You've heard the stories. People stuffing their babies in various places while they finish that all important raid adventure, or stabbing someone because they stole their virtual goods, or even thrown in jail for virtually killing someone. Lost jobs, relationships, money and time all due to the ever evil - Gaming. People claim it's an addiction.
Well is it? In my mind I think of an addiction as something I'm having a hard time stopping. Here's the google definition: "being abnormally tolerant to and dependent on something that is psychologically or physically habit-forming (especially alcohol or narcotic drugs)"
I think some games fall into this category, but not all games. Mostly MMO's. They are not physically habit forming, nay they are more physically draining. But why do you stay and play? The carrot on the stick of course. Rewarding you for playing. Rewarding you for getting your friends to play. Rewarding you for continuing to play and coming back even if you quit.
Sure people play for different reasons, but I would find it hard to believe that there isn't a paid psychologist working for some game company out there. If not most of the big MMO's. And they companies are not asking them how to get players to stop playing, but how to keep them playing, and coming back and paying more money. Now, I am assuming that, and I haven't done any research. But hey -- that's what the show is for. Let's all research and see what we found out.
I task YOU -- as a gamer, in the Nation of Gamers, to go and delve into the world of gaming and see...
Can gaming become a TRUE addiction? What proof can we find. And what proof can we find of game companies leveraging this addiction to get players to play and to keep on playing their game(s).
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The chemical effects are reduced from the usual drugs associated to addiction but it does feed basic needs of power, respect, weath in a very basic way. boot up WoW, kill a rabbit and you get some coins, some xp and that xp will get you higher standing and respect from other players.
I go sucked into WoW when I had a crappy job and during that time I would have considered myself addicted. Now days I avoid games that are like that in favor of games that are more defined and have better ending points. Like CoH where you get to choose at the end of every mission to take on an other mission. or a scenario queue in WAR again you get toe choose if you want to re-queue. Rather than other MMO's where you get ~15 missions and do the tour of the zone to finish them all. that is mainly because I don't trust myself to quit in games where it is a more continual flow.
If your life isn't great then it is very easy to withdraw into a video game world.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4137782.stm
'Nuff said
yes, gaming can turn into an addiction. and also does the internet connection. what would we do, if suddenfly your pc exploded. (well obviously go to the hospital, since it exploded right next to you, but besides that).. c'mon! we all would have an hard time then, because gaming ist addicting. everything, that is fun and easy is! and like in every other life situation, some ppl tend to be affected more by addictive content/stuff than others...
so yeah, gaming can turn into an addiction!
It's proven that things like levelling, achievements and the promise of free stuff all contribute to being effectively addicted to a game. It's hard to decide what the actual definition of "addiction" is. Can one really become addicted to a recreational activity like he can to drugs?
Here's an interesting article on the ways Farmville gets people hooked. It's on Cracked.com, but everything rings true. http://www.cracked.com/article_18709_6-devious-ways-farmville-gets-people-hooked.html
I accept that games can have a certain addictive quality to them, when I think of addiction I think of having withdrawal symptoms when you don't feed your addiction.
I do like RealLifePudding's comment on what if you did, one day, lose all of your gaming stuff, what would you do?
If that happened to me, the first thing I would try to do is get all that stuff BACK! I would be DEVASTATED if I couldn't do what I love to do. Which comes to my idea of addiction, if I lost my games, I doubt I would be showing any serious withdrawal symptoms.
Then again a lot of people are more succeptable to this type of addiction... *cough* WoW players *cough*
I have made the argument multiple times, in my psych class at college is the most recent paper I wrote on the affects of the so called "Gaming Addiction". Here is the thing i have come up with though through the entire time I have argued the point of Gaming Addiction. The fact is that, like anything else, it is all about balance. I played WOW for years and it screwed up my sleep scheduale but little else. I kept my grades higha nd still hung out with friends and managed a steady girl firiend while still playing regularly and not effecting any plans with the outside world. If gaming is an addiction its only for those who can't time manage effectivly. I don't mean the staying up all night to beat a game or to get through Minecraft, but the people around you. Everything in life is fine but needs to be taken in balance with everything else that matters.
Most, if not all gamers have been addicted to a game at one point or another. It's a perfectly natural thing to happen in a medium that's based largely around progression and accomplishment. It may sound a bit weird, but I believe that addiction in video games is a good thing. Sure there are plenty of people who have let gaming addictions have a negative affect on their life but I feel that people should have enough self control to not let a game rule their life in such a way. However the reason I feel that addiction is a good thing in video games is because by the very nature of this type of addiction a game that is addicting must also be highly entertaining. As this is an entertainment medium, creating an experience that is so enjoyable as to be addicting should be the end goal of any game(aside from any game that places a high focus on story).
Also, I'd just like to point out that an addiction to a particular game is an addiction that it is possible to grow bored with. Not trying to make a point, just a little food for thought.
Gaming is a form of escapism, so if you rely on games to distract yourself from your real-life issues/responsibilities/problems, then yeah it can become an addiction.
I don't think any particular type of game, for instance MMO, is more prone to addiction than any other; though in MMOs, sometimes people will start "grinding" for the sake of getting as much playtime out of their subscription fee as possible, rather than (you know) suspending their account when they don't want to play anymore. I don't consider that addiction, though, just really poor judgement.
It's 12:30 and I just realized that I spent 5 hours clicking on blocks.
Minecrafts new name: MineCrack
I think gaming cant be a addiction. I do however think that gaming can be unhealthy to a persons well being.
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