Computer Games Addiction: Myth or Monster?

Overheal

You look around here long enough and you will see some people who have these signatures that display how much time they spend playing their favorite video game that week - and Im begining to notice that the figures they are showing are crazy... upwards of 30 hours.

You could get another (or A) job with that kind of time (a good economical choice), or spend the time doing plenty of other things. A lot can get done with 30 hours.

And it puzzles me why so many people get into these MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games) and they lose all other sense of time meaning and purpose.
I watched my brother hit up one of those MMORPGs a couple years back and he did that for about 18 months - during which time he bunkered himself in his room, ordered pizza over the internet and besides working and errands he was in that room.. even to the point of breaking up with his hot long-term girlfriend because she tried to pull him away from the game.

I'd like to get to the bottom of it altogether. I'm doing the Games Development Course in ITCarlow and it will sicken me not to at least try.

Clearly its a more dominant problem with the Pay-to-Play titles, like World of Warcraft (aka, "Digital Heroin") because theres a background psychology, in my opinion, that they keep trying to get the most of their $15/mo. But the problem also exists with the free-play games too.

So, serious discussion: what do you think it takes to prevent spending detrimental amounts of time in front of a video game? And, have you played a Pay-toPlay MMORPG before, and how has that worked for you?

smdweb

There is a verified report of a chap in Korea who died after playing computer games for something like 6 days solid.
See http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4137782.stm

Terry

Ask the admins.
Boards.ie came about through the game "Quake".

Personally I never got into the MMORPG thing. Mostly due to having a crappy pc.
I did play nintendo 64 for hours upon hours at a time.
I once spent 8 hours playing Ocarina of time. The only reason I stopped was because a friend called in to see if I was going for a pint. When I answered the door, it took me a few seconds to realise what was going on.
I saw a crow on th way to the pub and went to pull out an arrow to shoot it. Then I remembered that I wasn't actually playing the game.

Overheal

@web I remember when the first Black&White title came out in 2003 I spent like 24 hours of a weekend playing it (3x8hours) and lost all sense of time and appetite until i sat up again...I'd say thats what happened to the poor fellow - but thats shocking as hell.

EDiT: theres actually quite a few Korean cases of computer-game death if you search the Google News Archive long enough:

The recent deaths of several people directly or indirectly related to excessive playing of computer games have raised fresh concerns about Korea’s flourishing gaming industry. On Dec. 8, a 38-year-old man died suddenly after playing Internet games for 20 straight days at an Internet café, sustaining himself solely on instant noodles. On Nov. 20, a high school student died while playing online games for nine hours at home, adding his name to a bleak statistic that also includes the death on June 14 of a four-month-old infant who suffocated while her parents were out playing computer games.

Apparently rare overseas, such cases make frequent headlines in Korea. Why? Experts point to the poor environment of the “PC bang” or Internet cafes that have mushroomed nationwide. Generally dark and poorly ventilated, they cater to gamers who tend to smoke heavily. The bad air and light can increase the danger of sudden death, experts warn.

“People who haven’t slept for a long time usually don’t realize how exhausted or stressed they are,” says Dr. Song Hyeong-gon of Samsung Seoul Hospital’s Emergency Department. “Because they are stressed by the obsession with winning the game, they consume a considerable amount of energy. In such a physically exhausted condition, exposure to bright colors or stimulating images on the screen is likely to irritate the cerebral cortex and can cause sudden death.”

Eoh Gi-jun, the head of the Korea Computer Life Institute, points out that deep vein thrombosis (DVT), the so-called economy class syndrome, can also cause computer-game related death. According to research by the National Institute of Scientific Investigation, the main cause of death during computer games is pulmonary thrombo-embolism. “The games we played in the 1980s were winnable once you found out the programmed rules of the game, but when playing network games you have to compete with millions of players all around the world,” Eoh says. “You may be one of the top ranking players one moment but drop way down the next second. Because of the massive competition, people can’t stop playing.”

While death due to game addiction is still rare, many PC game players suffer from disorders of the musculoskeletal system related to repetitive strain such as pain in the wrist, shoulders and lower back.

Meanwhile, for children there is an additional danger associated with violence. “Parents should pay attention to how much time their children spend playing games because young children and teenagers are more vulnerable and may grow into adults lacking social skills or in the worst case lose their lives,” Song warns.

-December 2005

Ironically Terry - thats how Hideo Kojima (creator of Zelda) claims to think alll the time.

Black Swan

Overheal wrote:

So, serious discussion

On AH?:rolleyes:

How about if we drag them away from their games so that they can watch telly sitcoms and soaps, along with a healthy dose of boozing it up at pubs and clubs?

Overheal

That being the general idea, yes...

But how once inside a game do you get an addicted person to unplug after 'doses' in excess of 4 hours at a time?

Crucifix

Overheal wrote:

Ironically Terry - thats how Hideo Kojima (creator of Zelda) claims to think alll the time.

Hideo Kojima is the guy behind Metal Gear Solid. I think Shigeru Miyamoto is the Zelda guy.

I'd say you can probably be addicted to games in much the same way people can be addicted to gambling.

Overheal

Crucifix wrote:

Hideo Kojima is the guy behind Metal Gear Solid. I think Shigeru Miyamoto is the Zelda guy.

guilty

Well yes, like gambling, and we regulate gambling....kind of.....

OctavarIan

People can get addicted to games just like anything else. Having 30 hours + a week in free time is not abnormal, some people choose video games over TV or reading (or in the bad cases, going out, and sleeping). So long as they're not weak willed fools like the ones who die after playing for too long (seriously, wtf) then there's no harm done imo.

Overheal wrote:

But how once inside a game do you get an addicted person to unplug after 'doses' in excess of 4 hours at a time?

You take the game away and make them choose another hobby. Sounds harsh but it's the best way to do it. Lots of them say "I can quit at any time", so make them live up to their words. If they are told to stop playing, but the game is left there, they won't last past a few days.

shane86

Not huge into gaming, dont do online gaming and only whack on the PS2 occasionally.

Having said that, in the summer of 2002 I must have spent 14 hours a day playing GTA3 on PS2 for a month straight until i finished it, id get up at 1pm and play until 4am, wouldnt go outside at all, it was insane. As said dont usually get addicted, but it was more than a game, it was like a film with a plot, i was eager to know where it was going next.

Pretty addicted to going around to my mates to play Fifa 2006 though Its just the craic of playing 5 players of our own likeness and names (we have us 2 and 3 of the other lads on the Ireland team, the likenesses we designed are pretty accurate) Have won one world cup with Ireland and reached the final of another (beaten by Italy 2-0, still, after a woeful opening 3 games I overuled my mate who wanted to play Kilbane, stuck in Stephen Hunt and it changed the tournament ). Best game ever (although whats up with Steven Reids moustache, he looks like Saddam Hussein in it )

My likeness plays for Liverpool, my mate put himself on some Polish side when he was rubbered for some mad reason and cant remember where, hes lost in Poland desperate to get back to the prem

DaXiS

Video game addiction is not common at all. I know a tonne of people who play games and not one is addicted. I know that's not a good enough reason to suggest it doesn't exist, but It's pretty rare.
And if people do get addicted, it's up to them to break it. It's just another addiction.
I played a MMORPG. I was never addicted to it, sometimes i played in 3 hour bursts, but I wasn't addicted. Theres a difference between playing video games a lot and addiction

sioda

Civilisation 2 test of time remember playing for 40 hours striaght when I was younger.

Ah those were the days :P

mikemac

Been addicted to Championship Manager, now known as Football Manager every single year back since Stan Collymore was the best striker in England.

Most addictive game ever!

TerrorFirmer

You could get another (or A) job with that kind of time (a good economical choice)

That's like saying you could get a job with the kind of time you would normally spend with friends or a girlfriend. Games are relaxing. Leisure time. No different then playing football, watching movies or having a good old fashioned laugh with your friends down at the pub. Would you also think that instead of doing any of those things you could be out doing another job?? I don't think so.

I don't play any of the MMORPG games but I do play alot of first person and strategy games. Mostly online, because, it's just plain fun playing with people you can talk to and interact with. I don't actually play the single player portion of virtually any game I buy. At the end of the day I hate when people whine about games and particularly about the 'anti-social' aspects. Games are actually great for socializing in moderation like any other leisure activity. Everyone likes to have a few pints every once in a while but no one wants to be plastered seven days a week. Games are no different. Me and my friends play LAN games all the time and they're a great laugh. After all, the same parents that criticize their kids for playing too many video games are also probably guilty of sitting down and watching soaps for an hour or two a day. So what's the difference? At least when you play games online you are socially interacting with people. But sadly people who don't know anything about computers, games or how they actually work just add what they know together and think it's merely you and the computer in there, void of any social interaction, or even any communication at all.

Ah...games are great

Mr. CooL ICE

Im guilty of being addicted to games. I played world of warcraft for almost two years before quitting it a few months ago. At the start, I would stay up to 4am and not realise it. With this type of MMORPG, you can play casually for a while, but it gets to a stage where the only way to get any more fun out of it is to start 'raiding'. Raiding essentially means giving up a number of evenings per week to play scheduled team-based events with other players, and in 90% of the cases, you either spend 3-5 evenings (e.g. 6pm-11pm) per week in front of your computer or dont raid at all. I played for about a year before I began raiding, and during my 'raiding period', my housemates all became very concerned about my mental health and self-induced seclusion. I quit raiding because the game was a large part of why I had to repeat a year in college and I really didn't want to fcuk it all up again.

When being addicted, quitting isn't the easiest task ever. You just have to realise the impact something which takes up so much time has on your life and what steps can be done to improve the situation.

Even years ago, single player games were totally addictive too. When I borrowed a friends' PS2 and GTA: Vice City, I played the thing non-stop for about 2 months, and even got to the stage where my dreams took place in a virtual, pixelated world. IMO, game addiction is mostly a great laugh, and can't really knock anyone who gets addicted to anything entertainment-based, being a Lost or 24 marathon. But when you prioritize something like a game over every other aspect of your life, it seriously needs some immediate attention

edit -> Just wanted to add that in WoW, I clocked up 85 days worth of playing. If you think thats bad, I played alongside others who have clocked up 300 days worth of playing since it came out.

edit -> Totally agree with the social aspects of the game. In these games, you meet some of the nicest people ever from all over the world. Since quitting WoW, other people who I played WoW with and who quit around the same time as me decided to get together and start playing a new MMORPG ( !!! ) together. Now playing alongside some of the same danish, norwegian, english and finnish in Lord Of The Rings Online :P

Fajitas!

I was completly addicted to WoW two years back. Friends were beginning to worry about me. I'd sit in work, thinking of how to plan our next raid, go home, do planned raid, and keep on playing until 3/4 in the morning. If it wasn't from my laptop breaking, I'd still be playing it, but thank feic it did.

It's horrible, because it's so much more than a game, you have friends there, that rely on you, you have items for auction etc etc. It really goes past the normal dimensions of a game, and into sociology...

Heh, a friend of mine that still plays now, though not as much was crossing a bridge, and heard a swan flapping his wings... jumped to his side, and went to press whatever button some spell was bound to, before realising..

Fanny Cradock

They are definitely addictive. The response from some people to the removal of their 360 etc would, I guess, be very much like that of an addict. I'd also be sure that they temporarily change your emotional state, e.g. if you are playing a FPS, then you would probably feel more aggressive.

Anti

I got into mmorpg's once, i had to stop after i phoned in sick for 2 weeks straight. Now i wont go near them. They are soul destroying.

But i am addicted to a web based java game, but it only requires a few hours a day at most.

OfflerCrocGod

About 170 days played on WoW - yep total waste of time but what can you do about it? The time would have been wasted anyway knowing me Anyway for someone called "Overheal" I find it funny you are complaining about MMORPGs

rainbow kirby

75 days played on WoW here... almost failed 3rd year in college because of it (qualified for final year by 2%). In a way I wish I'd never started playing, but tbh it's my own fault really.

angelsfire

I'm a sims aholic....but I don't feel like every spare minute of my free time has to be spent on the playing the game. But once I start playing I play a good 6 to 8 hours depending. But with a game like the the Sims, it takes a long time to get a goal completed. So I understand how people can stay on for hours at a time. I don't nessacarily think it's healthy but as long as you can control it and not the other way around...I think it's ok!!:)

Canis Lupus

The missus was gone yesterday and last night.

I'd noting better to do or that I could be arsed doing so I pretty much played Eve from 8.30am to 3am with breaks for food etc.

In saying that that was extreme cos I don't get as much time anymore now that the ball and chain is around. I went mad cos I had the opportunity. Normally it's a couple hours a night.

Am I addicted? I suppose I am tho. I couldn't imagine coping if games magically disappeared overnight. They're a great way of passing slow time.

Im 26 btw. Been playing games since... I suppose 6-7ish?

_Kaiser_

I used to play a lot of Civ (edit: oh and Elite before that on a green screen Amstrad CPC with tape deck ) when I was younger.. entire nights would pass in an instant because I just got so involved in it. Never been into WoW etc though.

Then I used to play a lot of FPS and RTS games. Myself and a few mates had our own little AOE2 league going for a while.

In the last few years though I just don't bother as much. I'll play the occasional game for an hour or two or every few months we all meet up for a LAN party over a weekend but that's it. Real Life is far more interesting/demanding

Creamy Goodness

since playing final fantasy XI about a year ago i haven't played a MMORPG since.

i could see myself getting addicted to it but now looking back at it i'm wondering how the **** was i getting addicted to something just so repetitive.

i mean the only way to progress in the game was to join 5 other people and just fight and fight and fight. these fighting battles could go on for upwards of 5 hours and it was just repeating itself all the time.

i'm addicted to cs tbh but i don't put in a lot of playing hours a week, less than 10 but i don't know exactly as i don't use them ****e sigs that say how long i play. when i say i'm addicted to cs it's like every other fps game is ****e and i won't even play them and just label them as ****.

aequinoctium

myth

Monster IMO but I suppose anything that people get entertainment from is addictive or can be.
Its all a matter of how people can control their addiction tbh or if they want to.

nesf

I play video games a fair bit, a lot less since my son was born, but I don't think I ever really reached a point where I was not sleeping and not going out to meet friends etc in order to play. There's a gap between being addicted and just playing a lot and (imho) you can tell the difference by looking at how much a person is "giving up" in order to play.

indough

Wow, this is interesting

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4072704.stm

some people really do take their gaming seriously nowadays.

Conor108

Used to play Tribes 2 and Black and White 1 alot. I know an 11 year old addicted to Runescape....he's a member *gasp*. Played Runescape myself for a couple of months before realising it was sh!t. It's the bloody online element! Constantly changing and making friends etc. I expect to be addicted to Stargate Worlds and Fallout 3 next year.

Ruu_Old

Ah the only ones I play are the old arcade ones, from the Sega Megadrive or text based ones online with a few other boardsies. I know people who have an addiction but wouldn't admit it (probably a good few on boards as well, looking in your general direction, CM. ).

indough

Fallout 3 will be great, hopefully. I was pretty addicted to the first two I must admit

Conor108

indough wrote:

Fallout 3 will be great, hopefully. I was pretty addicted to the first two I must admit

Me too. The hours I spent.........but I saved the vault!!!

indough

Aah, I could never play for too long in New Reno though as my computer lagged a bit with the amount of detail involved there. Have it for the mac now but it's not the same without a two-button mouse

thelordofcheese

Fallout 3 better not suck, or i swear bad things will happen.

But at the moment i'm playing pokémon pearl. It owns me.

I'd get into the specifics as to how games manage to hook people, and if it is or isn't a bad thing, but to be honest this thread isn't helping me level my geodude one bit, so screw you guys.

eoin5

I'd say I've racked up 300+ hours on Final Fantasy games. Thats a conservative guesstimate!

Kinetic^

I've heard some crazy stuff about WoW, it consumes peoples' souls!!!!!!!! :eek:

I play a fair bit whether it be on the Xbox 360 (majority of time on this) or PC.

I tend not to watch TV that much, apart from sports that is so I play the computers for relaxation.

FranchisePlayer

I suppose in some cases it can occur but it is like everything in life moderation is key:D
Was a bit worried with my self when I got ill in 05 and could not go to school and just went down to the P.C and played morrowind most of the day but in fairness though I was very ill and could not go out suppose have toned down the gaming in recent years I don't know how people can sit there for 6 hours straight I have to have a break after 1 hour or 2

WhiteWashMan

Overheal wrote:

You look around here long enough and you will see some people who have these signatures that display how much time they spend playing their favorite video game that week - and Im begining to notice that the figures they are showing are crazy... upwards of 30 hours.

You could get another (or A) job with that kind of time (a good economical choice), or spend the time doing plenty of other things. A lot can get done with 30 hours.

And it puzzles me why so many people get into these MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games) and they lose all other sense of time meaning and purpose.
I watched my brother hit up one of those MMORPGs a couple years back and he did that for about 18 months - during which time he bunkered himself in his room, ordered pizza over the internet and besides working and errands he was in that room.. even to the point of breaking up with his hot long-term girlfriend because she tried to pull him away from the game.

I'd like to get to the bottom of it altogether. I'm doing the Games Development Course in ITCarlow and it will sicken me not to at least try.

Clearly its a more dominant problem with the Pay-to-Play titles, like World of Warcraft (aka, "Digital Heroin") because theres a background psychology, in my opinion, that they keep trying to get the most of their $15/mo. But the problem also exists with the free-play games too.

So, serious discussion: what do you think it takes to prevent spending detrimental amounts of time in front of a video game? And, have you played a Pay-toPlay MMORPG before, and how has that worked for you?

id like to know why you think that spending a lot of time on a game is 'detrimental'.
is it classed as a hobbie, or a passtime, or perhaps someone is lucky enough to be able to play games all day every day?


so far, you have suggested that breaking up with a girlfriend, and not taking a second job are the ecenomic costs (so to speak) of playing games.
what would you prefer people to do?
date more women and get 3 jobs?
would that be a worthwhile way to spend your time?

nesf

FranchisePlayer wrote:

Was a bit worried with my self when I got ill in 05 and could not go to school and just went down to the P.C and played morrowind most of the day but in fairness though I was very ill and could not go out suppose have toned down the gaming in recent years I don't know how people can sit there for 6 hours straight I have to have a break after 1 hour or 2

Morrowind has claimed many many hours of my life.


Not as much as Civilisation or UFO did when I was a teenager. It was that or watch TV.

Peyton Manning

The South Park episode of WoW is hilarious.

I freely admit to being addicted to Football Manager...

Overheal

OfflerCrocGod wrote:

For someone called "Overheal" I find it funny you are complaining about MMORPGs

I don't follow what my Pseudonym has to do with MMORPGs. It started back in a First Person Shooter when I had a minor rivalry with a player name Overkill. The rest, they say, is history.

Kaiser2000 wrote:

we all meet up for a LAN party over a weekend but that's it. Real Life is far more interesting/demanding

LANs are probably one of the most rewarding sides of gaming culture IMO - face time counts for a lot when many gamers are used to only seeing names and speaking through a microphone or typing. I've always found it better to look my opponent in the face

Cremo wrote:

i mean the only way to progress in the game was to join 5 other people and just fight and fight and fight. these fighting battles could go on for upwards of 5 hours and it was just repeating itself all the time.

'Grinding' is definitely something I would enjoy seeing done away with in MMORPGs - it doesnt take very long before the whole process seems like a complete waste of time.

nesf wrote:

you can tell the difference [enthusiasm vs. addiction] by looking at how much a person is "giving up" in order to play

Agreed. But when it gets down to abandoning meaningful relationships, failing school, Heart Failure and Murder [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4072704.stm], it begins to warrant looking into.

eoin5 wrote:

I'd say I've racked up 300+ hours on Final Fantasy games. Thats a conservative guesstimate!

Been there. But with an offline game with numerous Save Points, its a lot easier to unplug from and pick up even months or a year later at the same point in the game. Not to mention having a definitive ending...

WhiteWashMan wrote:

id like to know why you think that spending a lot of time on a game is 'detrimental'.
is it classed as a hobbie, or a passtime, or perhaps someone is lucky enough to be able to play games all day every day?

so far, you have suggested that breaking up with a girlfriend, and not taking a second job are the ecenomic costs (so to speak) of playing games.

what would you prefer people to do?
date more women and get 3 jobs?
would that be a worthwhile way to spend your time?

Fair question.
Think about this one: is it hobby, passtime, or perhaps someone is lucky enough to go drinking in a pub all day every day?

The human component is obviously moderation, but when having control over how to design a system like I as a Games Developer can influence the structure of an MMORPG - wouldn't it be neglegent and unethical Not to consider break-points?

Imagine if you could do a similar something with alchohol that would force everyone anywhere, after theyve consumed X units of alcohol to endure 5 Minutes of absolute-sobriety so they can decide if they want to/are able to continue drinking, and then slip right back into the Buzz immediately after if they wish.

For an MMORPG maybe this would come in the form of Resting for your character or Refeuling for your ship - add limits to how much your online avatar can endure in a single period, force him to rest for 1 hour in every 6 - who knows.

I only mention the economic/job part in regard to those people that would spend excessive amounts of time at a video game - 60+ hours. It also occured to me that theres already a small self-generating market among these gamers in trading items on ebay for example - which makes a few million off the transactions.

Looking on the other pole of the issue, maybe you could making the Gaming side of the Games Industry a little more 'industrious'. Right now the official stance of MMORPG providers is rigid restriction of trading of items for real world currency - but if those game providers (like Blizzard's WoW) sold Commerce Licenses for $XXX/Year to an account to allow them to openly make a business out of selling game items, it could start a whole new open market area for Games in general.

FranchisePlayer

nesf wrote:

Morrowind has claimed many many hours of my life.


Not as much as Civilisation or UFO did when I was a teenager. It was that or watch TV.

yeah know what you mean oblivion aswell and also I still am a teenager so I should not have as much guilt:D + Civilisation 4 for the P.C a single game of that takes ages:p

nesf

FranchisePlayer wrote:

yeah know what you mean oblivion aswell and also I still am a teenager so I should not have as much guilt:D + Civilisation 4 for the P.C a single game of that takes ages:p

Oblivion was a let down for me tbh. It had been too simplified for the console versus Morrowind.

Civ games are definitely time eaters but I think there is an important distinction to draw between MMORPGs like WoW and single player games like Civ. If you're playing a lot of Civ you can play it whenever you want and whenever it suits you, as soon as you reach the raiding stage of WoW you have to give up specific chunks of your time every week which is a different ball game altogether. I enjoyed WoW and especially the social elements of it but I wasn't so enamoured with the need to dedicate 3 or 4 hours (or whatever) on certain days to go raiding.

nesf

Overheal wrote:

Agreed. But when it gets down to abandoning meaningful relationships, failing school, Heart Failure and Murder [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4072704.stm], it begins to warrant looking into.

Does it? Such cases are extremely rare. It's not like buying a kid a computer game is the equivalent of giving them their first dose of heroin or anything.

In reality there are a small group of people for whom gaming completely takes over and screws with their lives and yes while this is a problem it isn't typical of the average person who plays computer games. It's with this specific group of people that the problem lies, not the games themselves.

Smellyirishman

I probably spend too much time playing games, no, I spend too much time playing games; but I don't think I am addicted. One MMO in particular (CoH) took a lot of my time and I probably sacrificed "real-life" things to play it, but I made a whole host of great friends and it thought me a lot. I play WoW now ( or at least I did before moving ) with my GF, but we only play together on the weekends, it's a nice way to wind down.

Games are easy thrills, a sense of achievement is awaiting around every corner, whether it's from clearing a room, reaching the next checkpoint, beating a particularly troublesome boss, or organising a 60-man zerg for some uber-loot; you're always promised a spirit-lifting rush. That's why I think people can spend so long playing games, they're accessible, they're interactive, they're dynamic and in a significant amount of cases, they are social. All from the comfort of your couch.

If you took my PC, 360, DS from me tomorrow, I'd miss them ( I don't have my 360 with me here, and only a laptop ), but I'd just move on to something else for my kicks.