[AdamCalifornia]

I have a son in college who is addicted (his word) to World of Warcraft.
He plays at least 8 hours a day and becomes irritable and moody if he is away
from his computer for even one hour. He looks as he's anorexic, and he is sick
most of the time. He skips meals and even classes to play WoW,
and his grades have slipped dramatically.

(The above text is taken from a letter to the PC Magazine, June 5, 2007)

Detox For Video Game Addiction? Here

China opens game-addiction clinic.
Facility uses electroshock, psychotherapy to treat gamers whose long hours
online affect their physical and mental health. ... (cbsnews.com)

Here and Here

I've read that a 30-year old man (Korea) have played some online game for
50 hours straight and died of exhaustion and heart attack.


Twitchy reflexes and late-night cravings are no longer the domain of alcoholics and drug addicts. Recent research presented at a conference in Washington DC holds that those who play computer games excessively experience the same symptoms of addiction as traditional addicts (taken from Here)

************************************************** ********************

Pic. 1 Mom, you're in the way!

Pic. 2 Addcicted to his computer (with a lot of games on)

Pic. 3 Final stage of a Video Games Addict

This thread/poll is about any video games:
- on your computer's CD-ROM,
- on your consoles Sony's Playstation 3, Microsoft's Xbox 360, Nintendo's Wii,...
- internet online games like WoW, ...

What do you think about this gaming addiction?

Remark:
1 - 2 hrs means 1 hr and 1 min through 2 hrs (including 2hrs)
2 - 3 hrs means 2 hr and 1 min through 3 hrs (including 3hrs)
.... etc ...

I voted: 'I do not play at all!
I guess that I must be a virgin in this context!

Do not see you on the Video Games

Side of the Moon

 

[Sh0eBoX]

i used to play a lot but now it happens less and less. sometimes i'll go through phases and get [back] into a game, and then i'll play it a couple hours a day --- this usually lasts about a month or so. so i voted sporadically

 

[mitcity22]

search for WoW addicts on youtube........WoW seems to be the game that bring the most ppl. under, prob b/c it never ends and there is some social interaction w/ other humans.

 

[Sh0eBoX]

those types of games (MMORPG) are fairly addicting probably because there is so much available content and almost unlimited gameplay (it takes forever for you to reach the highest level, and they keep releasing new content) --- i played a free MMORPG last summer and basically wasted it away sitting there playing the game. i learned my lesson and will never play one of those games again. not to mention you have to pay monthly and that doesn't appeal to me

 

[Jigglybootch]

I used to be a big time gamer, but over the past few years the amount of game playing has dropped drastically. Now I go for months at a time without touching a game.

 

[mitcity22]

Quote:

* There are an estimated 42 million computers in China, and 103 million internet users (7.9 per cent of population) * There are more internet users in China than anywhere except the US * Most Chinese access the internet through one of the country’s 100,000 internet cafés * At any given moment, two million Chinese are gaming online * Despite the surge in internet use, access is tightly controlled by the Government. Searches for sensitive topics such as “Dalai Lama” and “1989 Tiananmen Square” are restricted. Using any of more than a thousand key words, such as democracy or human rights, will cause a message to be blocked * It is said some municipal authorities hire commentators to “guide opinion” in chat rooms and to “accentuate the good”

This part of the article was pretty interesting.

 

[AdamCalifornia]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sh0eBoX /img/forum/go_quote.gif those types of games (MMORPG) are fairly addicting probably because there is so much available content and almost unlimited gameplay (it takes forever for you to reach the highest level, and they keep releasing new content) --- i played a free MMORPG last summer and basically wasted it away sitting there playing the game. i learned my lesson and will never play one of those games again. not to mention you have to pay monthly and that doesn't appeal to me

Hopefully it was only last summer and that's it!!! Never again!

 

[Goh]

I avoid MMOPRGs like the plague. There's a fine line between having fun and satisfying our obsessive-compulsive side. Blizzard, especially, is adept at designing games so that some sort of achievement, whether it be a new weapon, level, item, or skill, is always within the player's grasp. I read this on the website Gamespot and it's really given me a new perspective on video games.

I still love video games, however. Although I only play sporadically now on my computer (I don't own a console), I enjoying reading about new games and gazing in awe at pretty graphics. I'm saving up for a PS2 as we speak.

 

[Jon118]

Thanks to Linux I haven't played much recently, except for in drafting class where I was still scary good at Halo in spite of not playing any games for literally months. Used to it was 1-2 hours a day. I never did like RPGs, so I never got caught up in that mess. I do have some friends that are addicted to WoW though, one of them has skipped school multiple times to play. That game must be seriously bad because everyone I know who plays it gets really sucked in. I still don't see the draw to it though.

 

[ecclesand]

When I was building PCs for me and friends/family, I was always gaming....4 - 6 hours a day. But then I realized that building the uber pc was not possible because the technology changes too fast and I was losing too much money on getting the latest and greatest video cards and processors. So I sold everything...all my computers (except a Dell and an Intel rig I built for the kids) and all my games. Now I don't play at all...don't even miss it!

Of course, I simply replaced it with this Head-Fi hobby. The only difference is that audio gear holds it's value more!!

 

[laxx]

Heh, I used to play ridiculous amounts of games (minimum 10, upwards to 30 straight) back when I was in college. I only have time for about 1-3 hours during work days, but I still get a good 3-4 on Sundays.

 

[Sh0eBoX]

yes, only last summer... MMORPGs will never be played by me again.

i mostly play FPS and driving games... and then third-person shooters and games like Guitar Hero now. oh, and the occasional sport/extreme sport games. not nearly as often as i used to play though

 

[dan1son]

I played a lot of Doom2 some Warcraft 2, Command and Conquer, etc. back in my youth (11-15 yrs old). Probably 4-5 hours a day. Then in high school I got a job and dropped to about 1 hour a day. Went to college and basically stopped completely playing alone (console games with some friends on occasion). Had some times in the middle where I'd get fairly attached to an FPS for a few weeks.

Now I'm married, own a Wii, play video games maybe 10 hours a week tops... most of which are with friends on the weekends.


I have seen many people quite obsessed with WoW and Star Wars Galaxies. A friend of mine in college dropped out, lost his job, and had to move back in with his parents because of Star Wars. He's doing good now... doesn't play at all.

It's hard for some people to get back out of the other world. Those games on very engrossing by design. They require a huge commitment to really excel. I guess people just get lost and forget how important the other things in life are. Harder for kids since most of them have never had actual responsibility.

 

[ilovesocks]

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=214703

For me, it was Counter-Strike and CS: Source. College has pretty much pushed video games out of my life, though. Definitely a good thing. Once you step back and evaluate video games from afar, you feel kind of ridiculous spending so much time at it.

 

[Deiz]

I play games obsessively and tire of them quickly.

I hit the game hard, 5-10 hours a day, and then never touch it after I've beaten it, which usually takes 2 to 4 days.

Edit: That said, I probably play a game a month.