• Follow us on Twitter @buckeyeplanet and @bp_recruiting, like us on Facebook! Enjoy a post or article, recommend it to others! BP is only as strong as its community, and we only promote by word of mouth, so share away!
  • Consider registering! Fewer and higher quality ads, no emails you don't want, access to all the forums, download game torrents, private messages, polls, Sportsbook, etc. Even if you just want to lurk, there are a lot of good reasons to register!

OSUScoonie12

Hall of Fame
Anyone see the article in the COlumbus Dispatch about the video game "disease"? What are your thoughts about this kind of stuff?

http://columbusdispatch.com/news-story.php?story=dispatch/2006/07/05/20060705-A1-01.html

he world’s first detox clinic for video-game addicts opened this month in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Nobody is laughing.
"Video-game addiction among young persons is a clear problem today," said Columbus psychologist Daniel L. Davis, who counsels about six teenagers a month for excessive gaming.
The compulsion caught psychologist Marty Traver off guard when it first surfaced a few years ago in her Columbus practice.
"When clients started talking about gaming," Traver said, "I thought they meant gambling."
Davis and Traver are among mental-health professionals seeing an increasing number of teens and young adults whose gaming interferes with relationships, school or work.
They attribute the influx to the popularity of a new generation of games that thrusts youths with altered identities into a fantasyland filled with adventure and relationships.
The result often is detachment from the real world.
"Movies, books and TV do the same thing, but the difference is that these games are designed to keep players playing," said Davis, former clinical director at Buckeye Ranch, a treatment center for troubled youth.
With more than 6 million subscribers, World of Warcraft is king of the so-called Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games, or MMORPGs.
Players sometimes refer to its addictive nature as "World of Warcrack."
A group of enthusiasts at Press Start Gaming store in Pickerington said each had a friend or relative whose playing is out of control.
"We sat down with one friend of mine and told him he was playing too much," said Chris Momeyer, 23, of Pickerington. "It was like an intervention."
"He was having financial problems because he just didn’t want to deal with life."
A Pickerington high-school student with a round-the-clock obsession reacted violently after his parents shut down his computer.
"He punched a hole" in a wall, said his younger brother, who did not want to be named. "He gets very upset when he is not allowed to play."
A part-time job enabled Daniel Cox, 20, of Canal Winchester, to invest 16 hours a day in World of Warcraft.
He recently cut back to four hours a day, to lose weight and while gaming.
"They were just games to him until he started playing Everquest (another MMORPG) and went into a full-blown addiction," Woolley said. "I tried to get help for him, and people just looked at me and said, ‘You should be glad he is not addicted to alcohol or drugs.’ "
She blamed his suicide on a relationship gone sour in his virtual world.
Players form emotional ties that can be broken by mean or rude behavior, she said.
"Hurtful stuff goes on in these games, and people take it for real."
Online Gamers Anonymous has more than 2,000 members and its number of hits has tripled in the past year to 300 a week, Woolley said.
The number of MMORPG subscribers has doubled every year since 1997 to nearly 13 million last month, according to Mmogchart.com, a Web site that tracks usage.
Nobody knows how many players are having problems, but half of 35,000 MMORPG users surveyed by Stanford University doctoral student Nick Yee since 1999 reported "take care of some things in my life."
The game, he said, "can destroy you emotionally and physically."
Traver counsels college students desperate for help.
"They just stop going to school," she said. "A lot of them are suicidal because they know their parents are going to find out."
Liz Woolley founded Online Gamers Anonymous and the Safe Haven halfway house in Harrisburg, Pa., after her 21-year-old son, Shawn Woolley, fatally shot himself that they were addicted.
The number does not surprise the gamers at Press Start.
Justin Meeks once played nearly nonstop with two friends for six days.
"We passed out for a couple of hours and started playing again," said Meeks, 20, of Reynoldsburg. "We each must have spent more than $100 on energy drinks. It’s easy to lose track of time."
Although not a clearly defined diagnosis, video-game addiction meets many of the criteria for addiction established by the American Psychiatric Association.
Young people with low selfesteem, poor social skills and diagnoses of depression or other mental-health disorders are especially vulnerable, clinicians said.
Proctor Hospital in Peoria, Ill., operates the nation’s only inpatient program for Internet addiction.
"We are definitely seeing more individuals for gaming," said therapist Coleen Moore, coordinator of resource development at the hospital.
One patient’s symptoms included bladder problems from refusing to go to the bathroom during long game sessions.
Treatment combines a sixmonth period of abstinence with psychotherapy, supportgroup meetings, relapse prevention and possibly medications for underlying causes such as depression or attention-deficit disorder, Moore said.
"We view this as a disease just like alcoholism."
 
People can excess in all sorts of thing, including video games.

So, I think that the idea that video game addiction exists is "true" in the same sense that there is such a thing as an addiction to Gambling. If it - playing a game - causes one to lose relationships etc. (become "disfunctional") than a "psychological" intervention/therapy seems to me to be appropriate...

Where kids are concerned, it is up to the parents to pay close attention to what the kids are doing, and how much time they spend gaming. I'm guessing a lot of parents - tired after a long day of work... or busy with household running - don't worry about gaming time because it's cheaper than a baby sitter.

My four year old is all about videogames right now.. to the point that that's all he wants to do. He'll either "grow out of it" or I'll make him grown out of it. That is to say, it hasn't reached some critical turning point yet... But, I'm aware the risk is there.
 
Upvote 0
I've been playing video games for about 9 years now and im not just the casual gamer. I play all types of games and play about 3-4+hrs a day on top of a full time job right now, plus college stuff once that is going on. I know there are people out there that need help because of gaming...i personally know a few.

Games are addicting and i know i have been sucked into some, but then i just step back and say 'i can't let this take over me, i have a life to live'. The obsessions and addictions hasn't hit America that hard yet, it is all in Asia. I read stories all the time about Asain kids playing games for 24+ hours straight. Even heard of cases where people die because they never took a break to eat or sleep while gaming. (And we wonder why they are so good at games, this would be why).

I also see American gaming more as a casual get together with friends then more of a competition or sport (like Asians see it). Friends get together for LAN parties and just have fun playing games and eating for 24 hours or whatever.
 
Upvote 0
I admit I get addicted every now and then to a game. Yet it always goes away after a while. Of course I can never get into MMORPG's. I don't find them that challenging (or just plain tedious trying to build up a character), and most of the people online are really annoying.

Battlefield 1942 online is the most addicted I ever became. I used to play it most weeknights. It was always challenging, and not much interaction with online idiots. Of course I was saving money for a house and decided to be a hermit so I didn't spend any money. It's a nice time killer, and was free after the cost of the game.

I could see it becoming addicting. I know I will take off early from work to get home and play a new game (I already feel a cold coming on July 18). Yet after a week it normally wears off and the game either hits the shelf, or I just enjoy the game every now and then.
 
Upvote 0
i see nothing wrong with video games. i play em, but its hard now since i have football practice. i mean if you ask me, i think they can be good for you. take you out of the real world. i mean it takes you into a whole other world. if your playing a james bond game, ncaa game, or anything that takes you into that. i think its perfectly okay for people to play games, just dont make it your life?
 
Upvote 0

ad·dic·tion (
schwa.gif
-d
ibreve.gif
k
prime.gif
sh
schwa.gif
n)
n. <DL><DD>Habitual psychological and physiological dependence on a substance or practice beyond one's voluntary control.</DD></DL>
dis·ease (d
ibreve.gif
-z
emacr.gif
z
prime.gif
)
n. <DL><DD>A pathological condition of a body part, an organ, or a system resulting from various causes, such as infection, genetic defect, or environmental stress, and characterized by an identifiable group of signs or symptoms. </DD></DL>
I think some people are stretching these definitions way too far these days.
 
Upvote 0
ad·dic·tion (
schwa.gif
-d
ibreve.gif
k
prime.gif
sh
schwa.gif
n)

n. <DL><DD>Habitual psychological and physiological dependence on a substance or practice beyond one's voluntary control.</DD></DL>
dis·ease (d
ibreve.gif
-z
emacr.gif
z
prime.gif
)

n. <DL><DD>A pathological condition of a body part, an organ, or a system resulting from various causes, such as infection, genetic defect, or environmental stress, and characterized by an identifiable group of signs or symptoms. </DD></DL>
I think some people are stretching these definitions way too far these days.
I'd agree it's not a "disease" but, pick a word then.. it's "Something" Personally, I think there should be an "OR" after the "And" in "Addiciton" and video game addiction would hen "work" as an addicition... Call it a "bad habit" if you like..
 
Upvote 0
I'd agree it's not a "disease" but, pick a word then.. it's "Something" Personally, I think there should be an "OR" after the "And" in "Addiciton" and video game addiction would hen "work" as an addicition... Call it a "bad habit" if you like..

Call it a "bad habit" because that's what it is--I just take issue with those who want to keep anyone from ever having to take responsibility for their own actions by constantly re-classifying everyday behavior as "disease" and "addiction" and whatever else will get them trading their own will-power for a rehab program.

If this is disease/addiction, what are the symptoms? Physical weakness? Social maladjustment? "Detachment from the real world"? Those are as much cause as effect for compulsive gamers.
 
Upvote 0
Call it a "bad habit" because that's what it is--I just take issue with those who want to keep anyone from ever having to take responsibility for their own actions by constantly re-classifying everyday behavior as "disease" and "addiction" and whatever else will get them trading their own will-power for a rehab program.

If this is disease/addiction, what are the symptoms? Physical weakness? Social maladjustment? "Detachment from the real world"? Those are as much cause as effect for compulsive gamers.
I agree. I think using a label like "addiction" is a cop-out - a way of shirking responsibility for one's actions and choices. "It's not my fault... I have a problem." Bullshit. Step up and take some ownership of your life...

Can obsessive gaming be very damaging to real world careers, friendships and relationships? Absolutely. Would I call someone that allows a game to take over his or her life to that extent an addict? No. I'd call him or her a loser.

(Not saying all gamers are losers, mind you... many are able to balance gaming as a casual hobby - I'm simply talking about those who let it interfere with real life and would rather spend time in their virtual world than with real people.)
 
Upvote 0
Well, again, I'd agree that disease is not an appropriate word here.. Addiciton I can live with.

Even calling it an addiciton, there is nothing inherent in "addiciton" which absolves the adictee from responsibility.

The concept of addiction absolves the "addict" from admitting they ever had the power to prevent a substance/behavior from wrecking their lives: it makes an addict consider himself too weak to overcome the effects of an outside agent, thus requiring the addict to "give himself up to a Higher Power" to re-claim that power over his own life.
 
Upvote 0
Even calling it an addiciton, there is nothing inherent in "addiciton" which absolves the adictee from responsibility.
Yes and no. I mean... it doesn't really absolve anyone from responsibility, but it seems to me that people tend to hide behind such a label and act as though they cannot control their own behavior. Too many people use it as a rationalization for their choices.
 
Upvote 0
Well, I don't know about that, Bay Buck... I'm addicted to smoking, but I don't blame the cigarette, I blame me for choosing to do it in the first place.

I'm just saying, it seems to me you're placing too much emphasis on the label... I don't have doubt that you have your reasons for doing so, and to an extent your observations are valid.. there are indeed those who use it as an excuse. So what?

People use all kinds of things for excuses.
 
Upvote 0
People use all kinds of things for excuses.

And we can either accept those excuses and reaffirm them as reality for those self-deluding individuals, or we can refute them and say "Wake up! You're living in a fantasy world!"

As for your cigarette-smoking, you clearly take responsibility for your own decision to start smoking (and hopefully would realize your own capacity for quitting if you chose), rather than sitting here defending your continued smoking because you're just too weak for its powerful addictive properties, as many would have us believe is the case with all "addiction".
 
Upvote 0
Back
Top