Video Games as Addictive as Heroein?

This is from a news paper. I am going to write a letter to the editor about this. just figured I'd share this blasphemy and complete and utter lack of knowledge with you all.

http://www.thevictoriaadvocate.com/428/story/77310.html

First off, video games are not truly addictive. If you blow up some "Addicted" person's 360 or PS3 they aren't going to shake uncontrollably and puke for a week or 2 while toxins get out of their system. They are probably just going to get mad, then find something else to do with their newly found free time and find other methods to pass the time and occupy their thoughts.

Second, World of Warcraft is NOT an addictive game. Actually... the game is only decent. The reason why people play World of Warcraft is not because it's an awesome game. If it was a single player only game, it'd have been lost in the ebb of time. The reason it's "addictive" is because of the COMMUNITY. Without the COMMUNITIES within Blizzard Entertainment's games, there would be hardly no replay value to almost all of their games after the first couple times you beat them. So it's not that their games are amazing, it's the community that develops around thier games.

Third off, if you play video games for 14 hours and feel suicidal, you have underlying issues which need to be explored. I played Harvest Moon on N64, for 72 hours with only minor breaks here and there for food, restroom, and occassionally pretending to be asleep when my mom went to work. That was a fun 3 days. My friend was over for those 3 days and he was loving my Skies of Arcadia game on Dreamcast. Oh by the way I didn't own Harvest Moon 64 it was his. We had a lot of fun, neither of us slept, and we spent the rest of the 4 days hanging out, during that week he was at my house.

In the 1950s people were addicted to books, back in the 1960s they were addicted to comics, in the 1970s it was weed, 1980s tv was the culprit, in the 1990s it was a number of things, now in the year 2000 they are claiming that it's video games. None of these things (including weed) have actual physically dependant qualities. With a game collection of over 200 and just as many hours in Disgaea Hour of Darkness as that, I know what it's like to play video games all the time. Im not addicted to them, as a matter of fact I'm only putting in a few hours a week lately. I'm actually TRYING to make MORE time to play video games. I bought a PS3 and I wanted to hang out with my friends at gamestop more than I was motivated to play my brand new PS3.

Just because some people have no will power, no handle on their lives, and family that doens't care enough to do their job and keep their play from escalating to such levels does NOT mean that video games are physically addicting. It just means people need to mature and be stronger willed, get a life, and get an actual family that cares. I wanna smack those parents and go "WHY DIDN'T YOU JUST MAKE HIM PAY FOR HIS OWN DANG INTERNET IF HE HIS GRADES WERE THAT BAD." Because face it, that child wouldn't have had such low grades if they told him he'd either have to pay for his internet, or get his grades up. You CANNOT enjoy World of Warcraft if you do not have the internet. Parents are to blame. Friends are to blame. Weak individuals are to blame. Not video games.

No they are not.

When was the last time you heard a guy get robbed and shot so that he can play halo.

The ps3 launch was people fighting for a $1000 profit from ebay.

No they are not.

SlickAndJick

/thread

Dude what are you talking about.

*Picks up ds and starts playing*

While it's obviously not a physical dependency, any game (or any action for that matter) can create a mental dependency that is hard for the user to break.

In some casess, yes, it would be as addictive as Heroin.

While it's obviously not a physical dependency, any game (or any action for that matter) can create a mental dependency that is hard for the user to break.

In some casess, yes, it would be as addictive as Heroin.

hamumu

Mental addiction isn't anything near as difficult as physical addiction. Mental addictions usually pass in a few days, and are usually atuned to the weak willed people if they last longer than that. Anyone who is willing to commit suicide with games is going without games anyway. The people that ruin their lives because of games are truly pathetic in all senses of the word.

Theyre not that addictiveBourbons3

they are addicting, my cousin is addicted to World of warcraft and he doesnt do anything else but play that game:(GD-1369211121

Like i said. Technically he's NOT addicted to WoW. He's addicted to the WoW community. If he plays the game with almost no contact with other people then he actually is addicted. But since I'm sure he has atleast 3 friends he messages all the time, or talks to people about it that play WoW.... well then he wouldn't be addicted to the GAME but actually the PEOPLE that play the game. If he were addicted to the GAME he would solo constantly. There's a big difference between MMO and other games. Blizzard's entire reputation is based on their expansive community. Get rid of that and Blizzard would be gone.

Reminds me of that South Park.

I have a DISEASE!!!!

WOW and other similar MMOs are as addictive as Cocaine, not Heroein. You see a cocaine addiction is not physical, its phsycological, while heroin is more physical. The strengh of a cocaine addiction is the same as kids beeing addicted to MMOs, there is hardly any difference psychologicaly speaking. A cocaine addict needs a fix every day, just like a MMO addict. Depriving them of this fix will result in mood swings etc.

However MMO addictions take longer to form than Cocaine addicitons.

This is from a news paper. I am going to write a letter to the editor about this. just figured I'd share this blasphemy and complete and utter lack of knowledge with you all.

http://www.thevictoriaadvocate.com/428/story/77310.html

First off, video games are not truly addictive. If you blow up some "Addicted" person's 360 or PS3 they aren't going to shake uncontrollably and puke for a week or 2 while toxins get out of their system. They are probably just going to get mad, then find something else to do with their newly found free time and find other methods to pass the time and occupy their thoughts.

Second, World of Warcraft is NOT an addictive game. Actually... the game is only decent. The reason why people play World of Warcraft is not because it's an awesome game. If it was a single player only game, it'd have been lost in the ebb of time. The reason it's "addictive" is because of the COMMUNITY. Without the COMMUNITIES within Blizzard Entertainment's games, there would be hardly no replay value to almost all of their games after the first couple times you beat them. So it's not that their games are amazing, it's the community that develops around thier games.

Third off, if you play video games for 14 hours and feel suicidal, you have underlying issues which need to be explored. I played Harvest Moon on N64, for 72 hours with only minor breaks here and there for food, restroom, and occassionally pretending to be asleep when my mom went to work. That was a fun 3 days. My friend was over for those 3 days and he was loving my Skies of Arcadia game on Dreamcast. Oh by the way I didn't own Harvest Moon 64 it was his. We had a lot of fun, neither of us slept, and we spent the rest of the 4 days hanging out, during that week he was at my house.

In the 1950s people were addicted to books, back in the 1960s they were addicted to comics, in the 1970s it was weed, 1980s tv was the culprit, in the 1990s it was a number of things, now in the year 2000 they are claiming that it's video games. None of these things (including weed) have actual physically dependant qualities. With a game collection of over 200 and just as many hours in Disgaea Hour of Darkness as that, I know what it's like to play video games all the time. Im not addicted to them, as a matter of fact I'm only putting in a few hours a week lately. I'm actually TRYING to make MORE time to play video games. I bought a PS3 and I wanted to hang out with my friends at gamestop more than I was motivated to play my brand new PS3.

Just because some people have no will power, no handle on their lives, and family that doens't care enough to do their job and keep their play from escalating to such levels does NOT mean that video games are physically addicting. It just means people need to mature and be stronger willed, get a life, and get an actual family that cares. I wanna smack those parents and go "WHY DIDN'T YOU JUST MAKE HIM PAY FOR HIS OWN DANG INTERNET IF HE HIS GRADES WERE THAT BAD." Because face it, that child wouldn't have had such low grades if they told him he'd either have to pay for his internet, or get his grades up. You CANNOT enjoy World of Warcraft if you do not have the internet. Parents are to blame. Friends are to blame. Weak individuals are to blame. Not video games.

wolfblademusic

Perhaps for impressionable children who are not given limits on their play-time by their parents and those same parents use video games as a baby sitter... but normal people like myself? Hell no. Video games are an outlet for me to relax with and have some down time during a day. Granted, I sometimes spend whole days playing games but then again, those games are fun.

If games were addictive like heroin, we would see tons of killings and deaths associated directly with video games. Most people steal video games because they are poor, not because they are addicted to them. Most people don't kill over video games, they are just insane.
foxhound_fox

Alright guys, since here noone has any idea about addiction apperantly or what the article acctually said I will explain.

The reference made to heroin was to emphasize the psychological addiction, not the physical. It was also not to say that gamers will behave like heroine addicts. It was also not to say that gamers will get addicted as quickly as you would to heroine. The proper comparison is acctually cocaine and MMOs since the psychological addiction is the same, heroine has a physical addiction wich MMOs obviously do not.

With this said the entire article is true, MMOs cause a serious psychological addiction if exposure isn't controlled, like with all other drugs. If you compare the behaviour of a cocaine addict and a MMO addict you will see they are the same. Oh and don't give me that cocaine addicts would kill for cocaine.... if cocaine would be legal like MMOs noone would kill for it.

With that said it also has to be noted that a cocaine addiction will occur much more rapidly than an MMO addiction, the end result will be the same however. All which has to be done is that parents need to be aware of this so they controll their kids gaming time from the start.

This is from a news paper. I am going to write a letter to the editor about this. just figured I'd share this blasphemy and complete and utter lack of knowledge with you all.

http://www.thevictoriaadvocate.com/428/story/77310.html

First off, video games are not truly addictive. If you blow up some "Addicted" person's 360 or PS3 they aren't going to shake uncontrollably and puke for a week or 2 while toxins get out of their system. They are probably just going to get mad, then find something else to do with their newly found free time and find other methods to pass the time and occupy their thoughts.

Second, World of Warcraft is NOT an addictive game. Actually... the game is only decent. The reason why people play World of Warcraft is not because it's an awesome game. If it was a single player only game, it'd have been lost in the ebb of time. The reason it's "addictive" is because of the COMMUNITY. Without the COMMUNITIES within Blizzard Entertainment's games, there would be hardly no replay value to almost all of their games after the first couple times you beat them. So it's not that their games are amazing, it's the community that develops around thier games.

Third off, if you play video games for 14 hours and feel suicidal, you have underlying issues which need to be explored. I played Harvest Moon on N64, for 72 hours with only minor breaks here and there for food, restroom, and occassionally pretending to be asleep when my mom went to work. That was a fun 3 days. My friend was over for those 3 days and he was loving my Skies of Arcadia game on Dreamcast. Oh by the way I didn't own Harvest Moon 64 it was his. We had a lot of fun, neither of us slept, and we spent the rest of the 4 days hanging out, during that week he was at my house.

In the 1950s people were addicted to books, back in the 1960s they were addicted to comics, in the 1970s it was weed, 1980s tv was the culprit, in the 1990s it was a number of things, now in the year 2000 they are claiming that it's video games. None of these things (including weed) have actual physically dependant qualities. With a game collection of over 200 and just as many hours in Disgaea Hour of Darkness as that, I know what it's like to play video games all the time. Im not addicted to them, as a matter of fact I'm only putting in a few hours a week lately. I'm actually TRYING to make MORE time to play video games. I bought a PS3 and I wanted to hang out with my friends at gamestop more than I was motivated to play my brand new PS3.

Just because some people have no will power, no handle on their lives, and family that doens't care enough to do their job and keep their play from escalating to such levels does NOT mean that video games are physically addicting. It just means people need to mature and be stronger willed, get a life, and get an actual family that cares. I wanna smack those parents and go "WHY DIDN'T YOU JUST MAKE HIM PAY FOR HIS OWN DANG INTERNET IF HE HIS GRADES WERE THAT BAD." Because face it, that child wouldn't have had such low grades if they told him he'd either have to pay for his internet, or get his grades up. You CANNOT enjoy World of Warcraft if you do not have the internet. Parents are to blame. Friends are to blame. Weak individuals are to blame. Not video games.

wolfblademusic

You sir, are 100% correct in my opinion. But here's my question, how long did it take you to type all of that? If it were me, it would have taken like 4-5 to do. :P

Last time I checked, I wasn't addicted to video games to the point where I was forced to play them to continue to actually function normally.

Last time I checked, people who were fiercely addicted to heroine couldn't function normally physically or mentally without the drug.

Second, World of Warcraft is NOT an addictive gamewolfblademusic

you sir, are an idiot!

Games aren't physically addicting, but they can be mentally addicting. But then again, everything can be mentally addicting if you think about it.mac906

And yet the people who say things like "I can't put this book down!" are untouched... :evil:

Nothing against book readers we both do what we enjoy!

lol this reminds about that WoW kid crying becouse his mom and dad told him to go to sleep and stop playing does any1 have a link to that video i want to hear it again :lol: