I am asking this because i read an article at a popular gaming site... "First US gaming addiction clinic opens" Seriously some people are considering gaming as an addiction like drugs..But the most amusing part of this article is that they charge about $14000(for 45 days).. Is this needed???Give your opinion!!! Here is the link:http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/worldofwarcraft/news.html?sid=6216124&mode=news(pls del this if it is not allowed).
well seeing as it is talking mainly about World of War Craft Yes i believe you can defiantly be addicted to it. (and other games) I know some people who have failed college because the forgot/ missed test because they were gaming. I personally know others who have had their marriage ruined because of gaming.
honestly i don't think gaming is an addiction. The people who have flunked college and ruined their marriages had these consequences because of poor judgement. If you can't look at a fricken clock for 5 seconds and realize "Hey! my wife wants a husband who somewhat cares about her life!" or "Hey! i have a test in 5 minutes i should probably go take that test!" then that's just poor judgement on their part. Now i'm not against people being addicted to the chemicals their brain releases when they play video games. I find that being perfectly plausible because your body can become addicted to most any chemical substance even if it produces that substance. So people who say they're addicted to video games i laugh at because imo you can't be addicted to a substance that doesn't enter your body. I'm sure if there was some other activity that released the exact same chemicals in your brain that gaming does then it would give you the exact same effect as playing a video game, so i don't think you can be addicted to video games themselves but you can be addicted to the chemicals that are released when you play video games.
Yes, thankfully mine is only mild. The furthest i have gone for a game, is not turning up for lectures, paying for virtual items for 'a buzz', and selling unimportant friends out
Anything you do compulsively can be considered an addiction. There are tons of boarding schools that take on kids with video game/drug "addictions", and yes they charge an absolute fortune. I don't think it's fair to say that someone could have a gambling addiction or a shopping addiction but not a video game addiction. (All three being non-chemical in nature, but I'm sure everyone's met at least one of each at some point in their lives.) In a job past I dealt with a client whose kid hadn't left his room in an ENTIRE YEAR because of our wondrous favorite, Neopets. Clearly there was way more going on than just "video game addiction" but you'd have to wonder if he'd be able to stay in his room that long without some way to waste his time.
What about companies making a fortune out of it...I too play games but whenever i need to do something else i can avoid gaming for days,weeks even... I dont need to pay 14000$ just to stop playing games...As long as gaming doesnt affect our normal life it is okay.. Recession brings new ideas to people!!!
I rarely play games etc, but once I get into it I can go for like 5 hours straight, but i know my limits and i take regular breaks, go out for a walk to the shop etc $14000 is a rip off to cure "addiction" to video games... hell do you remember the talks our parents gave us about in their day they only had 1 toy and they played with it all day... isn't that addiction too then?
You'll be surprised how bad gaming addiction is...some people will kill themselves if they don't get to play :O Also, I read this story where a guy was so obsessed with a shooting game (I guess) that he did it in real life -- gaming is an addiction and an influence on those who like it THAT much
Yes, gaming is an addiction. At school and such, we did a "tv turn off week" thing and nobody was supposed to play any kind of video games at all, computers were only supposed to be used for school work, etc. People went through withdrawal. It was not a fun week at school, we were less productive as a whole because nobody could concentrate on what they were doing. So yeah, gaming is addictive.
World of Warcrack has that nickname for a reason, people grow fat and sit in front of it all day, so yeah it is addicting....the feeling of accomplishment you get is so great that you don't feel as accomplished in real life, so you stay in a virtual environment.... kind of like how the noises, rings, etc people get while playing poker or something (or getting close) because they want to WIN makes them lose all their money.
Of-course it's an addiction! People can get addicted as hell to these things, but still be afraid to admit it to themselves and others. On the other hand, I don't think it's the kind of addiction you'd have to go to a CLINIC to get rid of. If this was Drugs, Alcohol, or Smoking, I could understand why people would go to a clinic, since there are genuine CHEMICAL responses at work here. But spending too much time on the computer? Just fucking turn off the screen and go outside for a walk with some mates. Problem solved
In general, gaming is just an activity, but it can turn into an addiction. It's not an addiction per se, because it really depends on how self-disciplined one is.
Some people just have an addictive nature and as such can get get addicted to pretty much anything that will fill their time (including video games).
I dont think gaming is an addiction. If gaming is an adiction, that playing your favourite sport and eating your favourite food is also an addiction. They only say its an addiction because it is bad for your eyes.
It's an addiction in the same way overeating is an addiction. There's no chemical compulsion or physical dependence on it, but people can come to depend upon it for emotional comfort or self validation. It's a matter of opinion really, the medical world often refuses to acknowledge "clinical" addictions such as overeating and video gaming as "true" addictions, because the widely accepted standard for an addiction is chemical dependence resulting in withdrawal symptoms during periods of abstinence from the chemical of choice.
well with both gaming and eating there IS a chemical compulsion, but the chemicals come from your own body in the form of "feel good" endorphins. Same with people who have "sex addictions" Just because its not a foreign chemical doesn't mean your body doesn't miss it when its gone.
A certain game? Yes. Gaming itself? No. The definition of 'addiction' is as follows: the state of being enslaved to a habit or practice or to something that is psychologically or physically habit-forming, as narcotics, to such an extent that its cessation causes severe trauma. I don't think there is a single person that plays video games that has gone into a coma or withdrawal from not playing a video game. Sure, if I don't play Fallout 3 at least once a week I'm going to go 'man, I really want to play Fallout 3'. But in no way am I going to end up hospitalized from it. I think people are calling videogames an 'addiction' because they're adults that want an excuse to not let their children play them. While it's a very good reason not to want your children smoking crack or shooting up some heroin behind a dumpster, it's a less than decent reason to deny a kid the right to play video games. More or less, it's about time management. Someone's only addicted to gaming if they miss/call in sick to work or school more than once every month or so to stay at home and play something. And I don't mean that as in 'this is my opinion', I mean that as in 'someone is said to be addicted to gaming when'. Someone that goes to work or school on a normal schedule and plays video games, if even a lot, is never considered addicted because they're 'responsible' enough to get to their normal life. ...aaaand my post is longer than anyone else's so I'm going to cut it short. XD