Computer gaming addiction as bad as drugs ?

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Prometheus
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Computer gaming addiction as bad as drugs ?

Post by Prometheus » Tue Oct 17, 2006 8:46 am

Sydney Morning Herald article about computer gaming addiction. Not suprisingly, the photo used is about . . . WoW.

* Computer game addicts spend so much time playing they can lose their jobs, break up their families and stunt their social development

* Gamers report they feel much calmer when they are playing and feel euphoric when they win. Playing the games sets up a series of patterns, habits and routines that are addictive in the same way drugs are

So, do people get anxious and irritable if they don't get to play a game ?
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Re: Computer gaming addiction as bad as drugs ?

Post by Sasquatch » Tue Oct 17, 2006 9:55 am

Prometheus wrote:

* Gamers report they feel much calmer when they are playing and feel euphoric when they win.
I never win so feeling euphoric isn't an issue for me :D

Prometheus wrote:
So, do people get anxious and irritable if they don't get to play a game ?
I dislike the word addiction. I personally don't think its correct terminology. IE: Journalist use negative terms to denote an article to capture a reader’s eye and to make things look more impressive or important than they really are (sensationalism)... Why not use obsessed rather than addicted? Then again, is that the correct definition of someone, or group of people that could be classified as PASSIONATE about their HOBBY? You never read about athletes addicted to their hobby/sport even though their brains received chemicals released by their bodies that make them feel good.. Every heard of the RUNNER'S HIGH in long distance running? And what happens when an athlete comes in first and feels euphoric about it? He/She must be addicted surely.

Anybody that is prohibited from doing their hobby/sport is going to get a tad bit irritable...

I've never read an article about an artist who creates a sculpture, writer, draws a painting or sketch, compossess music, etc...As addicted.. Artists can/are extremely antisocial when they are engulfed in their 'work' or as I call it their passion. However, people accept that as part of the person’s nature and if marriages fail, jobs lost, etc its accepted because well, he/she is an artist or athlete.

If I sit behind my desk for 3 hours reading a trashy fictional book i am using my time constructively, but if i spend 3 hours behind my pc chatting on TS while driving/flying, or playing FPS i am antisocial :ffs:

I am a pc gamer and when I am playing games online I find it extremely social especially within our Simcentral community. I meet new people at LANs and constantely make new acquaintances.

I believe that GAMER (pc or console) is a new bread of hobbiest, athlete, and yes; a new intigration of socialising/interacting with people not just within a community but with others from around the world.

We will probably continue to see articles discribing gamers as 'addicted' for a very long time. I went through the D&D erea where it was classified as Evil, Satan worship, and people who played it were not in touch with reality... Well, that smeare campain finally dropped off but whenever, there is something emensly popular that effects our fragile social fabric there will always be people that don't understand and media and religous types to exploit fear or missunderstanding of something that they themselves don't appreciate.

Yes, i am bored at work today D:
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Post by Prometheus » Tue Oct 17, 2006 11:28 am

Addiction though is something that is compelling your behaviour to act. Think you should be doing something when it's 9pm on a Wednesday ? :D

Well perhaps that's not a great example, but an addictive nature is something that some people have - alcohol, gambling, drugs, gaming, gardening, cars, shopping, lying, cleaning . . . .
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Post by Skuzzlebutt » Tue Oct 17, 2006 11:56 am

Well, addiction probably IS the right word for some people. But that's beside the point. The real problem is the fact that video games are still frowned upon as a "proper" pastime. Sit on your arse and read a book all day and that's fine, you're "expanding your mind". Sit on your arse fishing all day, that's fine too. Sit on your arse playing games? You're wasting your life son. Tsk tsk.

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Post by Inspector » Tue Oct 17, 2006 12:05 pm

That is really well put Blair, and I agree entirely with what you are saying. The real issue is that out of the millions of people who own a computer and play some sort of game on it, there are a small percent who go overboard and become "addicted".


The most important point you have made from my personal perspective is about passion for your hobby. What the media fails to point out but I would love to know the statistics, is that many "gamers" took their passion to a job. They rave about a few who ruin their, and sometimes their families life because of their addiction. But many people changed their vocation and took a step up the ladder because their passion for the whole concept of the PC initiated by wanting to play games, encouraged them to learn about how a PC works, how to make it work better and most importantly, how to fix it when it broke down.


I was a truck driver for 20 years, driving line haul trucks up and down the country and I never even looked at a PC till I was about 35. When I was introduced to PC gaming by the guys I met whilst playing Indoor Cricket, I took it on as a hobby and through the need to learn about PC's to be able to game beside others who had degrees in the subject I self taught myself (with lots of other gamers help) to take myself to a job as an I.T. Consultant at Massey University and am a source of I.T. help and advice for many privately around Palmy. There is a very large percentage of similar "self taught" I.T. people in the industry and many of them are gamers driven by their passion who have used the skills learnt in the real world as well as playing games in their free time.

It is a shame that those of us who have benifited from our hobby are ridiculed because of a small percentage who have taken their passion a little too far.
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Post by Inspector » Tue Oct 17, 2006 12:13 pm

Dead right Skuzz, I took a laptop away on holiday and got ridiculed for it by others camping with us. The old anti social thing is all they can think of but when you ask them how long they having been sitting reading their book they go quite red in the face.

Like I said, I drove trucks for nearly 20 years and had (and still have) a small group of friends I socialised with when I was not half way across the country driving for days on end. But now I have a very large group of really great friends who have similar interestes to me but expand my interests because they come from all walks of life and are from all round NZ as well as a few overseas.


I for one am better off because of my gaming "passion" and I'll bet there are a dam sight more people like me than there are those who ruin their lives completely like the media are reporting.
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Post by Mattly » Tue Oct 17, 2006 12:21 pm

Hi my name is Mattly and i'm a gaming addict. I tryed watching Tv but as soon as the ads come on I realise I hate Tv and would rather be playing games. If computer gaming is a sickness then what is watching Shortland Street?
I think you would find that a WOMAN O_o is behind these studies and this is just another attempt by females to control us!!!! :nono:
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Post by Mattly » Tue Oct 17, 2006 1:30 pm

Actually if i'm a gaming addict then I may as well take drugs! :woohoo:
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Post by BAZZIL » Tue Oct 17, 2006 1:54 pm

Hi My name is BAZZIL and i'm a Gaming Addict ;p
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Post by Agent X20 » Tue Oct 17, 2006 2:08 pm

I trust you guys have all watched the SouthPark WOW episode?

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Post by Noon416 » Tue Oct 17, 2006 3:27 pm

Why isn't this thread in the humour forum? It's a more appropriate location for such articles. ;p

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Post by Sasquatch » Tue Oct 17, 2006 3:41 pm

If we all complain that we're addicted then we should all qualify for some kind of special funding or grant ;p ..... Show me the money Miss C (PM) :happyhair:
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Post by Mario-C » Thu Oct 19, 2006 11:45 am

well my addiction scored me a new career in IT so it cant be all bad ;)

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Post by Noon416 » Thu Oct 19, 2006 12:07 pm

Sasquatch wrote:If we all complain that we're addicted then we should all qualify for some kind of special funding or grant ;p ..... Show me the money Miss C (PM) :happyhair:
If you claim you're addicted, part of the solution is removing the cause.

Could you live without gaming, let alone a PC? ;p :D

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Re: Computer gaming addiction as bad as drugs ?

Post by Noon416 » Thu Oct 19, 2006 12:09 pm

Prometheus wrote:... So, do people get anxious and irritable if they don't get to play a game ?
So if addiction is when they get anxious and irritable when they don't play games, what happens if they get anxious and irritable when they do play games... *cough*nascar*cough* :p

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Post by Prometheus » Thu Oct 19, 2006 12:25 pm

Yeah, I lol'd....

I lol'd even louder over the sentence "stunt their social development"
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Post by Sasquatch » Thu Oct 19, 2006 12:25 pm

Noon416 wrote:
Sasquatch wrote:If we all complain that we're addicted then we should all qualify for some kind of special funding or grant ;p ..... Show me the money Miss C (PM) :happyhair:
If you claim you're addicted, part of the solution is removing the cause.

Could you live without gaming, let alone a PC? ;p :D
LOL..good point :p However, if there are gaming ADDICTS then does that mean gaming companies are 'game pushers' (ie like drug pushers) ??? ;)
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Post by Scrunty » Thu Oct 19, 2006 1:27 pm

If they are I say EA gets taken down first... I'll be judge jury and executioner :p
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Post by Sasquatch » Thu Oct 19, 2006 2:08 pm

Scrunty wrote:If they are I say EA gets taken down first... I'll be judge jury and executioner :p
It won't be long before somebody in the USA sues a company like EA stating "lost my job, wife, kids, because i played BF2 20hours a day to get my rank up sowhen 2142 comes out i'll have decent rank and unlocks...but now that its released and soooooo crap i have no reason to live." ;p
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Post by Prometheus » Thu Oct 19, 2006 2:10 pm

Agreed.

An interesting article in DailyTech with the usual you can use anything as a statistic theory.

In a recent survey, 68.9 percent were regular Internet users, which is consistent with previous studies, and that:

* 13.7 % (more than one out of eight respondents) found it hard to stay away from the Internet for several days at a time

* 12.4 % stayed online longer than intended very often or often

* 12.3 % had seen a need to cut back on Internet use at some point

* 8.7 % attempted to conceal non-essential Internet use from family, friends and employers

* 8.2 % used the Internet as a way to escape problems or relieve negative mood (obviously they haven't heard of Wednesday nights as a way to relieve a negative mood !? :D )

* 5.9 % felt their relationships suffered as a result of excessive Internet use
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Post by Noon416 » Thu Oct 19, 2006 2:37 pm

he he, I still recall from somewhere (posted in SC or Kiwisim) about a similar article relating to internet addiction.
There is (was) a divorce going on, and the reason for the divorce was the wife was so addicted to the internet she was checking her email on her Blackberry while having sex... O_o

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Post by Sasquatch » Thu Oct 19, 2006 2:42 pm

Noon416 wrote:he he, I still recall from somewhere (posted in SC or Kiwisim) about a similar article relating to internet addiction.
There is (was) a divorce going on, and the reason for the divorce was the wife was so addicted to the internet she was checking her email on her Blackberry while having sex... O_o
Hubby must have been crap ;)
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Post by Jetboy » Thu Oct 19, 2006 5:26 pm

apparantly something on WoW on Cambell Live tonight...no doubt will be the nice balanced view of "addiction and antisocial behaviour"

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Post by Prometheus » Thu Oct 19, 2006 5:26 pm

lol.

Jacqui doing a story tonight about WoW for Campbell Live... on air @7.10 ish.... on 3 naturally.
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Post by Sasquatch » Thu Oct 19, 2006 5:57 pm

I can just see it all now....... Some unknown darkened face of a middle aged man with altered voice and phydo name "Sir Wanksalot" saying "Yes that’s correct Jacqui, I am a victim of pc gaming and I need help...." (Slight sobbing noises coming from background) :Puke:
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