Not too bad, only saw one of those in myself, and it didn't result in my wife leaving me so I guess I'm OK.
I used to play a lot more back in my early MMO years, but not so much these days, mostly because I traded game playing for 12 hour work days.
Now that is a serious problem.
Good article, Pokket. However, I think I have to disagree with the idea that the examples people have cited here could be construed as a true addiction. Mainly because they are back to doing what it was they were "addicted" to. The nature of an addiction means that generally speaking, you can't go back to the behaviors of that addiction again. A drug addict can never do drugs again. A gambling addict can never place a bet again. To be able to go back to the "addiction" and keep it under control pretty much proves it's not an addiction.
That's not to say though that people don't let their love of gaming become a serious problem in their lives. I hope those that do have that issue are able to get control of it and make their lives better.
You want me to pay to play a game I already paid for???
Originally posted by Mors.Magne Technically, computer games are more of an escapism than an addiction (addiction normally requires a psychoactive drug). Nevertheless, serious consequences are very possible with computer games, so I'm not belittling this issue.
People are also addicted to gambling. So nope one doesn't need to be on some ^sychoactive drug.
Gaming addiction is serious issue. I have been through this when i was in college. Now i have much better control of my life and gaming hours.
With gambling, shopping, etc there IS a psychoactive drug invovled, it is just made inside the body of the addicted individual.
Gaming addicition is a problem if it gets in the way of doing RL work, etc.
I can't give an exact figure but i'm sure most drugs, like gambling, sex and gaming just stimulate the release of the bodies natural chemicals although in much larger doses than the body usualy allows, that's where you get that feeling of intense happiness or surge of energy, to people that have never used drugs these minor fluctuations could be just as addictive as smoking a crack pipe.
Serotonin
Endorphins
Adrenaline
These are the culprits, there maybe be more that I can not think of atm but I'm enjoying a few beers so my mind is a little fuzzy
I can remember being addicted to games. My very first game was FFXI and I would have never had admitted it then but I certainly can now say I was addicted. I would be extremely engulfed and logged on every day faithfuly and would take everything in-game very seriously. One day an online friend cost me the kraken club and I completly lost it on him/her, it was pathetic to say the least.
I have never found a game that has caught my attention like FFXI and I can say THANK GOD. It's a good thing for me that I don't play that game anymore, I had to tear away from that foolishness. I have played WoW (Almost got addicted) and I've played many others and now playing GW2. I hardly ever log into GW2, it's hardly ever on my mind unless I'm home one day bored or relaxing after a long productive day.
Game addiction is more serious than people think, I use to leave work early simply to catch a certain respawn time for a particular mob I was camping, absolutely stupid on my part but hey, you live and you learn. Thank God I never got fired lol.
Number 7 is a yes for me. Number 6 happens at times as well, if a holiday event kicks in a certain time or if a game or expansion goes live a certain time but then I try to sleep but then I try to get a few hours in the evning instead.
The worst thing that have happened to me is being tired at work for playing, but I indeed know people who lost everything to EQ and Wow including marriages broken up by them.
I however enjoy analog stuff like drinking beer with friends and playing P&P RPGs far too much to become this addicted.
I have to agree with that, just like there is a difference to hit the pub with some friends and losing your job because you are 24/7 drunk there is a difference between enjoying gaming and being addicted to it.
ITT Pokket says, "I can stop whenever I want, just one more run," while furiously clutching her gaming keyboard in her well-manicured hands while multi-boxing a new MMO Beta.
Jk.
Srsly though about half of MMO gamers are addicted. It's unsurprising, these games are literally designed to be that way. In truth, MMOs lie somewhere in between a hobby and a recreational drug, kind of like gambling. It's why some of the games have Behavioral Psychologists on staff.
Btw, just because you're "functional" doesn't mean you're not addicted, either even though interference with daily life means you are.
I actually new this guy when I played swg. He worked police department in North Carolina. He was the leader of our guild. He gamed at work, surfed the forums emailed all while he was at a desk in the police department. Then they elected a new sheriff, and that was the end of that gig. The new sheriff walked buy saw this guy in the middle of a death watch bunker run. Mind you he did not fire our guild leader he done much worse. He took him off desk duty, put him in uniform and transferred him out of the jail and onto the street writing parking tickets. So he was never allowed to use the computers at work ever again. I lost touch with our guild leader, parted ways on a bitter note. I have no clue what he does for a living now, I can say he no longer works for the jail, or that police department. So swg eventually did cost him his job.
The funny thing is I see folks all the time nowadays using facebook, and forums at work and they are instantly terminated for misuse of work computers. Nobody puts up with that nowadays.
Most companies now have it security scan for games and stuff, at least where I was at last. I can tell you more than 30 folks the last year I worked at that location were fired for misuse of company computers.
I think in today's day and age, people are far more prone to video game addiction. With growing economic disparities affecting people on a global scale, one of the few mediums of entertainment that hasn't really fluctuated in price too dramatically has been the video game industry.
A good night out can cost you hundreds of dollars. For a lot of folks, especially the younger demographics (who typically can only work minimum wage-jobs), spending hundreds of dollars going out can be daunting. However, for $59.99, possibly less given the free-to-play popularity surge in the past few years, you have access to a game/games that have near-endless replay value. Couple that with a serious digitalization of social interaction (Facebook, Twitter, Skype, etc), some people essentially PREFER interacting with people via the comfort of their own homes and via headset to socializing. When you take all that into mind, I think it's a lot easier to get really passionately involved in games, especially those as time-consuming as MMORPG's.
While I would say I'm far from an addict, I definitely do use video games as a social medium. I met several friends via games over the years, many of whom I've ultimately met up with in real life! Most of us have grown out of certain genres and play styles, and we've kept in touch. But there have been a handful who ultimately just got enveloped by games/a certain game. A regular person who used to play Diablo 3 with me many years ago got so obsessed with trading and gold-selling and MFing that he'd be playing legitimately 14 hours a day. He failed out of school,quit his job, and essentially doesn't even eat sometimes. It's sad because you can't communicate to these people that "it's just a game dude..."
I suspect there will be studies on this more in the coming years as well, especially given the rising popularity of competitive gaming (such as the LoL tourneys, DotA2 tourneys, etc)
Waiting for something fresh to arrive on the MMO scene...
Is it wrong that I find the rhetorical mud-slinging here more compelling than most of the games?
Incidentally, if you want to quit (anything, really), I recommend a 4-week hospital stay without access to the {anything}.
I broke several addictive habits all at once, this past January. Even lost most of the spare tire, because hospital food sucks arse.
Self-pity imprisons us in the walls of our own self-absorption. The whole world shrinks down to the size of our problem, and the more we dwell on it, the smaller we are and the larger the problem seems to grow.
Comments
Now that is a serious problem.
Good article, Pokket. However, I think I have to disagree with the idea that the examples people have cited here could be construed as a true addiction. Mainly because they are back to doing what it was they were "addicted" to. The nature of an addiction means that generally speaking, you can't go back to the behaviors of that addiction again. A drug addict can never do drugs again. A gambling addict can never place a bet again. To be able to go back to the "addiction" and keep it under control pretty much proves it's not an addiction.
That's not to say though that people don't let their love of gaming become a serious problem in their lives. I hope those that do have that issue are able to get control of it and make their lives better.
You want me to pay to play a game I already paid for???
Be afraid.....The dragons are HERE!
I can't give an exact figure but i'm sure most drugs, like gambling, sex and gaming just stimulate the release of the bodies natural chemicals although in much larger doses than the body usualy allows, that's where you get that feeling of intense happiness or surge of energy, to people that have never used drugs these minor fluctuations could be just as addictive as smoking a crack pipe.
Serotonin
Endorphins
Adrenaline
These are the culprits, there maybe be more that I can not think of atm but I'm enjoying a few beers so my mind is a little fuzzy
I can remember being addicted to games. My very first game was FFXI and I would have never had admitted it then but I certainly can now say I was addicted. I would be extremely engulfed and logged on every day faithfuly and would take everything in-game very seriously. One day an online friend cost me the kraken club and I completly lost it on him/her, it was pathetic to say the least.
I have never found a game that has caught my attention like FFXI and I can say THANK GOD. It's a good thing for me that I don't play that game anymore, I had to tear away from that foolishness. I have played WoW (Almost got addicted) and I've played many others and now playing GW2. I hardly ever log into GW2, it's hardly ever on my mind unless I'm home one day bored or relaxing after a long productive day.
Game addiction is more serious than people think, I use to leave work early simply to catch a certain respawn time for a particular mob I was camping, absolutely stupid on my part but hey, you live and you learn. Thank God I never got fired lol.
There's a difference between passion and addiction. Big difference.
@Vyeth - Was a typo, sorry.
Number 7 is a yes for me. Number 6 happens at times as well, if a holiday event kicks in a certain time or if a game or expansion goes live a certain time but then I try to sleep but then I try to get a few hours in the evning instead.
The worst thing that have happened to me is being tired at work for playing, but I indeed know people who lost everything to EQ and Wow including marriages broken up by them.
I however enjoy analog stuff like drinking beer with friends and playing P&P RPGs far too much to become this addicted.
I have to agree with that, just like there is a difference to hit the pub with some friends and losing your job because you are 24/7 drunk there is a difference between enjoying gaming and being addicted to it.
Gaming fun, only game and nothing else, not fun.
ITT Pokket says, "I can stop whenever I want, just one more run," while furiously clutching her gaming keyboard in her well-manicured hands while multi-boxing a new MMO Beta.
Jk.
Srsly though about half of MMO gamers are addicted. It's unsurprising, these games are literally designed to be that way. In truth, MMOs lie somewhere in between a hobby and a recreational drug, kind of like gambling. It's why some of the games have Behavioral Psychologists on staff.
Btw, just because you're "functional" doesn't mean you're not addicted, either even though interference with daily life means you are.
I actually new this guy when I played swg. He worked police department in North Carolina. He was the leader of our guild. He gamed at work, surfed the forums emailed all while he was at a desk in the police department. Then they elected a new sheriff, and that was the end of that gig. The new sheriff walked buy saw this guy in the middle of a death watch bunker run. Mind you he did not fire our guild leader he done much worse. He took him off desk duty, put him in uniform and transferred him out of the jail and onto the street writing parking tickets. So he was never allowed to use the computers at work ever again. I lost touch with our guild leader, parted ways on a bitter note. I have no clue what he does for a living now, I can say he no longer works for the jail, or that police department. So swg eventually did cost him his job.
The funny thing is I see folks all the time nowadays using facebook, and forums at work and they are instantly terminated for misuse of work computers. Nobody puts up with that nowadays.
Most companies now have it security scan for games and stuff, at least where I was at last. I can tell you more than 30 folks the last year I worked at that location were fired for misuse of company computers.
I liked this editorial a lot.
I think in today's day and age, people are far more prone to video game addiction. With growing economic disparities affecting people on a global scale, one of the few mediums of entertainment that hasn't really fluctuated in price too dramatically has been the video game industry.
A good night out can cost you hundreds of dollars. For a lot of folks, especially the younger demographics (who typically can only work minimum wage-jobs), spending hundreds of dollars going out can be daunting. However, for $59.99, possibly less given the free-to-play popularity surge in the past few years, you have access to a game/games that have near-endless replay value. Couple that with a serious digitalization of social interaction (Facebook, Twitter, Skype, etc), some people essentially PREFER interacting with people via the comfort of their own homes and via headset to socializing. When you take all that into mind, I think it's a lot easier to get really passionately involved in games, especially those as time-consuming as MMORPG's.
While I would say I'm far from an addict, I definitely do use video games as a social medium. I met several friends via games over the years, many of whom I've ultimately met up with in real life! Most of us have grown out of certain genres and play styles, and we've kept in touch. But there have been a handful who ultimately just got enveloped by games/a certain game. A regular person who used to play Diablo 3 with me many years ago got so obsessed with trading and gold-selling and MFing that he'd be playing legitimately 14 hours a day. He failed out of school,quit his job, and essentially doesn't even eat sometimes. It's sad because you can't communicate to these people that "it's just a game dude..."
I suspect there will be studies on this more in the coming years as well, especially given the rising popularity of competitive gaming (such as the LoL tourneys, DotA2 tourneys, etc)
Waiting for something fresh to arrive on the MMO scene...
Is it wrong that I find the rhetorical mud-slinging here more compelling than most of the games?
Incidentally, if you want to quit (anything, really), I recommend a 4-week hospital stay without access to the {anything}.
I broke several addictive habits all at once, this past January. Even lost most of the spare tire, because hospital food sucks arse.
Self-pity imprisons us in the walls of our own self-absorption. The whole world shrinks down to the size of our problem, and the more we dwell on it, the smaller we are and the larger the problem seems to grow.