Fish
01-10-2008, 12:30 AM
So I was reading through my usual news sites the other day, and I came across an article about gaming addiction (http://www.wired.com/gaming/gamingreviews/news/2001/12/48479). Now, we've probably all hear the story about the guy who played Starcraft for 50 hours and dropped dead of exhaustion (http://play.tm/story/6353), or the girl who died after 3 straight days of WoW (http://www.wowinsider.com/2007/09/18/another-man-dies-after-three-day-gaming-binge/) (I apologize – I checked this link too late and discovered that it’s actually not about that girl, but yet another death related to mmorpgs…). I don't even need to cite an example of someone losing grades, jobs or girlfriends after playing WoW or EQ for more time than they spent [I]not playing; I'm sure most of us know someone like that. So the big question is this: how dangerously addictive is gaming? Is it at all? Who defines “video game addiction”? Should we (gamers) be worried? Should others (parents, loved ones, employers) be worried?
Or here's a simpler way of putting it: at what point is a gaming [I]intervention a reasonable response to someone's gaming?
So let’s take this one step at a time. First of all, “addiction” has a clear cut definition, both on its own, and in terms of various hobbies/substances. You’ve probably seen that handy list of “you may be an Alcoholic if…” items that talk about frequency of drinking, quantity, and its effect on your life. Likewise, I’m sure that various experts and groups have come up with a list or two for gaming addiction. Does your real-life social life suffer as a result of your gaming? Have you lost friends/significant others because of your hobby? Do you frequently lose many hours of sleep to game? Does your performance at work/school suffer? Yes, I will give you that if a person dies after a gaming binge, they are (were) probably addicted. But for many gamers, it’s not that clear-cut. I admit I've done a lot of gaming in my times. But I've never lost a job or friends due to my hobby, and I managed to graduate without completely failing any classes (in fact, I did pretty well in school, generally speaking). But I did play a lot – more at some times than others. And I’ve pulled more than a few “all-nighters” playing one game or another. So does that make me addicted?
The answer is that it ultimately depends on who defines “addiction” for any given hobby (or substance). To someone who sees more than 30 minutes of TV as inordinate, and who never plays video games of any sort, I imagine that “Video Game addiction” would have a slightly different definition than when defined by someone like me. And to make matters more complicated, alcohol or drug addiction, for example, has physical symptoms because it’s a substance you ingest– video gaming has only psychological symptoms, making the line that much blurrier. As some food for thought, here are some examples of other hobbies that could be taken to the point of obsession or addiction:
- People who “craft,” obsessively save every piece of garbage in the hopes of chopping it up with pinking shears and covering it with glitter and googley eyes.
- People who check their email/facebook/blog every hour just to make sure they don’t miss that crucial update on the friend from 5 years ago that they don’t really know anymore.
- People who eat too much of everything.
Honestly, I would say that at least the third one on this list is probably more dangerous to the person that the previous two (or gaming) simply on the grounds that it is typically easier to eat one's self into sickness/death than to video game one’s self to death. I mean, the number one killer in America is heart disease, and much of that is related to diet. But I don't see anybody protesting food.
Anyhow, since facebooking/blogging bears many similarities to video gaming already, let’s take crafting (arts and crafts type stuff – the crap you did in art class) as an example: would you ever consider having an intervention for someone who crafts too much? What if everything in their house was in some way “crafted” or decorated with craft items? What if their house was actually difficult to navigate because of a severe amount of clutter or if it was actually unsafe? What if they were losing sleep on a daily basis in order to spend more time crafting, or friends? What if they ran into trouble with work or grades because they put off or missed too much because of crafting? Would you only intervene if the person was in clear physical/psychological/financial trouble because of their habit? How would you determine at what point they were no longer in control of their crafting obsession, or in danger?
Clearly, this is an extreme and somewhat contrived example, but it’s not too far off, even for the fact that video games are millions of times more popular than crafting with all age groups, and are aimed at kids. But the point remains – I think we can all envision a person (probably fictional) who requires an intervention because of their crafting obsession; this illustrates my point that pretty much any hobby can be construed as an addiction, especially by someone who does not share a similar interest.
Some people might also counter this by making an argument that video games tend to be violent, sexual, or filled with other unhealthy, anti-social vices. It’s pretty obvious to pretty much anyone that playing 12 hours of GTA3 every day won’t make you a more charming person. But this merely moves the focus of the ire – we are now protesting addiction to video games that allow us to give in to our vices, rather than just people who play video games too much. I mean, if some guy played Tetris at every waking moment, would an intervention be staged? If so, at what point? I mean, if the guy lost his job because of Tetris, or if his wife left him, or if he started blowing off his friends and real-life obligations or was on the verge of dying from exhaustion after playing for 72 hours straight, then yeah, maybe someone would sit him down and say “Al, you’ve got a Tetris problem.” But I think that based on the content of the game being played, that point will come sooner rather than later; If he insisted on playing GTA3 or WoW that much, people would probably step in sooner, not because Tetris is somehow objectively “better” for you, but because we deem the content of Tetris to be “benign.”
I’m not saying that people don’t get addicted to gaming. People get addicted to everything from internet pornography to chewing gum. But I worry when people begin railing at the substance of the addiction merely because people get addicted to it. In particular, unlike drugs or alcohol, there is nothing inherent in Gaming that causes one to be physically unable to stop. Games may be structured to squeeze the most gameplay out of you, but ultimately, the only thing that causes gaming addiction is lack of self control. But even in the event of poor self control, "intervention" seems like a step too far. Perhaps if you're that guy who carted your laptop to the delivery room to play WoW while your son was being born, yes, but otherwise...
Sorry for the rambling nature of this whole post. I just see ludicrousity on all fronts and it's hard to articulate all of my thoughts without writing way too much...
Or here's a simpler way of putting it: at what point is a gaming [I]intervention a reasonable response to someone's gaming?
So let’s take this one step at a time. First of all, “addiction” has a clear cut definition, both on its own, and in terms of various hobbies/substances. You’ve probably seen that handy list of “you may be an Alcoholic if…” items that talk about frequency of drinking, quantity, and its effect on your life. Likewise, I’m sure that various experts and groups have come up with a list or two for gaming addiction. Does your real-life social life suffer as a result of your gaming? Have you lost friends/significant others because of your hobby? Do you frequently lose many hours of sleep to game? Does your performance at work/school suffer? Yes, I will give you that if a person dies after a gaming binge, they are (were) probably addicted. But for many gamers, it’s not that clear-cut. I admit I've done a lot of gaming in my times. But I've never lost a job or friends due to my hobby, and I managed to graduate without completely failing any classes (in fact, I did pretty well in school, generally speaking). But I did play a lot – more at some times than others. And I’ve pulled more than a few “all-nighters” playing one game or another. So does that make me addicted?
The answer is that it ultimately depends on who defines “addiction” for any given hobby (or substance). To someone who sees more than 30 minutes of TV as inordinate, and who never plays video games of any sort, I imagine that “Video Game addiction” would have a slightly different definition than when defined by someone like me. And to make matters more complicated, alcohol or drug addiction, for example, has physical symptoms because it’s a substance you ingest– video gaming has only psychological symptoms, making the line that much blurrier. As some food for thought, here are some examples of other hobbies that could be taken to the point of obsession or addiction:
- People who “craft,” obsessively save every piece of garbage in the hopes of chopping it up with pinking shears and covering it with glitter and googley eyes.
- People who check their email/facebook/blog every hour just to make sure they don’t miss that crucial update on the friend from 5 years ago that they don’t really know anymore.
- People who eat too much of everything.
Honestly, I would say that at least the third one on this list is probably more dangerous to the person that the previous two (or gaming) simply on the grounds that it is typically easier to eat one's self into sickness/death than to video game one’s self to death. I mean, the number one killer in America is heart disease, and much of that is related to diet. But I don't see anybody protesting food.
Anyhow, since facebooking/blogging bears many similarities to video gaming already, let’s take crafting (arts and crafts type stuff – the crap you did in art class) as an example: would you ever consider having an intervention for someone who crafts too much? What if everything in their house was in some way “crafted” or decorated with craft items? What if their house was actually difficult to navigate because of a severe amount of clutter or if it was actually unsafe? What if they were losing sleep on a daily basis in order to spend more time crafting, or friends? What if they ran into trouble with work or grades because they put off or missed too much because of crafting? Would you only intervene if the person was in clear physical/psychological/financial trouble because of their habit? How would you determine at what point they were no longer in control of their crafting obsession, or in danger?
Clearly, this is an extreme and somewhat contrived example, but it’s not too far off, even for the fact that video games are millions of times more popular than crafting with all age groups, and are aimed at kids. But the point remains – I think we can all envision a person (probably fictional) who requires an intervention because of their crafting obsession; this illustrates my point that pretty much any hobby can be construed as an addiction, especially by someone who does not share a similar interest.
Some people might also counter this by making an argument that video games tend to be violent, sexual, or filled with other unhealthy, anti-social vices. It’s pretty obvious to pretty much anyone that playing 12 hours of GTA3 every day won’t make you a more charming person. But this merely moves the focus of the ire – we are now protesting addiction to video games that allow us to give in to our vices, rather than just people who play video games too much. I mean, if some guy played Tetris at every waking moment, would an intervention be staged? If so, at what point? I mean, if the guy lost his job because of Tetris, or if his wife left him, or if he started blowing off his friends and real-life obligations or was on the verge of dying from exhaustion after playing for 72 hours straight, then yeah, maybe someone would sit him down and say “Al, you’ve got a Tetris problem.” But I think that based on the content of the game being played, that point will come sooner rather than later; If he insisted on playing GTA3 or WoW that much, people would probably step in sooner, not because Tetris is somehow objectively “better” for you, but because we deem the content of Tetris to be “benign.”
I’m not saying that people don’t get addicted to gaming. People get addicted to everything from internet pornography to chewing gum. But I worry when people begin railing at the substance of the addiction merely because people get addicted to it. In particular, unlike drugs or alcohol, there is nothing inherent in Gaming that causes one to be physically unable to stop. Games may be structured to squeeze the most gameplay out of you, but ultimately, the only thing that causes gaming addiction is lack of self control. But even in the event of poor self control, "intervention" seems like a step too far. Perhaps if you're that guy who carted your laptop to the delivery room to play WoW while your son was being born, yes, but otherwise...
Sorry for the rambling nature of this whole post. I just see ludicrousity on all fronts and it's hard to articulate all of my thoughts without writing way too much...