The Science of Game Addiction

Gamasutra has a report on the state of game addiction science. From the article: "Yes, South Korean and American gamers have died from exhaustion. Yes, this makes bored journalists and unpopular politicians very happy. China has already thrown a fair bit of legislation at video games, whether or not games are the problem. On the other hand, such legislation might fail to address the real problem. In this article I explain addiction simply. Then, I talk about research that attempts to connect addiction to gaming, and some clear problems in that research. One caveat: this article is not going to make anyone into a trained clinician."

Comments

Re:A possible solution?

[RobinH]

Would you not call someone who plays a game for 8 hours a day addicted? I suggest making it so that you can't play more than 3 hours a day. However, all anyone faced with the limit will do is play another character or another account. It'll be viewed as a money-grab for the game company.