Keith Bakker of the Smith & Jones Center in Amsterdam has been studying videogame addiction for a while now -- rather useful, considering the Center's purpose is to treat it. After professionally dealing with gaming addicts, Bakker has come to a conclusion I think most of us arrived at a long time ago -- most gaming addiction is bollocks.
"These kids come in showing some kind of symptoms that are similar to other addictions and chemical dependencies," explains Bakker. "But the more we work with these kids the less I believe we can call this addiction. What many of these kids need is their parents and their school teachers - this is a social problem."
Although a rather obvious statement to many of Destructoid's readers, we see all too often these days that doctors are willing to label anything as a medical problem. Seeing an expert in the field highlight the importance of social issues in the situation is refreshing, to say the least. It's all very well treating the "addiction," but you won't solve anything without tackling the real root.
Most of these addicts don't need treatment. They need a life.
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:
8:11 AM on 11.25.2008
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Baby steps, baby steps.
personally, I think people who play video games too much are pathetic.
These people with "addictions" just need to learn to put down the controller and go do something outside for once. They do know about the outside world, right?
I'm writing The Gamer's Bible.
..hell no!
give us some examples? Maybe avatars are not on your list...
But, yeah, tell us what you are addicted to?
Also inb4 someone flames "IRONEE" at last statement.
No one is really addicted. At least not in the same sense as a junkie is to crack.
Obviously though, it's not the games' faults. There's not necessarily anything addictive in their nature, it's just a matter of people not exercising self-control.
It's not about sensitivity, or worrying about the stigma of videogames. No, my point of view is that "addiction" is overstating what it is, in my point of view. Similar to how they've started calling alcoholism a disease to make people feel better about themselves.
The reason I don't view videogame addiction as a medical issue is because I think it is, like this guy says, a social issue. To get "addicted" to videogames indicates a real underlying cause. I think it's wrong to focus on videogame addiction. That merely works to remove a symptom, not a problem.
I agree completely. I got hooked on IV heroin real bad about a year and a half ago. I stayed hooked for about 6 months or so and eventually ended up in a half way house to kick.
When I stayed at the half way house, I brought my Xbox 360 over there and spent many hours playing it (maybe 2 or 3 a day). Eventually, I got sick of all the games I had and let this crack head borrow it for a while. Now this guy went fucking nuts with it. Every moment of every day he spent playing the goddamn thing. I mean constantly. He played that thing like he was chasing a rock or something, alright? But let me tell you something - I wouldnt for even a moment say that he was 'addicted' to video games. It was just something for him to hide behind and keep his mind occupied. And that is not what addiction is. A real addiction is much more complicated than that.
And by the way, addiction is not a disease (in my opinion).
By the way...sex addict? Pfft.
Here's the wiki on it, braulio09: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_addiction
I believe that the Doctors in Amsterdam have real insight into why this is a problem. I agree.. it's a social problem, not an addiction problem. I do like that Jim mentions alcoholism as a mirror to this subject.
Alcoholism is NOT a disease. It's a CHOICE. You chose to drink. You don't wake up one day and get the Alcoholic disease out of nowhere, you aren't born with it and it has nothing to do with genetics. You chose to drink the first drink and every one thereafter.
Leave it to the potheads to uncover that this is actually BS. Personally I believe that it's a self control issue. I have enough control to pry my sweaty, shaking, game addicted hands off of the controller to do some work for my college courses.
I guess it's another case of people thinking that they aren't responsible for their own actions.
well, said... Gaming is an escape. Good luck with your fight.
I'm not saying that it's ever medical. I don't think addictions have to be medical though, right? Wouldn't you agree that it's possible to become addicted to games, for people to "need" to play them on a frequent basis? I mean, one needs only look towards WoW for evidence of that. I've had some close brushes with it, myself. Much like Marky Mark, I have an addictive personality.
I'm not so sure. It's not like video games have physical side-effects when you don't play them for an extended period of time except boredom (and maybe some weight-loss a-hyuk).
But then that would go against the alcohol argument because it's easy to tell when someone is detoxing.
Many things to consider, but I don't think it's addiction so much as fascination. Or maybe it's not addiction to games so much as its addiction to "not reality".
Books have been there. Radio has been there. Television has been there. Now games are there.
There is *no* instance where an entertainment products created instability in someone. Anyone who goes off and shoots a group of people because they thought the Matrix was cool or kills a bunch of school mates after they had played some counter-strike source would have done the same things if their hobbies had included gardening or customizing cars.
Also, the argument that people who play games "don't have lives" is inane. Who is to judge what "having a life" is? Is going to strange people's houses and getting dangerously drunk "having a life"? What makes going for a bike ride more befitting "having a life" than a round of Left 4 Dead?
Nothing- it's utter nonsense. People need to learn to stop aiming their frustrations at other people's joys, and look inwards for the problems they face in their lives.
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