Is online gaming turning into a sickness?

[seph]

I know that there are a bunch of online RPG's that people will play for hours on end. Some people miss work, skip school, and other such acts to stay at home and play a game. The biggest game guilty of that, from my experience, is World of Warcraft. I know that I do play that game, and it is fun. I also know that people will sit on there for hours just playing beacuse they "haveto get to level 60". Me and my brother were up all night playing last saturday, and thats when it really struck me. So I ask this, Is online gaming turning into a sickness? Do you think it can be treated?

In my opinion? I think it is in fact turning into something we cannot control anymore. Some people, as I said, sit on a game for hours and even days just "grinding" levels. I know that most of us play games and I will say that I am guilty of doing that in the past but where is something like this going to lead us? It will make us addicted, and will force us to ruin our lives over a game. Thats what I think on the matter, it is just like cigarettes, it's addictive.

[jip]

yeah i know what you mean i know people that would play runescape all night every night if they didnt have to sleep.

yeah it might be addictive but if it really becomes that bad then the game makers will just stop you from playing over a time limit of what ever they set it as so it can be controled i suppose

[Beatrix the Goddess]

I think online gaming definitely has the potential to become an addictive behaviour, & there's been a multitude of documented cases where it has become so, indicating that potential, & I think by its very nature, online gaming is more addictive than other types of gaming because it doesn't have the same type of closure. You can just go on & on & on playing with new expansions & patches & levelling up & getting new equipment & so on. There's never a point where you can sit back satisfied & say "Right, I've completed this game". Instead you keep constantly striving to complete more & more of it, and never reach that point where you can disengage from it.

So yes, I think it does have dangerous potential, but its not easy to find a solution apart from raising awareness. Creating a time limit is ideal in theory, but people will find ways to overcome it, and it would infuriate a lot of people (imagine being cut off after 6 hours without saving, or something), and I doubt the companies that run these games would be eager to do that.

I think its a great shame that this has arisen, because it'll be bracketed under a universal 'videogaming' banner and we'll get all the general anti-games hysteria starting up again, I suppose. But having said that, its not something that should be ignored or dismissed by those that are pro-games, because it does seem to be quite a prevalent risk.

[Haywire]

It's addictive, but not like cigarettes. A psychological addiction like one involving online games has important differences to a physical addiction like a nicotine addiction. It can be treated, psychologists/psychiatrists (not sure of the difference) are paid to treat such conditions, and I'm not sure, but I'd put my money on gaming being an easier addiction to get over.

[Dextermon]

I think it is for some people because like you said some people are addicted to online games and don't wan't to turn them off espcially World of Warcraft I think.

But it doesn't really bother me that much because I have stayed up playing Socom II for PlayStation 2 nearly all night a couple of times.

[Sioux]

Yeah, it is a addicting and could possibly be counted as a kind of mental sickness possibly. I've been to a couple MMOs in my time, and I continue playing one called MapleStory.

And I've seen the power of an MMO it turns nice people you meet into addicted level hungry bastards who care not for life. And also, some even sacrifice moments in life for it. I even have been to a couple MapleStory forums the last couple months and there is such a massive movement of people who are addicted and know they are and are suffering because of it. It is quite sad. They like ruin their own lives just for one extra level one day or sacrifice school, dating, and anything enjoyablein life over it.

[Mysterious Being]

A sickness? I'm not sure. Is an addiction a sickness?

I know, without a doubt, that people can become addicted to Online Gaming. I know that people, without a doubt, can be addicting to Offline Gaming also. As Bee said though, online gaming is a trap, because there's always more and more to do. You can't say, "I'll just get up to level 60 and then stop playing" because once you get there, other things open up. There's more items to get, and when you max out your character, you can always help someone else level up too. It's a never-ending game, and so there's many little 'senses of completion' but never a complete sense of completion.

It's addictive, but not like cigarettes. A psychological addiction like one involving online games has important differences to a physical addiction like a nicotine addiction. It can be treated, psychologists/psychiatrists (not sure of the difference) are paid to treat such conditions, and I'm not sure, but I'd put my money on gaming being an easier addiction to get over.
Having never had a proper addiction, psychological or physical, or studied them, I can hardly be regarded as a definitive source on the matter, but I would have thought that psychological addictions would be harder to overcome. Physical things can be numbed, or you can be weaned off them. For example, nicotine patches. You gradually give yourself less and less until you don't 'need' it anymore. For a gaming addiction, you could play less and less, but exposure to the 'source' as such will leave your mind wanting more and more. It's harder to stop than it is to not start.

I think we've got to a point in gaming where, because it's 'just gaming' there are no restrictions on it, but it could potentially become a huge problem for a large proportion of people in the world. In the future, I think it's likely that there are going to be more restrictions put in place on gaming, and that's probably a good thing.

[o SH3PH3RD o]

Online gaming raises the replayibillity a lot. I remember i used to play a game for maybe a few weeks before i traded it in. When i got xbox live, my games were getting traded in a lot less. I still have 2 or three games from launce because the online side is so fun and addictive. I'm not that bad, i can only play for an hour, two at the most before i switch the console off, but somr of the people on my friends list seem to be on it all of the time... Of course, it may not seem so bas, but if you're sitting on your ass all day paying games and get no exersize, you're going to put on abit of weight. Then it becomes a problem. The fatter you getm, the lazier you get and the more unfit and crap your body is, the more worse you are going to feel. The risk of heart attacks and other serious things increase be a lot.
It is a problem, and it needs to be sorted, IMO. I wouldn't go as far as to call it a sickness, but it is a serious matter if it is left alone to go to far.

[Jules]

To be honest, to some extent I would enjoy playing these MMORPG's all day and skip school and all the rest, but that's not life. Life is about experiencing and sitting in front of a computer screen all day aint gonna give you no experience and you won't be able to experience the other pleasure's that life has offerred to you.

I wouldn't call it a "sickness," but maybe an obsession or a slight addiction because it's not like gaming can be medically treated as a disease. I'm not sure how people will be able to control themselves in the future if they develop a serious love for online gaming, bbut if some restrictions are placed then yes, that's a good thing. For example, the network can only allow you to play for say, 6 hours a day as from twelve in the morning. (beats playing for 72 hours on end...)

[_J_]

There's no doubt (in my mind anyway) that online gaming is more addictive than offline, as the games are made to be packed with content to keep getting that monthly fee out of your bank. There's also a lot to be said for the soical element, and status that comes with having the most impressive gear etc.

I wouldn't call it a "sickness," but maybe an obsession or a slight addiction because it's not like gaming can be medically treated as a disease.

There are actually clinics in China that are specifically to treat addicts of online gaming. I'm not sure I'd consider it a sickness either though. It can definately get to be a big problem though.

It's like most things, there's a line. You've just gotta know when to stop before you've crossed it.

[Dove]

Online gaming / gaming in general is just like any other addiction, if one becomes "addicted". It's something once enjoyed taken to the extreme. The way I see it, you should be able to enjoy whatever you want, but if it starts interfering in your responsibilities to mankind (work, school, family functions, friend functions, etc), you need to put a stop to it. Once it hits that point, your priorities are way out of whack.

As far as a "cure", put the game controller down! I know it's hard, but it's the easiest way. Have someone else hide the system from you, or hide the computer stuff for it. If this seems unreasonable, then set up time to play, i.e. No games until homework / papers are finished, no games until work is over. Then, make a limit on time, like 2 hours a day or night, whatever.

My brother used to have a problem seperating reality from fantasy after a while of playing video games from the time he got up until he went to school, then from the time he got home from school until the time he went to bed. He would have huge anger issues if someone interrupted him, or flip out if he had to do something that would prevent him from beating some game. He eventually grew out of it, and got tired of it, but that was after four years. not good.

[SlankyZerM]

I would imagine it is more of an obsession than an addiction. Obseesion i would imagine is one step worse than phsycologial addiction. Plus it's not like the gamers don't get anything in return, well at least the gamers believe they are everytime they level up or meet someone new. I've been sucked into WoW a little but i must say i wiould rather my son be playing WoW all day then smoking Meth.

[Beatrix the Goddess]

'Sickness' is a rather vague term anyway - it can be used in lots of different ways. Generally the best place to start is to figure out the point at which a behaviour can be classified as abnormal, & there's four methods that have been proposed for doing that. First is statistical infrequency - if a behaviour significantly differs from its average value in the population (if you know statistics then think of the normal distribution curve). So in the case of online gaming, you could perhaps measure it in hours spent playing. If the average online gamer spends, say, 10 hours a week playing, & a particular person plays for 72 hours then you would classify their behaviour as abnormal & perhaps start considering it an addiction. But there's all sorts of problems with that - for a start it implies that people who play for significantly fewer hours than average are also abnormal :P. and also you could quite easily get a situation in which the average number of hours is still an unhealthy amount.

The second classification proposed is whether a behaviour deviates from what is socially acceptable. I.e. what the majority considers a 'normal' amount of gaming. If someone starts - as others have said - missing out on socialising, dating etc. to an extent that other people found unreasonable then it would be considered abnormal. But that one's fraught with problems as well - as I'm sure a lot of us have experienced, you get many people who think playing videogames at all is rather weird, so that doesn't really work either.

The third classification (my personal preference) is whether the behaviour interferes with a person's ability to lead a normal life and function in an everyday manner. Obviously the term 'normal' is problematic but you can basically take it as meaning the life they led before the behaviour developed. I think this can be the best indicator of the influence of online gaming because - as Dove pointed out - the first thing that happens is that people start sacrificing other parts of their lives for the sake of the game, and become generally withdrawn from real life until they reach a point where they find it extremely difficult to function normally anymore. When that happens, it can definitely be classified as abnormal.

The final classification concentrates on deviation from ideal mental health - whether the behaviour damages any of its facets. Obviously there is debate about what this involves, but the generally accepted indicators are high self-esteem, sense of identity, capacity for personal growth, autonomy, perception of reality (being free from the need to distort it) and environmental mastery. It's easy to see how online gaming could interfere with a good few of those.

So, for those of you debating whether it's a "sickness", there's Clinical Psychology 101 for you to make up your mind with :P. Kind of got carried away there XD. I mean in reality the way these things are classified is through the diagnostic criteria in the DSM-IV - which is the definitive book of mental illness/disorder and includes addictions. Gaming addiction isn't in there yet, but as Gizoku says, there are a few clinics dedicated exclusively to treating game addicts. As well as the one in China, I think there's one in either Holland or Belgium, so the addiction is beginning to gain recognition in scientific circles.

[Sum Mors]

A sickness? I'm not sure. Is an addiction a sickness?
Technically: Yes. What many fail to realize is the simple meaning of addiction. Addiction means that your body has changed in an irreparable way where it has become totally dependant on said actions/hormone releasers in order to work correctly. This is most easily seen in drug addictions, where the drugs (heroine is a good example) have altered the brain's chemistry on a permanent level. The body produces insufficient hormones to sustain the 'normal' feeling and, as such, whatever action was taken to boost those hormonal levels are needed by the user.

You gradually give yourself less and less until you don't 'need' it anymore.
The sad fact is that the process described here is impossible. And the word 'impossible' means exactly that. It cannot be done. In any case study you'll read on drug addicts, you'll find that 'recovered' addicts are never the same as they were before, and they'll say themselves that they still crave and hurt for whatever their drug of choice was. This is why alcoholics are supposed to not drink any alcohol after their treatment, and why that ban doesn't last for a few months but for their whole lives.

In the case of cigarettes, the addiction levels vary by use, but any former smoker who says anything along the lines of 'I haven't craved a cigarette since...' is purely lying, or hasn't gone without long enough. Some have will power strong enough to hide their feelings and lusting, but it is always there.

This thread isn't about drugs though, it's about gaming. Now, is online gaming an addiction? A sickness? No.

Do people play online games (MMOs specifically) too much? Yes, they do.

Refering to them as addicts is simply easier than their true name: lifeless losers. I kid of course, but they aren't addicts. They can be 'cured' by simply cutting back on their playing hours, or simply finding something else to take up that time. The ones who further insist that they are addicted or would try to say that the game altered their hormonal balance on a permanent scale were most likely in need of help before discovering the MMO. Online gaming would not be the cause of their instabability.

[Mysterious Being]

This thread isn't about drugs though, it's about gaming. Now, is online gaming an addiction? A sickness? No.

Do people play online games (MMOs specifically) too much? Yes, they do.

Refering to them as addicts is simply easier than their true name: lifeless losers. I kid of course, but they aren't addicts. They can be 'cured' by simply cutting back on their playing hours, or simply finding something else to take up that time. The ones who further insist that they are addicted or would try to say that the game altered their hormonal balance on a permanent scale were most likely in need of help before discovering the MMO. Online gaming would not be the cause of their instabability.
I disagree. I think you can be addicted to online gaming in a psychological manner in the same way you can be addicted to gambling or sex. I'm sure you've all heard about gambling addicts who sit at pokies all day, or sex addicts who, er, are addicted to sex.

It's the same with gaming. There's a similar kind of initial drive (you have fun, you might win something, and uh.. you're horny), and when you overindulge or whatever, your brain is 'programmed' to need these things.

Each way, you know it's interfering with your everyday life, but you can't stop yourself from doing it (at the level of addiction). I suspect that many people say that things are not an addiction, because they haven't experienced it themselves. Sure, many of us love gaming, and may have gamed for 14 hours a day for a month, but none of us have been seriously addicted to games, which is a completely different matter.

[Sum Mors]

As my last line says, those folks were probably already in need of help. Their addiction isn't caused by the game, or sex, or gambling, but by their already weak wills. Either one of those things could be replaced with one another, the sex, the games, the gambling, as they all create the same hormone releases.

The addictive type personalities are the ones that fall victim to these things. They're ones that make 'addictions' out of these things which aren't really ones.

[Mysterious Being]

Regardless of their level of instability, it doesn't change the fact that the games themselves are addictive.

The people who are addicted to games cannot simply be addicted to anything, like, say, dropping a pencil on the floor. The games themselves have addictive properties and therefore are at least part of the cause.

You have to accept that people are different, some are stronger in the mind than others, and, conversely, some are weaker. It is not the fault of the person, it is part of their nature, and hence, they have no control over whether they are addicted to games or not.