Video games are just (still) a hot-button topic. If you can associate 'em with something, it's free page-views. A depressing amount of crime takes place in the world - quite a lot of it entirely unrelated to video games (or Dungeons and Dragons, slasher movies, heavy metal, rap, or whatever else people like/have liked to blame).
I think it's also true that too much of anything isn't good. Sure, people might obsess over games, but they can be equally obsessed over any number of other things for all sorts of reasons. Someone seeking escapism can find it in other ways than burying themselves in am MMO (for example). Which is not to say it isn't easy to do, or can't be harmful in extreme cases, just that in the overall scheme, one could do a lot worse.
All that said, I think there are some dangers that are more closely related to gaming itself. Mostly related to how and why games tend to appeal to people on a basic level. You feel like you're good at something. That you're accomplishing something. There's effort/reward there, but it's not (usually) a real reward. Some might take the psychology into account more than others (MMO's particularly- or in Cracked form) - but the long and short is that games can pretty easily tickle the "accomplishment" part of your brain. Why spent years mastering a real skill if you can get positive feedback from a video game within minutes or hours?
It's not entirely separate from more serious cases of people burying themselves in games - but there's a real danger even for those who don't. It doesn't take obsessively playing WoW to the point of being jobless to have it dull your ambitions or effect how you perceive how much work something takes before it becomes tedious. The brain acclimates. It can be similarly hard to jump from multi-tabbed browsing, skimming news feeds, blogs, Youtube, etc to sitting down to read a novel.
Too much of an obession with video games
Re: Too much of an obession with video games
It looks like most of what I wanted to say has already been said. Anyone who actually plays video games will know that they don't make you violent or crazy, and they are not addicting. They can seem addicting at times, because of how enjoyable they are. You want to keep playing because of how much fun you are having.
I used to play the online RPG Phantasy Star Universe, like a crazy mother fucker crack addict. I literally played 8 thousand hours in a 3 year period. There was a period of 6 months when I only slept 4 hours a day.
And then one day, an update changed their business model completely and made the game "pay to win". I canceled my accounts that same day and never once logged in again. I was really surprised at how easy it was for me to suddenly quit all at once like that. The game wasn't fun anymore, so I didn't want to play it. I wasn't really addicted to it. I was just having a blast playing it and wanted to play as much as I could.
More recently, I did something similar. I was playing another online RPG called Dungeon Fighter Online. After 2 years of playing, I just couldn't stand the cash shop and how the game gradually became more and more "pay to win", to the point of absurdity. I quit and that was that. I don't really miss it.
@OP
You should get your wife to play video games sometime so she can see for herself that they aren't to blame for all of that bullshit that was in the news. The only people who blame murders on video games are people who have no fucking idea what a video game is.
I used to play the online RPG Phantasy Star Universe, like a crazy mother fucker crack addict. I literally played 8 thousand hours in a 3 year period. There was a period of 6 months when I only slept 4 hours a day.
And then one day, an update changed their business model completely and made the game "pay to win". I canceled my accounts that same day and never once logged in again. I was really surprised at how easy it was for me to suddenly quit all at once like that. The game wasn't fun anymore, so I didn't want to play it. I wasn't really addicted to it. I was just having a blast playing it and wanted to play as much as I could.
More recently, I did something similar. I was playing another online RPG called Dungeon Fighter Online. After 2 years of playing, I just couldn't stand the cash shop and how the game gradually became more and more "pay to win", to the point of absurdity. I quit and that was that. I don't really miss it.
@OP
You should get your wife to play video games sometime so she can see for herself that they aren't to blame for all of that bullshit that was in the news. The only people who blame murders on video games are people who have no fucking idea what a video game is.
Re: Too much of an obession with video games
Same here.Inazuma wrote:It looks like most of what I wanted to say has already been said.
My ex used to say I was addicted to video games when we first got together, and I really took that to heart and stopped playing altogether. I went years without playing, all for her. Of course, now that we aren't together anymore I realize that ANY hobby I started to pick up would suddenly become an "addiction". Comics? Addiction. Movies? Addiction. Books? Addiction.
She just wanted attention. Even if she was watching TV, or reading a book, it didn't matter. I wasn't allowed to do any of that.
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Evildeadmanwalking77
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Re: Too much of an obession with video games
Certainly you can ask. We were basically having a general conversation about it after she read an article about it and of course since I am obvioulsy an avid lover of video games, I am going to defend it to the end. It just got a little heated as you can see by the list of articles she sent me and I'm determined to make my point basically. I know she would not flat at call me a "murderer" or at least accuse me of becoming one because I'll play GTA for an hour or two but it still offends me and she'll know that later when we discuss this again. I'm just passionate about video games and just get insulted when it becomes associated with any violent behavior. JT has a VERY well written statement actually on this somewhere in this thread.CFFJR wrote:May I ask how this subject came up between you and your wife?
You said she wasn't accusing you of having an addiction, so I'm curious how this came about, considering the rather extreme examples we're seeing here.
I am addicted to video games, especially retro gaming from my era. I have: NES, SNES, Nintendo 64, Gamecube, Gameboy, GBA, Wii, Sega Genesis, Sega CD, Dreamcast, PS1, PS2, Xbox, and Xbox 360. I have probably over 1,000 games in total for all these systems combined. Yes, I need help and I wouldn't have it any other way! This is my passion and hey my wife still loves me!!
Re: Too much of an obession with video games
they (video games) become a problem when they crowd in on our responsibilities. if a person can be balanced, and maintain their schedule at work and be an effective worker, spend enough time at home with the family, our hobby doesn't affect the family budget, i don't see what the harm is? All of the news articles your wife mentioned are extreme cases, where there most likely were existing issues mentally, but they just happened to play video games. Besides, video gaming is a multi-billion industry, and most homes have one or more consoles, so given the rate of their popularity, and given the rate of people that have mental, chemical, emotional problems make it highly likely that the two will be mentioned together, but their video gaming habit(s) does not make it the root cause that the person did what they did.
Re: Too much of an obession with video games
I think a lot of the problem is obviously all the old people in office or newscasters that pin videogames as excuses, it's sheer ignorance and a fact that they just don't really know what they're talking about when they didn't grow up with this stuff. I played Doom in kindergarten and I'd like to believe I'm perfectly fine.
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Balasubbie
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Re: Too much of an obession with video games
I think the sensationalism relating to video-game addiction isn't spawned out of some big-business desire to denigrate a subculture (if it can even be called that anymore), it's
just a lot of the older generations, still, don't 'get' videogames, and unfortuntately, like most generations that've passed their peak, have no interest in trying to. We all know that
it's ignorance that breeds fear and contempt, thanks to Yoda, and it is this that leaves the
gap for poor journalism and schoolyard-eqsue sensationalism.
Look at comic-books, twenty years removed from its entrance into the mainstream artistic pantheon, and the a certain quarter within the international media that'd still prefer to belittle it as a child's pastime. We'll get there, eventually.
On the subject of game-addiction, from my somewhat limited experience with it, is the mantle of people who harbour a certain sort of emptiness within them, for whatever reason,
be it abuse etc and they will become an addict to the first thing that relieves them of that anxiety, be it donuts, chalk, games or internet.
just a lot of the older generations, still, don't 'get' videogames, and unfortuntately, like most generations that've passed their peak, have no interest in trying to. We all know that
it's ignorance that breeds fear and contempt, thanks to Yoda, and it is this that leaves the
gap for poor journalism and schoolyard-eqsue sensationalism.
Look at comic-books, twenty years removed from its entrance into the mainstream artistic pantheon, and the a certain quarter within the international media that'd still prefer to belittle it as a child's pastime. We'll get there, eventually.
On the subject of game-addiction, from my somewhat limited experience with it, is the mantle of people who harbour a certain sort of emptiness within them, for whatever reason,
be it abuse etc and they will become an addict to the first thing that relieves them of that anxiety, be it donuts, chalk, games or internet.
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BoneSnapDeez
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- Location: Maine
Re: Too much of an obession with video games
Damn, I wish I had the time to be "addicted" to video games! I can only squeeze in about an hour on weekdays. Maybe 4-5 hours on Friday, Saturday, Sunday nights. I've done 8-12 hour stretches a couple of times, but this was only accomplished by calling in sick to work (I didn't tell my wife, ha!)
Video game addiction is certainly real, though I've only personally seen one case of it and I know a shizload of gamers. I find that many folks who complain about "video game addiction" simply don't like video games and feel the need to demean others who do.
Video game addiction is certainly real, though I've only personally seen one case of it and I know a shizload of gamers. I find that many folks who complain about "video game addiction" simply don't like video games and feel the need to demean others who do.
Last edited by BoneSnapDeez on Wed Sep 28, 2011 2:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Re: Too much of an obession with video games
Video games are just the current scapegoat for society's problems. At one point, both novels and the waltz were seen as corrupting Western culture.
"There are two ways to get enough. One way is to continue to accumulate more and more. The other is to desire less." G.K. Chesterton
Feedback: +1 Racketboy, +119 eBay
Feedback: +1 Racketboy, +119 eBay
Re: Too much of an obession with video games
Shit happens. The dumbing down and fattening up of this country is breeding mentally and emotionally deficient children who as young adults will make unwise and sometimes tragic decisions. Some will fall through the cracks of ignorance, learn to be good citizens and lead productive lives, but with such a recklessly growing population being fed visual and auditory junk food from birth... yeah, shit's going to happen.