Have video games become too addictive?

I was going to write a long paragraph pertaining to the topic, but I got too lazy, so instead, I'm going to sum it up by posting a list of things based on a t-shirt I own:

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MY PERFECT DAY

1. Wake up
2. Play video games
3. Eat breakfast
4. Play video games
5. Eat lunch
6. Play video games
7. Eat dinner
8. Play video games
9. Go to sleep

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Kind of evident that it's a sign of a video game addict, no? ;)

(And yes, I do take breaks from my PC on occasions, such as during my meals.)

Meh, it's only a big deal if you think it's a big deal. If you feel like what you're doing in your day isn't satisfying, then I would recommend picking up another hobby or trying to improve your life in some way or another. If you are doing fine in other aspects of life and can still afford to play games all day, then all the more power to you. *Thumbs up*

If anything, I'd say they've become less addictive. Or maybe it's just that there aren't many good games being released anymore and I've played all the good old ones to death. Or it's just a side effect of getting old. Though I can easily spend all of my free time on a new, good game but generally only a couple of such games can come out in a year.

Some games seem to support the player, ensuring a positive playing experience regardless of the difficulty. Then there are others that present a near-impossible challenge and stop just short of spanking the player through the console with a baseball bat.

Both are addictive, I suppose.

It's been years since I was "addicted" to any game to the point of worrying about my progress.

After a certain point you kinda see the pointlessness and realize games are a hobby like any other and, furthermore, nowadays they're a dime a dozen and, just like e.g. music you simply might not like what's around today and stick to the oldies, just to preserve any special feelings or "magic" you might have had for them.

But then again I wasted a good deal of my youth playing games before coming to that realization, so they really might be addictive under certain circumstances for certain persons. But certainly not modern games, not for me.

My most hated games are jRPGs because they depend on the player to be addicted to even beat the game.

Let me explain.

I played FFV until I got to the huge mecha warship in the sky-thing. Then I put it down and went on vacation. I picked the game back up a few months later, and forgot completely where I was, or what I was supposed to do. With Zelda games you can kind of figure out what you've done (just look at the inventory screen) but on FF games? no friggin' clue.

So I had to give up.

CONFOUND THOSE GAMES!

Modding can be called addictive because it's so wonderful. The only thing that associates it with addictiveness is that there aren't many people apart from the Internet who'll understand what you're doing.

In a way it's like writing fantasy novels (I assume), but the audience is only the Internet. And you get no money off it. Not even from ads (if I tell people I mod games they'll expect that I get paid for them).

I agree with Extra Credits in there's no such thing as video game "addiction" since video games don't change brain chemistry. People find them "compulsive" though since they provide a more structured reward system than real life does.

DuckReconMajor said:

I agree with Extra Credits in there's no such thing as video game "addiction" since video games don't change brain chemistry. People find them "compulsive" though since they provide a more structured reward system than real life does.

About time someone said it.

A problem I have with many video games, and their developers, is that a lot of people think that a video game being "addictive" directly translates into being "fun." The game was released 8 years ago and people are still playing it? That must mean it's a great game! (Not.)

I've made a blog earlier this year about how retail stores tend to glorify people being addicted to video games such as T-shirts that say things like "Homework bad, Video games good," Call of Duty sweat pants, or keyboards, gloves, and chairs specially designed for gaming.

The best games are games that are not only fun, but just as easy to pickup as they are to put down. I've found games like Contra, Streets of Rage, Grand Theft Auto 2, Doom, and Soldat are much like this. I like when games cut straight to the difficult, awesomely explosive, fun parts right from the beginning. No unskippable cutscenes, loading times, tutorials, linear level design, etc. Games are often stupidly easy for this reason, because you are enticed to play through the hours of easy gameplay hoping to actually get to a potentially challenging part. Very rarely does that part ever come, or if it does, it's the very last part of the game. What a waste of my fucking time.

Multiplayer gaming is especially bad. Tons of people play Call of Duty and Halo and TF2 for hours on end, killing the same people in the same arenas interminably. Worse yet, I've even seen many people using RPGs and Xbox Live games as an outlet to selectively chat with people who have similar interests, engage in roleplaying and put up with fake drama and stress. They were literally playing the game for the people they were playing it with as if it were a responsibility, instead of playing the game for it's intended purpose for their own entertainment.

40oz said:

The game was released 8 years ago and people are still playing it? That must mean it's a great game! (Not.)

Yeah. People playing Doom 18 years after release doesn't say anything about it either.

I don't really play games much. I will play Doom from time to time and occasionally boot up an emulator, but I can go days without playing a video game.

Modding for games are much more fun.

40oz said:

Multiplayer gaming is especially bad. Tons of people play Call of Duty and Halo and TF2 for hours on end, killing the same people in the same arenas interminably. Worse yet, I've even seen many people using RPGs and Xbox Live games as an outlet to selectively chat with people who have similar interests, engage in roleplaying and put up with fake drama and stress. They were literally playing the game for the people they were playing it with as if it were a responsibility, instead of playing the game for it's intended purpose for their own entertainment.

Do you just hate games? just go out and say it, dude.

Csonicgo said:

Do you just hate games? just go out and say it, dude.

Hating games or not, most of what he said is true, for some people. It's especially bad for MMO's, since you're dealing with so much drama it really just makes the game a chore, and not fun at all.

I probably said before but I don't think that games are becoming addictive, but are using other systems of prolonging the life of the game without including actual gameplay.

I've just been playing a ton of games the last couple weeks because of these fucking Steam achievements. Also, fuck the Binding of Issac achievement. Good thing the game is fun enough to waste a lot of time on.

Csonicgo said:

My most hated games are jRPGs because they depend on the player to be addicted to even beat the game.

Let me explain.

I played FFV until I got to the huge mecha warship in the sky-thing. Then I put it down and went on vacation. I picked the game back up a few months later, and forgot completely where I was, or what I was supposed to do. With Zelda games you can kind of figure out what you've done (just look at the inventory screen) but on FF games? no friggin' clue.

So I had to give up.

CONFOUND THOSE GAMES!

I've never actually played FFV, but I think the main thing that draws me to FF games are the locations and the story. I still play FFVII from time to time because I absolutely love the atmosphere and locations.

I guess you could say I'm a Ico/Shadow of the Colossus type player. I'm a big fan of atmosphere in games, and I wish more developers would put emphasis on it.


On topic, I'd say according to your definition I'm addicted (Except not quite as extreme), but I don't think that's a bad thing, honestly. I guess it depends on your point of view.

Use3D said:

Hating games or not, most of what he said is true, for some people. It's especially bad for MMO's, since you're dealing with so much drama it really just makes the game a chore, and not fun at all.

Oh definietly, but 40oz is the epitome of self-hating gamer. :P

DuckReconMajor said:

Yeah. People playing Doom 18 years after release doesn't say anything about it either.

That is coincidence. I don't play it because you and other people are playing it.

Is it surprising that I hate almost all the video games released in the last 10 years? It's probably my fault for sucking at google and being unable to locate some decent indepently made games (searching for "games that don't fucking suck" doesn't do much), but it's lame having to conclude that all video games are terrible. Especially because I know there's tons of unused potential in the video game industry. My mind is saturated with ideas that would make games better. No one seems to care; but hopefully some day I'll be able to utilize these ideas to my advantage.

40oz said:

it's lame having to conclude that all video games are terrible

Ignoring your compulsive negativity on this subject - as I don't believe you would be posting in threads like this (or on this forum) if you hated games universally, as your attitude would sometimes indicate - anyone who makes sweeping generalisations like this is playing the wrong type of games. Or at least is only interested in certain genres of games which they feel disappointed with.

It's as stupid and lazy as saying all modern movies suck. While I'd say it's true that good action movies stopped being made in the early 90's, there are other genres of cinema. If you only like to watch action movies I'm not going to judge you and I feel your pain. But don't be so closed-minded to suggest that all movies suck just because you're only interested in a handful of them.

That sounds fair. There are plenty genres of video games I don't know much about such as racing games, RPGs and RTSs. My complaints are usually about most games people talk about here, like new school shooters, and worse, modern shooters attempting to "bring the old school back" such as that one Tron-looking game everyone was talking about here for a while, I forget what it's called now. And Serious Sam (which actually wouldn't be that bad if it weren't for it's fucking boring level design)

40oz said:

that one Tron-looking game everyone was talking about here for a while, I forget what it's called now

Hard Reset?

Game addiction is only a really serious problem if it's a game like FarmVille that employs psychological tactics to make you feel worse about not playing. Those games sap away at your concentration because they make you worry about things that have strict time limits and require you to be logged in at strange hours.

Otherwise, being addicted to a game doesn't come with any inherent health, financial, or other physical risks in itself. Your body doesn't build up a chemical dependency to gaming like it would to nicotine, and gaming doesn't eventually cause lung cancer either...as for the financial risk, well, I've heard of people being addicted to free games, and it's not like every game available costs money.

Games are often stupidly easy for this reason, because you are enticed to play through the hours of easy gameplay hoping to actually get to a potentially challenging part. Very rarely does that part ever come, or if it does, it's the very last part of the game. What a waste of my fucking time.

I'd suggest what I suggested before that you ought to try games that are actually geared towards more skilled players such as dark souls, demons souls, STALKER, Dark Messiah, etc. but you're obviously content just to plug your ears and yell "LALALALA MODERN GAMES TOO EASY LALALALALALALALALALA I CAAAN'T HEAR YOOOOU" and judge an entire industry by a few titles that are generally considered to be oriented towards less skilled audiences

WildWeasel said:

Game addiction is only a really serious problem if it's a game like FarmVille that employs psychological tactics to make you feel worse about not playing.

But what about games such as World of Warcraft or Everquest? (Heh, I can't believe NOBODY has mentioned them yet.)

Craigs said:

I'd suggest what I suggested before that you ought to try games that are actually geared towards more skilled players such as dark souls, demons souls, STALKER, Dark Messiah, etc.

I've read your posts before. I didn't forget or tune them out. The games you keep suggesting look terribly uninteresting.

40oz said:

I've read your posts before. I didn't forget or tune them out. The games you keep suggesting look terribly uninteresting.

None of those titles are pick-up-and-play type games, that's for sure. If that's what you dig I definitely see the appeal, as pretty much my whole Nintendo DS library is of this type of game (Bangai-O forever!!). It's a genre that's certainly around but not as prevalent. Doesn't your brother have an xbox? There's some pretty awesome indie shooters on xbox live.

I'm on my third playthtough of Dark Souls and of course while it will punch you in the nuts at every turn it certainly won't grab anyone who isn't into dungeon crawling, RPGs or grinding (and yes, it's addictive).

Maybe I just don't have an addictive personality, but I only find myself able to play most games for maybe up to an hour at a time. It's a rare case to see me playing a game for hours on end (and they're usually RPGs).

Otherwise, being addicted to a game doesn't come with any inherent health, financial, or other physical risks in itself. Your body doesn't build up a chemical dependency to gaming like it would to nicotine, and gaming doesn't eventually cause lung cancer either...as for the financial risk, well, I've heard of people being addicted to free games, and it's not like every game available costs money.

It's not much of a stretch to argue too much gaming can eventually cause carpal tunnel, back pain and other various problems that can happen to your body sitting in a chair all day. I see it very close to smoking in the 50s, personally - people didn't see any ill-effect right away so assumed everything is fine. There's an astounding number of men who spend their twenties glued to a computer screen only to wake up in their mid-thirties with severe articulation stiffness and constant pain.

While computer-related health problems aren't exclusive to gaming, gaming is one activity that is entertaining/addictive enough that some people can easily spend much more time doing unhealthy stuff. Even working in a cubicle farm, which is about worst case scenario when it comes to health, you're likely to move your arms, your head, your legs around every few minutes or so. With video games, keeping your hands, your body in the exact same positions, your head inclined towards the screen for long periods of time is very much a reality for some people, as they're much more into it than typing some boring report (and who wouldn't?).

As for financial problems, tales of people who left their job so they could play WoW all day are a dime a dozen, most of them true. While this only concerns a minority, a much wider problem is the amount of people who could do better, more constructive things with their lives without gaming, and don't because of it.

I agree with Extra Credits in there's no such thing as video game "addiction" since video games don't change brain chemistry.

One small problem with that: video games do change brain chemistry. Numerous studies have been conducted on the topic.

Whether those changes are good or bad are up for debate. There's been demonstrated advantages in cognitive abilities for being a gamer, but just as well (IIRC) some scientists have expressed concern over other differences.

40oz said:

I've read your posts before. I didn't forget or tune them out. The games you keep suggesting look terribly uninteresting.

And that's your problem. You won't even bother trying the games. You just take one look at them and say "Oh yeah, it's a piece of shit".

I've played MMOs on and off for a long time. I took a long break from WoW, perhaps 18 months, only to rejoin so I could play with my older sister who happens to be an addict. We recently bought the new Star Wars MMO, but I regret my purchase. I've begun to lose interest in most video games. I would rather spend my time studying or trying to learn some new skill. At the moment, I'm still trying to reduce my internet usage.

Physical health is a concern for me. Since I am typically sedentary, I do not eat very much and I have back pain and discomfort in my jaw of all places. Mental health is a concern, too; prolonged isolation is never good. I have Asperger's Syndrome and I ought to be socializing more. Games are really a way for me to avoid the difficulties of actually interacting with other human beings.