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."

Comments

Bit of a strawman (I think), however...

[grub]

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.

Re:Bit of a strawman (I think), however...

[Golias]

Lots of people spend 20-30 hours or more a week watching TV, and most of society considers this to be perfectly normal.

During softball season, I spend close to 10 hours a week either playing games or practicing fastpitch softball, and I'm considered a very "casual" player in my league. Some people spend more time playing softball than they spend at their jobs.

In High School, I knew a guy who spent almost every evening and every weekend hacking and wardialing for hours on end. These days, he's gainfully employed in the IT field.

"Does something a lot" != "Addicted"

The only thing which makes a person who spends 30 hours a week playing a game different from most people is that their chosen form of recreation happens to be a fringe activity. They are not hurting anybody, so I say leave them the hell alone.

Furthermore, can we get past this stupid habbit of calling every apparant obsessive/compulsive behavior an "addiction?" It's not as if these people are going to go through withdrawl symptoms if they are deprived of their gaming "fix" for a couple weeks.

Re:Bit of a strawman (I think), however...

[88NoSoup4U88]

Very well said indeed... untill the last line :

Furthermore, can we get past this stupid habbit of calling every apparant obsessive/compulsive behavior an "addiction?"

Addiction, by defenition, is :
- Compulsive physiological and psychological need for a habit-forming substance.
- The condition of being habitually or compulsively occupied with or or involved in something.

So calling "apparent obsessive/compulsive behaviour" an addiction, is only because that -is- the defenition of it :
I do agree with him though ; that 'spending alot of time' does not equal addiction.

It's not as if these people are going to go through withdrawl symptoms if they are deprived of their gaming "fix" for a couple weeks.

That's only true if you are comparing withdrawal symptons from, let's say, heroine addiction, to the withdrawal symptons from missing out on a month of RPG-ing.

Hell, even I really long for playing a (FPS) game when I haven't done so for a week.

Re:Bit of a strawman (I think), however...

[Golias]

the research did not indicate that one to two drinks a day was a healthy practice, but that the people who did drink like that were healthier than those that didn't

If it rationalizes my booze-hound ways, I'm taking the correlation to show causality. :)

If the drinking itself is not the main factor, then one could postulate that "being a puritanical busibody who cares about how much other people drink" might result in a shorter and less healthy life.

Either way, hooray for our side.

Only 15% of Doctoral Canidates are useful

[fishdan]

From the article:

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF THIS STUDY?

We don't know if you benefit from being in this study. However, we hope that in the future society may benefit from this study by gaining a greater understanding of the relationship between social needs and MMORPG use.

The word "addiction" in this context is merely used to make geeks look more pathetic. This study is not meant to "help" anyone, because the MMORPGers don't have a problem. This is just some supposed "normie" pointing out what they perceive to be abnormal behavior. I guess that might pass for science in Iowa.

Internet addiction is a made up/hyped up thing so Frauds can scam money from the gullible.

Re:Only 15% of Doctoral Canidates are useful

[Scarblac]

Speak for yourself. Back in the day when I was a MUD addict, it cost me about seven years of my life. About four years playing and doing nothing else, three more of depression when I had finally kicked it. Needed several psychologists to finally get back on my feet. It was a very big problem, I was aware of it and miserable, and unable to stop.

What is "addiction?"

[Mike Rubits]

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.

Re:What is "addiction?"

[Sycraft-fu]

But that's not a meaningful test, at least not for many people. They have this concept that "online" and "offline" are discreet experiences that you log in, and then do nothing but the Internet. Well, not since I got a multi- tasking OS, actually, and I've literally pretty much never logged out since 1999 when I finally got broadband.

For many of us, the Internet is just another part of our computer. We use it when we want, and go on about our bussiness. I don't "log in" to check e-mail, I just run SSH if I want to see it (or look at my Sunblade if I'm at work). I can be writing a paper, have soemthing I need to look up, access JStor, and go back to writing the paper in less than a minute.

Seems to me that these researchers have a severly distorted view of how the Internet works for many people. It's not a special, seperate thing, it's just another part of computing.

I particularly notice this if my connection goes down. Even though I know it's down, I'll find myself perpetually trying to access something online because I just don't think about it. Like I'll be reading a PDF on something, and want more info on a topic and pop open a browser and try to search for it, before I remember that no, can't do that right now. It's just natural, just a part of being on a computer. It works basically like any other tool on the computer, just use it when you want it for something.

The problem is with Addictive Personalities

[tabkey12]

Some people get addicted to things easily, whereas others don't find that.

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.

They're designed to be that way.

[ShortedOut]

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.

Re:They're designed to be that way.

[dr.badass]

Every game made today..
The first level is easy to accomplish.
Second level is marginally harder.

This basic structure is the only way to make a fun game. It isn't the problem.

The insidious aspect of MMORPGs is that they make this explicit in the "stats" and "levels" that you have to keep track of and improve. The *actual* game of these games is just "make the number bigger", which is a very primitive goal (think Pac-Man). You're paying $10+ a month just to play Pac-Man.

Other games tend to have more complex goals, like "get to the next stage, see more of the world, advance the story". You can "beat" these games. You can't beat a MMORPG, except by ending it yourself.

Hate the word "addiction"

[goldspider]

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.

Authoritative definition of internet addiction

[KhanReaper]

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.

I'm an addict

[Turn-X Alphonse]

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.

Misuse of Terms...

[Miaowara_Tomokato]

From an article on the American Psychological Association website:

Many psychologists even doubt that addiction is the right term to describe what happens to people when they spend too much time online. "It seems misleading to characterize behaviors as 'addictions' on the basis that people say they do too much of them," says Sara Kiesler, PhD, a researcher at Carnegie Mellon University and co-author of one of the only controlled studies on Internet usage, published in the September 1998 American Psychologist. "No research has yet established that there is a disorder of Internet addiction that is separable from problems such as loneliness or problem gambling, or that a passion for using the Internet is long-lasting."

Granted, this article is a few years old, but the main point will always remain. There is no such thing as an "Internet addiction" ... the people that spend obsessive amounts of time on the Internet may no doubt have deep-seated problems, but just as with all these other faux-addictions the expressed behavior is being mistaken for the actual cause of the problem.

I love mmorpgs

[Anonymous Coward]

But I can't play them. That's because, for whatever reason, probably psychological, I get completely drawn into the game, and lose sense of my own life. Indeed, I begin to think the virtual world I'm playing in is more real than the one I'm in now. I would consistently spend about 6+ hours a day (more like 12-14 hours on weekends) playing WoW (was the same for DAoC and AO), and I just had to stop it. And I'm in college with 15 credits...

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.

Re:Why always focus on MMOPRGs?

[daniil]

Just a guess, but MMORPG players are probably easier to account for, as the systems are more centralized. The data gathered from the participants can be double-checked: [FTA] "the average number of hours of MMORPG game play reported by survey participants matches data gathered by other online surveys and the data provided by Sony and Electronic Arts."

Re:MMORPGs is a lifestlye, not an addiction

[Morpeth]

"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."

If it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck...

I have no idea how you can say playing CS 10 hrs/day is addiction, but playing a mmorpg for the same is a lifestyle. Semantic nonsense, I'm sorry. 50 hrs/week of gaming period (FPS, RTS, MMORPG) sounds like addiction to me, that's a freakin f/t job with overtime for pete's sake.

I'm a mmorpg player as well, but I would NEVER call it a lifestyle, it's entertainment, that's it. If it's a lifestyle, then it's a sad one.

Reminds me of Dan from the show Night Court who during a fit of self-loathing said "I don't have a life... I have a lifestyle."