Where there is a trendy new affliction, there is an expert with the answer. Thus it is that Britain is now host to its very first "game addiction" clinic in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset.
Broadway Lodge treats about four hundred patients every year for drug abuse, alcoholism and gambling problems, but has recently extended its reach to videogames, adopting the Minnesota Method Twelve-Step program to ween youngsters off those crazy videogames.
"... I would stick my neck out and say between five and ten per cent of parents or partners would say they know of someone addicted to an online game," says chief executive Brian Dudley. "However, you can't simply say to a 23-year-old male 'you should never use the Internet again'. It's just not practical. So we go through all the issues surrounding gaming use and ensure there are triggers through which an addict recognizes their usage has become a problem.
''Behavioural shifts include users becoming agressive, with chaotic lifestyles that result in irregular eating and sleeping patterns as well as social exclusion. I don't know anybody else who is treating such cases in this country. There's no helpline.''
If you live in Britain and can't stop playing Evony Online, then you can breathe a sigh of relief because help has finally arrived. Thank Christ.
[Thanks, Pew]
Jim Sterling serves as reviews editor for Destructoid.com, head of the Podtoid podcast, and produces a number of news stories, original features, one-of-a-kind videos. With his passionate argumentative style, controversial opinions, harsh delivery, and dedication to brutal honesty Sterling is a name that you can't help but recognize.
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Contest:
9:20 AM on 11.03.2009
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it's of another friend of mine on a photoshoot they did in some abandoned industrial park in johannesburg south africa.
The problem with sticking your neck out is that you risk getting it chopped.
Now that I've got the witty part of this comment out of the way, I'll move on to what I actually have to say:
I support the existence of this clinic, as I believe that it is a necessary facility...just not as necessary as Brian Dudley would have us believe.
However, it does cast the rest of the videogaming public in a relatively negative light. It's not like compulsive gambling isn't an issue, but then again, you see it celebrated every year on ESPN.
Will gaming ever reach that level of acceptance?
"Instead of trying to diagnose themselves medically, they should maybe bite the bullet and talk to a few people offline. "
Or, they can go to this clinic. Why is that not OK with you, Mr "Libertarian", which you're obviously not. You're supposed to be all for peoples liberties... but it sounds like you'd take away this particular liberty. Why does it "get on your tits" so badly that you'd actually take this away if it were up to you?
One played Everquest so much he skipped every college class, never left the dorm building, didn't see sun for 3 months, and (obviously) flunked out. After about a year he managed to piece his life together and attend community college (only after quitting EQ). Hopefully he managed to make something of himself.
The other is my sister-in-law, currently driving her relationship with her husband to the breaking point by doing literally nothing but playing a free-to-lay MMO (I think it's called Perfect World?) online from waking until sleep. Roughly 60 hours a week. No working (she used to be a nurse), no cooking, no cleaning, pretty much no communication or interaction with her husband (my awesome brother-in-law). Just gaming.
Is gaming the root-cause of these people's problems? Of course not, but anything that help people like this is a good thing in my eyes. Bashing the clinic because you think it singles out video games is stupid. They're treating people of all kinds of addiction. Video Games just happens to be one they're advertising at the moment.