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Game Addiction Clinic Swamped
Via the Gamers with Jobs Press Pass, an article on The Australian site claiming that the Dutch gaming addiction clinic is swamped with fearful parents and glaze-eyed children. From the article: "Although experts are still debating whether excessive game playing counts as an addiction, Mr Bakker has no doubt that the symptoms are the same. 'If we see a car burning outside, we don't sit around wondering what to call it,' he said. 'It is not a chemical dependency, but it's got everything of an obsessive-compulsive disorder and all of the other stuff that comes with chemical dependency.' Tim, a 21-year-old from Utrecht, said he had hardly left his bedroom for five years because he was so obsessed by his computer games. "
Great now they can all get together and form their own guild..........
I am not a number. I am a free man!
... I'm busy training to be a professional gamer.
It's not so much that the building's swamped, they just didn't want to spawn the keys to the 2nd floor immediatly on release.
Seriously.
His parents were frightened of him because, weighing more than 130kg, he was too strong for them to confront. Eventually they threatened to kick him out unless he enrolled for a month of therapy.
You're the parents, you make the rules. Pull the plug, take the computer away, do something, anything. You'd probably hit the roof if you caught your kid with a joint, but when he wants to wrap himself up in computer games you just fucking sit there and let it happen. That shit pisses me off. I hope this clinic is working with parents too to make sure they can control their child's behavior.
and I'm a gameaholic.
So politicians in Australia don't play cheap political games or play on emotions to get votes? Somehow I doubt that.
I may be 21 but sometimes I feel like an "old fogey" -- what happened to self control?! This isn't crack or nicotine or anything physically addiction, it's a video game. I play a LOT of video games when I have free time, but all it takes to stop is a little thing called will power. I don't understand why so many people can't just put down their damn controllers. You know, while they're in the game clinic, they should at least ship me their game library.
A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing.
It was actually a mix of workplace burnout and World of Warcraft addiction, but I quit my well-paying job ($70k per annum) to play WoW full time.
I think for the most part it's a result of overreactive parents, combined with what I like to call "baby sitter syndrome" ("Why won't the public school teach my kids morals?!?! Why won't the gov't baby sit my kids?!?! Oh my, my kids are playing video games all the time, and I can't turn it off because they cry and scream and make a scene! I need a Gaming Clinic/Baby sitter to fix my kids for me!")
Disclaimer: I don't have kids of my own so the above is probably warped by views of other people who don't have kids of their own, not to mention stereotypes are rarely all-encompassing. Don't take it too personally. I was, however, at one point a kid, and I did have parents (who restricted my video gaming and computer time) so I think I still have some things to say on the matter.
Gaming for me was a phase. I always have enjoyed a good game, but it's not the same as it was when I was a kid. I would play games for hours on end, but now it seems my standards are higher or my attention span lower, because games don't tend to "hook" me as often as they used to.
I still enjoy a good game of course, but I think I'm still largely "gamed out" from when I was a kid.
I personally have met someone who was addicted to World of Warcraft- he stopped going to classes to play, would fall asleep at his chair while his characted rested, and unless he's changed since I graduated, has probably flunked out of college by this point.
However, for all that, I don't think that gaming addiction is all that common- compared to alcholism or compulsive gambling the number of gaming 'addicts' are trivial. Also, gaming is less physically harmful than alcohol or drugs, and much cheaper to indulge in than compulsive gambling.
I suspect that the same people who are susceptible to compulsive gambling are also the compulsive gamers, so research on the larger, more important issue (compulsive gambling) might also help compulsive gamers.
You are reading a copy of my copyrighted post.
I can quit anytime I want. Really, I can! In fact, I was going to quit after I hit level 60. But now, I've decided I'm going to quit after I get all my Epic gear. That's right! After I get all my Epic gear, I'm really really going to quit. I promise!
Oh, come on. Either he was playing video games all the time, or he was too strong to confront.
He had a fearfully strong grip and thumbs that could kill with a twitch!
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
There's more and more research emerging to support the hypothesis that any addiction to a substance without physically addictive qualities (i.e. crack and its ilk) are all rooted in the same dopamine reactions. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1669601/p osts is a short synopsis of a story I read in long form in Chicago magazine about a woman who took a drug that affected how her brain handled dopamine and ended up with a massive gambling addiction. Stopping the meds brought back her original problem but allowed her to almost effortlessly quit gambling.
All of these non-chemical addictions seem to have the same core symptoms. People do something that makes them feel good. They do it often and begin to notice other things don't feel good anymore, then they notice they need to do this new thing more and more to keep the good feeling coming. Just because our brain makes a chemical doesn't mean it won't acquire a tolerance to it.
> 'If we see a car burning outside, we don't sit around wondering what to call it,'
I do. That one looks like Ian the inferno, but last time Steve Scorchup seemed more appropriate.
Are these "addicts" getting the Dutch equivalent of disability payments for this bullshit?
-Eric
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
The jump from "enrolls people from the US" to "it's all US political games!" is completely logical to you, then?
That's an interesting point. But shouldn't some of the "addictive behaviour" be attributed to some folks who are obsessive-compulsive who have worked in video games into their pattern? Psych isn't my thing so I don't know it well, I'm just guessing and wondering out loud.
Oops, how did this get here?
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Hell with that. I don't have time to be addicted...I have a raid schedule to keep.
Last week, Mr Bakker took his first group of "gamers", as he calls them, on a parachuting trip to take their minds off their computers.
Ohh! gamers huh? Thats a pretty good name that you just came up with Mr. Bakker!!! (In his defence, I'm sure its the fault of The Australian and their staff)
-Bill
Medical condition. Before the self obsessed BabyBoomers started raising children the majority of young boys didn't have A.D.D.. This is all just one more "What about me!" from the BabyBoomer generation. "My kids aren't perfect! Fix them!" This is coming from the people who invented, "Turn on. Tune in. Drop out." "Free love" and your classic 1960's 1970's do it if it feels good self absorbed generation. As my hero George Carlin put it, "From cocaine to rogain". ""These are perfectly decent kids whose lives have been taken over by an addiction," said Mr Bakker, a former drug addict. "Some have given up school so they can play games. They have no friends. They don't speak to their parents."" Giving up school? Normal. No friends? Normal. Who didn't feel isolated in high school? Not speaking to parents? Normal. Sounds like the kids aren't watching TV all hours of the day and night and the new technology is frightening mummy.
Thanks to eating disorders most chicks are reasonably good looking these days.
Gaming isn't necessarily a problem. I lived in the middle of the woods when I was young. My only social interaction was at school; when I came home (about 20 miles away from school during my elementary and middle school years; 35 miles away for high school), there were literally no other kids around (except for my brother who was 3 years younger than me, and hence not always interested in the same things). I ended up playing a LOT of video games. When I wasn't gaming, I was "playing" on my computer (playing consisted of programming, trying out new programs, or just generally goofing off). When I got into high school I did play football for a few years, but still gamed a lot.
I ended up making 2nd in my graduating class of 360, got a full scholarship to an in-state public university, and graduated with a BS in Computer Science. That whole time during school I gamed a lot, and these days, I still game a lot (probably 3 hours per night) and manage to hold down a good job and do other things (I hunt/fish & fly small airplanes).
I just don't see gaming as the villain that people try to make it out to be.
"People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
We used to call this neurosis. The actual neurotic behavior isn't really all that important. What is important is addressing the underlying causes, which often have little or nothing to do with the resulting behavior. This guy obviously has a problem, but obsessive gaming is just the symptom. He could equally well be compulsively plucking his eyebrows or watching TV.
Proud member of the Weirdo-American community.
Of course this isn't funny.
http://www.civanon.com/
When I was a kid my parents didn't put up with this behaviour. Playing too much video games? Cut power to my room! Harsh? I hardly think so.
I blame a lot of this kind of trash on pussy foot parents.
Parents have to be involved with kids. You can't raise a good kid though this bullshit of purely peace, love and happiness and "non aggression". Not to be confused with hitting children. Parents can't just let kids get away with things and think pills or avoidence will solve it.
Why do people think it's 'not real' if it's conducted primarily on a computer?
Before Everquest existed, I 'was somebody' online - ran a guild on a MUD (although not as big as yours), and eventually even ended up running the MUD itself. There were definitely some stretches where I'd often spend 16 hours a day on the computer.
But I've also 'been somebody' in real life too. I have a real job with real responsibilities and most of the people I work with I have met once, or no times at all, and interact with almost entirely via computer. I'm also the president of one national non-profit organization with a few thousand members I never see, and run another business with 30,000 customers I don't see either.
And I find that I often spend 16 hours a day on the computer.
Now, most people would consider my job, my non-profit, and my business to be 'real life', and I enjoy them. So why are people who enjoy spending 16 hours a day doing something else on the computer not doing 'real life'? I really can't think of anything that's much different between the 16 hours a day I spend playing networked computer games and the 16 hours a day I spend doing various forms of (enjoyable) work. And while you may have felt compelled to play more everquest because people were depending on you, how is that any different than me feeling compelled to go to work for the same reason?
Computer games are certainly no less productive than the time I've spent shooting pool at the bar. But somehow going out and shooting pool at the bar is OK while playing games at home is not - why? Also, why is someone who spends 16 hours a day reading books and/or watching TV considered to be doing 'real life'? All you're trading is a networked screen with a non-networked screen or page.
Playing on the computer a lot, in and of itself, isn't an addiction. It's only natural that you're going to do the things you enjoy doing as much as you can, and playing computer games isn't any different than reading or anything else, except people who do those other activities want to pretend their life is more meaningful than computer gamers I guess.
People need to understand what an addiction really is. If you are COMPELLED to do something so much that it interferes with your ability to pay your rent, feed yourself, or maintain relationships that are important to you, that's an addiction. If it consumes all of your free time, that's just recreation. And I think it's a tragedy to try and label someone an 'addict' just because of their prefered form of recreation.
Anyway, the time you spend on EQ was real life. And it wasn't because you were 'addicted', it's because you enjoyed it. Not playing anymore wasn't an addiction-ending event; you just stopped enjoying playing so you stopped playing. Simple as that.
paintball
A bit of my background: I played WoW for about a 1.5 years (just recently quit). WoW took up way too much of my time and I neglected other things in my life to focus on WoW. It was a fun diversion and I enjoyed playing a lot. However there were times when I simply hated it also. For myself, MMORPGs are something I shouldn't do. I tend to be pretty goal oriented so in a regular game once I beat it I'm done with the game and move on. In fact in the past two weeks I've finished two games and have no desire to play them again. The problem with WoW (which was my first MMORPG) was that there is always something else to go for...
I could never run out of goals so I would keep playing. I even leveled cooking, fishing, and first aid to 300 at a time when only very few guilds were in MC since I was looking for things to do. One of the reasons I stopped was because I really couldn't progress anymore unless I was with 39 other people in some high-end instance for 6 hours and then if I had enough dkp I may get a drop for the night. The time vs rewards was way too much out of proportion so I ended up selling my account and have found myself with much more free time.
So my theory on why games (WoW in this case) are addictive: I think most people continue to play or play excessively due to the power or recognition they receive from the game. This is what I think is addicting. Because WoW tends to award players for grinding and spending a ton of time the people in the best gear will be the ones that play the most. These also tend to be in the best guilds and if you are one of them you will have opposing faction members run from you by just your guild tag. You will also have same faction players constantly whispering you or inspecting you in awe as they remark on how leet your gear is. This makes the players feel good so they continue to do what it takes (mainly time) to keep at it. If you don't play as much, others will advance past you and you just won't be as "cool" anymore. If you quit you become a regular joe again doing the same stuff as everyone else. Sure your fame is only virtual but it's fame nonetheless and since you probably won't get it in real life you might as well somewhere.
You can relate this to games, sports, academics, whatever. People tend to do things for power and recognition. Once you get it is is addicting (varies depending on the person). I'm sure this causes chemical reactions or whatever to happen in the brain/body so that you could explain it in some scientific way, but I can't so I won't.
I'm guessing if the researchers at the clinic rigged the games the patients used so that they could only lose or the players couldn't interact with others (for example chat is garbled or not allowed) then the players would very soon lose interest in playing and would look for other activities to spend their time doing.
Sometimes when a teenager or young person plays computer games excessively, there is another problem hidden underneath. Usually when a young boy (not that females are not affected, but the majority of the cases are male) stays in and plays computer games all day, it is because he finds it easier to beat the game than confronting society and his problems.
My advice to parents is to pay attention to their children and what the messages their children send. It is really important to be able to tell what's bugging your kid and deal with it.