Gaming fanatics show hallmarks of drug addiction

[bvark]

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn8327&feedId=online-news_rss20

discuss...

[Gunsmith]

********

[Bootz]

online gamers anonymous. elite.

[Peanut[UK]]

It took a serious scientific study to find out games are addictive?! Sheesh. I would have told them that for 10% of the grant.

[LozB]

yeah, kinda obvious. compulsive order...

jeremy from pure0wnage went to a center for compulsive disorders and addiction in the ficticious web based show. infact a whole episode of the show was aimed at dealing with the addictive side of gaming. infact addicition to MMO's. which i can relate to. im finding in too hard not to end up play WoW until the wee hours of the morning at the moment..

www.pureownage.com

[LozB]

stories of people so wrapped up in slaying monsters that for days they neglect to eat, wash or sleep.


so true.. sounds like an i-series..

[andyf]

With regards to the article (did half of the repliers here bother reading it?), yes, I would say I associate certain things with games and sometimes feel like playing them again to fulfill the trigger.
Not a very strong association though. More of a mild distraction from whatever I'm doing at the time.

[Afty]

News At Ten : Addictive Behaviour Patterns are similar, regardless of the source of the adiction.

Later, watch our feature on how cutting off your hands can hurt.

[UberMonkey]

i was a little addicted to runescape for a while... then a very low graphic mmorpg called wyvern (www.cabochon.com) and then with diablo2... i have trouble getting the addiction i once enjoyed from mmorpgs... now i play them and get bored very easily... i've tried WoW, EQ2, FFXI... none of them do it for me :p: no idea why...


i miss the addiction tbh...

one game i've thought about and got a strange, strong urge to play is final fantasy 9... i've completed it about 4 times so far (and probably will a few more times)

[Ch3m1c4L]

more or less agree tbh, yea if they took it to the stage of trying to force you to get help etc etc all teh crap taht we discuss in other threads then i disagree, but its true you play gaems to relax/feel better/take the piss out of noobies wjho arent as good as you. which makes you feel better, just like drugs can and do, but well yea, games dont give you brain hemmorages, heart ****, "sudden death" and the like...luckily...

btw the linky should have been http://www.purepwnage.com

pwnage not ownage :P

[shadow03]

atleast you all dont spend quite a bit per week and have lung collapses like...people:rolleyes:

[andyf]

So what, you're all just talking about addiction in general and not about the specifics of the article? Did anyone bother reading the article? You all post on slashdot too, don't you.

[Er00]

Originally posted by UberMonkey
i was a little addicted to runescape for a while... then a very low graphic mmorpg called wyvern (www.cabochon.com) and then with diablo2... i have trouble getting the addiction i once enjoyed from mmorpgs... now i play them and get bored very easily... i've tried WoW, EQ2, FFXI... none of them do it for me :p: no idea why...


But...but...Runescape utterly sucks, I got bored halfway through the tutorial bit :/ Though I did some of the puzzle-y bits for my brother (there was one that took ages with doors and stuff...can't really remember...)

Anyway, the only game that I would say is truely addictive is WoW, it's the only game I've actually gone to bed wishing I wasn't to tired to carry on playing it etc. Never really had that with any other game *Shrugs* Though I guess it's differetnt for everybody...sometimes I get urges to play freecell... :p

[andyf]

er00 that's not addiction, you're just enjoying something new that's come along and it's holding your interest.

[UberMonkey]

Originally posted by Er00
But...but...Runescape utterly sucks, I got bored halfway through the tutorial bit :/

i kinda agree that runescape sucks, it gets very boring now, but when i played it i thought it was great...

i've seen about 5 people from MPUK now saying that runescape sucks because they got bored during the tutorial... so people that havent actually PLAYED THE GAME!

__________________

keep in mind, when i say 'when i played it' i mean 4 years ago... it was a very different game back then (i still play it occasionally, to pk)

[Demonic]

WoW is the spawn of satan.

That is all.

[Towneh]

Originally posted by UberMonkey
i kinda agree that runescape sucks, it gets very boring now, but when i played it i thought it was great...

i've seen about 5 people from MPUK now saying that runescape sucks because they got bored during the tutorial... so people that havent actually PLAYED THE GAME!

__________________

keep in mind, when i say 'when i played it' i mean 4 years ago... it was a very different game back then (i still play it occasionally, to pk)

I got bored when I died and lost my entire set of adamantine armor.

[UberMonkey]

lol, poor towneh

i think i only got into it so much because when i started, about 8 people from school played, so it was quite competitive

[Neon]

Yet another attempt by people to take the extreme and apply it to everyone.

Remember this is an extreme and in no way translates to the 90% of gamers. I really hate it when articles do this without clarifying this fact simply to try and make the article punchier.

Its basically a form of untruth by leaving out the facts and frankly its really starting to annoy me.

I bet they didnt have all this kinda **** when people started playing sport! I mean what the hell, just because im not running around in a field covered in **** im ill, sorry **** you, **** your research and **** you!

Sorry, but this is a realy sore spot for me, the ignorant prattling about things they dont really understand annoys me no end.

...and breathe :)

[UberMonkey]

Originally posted by Neon
Yet another attempt by people to take the extreme and apply it to everyone.

Remember this is an extreme and in no way translates to the 90% of gamers. I really hate it when articles do this without clarifying this fact simply to try and make the article punchier.

Its basically a form of untruth by leaving out the facts and frankly its really starting to annoy me.

I bet they didnt have all this kinda **** when people started playing sport! I mean what the hell, just because im not running around in a field covered in **** im ill, sorry **** you, **** your research and **** you!

Sorry, but this is a realy sore spot for me, the ignorant prattling about things they dont really understand annoys me no end.

...and breathe :)


true, sports can be very addictive... (or so i've heard ;) ) we always hear about people being completely obsessed with football... (and american football)

[bvark]

Where in the article does it say they assume this now applies to all gamers?

I think you're reading something into it that doesn't exist to justify your self-righteous babble.

[Er00]

Originally posted by UberMonkey

keep in mind, when i say 'when i played it' i mean 4 years ago... it was a very different game back then (i still play it occasionally, to pk)

that's about when I played it too :p

[UberMonkey]

Originally posted by Er00
that's about when I played it too :p

...they brought out tutorial island about 2 years ago :p: ...maybe 3... i know i'd been playing for a loonnggg time before it came out...

bah... why am i trying to defend it, i liked a rubbish game... sue me :p:

[Er00]

It was when the tutorial bit was very very new, as I remember talking to someone who started playing a couple of months before me and he didn't have a clue what I was talking about when I said the tutorial bit sucked (that makes sense to me finally, after about 3 years of wondering why the hell not XD )

[andyf]

Originally posted by Er00
off-topic ramblings

Well done for once again blasting a topic to the pits of irrelevance ;)

[Er00]

*wonders whether anyone has that picture Elbonio made*

y'know...the one with the angle of irrelevence XD