#onelifeleft - How much do you really know about Game Addiction?

[Becccc]

Hey fellow steamers!

I recently started an online campaign to raise awareness about gaming addiction. Gaming addiction is something really close to my heart and I've seen the damaging effects it had on my own life, as well as the effect it had on some of the gamers I played alongside with.

This campaign is NOT about labelling all games as bad. It's about separating healthy (I count the occasional 3-day-long gaming binge as healthy) and addictive gaming behaviours. Real gaming addiction isn't just being glued to your pc, it's about the extreme issues of losing relationships, employment and education commitments as well as the enormous psychological toll.

Do you know someone suffering from game addiction? Have you experienced it? What are your thoughts about the issue?
It doesn't have to just be PC related - it can be device/console as well.

I'm keen to hear if you've had any experiences with the issue! Don't be shy!

*Check out the website/FB/Instagram!*
http://1lifeleft.wix.com/onelifeleft
https://www.facebook.com/onelifeleftdontwasteit
https://instagram.com/onelifeleft.dontwasteit/

[gargamell999]

i'm a spoild 48 year old troll JERK with mild freedome to play games on PC online. as i am getting old i have been seeing changes in my gaming. when half life 2 came out i played it for almost 22 hours strait and got 89% of the game done. now today i dont think i could that anymore. i find myself getting sleepy to offten. so i play a hour or 2, sleep a wile and then play 1-2 hours again. back in the early 2000's 2002-2008 i played dark age of camelot all the time, and i enjoyed staying up to catch the hollywood california area, gamer crowd.

[SlyMeerkat]

I have been a gamer for most my life, since i was a kid till now and i must admit that it has kind of ruined my education commitments a bit as i would rather game then learn which is wrong but i am kind of happy the way i am as i dont ask for much in life, i am a simple kind of person and so having an excellent education i believe is in way to much of a high demand now a days, if that makes sense. I can understand if you are trying to be a rocket scientist or something then it should be high but for the basic things, they ask to much from you but that could just be me being negative as usual but its something i am working on and getting better at though :)

[Spiffer]

Solution?
Give up your life and game forever.
Why take the hard road?
(bank robberies help with those nasty money costing steam cards)

[Sir Dookface McFerretballs]

I'm not seeing an issue... It is no different than people that watch TV all the time, or read books all the time. One could even say gaming and all those other things are a great way to de-stress and escape the reality of a crappy existence.

I think it can be called an addiction when you have those people that play a game so long that they don't shower, eat, sleep, drink, crap, and then eventually die because of it.

[JERICHO DREAD™]

I've been playing video games since I was ten years old... thirteen years later, here i am! I was.. a MAJOR game addict and that I will not deny. It did change my grades a bit. Made them a bit lower than they already were because back then, I was already a bit of an odd one and always in my own world.

Now-a-days, I always do stuff on the pc, play games, browse the net, and more but I am not nearly as good as I used to be. I see no end to my addiction even as I am now exploring career options in a university.

[Dono Kill TF2]

just goes to show you how much self-control you have.
it's really isn't that difficult to put down the game

[Tux]

addiction is almost always linked to abuse and the victim will become addicted to something else sooner or later. The blame is not the victim but rather the abuser.

[ໂ‧͡‧̫ໃ]

Unlike some other addictions such as alcohol or shopping, I think it's important to understand that people can play video games (or any game for that matter) consecutively for prolonged periods and not actually be addicted to it. So the amount/hours you play can in many situations have less to do with addiction and more to do with game dependency, which from personal experience, is rather different. It may not be a safe bet to classify addiction primarily with the number of hours you are playing a day. If you play games all day and then can just snap out of it if you have something better to do, that's either a serious hobby/your work or dependence which is what most people have a little bit of anyway (also happens with food, sleep, exercise etc).


Edit: Wanted to add that your campaign is very cool an to keep it up!

[Sir Dookface McFerretballs]

Tawny Lawns の投稿を引用：

Unlike some other addictions such as alcohol or shopping, I think it's important to understand that people can play video games (or any game for that matter) consecutively for prolonged periods and not actually be addicted to it. So the amount/hours you play can in many situations have less to do with addiction and more to do with game dependency, which from personal experience, is rather different. It may not be a safe bet to classify addiction primarily with the number of hours you are playing a day. If you play games all day and then can just snap out of it if you have something better to do, that's either a serious hobby/your work or dependence which is what most people have a little bit of anyway (also happens with food, sleep, exercise etc).


Edit: Wanted to add that your campaign is very cool an to keep it up!

I wish there was a way to up-vote comments on Steam. Very good points you made there.

I had a few friends that were actually so addicted to games or facebook and such that they would start showing withdrawl symptoms sometimes immediately. One time I had 3 friends/aquaintances, including an ex-boyfriend, that were so addicted to games or social media that me and another friend planned out a week long camping trip intervention to a beautiful state park campground with no cell coverage or internet. (I had the same thing happen with multiple people on geological camping trips in lower and upper division college geology classes as well) Anyway, two of them got all twitchy at the thought of having no cell coverage or net so I had to lie and tell them that the park had wifi and cell towers to get them to go. My ex I had to forcefully save his game and shut down his computer because he would constantly say "Wait! Just one more level to go!" (everything was always "one more level away").

Almost the whole trip there they were on their phones and barely talking till they started freaking out about losing cell coverage about 50 miles from the campground. They were sticking their phones out the windows and wanting me to pull over to see if they could get a signal and acting like crack addicts without their crack, I had to tell them they would get coverage again at the campground to calm them down. At this point we had 50 miles of laughing and talking and pointing out the beautiful scenery eventhough they missed the other 400 miles because of having cell coverage. Luckily they also drained their batteries in the process ^_^

We finally got to the campground and all hell broke loose when they couldn't get a singnal and there were no electrical outlets. They were flipping the f#*k out, screaming, pacing around like caged animals and mental patients in a rubber room. I was also recording them with my camera to show to them later. My good friend and I pretty much had to set up camp by ourselves with them only setting up tents when we told them they would have no cell coverage and get eaten by the bugs if they didn't.

I could go on about the sad and hilarious specifics but everything changed when night fell and the phones had all shut down. Middle of the forest, clear sky, not a single city nearby to pollute the darkness and a blazing bonfire going. Stars as far as one could see and clearer than they knew was possible. I even showed them the video of them freaking out when we arrived (most people don't know they are acting strange till they actually see themselves doing it) and ALL of them were embarrassed as hell. The rest of the night was spent with laughing and telling stories and LOTS of staring up at the stars in the sky. One of the people I didn't know very well actually set her sleeping bag on the picnic table and slept under the stars (She admitted to never seeing the stars like that before and described it as a spiritual experience) while the other two stayed up 4-5 hours more amazed at the amounts of shooting stars and such. The rest of the trip was amazingly fun with no distractions from the modern world.

The drive home was amazing too because I took out the fuse that powered the 12v outlets in the car so they couldn't charge their phones till they got home.

Anyway, when it becomes too hard to turn it off, or save, or hit the pause button, or close facebook or reddit or whatever is popular at the moment, or look up from their cellphone screen and so on, that one misses out on once in a lifetime experiences or planned out face to face social interactions, or gets fired from their job and loses real life friends because of gaming, yeah I'd call it an addiction at that point. But just because someone plays games in their freetime it is no different than someone that reads books or builds model train sets or fixes old cars and such in their free time.

[ໂ‧͡‧̫ໃ]

Sir Dookface McFerretballs の投稿を引用：

I even showed them the video of them freaking out when we arrived (most people don't know they are acting strange till they actually see themselves doing it) and ALL of them were embarrassed as hell.

Damn you're one great friend for doing all that for them! They're all very lucky you taped them and practically wacked their heads so they'd wake up. It sounds like you had one fantastic and extra memorable trip!

So many people are addicted to the internet/social media at the moment, it is crazy. I think a lot of the "new" people getting addicted to games on their iPads and mobiles end up that way because a lot of games now have social media related features. :( A lot of our community interactions traversing between offline and online is probably to blame as there's not much we cannot do via an internet connection these days.

Something I forgot to mention: Though people get addicted to any sort of game, I find co-op and multiplayer games are exceptionally easy to become addicted to because you feel a sense of responsibility and as if a lot of "eyes are on you". I know a good deal of people who'd otherwise be fine playing games on and off, purposely becoming sleep deprived so they can put in time with their group/guild/clan/community. I spend a crazy amount of time gaming as a hobby but don't use social networking services or play many co-op games. For me that helps a lot because when I have something else to do with friends or family, I'll just go do that and be okay not gaming forever and ever until I return home. I don't have a "responsibility" to game for myself.

I think the most obvious signs someone is going through gaming addiction is when you ask them if they think about gaming all day even when they're participating in other things. Like at work we all daydream about tactics and loot but during a romantic evening or a fun night out with friends, if someone can't stop thinking about gaming and they really want to go home and game instead, that's no good. :( If going for a hike once in a while sounds better than gaming all afternoon and you actually go out when you can, it's all good. :D

On a side note, gaming dependency has its problems as well, though usually not as severe as addiction because it's less about gaming and more about other emotional and/or social problems among other things that will manifest in whatever addiction, not just with gaming. So gaming would practically be a coping mechanism more than anything else. :P

This is just all from personal experience and common sense derived from that (nothing more, nothing less).