What do you think about addictive gaming?

[geekgrl]

I found this on Slashdot...
What do you all think about this addictive gaming?

http://www.jsonline.com/news/state/mar02/31536.asp

[Knothead]

It is certainly unfortunate, but there's all kinds of things people can get "addicted" to...I think I'm addicted to this very site!

But...this young man killed himself. Was it the Everquest game? Maybe he had other problems...like perhaps a mother who is in such denial, that she wants to blame her son's suicide on a freakin' game.

OH boohoo blame the games! im sick of parents and the media blaming video games when its the kids own actions which he is responsible for.

[Knothead]

Yeah...remember those pinheads a few years back, who used shotguns on themselves (one of 'em lived, sort of.) after listening to some Judas Priest album over and over?

Naturally, the parents blamed the band, and sued in court (they lost). After all, it couldn't have been the PARENTS who had something to do with these kids screwed-up mental state could it?? Heaven forbid!

yeah Knothead this is like people blaming marilyn manson, KMFDM and doom for the school shootings


its always someone else fault


"well my kid would never do that on his own!!!" some parents need to be smacked

JaYsin

[Dudster]

To me that article reads more like dark humor than anything serious.

Edit - If they put "highly addictive" warnings on games like EverQuest, they'll prolly just be seen as marketing. I've seen several game adverts that were saying "hey, this game is seriously addictive". In fact, some years ago I ran the video suit for Psygnosis and some marketing people came up with an advert for Psygnosis games where there was some lad sitting under a bridge looking like a heroin addict. He went on to describe his loss of control of his addiction, giving the impression it was heroin. Then the camera pans and you see him playing games and then the Psygnosis logo. One of the MD's saw this and blew up, canning the project instantly. It was all rather funny.

The addiction just comes from fun, if people can't control their addiction, it's not the games' fault, simple as.

[Sohgin]

No I believe it's serious. I've seen too many people with that type of personality to not take it seriously. The problem I have with the lawsuit is that the kid was diagnosed as having severe mental problems and his mother just let him completely escape from reality with the game. That's what video games are, an escape from reality. What she did is like banging your head on the wall and then wondering why you have a headache.

[prttybean]

Kind of sad. The guy in this article was an adult with a history of mental and physical illness. How is that Everquests fault.

[Dudster]

Yeah, the addiction comes from more than fun and there is a problem (if not more than one) and it needs looking into but lashing out at game makers is ridiculous. Obviously games are a bad idea for some people but so is some music, films, books etc.

I can't really see game producers including warnings like "Do not play if you are mentally unstable". I think the best way is just some documentries on the subject, keeping it rawfactual instead of "games make you insane!" type rubbish.

[geekgrl]

I think I'm going to start playing it now.....
For scientific purposes only ....... of course.