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The Science of Game Addiction

Posted by Zonk on from the science-is-addictive-too dept.

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."

1 of 44 comments (clear)

  1. Best quote ever by Teppy · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I attended a session at Game Developer Conference in 2001 or so, titled "Addiction in Online Games". It started out pretty good - it was about reward patterns that tend to create "stickyness" (addiction) in online games. For instance, rather than using a fixed-per-time reward schedule, use a slot-machine type schedule.

    Then it turned all touchy-feely. "Well, we know we *can* make games addictive, but *SHOULD* we." All the developers took turns trying to prove that they were more caring and concerned than the person who spoke last.

    Then, Alexey Pajitnov, the creator of Tetris (!!!) stood up and said in a thick Russian accent: "What the hell are you people talking about? I cherish the times I've been addicted to games. What else am I going to do - read some stupid book?"

    Got things right back on track ;)