Comments on: Keith Bakker: Compulsive Gaming Is Not Addiction

By: Michael Vitelli

Michael Vitelli — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 16:17:28 +0000

Ouch, we now have to change our whole theme in Coldplays new video we did…darn.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FI605qwiHA4

By: Krupo

Krupo — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 01:17:14 +0000

I dunno, I often laugh uproariously at my computer monitor.

I call that working 9 to 5 though.

By: sinister agent

sinister agent — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 20:16:46 +0000

I thought Dead Rising was great (though full of monumentally awful design choices). It wasn’t until I watched my family try to play it, though, that I realised it was goddamned spectacular.

And watching my mum try to get to grips with the Great Great Giana Sisters and jump directly into the same monster six times after panicking and squealing and cackling, where I would simply have jumped over it and moved on, is still a cherished memory. Seriously, parents today have no excuse.

By: Klaus

Klaus — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 06:12:33 +0000

And why is heavy gaming so ‘problematic’? Is there actually anything wrong with being out of social contact for extended periods?

Yes, because other people, regular people, have to deal with you when you finally decide to interact with them. My experience in this is meeting Japanophiles and real life (hard core) furries, whose contact with people are just others of their kind, on the internet.

By: Noc

Noc — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 02:57:08 +0000

I think the “Like a zombie” thing has to do more with the fact that you end up sitting rather still in the same position for hours on end, mesmerized by the flickering screen a half-meter in front of your face.

You wear the same facial expression when you’re paying attention to anything, but it’s really only video games that are consistently engaging enough that you end up sticking that way for lengthly and indeterminable periods of time. So, you know, even though you’re being constantly engaged and challenged and interacted with, to someone not party to that you’re sitting stock still staring at a screen in exactly the same way you have been for the past X hours.

Which is the other thing that parents getting involved with their kids’ games will help with. They’ll derive a better understanding of what’s going on, and what the kid’s responding to, instead of having to rely on the external signs.

By: noom

noom — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 02:40:18 +0000

That whole playing “like a zombie” thing has always bugged the hell out of me. I always like to point out that I rock the exact same facial expression when watching films, reading or listening to people who are engaging in fasicinating discourse.

By: mda

mda — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 02:27:20 +0000

I don’t know if addiction was the right term, I know at the time I wouldn’t have seen it that way. It was just something I liked doing. I had no self worth, no job, no qualifications, etc. Maybe it was problematic compulsive behaviour, not “addiction”. =P

By: mda

mda — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 02:24:03 +0000

"Did anyone ever die doing a video game overdose?" As far as I hear, yes, people have died from sitting at a PC playing games too long. If I remember correctly, dehydration had something to do with it. But LESS people have died from PC than drugs, so let's celebrate. I have been very addicted to EverQuest 2 before, and I agree that it can be a social/circumstantial problem that leads into heavy addiction to something that gives you whatever small sense of worth it can, as the circumstances surrounding it were exactly as Bobsy describes in post 4 of this thread in the forums. I think his points made there are very insightful and accurate. Thanks, Bobsy.

By: ilurker

ilurker — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 23:45:24 +0000

You can probably apply the idea of “just picking up the controller” and participating to other disorders prevalent amongst youth.

I would bet that a lot of chronic masturbators would abandon their hobby if their folks just sat down and joined in sometimes.

By: Vivi

Vivi — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 23:36:56 +0000

No, Rend, what you’re saying is very important!
Being addicted to video games is not as serious and bad than being addicted to heroin. Not at all.
Did anyone ever die doing a video game overdose??
It’s a great progress.
Hold on!

By: Rend Cackhand

Rend Cackhand — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 18:13:29 +0000

And on that note, they helped me ‘quit’ a life of heroin fuelled crime (or crime fuelled heroin addiction, who knows). I say helped, but it’s just transferred the addiction over. A bit like using methadone. Which doesn’t really help the argument much, so I’ll shut up.

By: Tei

Tei — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 16:57:13 +0000

Videogames has help me quit TV addiction.