you're chatting with who you will never meet, then you have a problem.
What if you start crying while watching a movie.. whose actors you will never meet, and whose characters may not even exist? Or perhaps the movie is animated? Are you then addicted to movies and have a problem?
I don't think emotional response to human events (real or un-real) is a measure of addiction.
EVERCRACK. When otherwise decent guys and girls lose their signifigant others, their jobs, have to move back in with their parents, and stop showering and gain thirty pounds, that's a problem. In my circle, Everquest was the drug. Of course, years earlier, AD&D was the drug.
Both times I abstained and thank G-d I did. Seeing some of the hot and willing girlfriends that my male friends gave up for RP was a brutal reminder of the cost of not having appropriate self control.
If my grammar and spelling are off, I am [distracted/tired/careless] (take your pick)
I didn't RTFA. I'm not going to. I'm sure it's a load of crap and I'm not going to waste my time.
But in general gaming on the internet sucks ass. Even really great automated networks like Halo 2 can be very laggy and quite unenjoyable. Also I don't find it fun playing with a bunch of people I don't know. I'd rather get a group together at a house and play on a LAN there. Or just play solo games.
There's quite an uproar in the Gran Turismo community because GT4 didn't go online. I could go for some online scoreboards, laptime leaderboard, and shared race replays, but I have little desire to race online. It just doesn't sound enjoyable.
Until we have 100mbit fibre to the house gaming online will be problematic and I have no interest in struggling to have a good time.
No sig for you. YOU GET NO SIG!
Yeah, I'm addicted.
I used to be addicted to a MUD a long time ago but managed to cut myself loose from all RPG's for about 5 years.
Now im getting thoroughly addicted to WOW and i'm not sure its a good thing. I've finished school now but I cant be bothered looking for a real job because I'm just sinking too many hours into that stupid game.
/pee shouldn't link to a healthcare professional, it should link to thinkgeek.com.
I am REALLY concerned about them asking for action shots on this piece of merchandise...
Denver Isuzu Suzuki
Great.
What a career this goon will have... we have yet another person getting a PhD who is dumb as shit.
Captain Obvious here observes that people who play games that require internet access are "addicted to the internet". Mkay then, they're giving him a doctorate WHY, exactly?
Here's an idea: how about we create a study that figures out the statistics for fucking pointless studies that don't contribute to a damn thing that no one really cares about?
We have secretly replaced these Slashdot mods' sense of humor with a rusty nail. Let's see if they notice!!
Couldn't agree more.
TV addiction, the worlds pacifier?
Anybody do "correlative statistics" on Internet addiction and TV addiction?
Perhaps, the Internet is unseating the TV as a truly interactive machine ALONG with the ability to play music of many formats and videos of many formats.
We're soon to the point that we could have 3d immersive games/movies.
Just wait until I find the rail...
In other words, MMORPG players are spending 4x as much time online as non-gamers
Uh, well, it is an online game, so I would imagine they would indeed spend more time online than non-gamers. I could have told you that.
Freedom would be not to choose between black and white but to abjure such prescribed choices. -Theodor Adorno
Jeffrey Parsons - a doctoral candidate from University of Iowa has resently conducted a research on MMORPG addiction.
Resently? What's the cause of this indignant displeasure? Maybe he is an addict in denial?
Honestly, the only thing funny on slashdot is the lack of editing.
This study is not meant to "help" anyone, because the MMORPGers don't have a problem.
Well, as is the case with any group of enthusiasts, the vast majority really DON'T have a problem. Even if you spend 30 or 40 hours a week on the computer it might not be a problem, so long as you manage to get enough sleep, do your schoolwork or job properly and take care of yourself. Spending every second of your leisure time on one task would make you rather boring to be around, but it wouldn't be a problem.
However, there ARE a handful of people who DO have a problem with online gaming. These are the people who prioritise their gaming over school, work, family or "real world" friends. If you are averaging less than 6 hours of sleep a night and have trouble putting 40 hours in at the office every week, lost touch with people and so on--TURN OFF THE DAMN COMPUTER.
This isn't just the case with online games--it is just the same as people who compulsively gamble, or play D&D (Jack Chick's ridiculous tracts on the subject notwithstanding, I had a dorm roomate who failed out of school pretty much entirely because of his D&D habit) etc. Heck, even exercise can become a compulsion/addiction (I've noticed a couple of people who ALWAYS seemed to be at the gym, no matter what day or time I managed to make it there--apparently they would spend ALL their free time there and weren't even competitive athletes).
On another note, This statement from you has to make me wonder:
This is just some supposed "normie" pointing out what they perceive to be abnormal behavior.
A "normie"? Gotta wonder if you might have a bit of a social adjustment problem yourself. There is nothing wrong with being different but, if you are derisively referring to most people people as "normies" and start viewing large segments of society with contempt you might want to seek professional help. Without furhter observation there is no way of knowing, but you might be one step away from sitting in a tower picking off terrified "normies" in the street with a high-power rifle.
(Don't take the above too seriously--it's just that I imagine some of the people I see going into those gaming stores and sci-fi conventions saying something like "the normies just don't have a clue" and have to stifle a laugh)
What other reason would someone have for playing basketball on the weekends for 5 years?
What other reason would someone have for watching Friends for 10(?) years?
The length of time you do something you see as a hobby does not indicate whether or not you are addicted. Just because you don't see what they are doing as fun doesn't make it an invalid hobby.
On the surface this seems silly but out of context it's easy to miss the point of this statement. This statement by the article is in fact significant.
I avoid MMORPGs, but I'm pretty into IRC, instant messaging and the like (maybe I'm addicted to that, but that's not the point). The point is that of the men I meet online vs the women, women are far likely to be married with children, divorced with children, or simply never married but had children from some previous relationship. Men on the other hand tend to be single men with no current relationship, and no previous marriage.
This could be explained in a number of ways. The most common is that, especially in the United States rural communities, many women are stay at home moms, or were stay at home moms with little income other than alimony and child support. These women have lots of spare time on their hands. So they go online. Some chat, some surf, some play MMORPGs. It's what they do. Men are out working, socializing, or otherwise getting out of the house, while the wife is "stuck at home."
How is this significant? Well stay at home moms have both time and disposable income. They are easily "sucked in," if you will, to MMORPGs. As with any addiction study, it's important to understand the circumstances as to how one got involved in the addiction.
"All great wisdom is contained in .signature files"
The games are not intentionally designed to be addicting, they are intentionally designed to be fun. It goes without saying that the more enjoyable the game is, the more people will play it and the longer they will play it. The games are designed to provide long-term entertainment for players who want that.
As in any other game, the gameplay starts easy and gets harder as you progress because that's what players enjoy, and that's what keeps the game fun.
Of course there will be players who become "addicts" and take it too far, just as there are people who get "addicted" to any other behavior and take it too far. Until someone is able to prove to me that Blizzard and Sony Online Entertainment are using every 32nd frame to display subliminal messages, I will be unconvinced that these games are designed to "addict" rather than simply to entertain.
The Dalai LLama
...I can quit any time I want to...
My sig could be your sig!
He was being facetious. However, there is at least one case of a woman's child dieing becuase she was too busy playing an computer game to pay attention to the child that was in the bath...
Only 100% of Slashdot readers are Internet Addicts! The results were not surprising.
if the surveyors weren't addicted to MMORPG's themselves.
'mmmmmmmmm.... forbidden donut'
Why do they measure Internet addiction (or gaming addiction) in hours? There are non-alcoholics who drink more than some alcoholics, by choice rather than compulsion. Not all abusers (of anything) are addicts. FWIW, I'd like to see comparisons of "TV addiction": Americans watch an average of 28 hours of TV each week.
--
make install -not war
Variable Reinforcement. ..or whatever psychologists call it. You don't get the same loot every time you kill the same monster. You get random loot. Sometimes you get a lot of silver from it, sometimes a little. Sometimes you get nothing.
In World of Warcraft, when you take up a profession (example: herbalism) you will initially find it easy. You will *randomly* fail to harvest a plant sometimes, but you can try again with no penalty. Every time you succeed, you go up one skill level. The randomness makes it much more addictive, because it prevents you from getting too bored. At higher skill levels you nearly always succeed in harvesting a plant, but you might (or might not) get a point as a result.
If you get a treat every time you press the lever, you'll get bored quickly. If you hardly ever get a treat, you'll get frustrated. If you get a treat sometimes and no treat sometimes, you become addicted. (The most obvious example is slot machines).
If you study the design of MMORPGs, you'll find that this principle of variable reinforcement is found everywhere. Of course they don't do it *specifically* to make the games addicting--they do it to make them not boring and not too frustrating. But it's no surprise to me that some 10-15% of players meet clinical definitions of "addicted". I'm probably one of the addicts, having played World of Warcraft for at least 500 hours since Christmas.
I play a MMORPG that doesn't require 3 per day to get somewhere in the game. I have a DVR that limits the amount of TV and Commercials that my kid watches. Rest of the time: coloring, drawing, playing guitar, reading, etc.
ChozSun
ChozSun.com
I simply cannot imagine someone being that detached from reality...
Fellow slashdotter nbCaffeine and I had Kimberly Young as a professor for our "Intro to Business Information Systems" class, which, as CompSci majors, we were taking towards an easy minor in BIS. The course was really more of a 100 level thing, as we discussed the various components of computers, basic network topology, and server-client basics.
Throughout the class, she would constantly venture off on tangents about her work in studying "Internet Addiction", and what a terrible thing it is... She's published a few books and papers on the topic, but in real life, she doesn't seem to be that big a superhero researcher. In fact, she's really quite amusing, whatwith the curly-afro like hairdo and the subtle woman-moustache, not to mention the thick rimmed glasses she wore. She always told stories about how internet addiction leads to marital woes, citing examples of women and men who confessed to her that they had been cheating on their spouse via online relationships. Given that that's what she mostly talked about, I would propose that her professional interest and expertise with regard to "internet addiction" predominantly center around the affects of chatrooms and IM on personal "offline in the real world" relationships. Now, with MMORPGs, one must consider how applicable Kimberly Young's research is. I can see how there would be an argument that there are parallels between say, the interactions you have with other people in a MMORPG and those with people in a chatroom.... However, if you're really into the RP aspect of those games, you might be TOTALLY different in that regard than say the person you'd be in a chatroom... You know what, maybe we could do a Slashdot Interview with Kimberly Young, if somebody tells me to go ahead, I'll send her an e-mail and then submit the idea.
Isn't it interesting how you come to recognize posters based solely on their sigs???
There's a lot of back and forth in here about what addiction is, but no one has bothered to identify the definition of addiction. As with most posts you slashdotters have strong opinions, but a lot of you have preconceptions of what others define as addiction to computers/internet/MMORPGs.
I believe its safe to say if a single man gets up in the morning, washes up, dresses nicely for his job, works 8 hours, eats 3 square meals and keeps his apartment clean, and spends every other hour not doing this playing a MMORPG, that he's not addicted. He's well adjusted, like's his game, but knows his other priorities.
I also believe its safe to say that if a man spends 5 days straight playing a game, skips classes to play it, gets little or no sleep, fails to much of anything, both he and his apartment reek of dead ass, and has problems with his grades and health, then he's probably addicted and needs some help.
The deciding factor is usually how you are hurting yourself or those around you. There is plenty of gray area between the two examples. The report is definitely trying to address the latter, and is not trying to make severe judgements just because someone responsible likes to spend 4 hours a night playing games.
"All great wisdom is contained in .signature files"
Hey, at least we both got As in her class, why she was teaching intro to buisness information systems and is an "internet expert" is beyond me... ugh, 8:30 am class, having to listen to her. Not a moment that I recall being good.
"Something's wrong with you...and I hope we never do meet again." - Deftones When Girls Telephone Boys
Think about what all those TV and MMORPG addicts would do otherwise! They maybe finally get interrested in politics and start asking questions? For George its much more comfortable to have them playing games...
I didn't need a scientific survey to tell me I am addicted to the Internet (even through MMORPGs)
However, since it is now "scientifically proven", I wonder if I can get sick leave for my illness.
The games are DESIGNED to addict you. You don't make subscription money if you don't have a good core base of addicts.
A little paranoid are we?
As someone who dabbles in game programming, I can pretty much say that when the designers sit down at a table to create a new MMORPG, the first thing they say isn't, 'How can we write an addictive game that will suck people in for years'. It's probably more like, 'Can we create a persistent online world that doesn't creash every three minutes?'.
All these games are modeled after Dungeons and Dragons. Perhaps not directly, but the whole leveling concept came from Gary Gygax and crew's seminal 1970's designs. While the leveling treadmill can be viewed as behavior reinforcement, it wasn't designed to be some machallavian (sp?) plot. Or, rather if it was, then Gygax is some kind of friggen Nostradomus. I don't think that Gygax could have forseen what would come of his legacy.
Game designers and programmers are trying to solve a very complicated set of technical problems when they design a game, while making it fun to play. Just because some people have personality issues, don't run around say that programmers are putting crack in the drinking water.
There are people who are gambling addicts, sports addicts, workaholics, drinkers, etc. Pick an endeavor and someone has already obsessed over it in a self destructive fashion. It's the people that are the problem, not the games.
HA! I just wasted some of your bandwidth with a frivolous sig!
Having sunk the better part of a 120 days into EQ, I've tried many MMO's since, actually wanting to get addicted again with no luck at all. A few of my friends who were playing with me back then that I keep in touch with also seem to have the same 'problem'. I suppose this could be an aberation, but I think what happens is that once our brains wrap around the game elements that keep bringing us back, it grows dull and tedious.
Seriously, I can stop anytime I want! But that's the problem! I sometimes go days and weeks without playing FFIX which means that my characters are not exactly 1337. Oh, I enjoy the game but I'm always getting interrupted by trivial matters like kids asking to the fed, clothed, bathed, given an education... Once the kids are done, then my wife wants things like conversation, affection, love. Man! With all of these distractions, I hardly have time to level up my characters these days at all! Now with an addiction, I could shut all of that out and have a Samurai Monk in no time, or at least it will seem like no time. What? I've got to work too!? See no time no time!
To the making of books there is no end, so let's get started
I used to be addicted to an MMORPG, and to online Quake 3, if you want to call it an addiction. Here's the thing though.
I spent HOURS (4 or 5) a day playing the MMORPG, and maybe an hour at the most on Quake. That's because they are entirely different games. These addiction theorists would have you believe that I was addicted to the MMORPG but not to Quake, because of the number of hours I spent playing it. The reality is, I played the game as many hours as I did simply because that's what is required to play the game. MMORPG's simply aren't designed or suited for short term intermittent play.
This is mostly bullshit. I believe that some people do actually become seriously addicted to games, but for the most part, it's nonsense.
A person becomes 'addicted' to an MMORPG the same way they become 'addicted' to a good book. I've spent hours a day reading (who hasen't), and after awhile start to think it's time to do something else, but can't put the book down. Addicted? I don't think so.
Aaggggggggggh
"Irregardless" IS NOT A WORD. It's either "irrespective" or "regardless".
Call me a curmudgeon but when I read stuff like that in something trying to be a formal paper, I end up thinking the author is a buffoon.
Now that's out of my system...
People tend to forget there is an inherent social aspect to these games. People build friendships albeit those deemed "untraditional". In the old days of MMO's communication was reserved to the keyboard. Today we have synchronous communication with Voip systems that let entire guilds communicate in real-time with voices. If this does not elicit a connection then there is a problem. One of the key problems with this research is that it missed on this social interaction that does not produce an addicted phenomenon but rather a social connection.
People are connected in multiple ways over the internet and live communication is bridging the way that we communicate. I have interviewed several MMO players that use several communication methods, including video conferencing and their reason for playing is simply the friendships that they have built.
Is it addiction when you get together with friends and play? When people get together to watch football, play football, or talk about football do we call that an addiction? No.
If you compare what the article was saying to your example, then most people watch TV 20-30 hours a week, but the 15 percent that watch TV 80-120 hours a week are the addicted ones.
But sir, 20-30 hours of television a week translates to 2.8-4.2 hours of television a day. If you spent that much time drunk, you would be called an alcoholic, regardless of what the national average is. If I drink only 5 ounces of vodka a day while the average russian drinks 8, does that exempt me from being classified as an addict? If everyone else is spending the same ammount of time in front of a tube, that just makes everyone else an addict too.
Addiction isn't measured with population size of people with similar characteristics as a deciding factor.
100% of people who spend an hour a week at an AA meeting are alcoholics. Does that mean that someone who spends 0 hours at AA meetings per week isn't necessarily?
I'm rambling a bit, but statistics being used to measure states of mind are somewhat suspect, and it irritates me that they are given much validity.
"Inattention makes clowns of us all" -Bean
Sounds like she has "internet addiction" addiction...
There's a recognized negative correlation between TV viewing time and income. This effect is quite strong. TV viewing has far worse effects than Internet usage generally.
TV is a far bigger problem than MMORPGs.
[Disclaimer: IANAP I am not a psychiatrist]
Your friend is not suffering from addiction, but rather from major depression. And it appears that she's been using WoW as a means of escaping reality.
MMORPGs/MUDs give users a sense of control over their environment, and that's something that's missing when you're depressed. In the game world, you have a support group of 'friends' that you see on a daily basis. They're nice to you, and they reward you with praise and help you meet your game goals.
I suffered from major depression for 7-8 years and I picked up an 80+hr/week MUDding habit that lasted several years, so I speak from experience.
If you want to help her, you need to start inviting her to do 'normal' things. Start with lunch and work your way up. And whatever you do, do not mention the words depression, addiction or escapism. That will only cause her to go into a deeper depression.
Most Americans are overweight, but that doesn't make it healthy. Just because it is normal to spend 4 hours a day watching TV doesn't make it healthy. OTOH I don't think anyone would argue that spending 10 hours a week practicing at a sport is unhealthy, even if it is way more exercise than is "normal".
Playing video games (even online) is a little like watching TV. You can learn things from both. But eventually you hit a point of diminishing returns where the opportunity cost exceeds the additional knowledge gained. Most people I know would think that 30 hours of TV in a week is too much. The knowledge gained from the TV would come at the cost of interactions with family/friends, sports, and other activies.
Playing video games is also kind of like smoking weed. Many people frown on it, but that doesn't necessarily make it wrong. People generally don't hurt others while high. But they often displace other activities to smoke weed, which can be a problem.
The medical profession generally agrees that you cannot get physically addicted to marijuana. But lots of people I know smoked for years because they didn't think there was a good reason to quit. The difference between this state and physical addiction seems dubious to me.
So I think that gameplaying is fine if it doesn't displace other activies, but that is basically impossible if you are playing 30 hours a week. And I think that classifying this as addiction is fair as well. If you could stop at any time but choose not to and the activity is harmful to yourself then it seems to fit the classic definition.
How often you do something has absolutely no bearing on whether you are addicted to it or not. You are only an addict when you are unable to stop.
For example, I spend 35 hours a week answering tech support queries. By the definition of a lot of people here, that would make me an addict. Well let me assure you, I would have no problem kicking the habit!
By contrast, I drink no more than two cups of coffee a day, hardly excessive by anyones standards, but my god am I a cranky SOB before my first cup. I probably am addicted to my morning caffeine hit.
"I realise this is not a very popular opinion but it's the truth, and there for needs to be said" -Bill Hicks
This number is VERY off if it includes the IGE.com bots ;)
the other 85% are lying through their teeth.
the ones who wouldn't take the survey because they didn't want to lose points in Everquest? i'm sure there's another 5-10% out there
And then there was E
The average MMORPG gamer (addicted or not) spends 20-25 hours per week just playing MMORPGs, and an additional 10-15 hours per week in other Internet use. In other words, MMORPG players are spending 4x as much time online as non-gamers."
Wow! People wwith a hobby of online computer games spend more time online than people who have other hobbies. Now if only someone would do a study to find out if people with gardens spend more time outside than those with high definition TV's.
"a leading researcher in Internet addiction" finds some people spend too much time on the interent . . . well I'm certainly surprised.
I have an addictive personality -- caffiene, liquor, work, etc.
In the past two years, I've lost over $30,000 due to penny stock trading or online gambling, always thinking I was going to "hit it big" and "win it all back."
Now I just obsess over what quests to complete in Everquest 2 for $15 a month. Thank you gaming!
I gues 85% of americans would be considered "Addicted" to TV since they spend upwards of 30-40 hours a week watching TV?
[nt] Speaking of which, I refuse to metamoderate again until I get modpoints. It's been at least a year, possibly a year and a half, it's about time I got some modpoints.
GENERATION 26: The first time you see this, copy it into your sig on any forum and add 1 to the generation.
"According to AA, two or three pints a night means you are an alcoholic."
Just for the record, AA tells you no such thing. AA NEVER tells you you're an alcholic. That's for you to decide. What determines if you're an alcoholic or not is whether your life is out of control or not.
That's a staggering stastic, 15% isn't a majority but it's still 1 in 6. I start to wonder when something terribly negative (such as addiction) is higher than .5% on any given demographic.
According to medical research, one or two pints of beer (or glasses of red wine) per night is a healthy practice, reducing the chances of heart disease and alzeimer's while reducing stress.
I'm gonna live forever!!
Human mentality often wanders toward "This much is good? Then four times as much must be REALLY good."
And looking for something "healthy" to do. I run 3 times a week, I go to the gym 3-4 times a week. Thats about 8 hours of exercise.
I work 40 hours a week, and drive 8 hours a week to and from that job.
I sleep 49 hours a week.
All this totals to 105/168 hours a week. So there are 63 other hours.. hmmm what do I do?
Everything else is CONSUMING!!!
Shopping
Going to bar
Movies
Go out to eat
etc.
So you have to be consuming in order to be "normal" No thanks i'll play a game for a few hours a few nights a week.
Everything new seems to mandate some related addiction. I'm sure when automobiles were invented there was "automobile addiction". And "telephone addiction". And "gramaphone addiction". And then "TV addiction".
Once it's part of of the culture it become ridiculous to characterise it as a disease, which by definition is an abberration. Another generation from now the notion of "internet addiction" or indeed "being 'ON' the internet" is going to sound quaint and stupid.
It's 10 PM. Do you know if you're un-American?
That's one point I have to disagree with you on. I would venture to say that such an emotional response can be triggered by the person realizing that there's another person on the other end of the wire. It's not ok to treat another person like a lump of crap just because you can pretend you're talking to an intelligent machine.
A wise person makes his own decisions, a weak one obeys public opinion. -- Chinese proverb
> Guilds are the sux0r ! Damnit, it's supposed to be a game, not work.
Not fair, but also not false. On one side, there are plenty of guilds that don't suck like this, in virtually every game and MUD out there. If any of my guild officers in EQ yelled at me for closing guild chat, they'd find themselves smaller by one player before they could ask if I was AFK. The flip side is that I can't imagine any of my guild officers ever doing this, so I've never been inclined to hide from guildmates when I'm logged in.
On the other, it'd be nice to have a game that's as open-ended as a lot of the MMORPGs but isn't massively online, so you can have the world to yourself (or a small group) if you like. It'd be a welcome change from having a world full of people, only a small fraction of which you really want to interact with.
That said, you're right on the mark that it's a game. When it stops being fun to play, I'll drop my account with no regrets.
Virg
Thanks for the info. I was going to check out the article to see how far gone you have to be in order to be an internet "addict." But after hearing you describe Young it sounds like she's really got issues with online relationships. I wonder what drives a person to be that nuts about a particular area of research. Judging solely from your comment I'd say her research is probably biased. You're right, I don't get involved in online relationships so I probably shouldn't bother checking her opinion of what constitutes internet addiction.
In fact, she's really quite amusing, whatwith the curly-afro like hairdo and the subtle woman-moustache, not to mention the thick rimmed glasses she wore.
At risk of getting flammed - I fail to see what HER appearance has to do with her validity as an expert, or not.
Why do people feel the need to comment on a womans appearance as part of her qualifications (she's too attractive or not attractive enough to be listened to), but they don't use the same criteria when discussing men?
Sara
Designer, Gamer, Macgrrl in an XP World
Who has the time to be both.
because when she dies, what then?
or what about when she retires? her pension (if she has one) cant cover both of them
sooner or later, unless you inherent a fuckton of money, you need to work and live in the "real world". and, barring the fact that you might want to work at mcdonalds and live a shitty life playing EQ for the rest of it, or until the servers go down, you need to start early in the real world.
I'm addicted to life.
From TFA:
Adults appear to play irregardless of other entertainment opportunities outside the home.
NO! irregardless is not a word!
Moo.
Actually, they aren't "addicted", they are just mega bored. I am doing the same thing when I'm bored - i turn my PC on and write on Slashdot/Forums (or sth. like that). But as life goes on, everybody needs his own personal addiction ;)
Pft I'm not addicted, I can stop anytime I want...
Not now maybe later.
This is the stupidest shit I've ever heard. The use of the word "addiction" here is a total misnomer. Maybe you could say "obsession" or maybe "compulsion", but "addiction"? Uh, no. Go to the methadone clinic and you're gonna see real addicts. Go the internet cafe and you're gonna see a bunch of guys playing Counterstrike.
The timing of this thread couldn't be better. I have been WoW free since Monday and I feel great.
WoW is a great game, better than EQ, but just as 'addictive'. Don't beat me up over the word 'addictive' take it in the spirit its offered: Something, when you leave it, constantly calls you back, consumes your non-playing thoughts, invades your dreams, and makes you forget all the other things going on in your life.
I have been playing every day 4 times a day and for an average of 10-12 hours a day 7 days a week. I've been playing since the game was released (first official release date) and have enjoyed it immensely. I played Halo before that (FPS) and EQ and Age of Empires previous to that. I have the luxury of not having to work, have 2 kids and a wife and thought that I could have my cake and eat it as well...
One thing I haven't noticed in any of these posts. Most hardcore WoW players, truly hardcore won't be weighing in with their opinion, because it would take time away from playing the game! This is the first time I've read Slashdot in many months, let alone posting. One computer is always playing WoW and the other is reading and responding to e-mails and web surfing, but very, very little of either.
My 8 year old son isn't allowed to play during the week (ok a little sometimes during the week), but plays non-stop from Friday afternoon till Sunday. We have fun talking about it, getting into the tradeskill differences and talking about it. I've noticed it's all he talks about anymore - just as that's all I've been thinking about.
When you play a game like EQ or WoW, you don't have time for anything else. You don't go outside, don't play catch, don't hang out with your family, resent having to do anything outside of the game, and you lie to yourself about 'I am balancing the game with the rest of my life'. You don't - you can't. You can't serve two masters. It just doesn't work. Its hard enough to balance work, family, and your own personal time without something which takes up enough time for a full time job.
There are some nice social parts of WoW, I enjoy just hanging out with my guild members, but I've noticed some of the following things:
- I no longer call my friends.
- I am incredibly distracted when anyone calls.
- I am bored whenever I am not playing the game.
- I 'run away' at any possible moment to go play the game.
- I've been working on starting a new company - (last year) and instead of moving forward with it, have stopped completely.
- I spend time with my wife until she starts falling asleep and then run into the office to play for another few hours.
- I feel that I am missing out on life.
- I'm tired of telling people that I play a game all day - and that there is nothing wrong with it.
Believe it or not, I don't feel I have an 'addictive' personality. I have never had a problem giving up anything which was causing me harm, drugs, gambling, etc. I quit smoking 15 years ago (cold turkey) and haven't had more than a pack or 2 a year since. I have a great family, little or no stress in my life, and other than not excersizing much, am healthy.
Another observation: Most of the people that I play with, play all the time. Most of them don't have much of a life outside of the game. All of them complain about the constraints they are under which stop them from playing (school, work, parents). Many of them have lousy low-paying jobs and play the game for 8 hours a day after work. The world of WoW gives a great deal of satisfaction and control over your environment. You have the support of friends, you group with others, you have a wide variety of tactics and most importantly you get constant random ever-increasing rewards.
Anyway - I had a very bad couple of days till Wednesday... Yesterday rocked, and today was better. I've stopped thinking about the game (mostly) and feel free and untrapped. I've started getting done things which have b
you may be addicted to the internet.
Karma: Good, or bust!
What about the relationship between gamers with broadband and gamers who play MMORPGs? Did they take that in to consideration?
That would be 'mundane world' as seen through the eyes of a S.C.A. Member. Not only do we live our fantasy, it IS real ;)
(a) Doing the activity in question prevents the person from doing necessary everyday work: neglects self, hygiene, work, other people.
(b) Doing the activity in question is not necessarily pleasant, but the person cannot stop. He may be bored with the game, but he cannot stop it.
(c) The person feels guilt and will aggressively defend their "right" to do said activity or hide it.
(d) The person may have a so-called "addictive personality" (usually said to occur in people that grew without the adequate presence of their father). These are people that lack self-control and are also prone to enjoy mind-numbing activities as self-prescribed remedies for their constant anxiety.
P.
What?!?! This is outragious! Preposterous! I'm going to do a quest RIGHT NOW to get to the bottom of this!
I don't understand what your complain is. It is clear to me that while nerds wart off women, gamers (especially the jocky varient) attract them.
So stop the pretentious rants and go back to your Penny Arcade world.
I take 20mg of extended release Ritalin a day. It's a Schedule II Controlled Substance. I have to get a monthly, non-renewable prescription from my doctor in order to get it.
When I was first getting prescribed, I had to go through a battery of tests and evaluations. The first time, I exhausted the $3000 cap on mental health benefits in my insurance, and didn't get through the process (just got a lot of humiliation and attitude from a suck-it-up-and-concentrate doctor).
The next time I started into the process, I began in the fall so I could spread out the cost over two plan years, and I made it.
Ritalin changed my life. I moved from menial jobs into Management, and now I run my own business. I don't take any other medication and I don't run to my doctor asking for more or different stuff. I'm just glad to be able to sit down and calmly complete a task, instead of procrastinating until I'm motivated by frantic anticipation of the looming deadline.
I know that it's easier these days to get a prescription for Ritalin, in part because of the tremendous documented benefits for adult cases like mine. And I'm sure there are some doctors out there who may overprescribe anti-depressants in order to get whiner patients out of their offices.
However, I don't think there are lots of people taking Ritalin who don't need it. It's not an exciting drug or anything. I hardly notice that I'm taking it, except that I just get so much more done.
I recognize my problem in a lot of frustrated people I know. My dad is one of them. He would never consider taking medication for a mental problem because he's a stubborn old coot. He has a lot of company in this frustrated, bitter country of ours. The pervasive idea that people who seek help are losers, and that we all go seeking redemption from a pill bottle harms an awful lot of people, who endure needless pain and frustration because of our anti-drug stigmas.
White I can't speak to the issue of anti-depressants from personal experience, I think the problem in our society isn't that too many people are being prescribed Ritalin, but that too few are.
Just my two cents...
Fundamentalism is a crime against humanity
The reason I've never paid for an MMOG is not because I fear I'll be addicted and play too much. The reason I don't play MMOGs is the same reason I don't like to go to buffets: I'll try to get the food/money or time played/money ratio as high as possible for the economics of it to be more in my favor. If I pay $8 at a buffet and eat 2 ounces of food, I feel that I'm wasting money. If I eat 3 pounds of food, I get my money's worth but I also turn into a fat motherfucker. The same is true if I pay $15 per month for an MMOG and play only 20 hours per month. I don't want to pay $0.75 per hour for a game. But I also don't want to play more than 60 hours a month to get the price down to $0.25 per hour. (I'll probably end up corpulent too, like in the buffet example.)
This is cross sectional research, so any implication of causality is tenuous at best. Also, though the author goes to some lengths to talk about the validity of the sample, it's small (~600). The longitudinal treatment of this topic, as well as the use of assessment scales not based on DSM/substance abuse models of "addiction" will move this inquiry even further forward. As far as the usefulness of this kind of thing - empowering the consumer to identify behavioral excesses and react to them is a good way to go. If you like this kind of stuff, check out Nick Yee's work and my own at ProjectMassive.com.
30 Hours Qualifies as Addicted? I'm a programmer. I easily spend 30 hours a week online, and I don't game at all.
30 Hours Qualifies as Addicted? I'm a croupier. I easily spend 30 hours a week in a casino, and I don't gamble at all...
OK, WTF does your job have to do with gaming addiction? Seriously, I'd like to know what were you thinking when you were posting it? Thanks.