Comments on: Is video game addiction a plausible psychiatric disorder?

By: CodeMage

CodeMage — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 02:55:09 +0000

I guess it all depends on how you define addiction. If you’re using the word in the traditional pharmacological sense, then gaming is definitely not an addiction, because there are no physiological withdrawal symptoms.

However, if we’re talking about addiction as in psychological dependency, then games can cause addiction. The most notorious examples are massive multiplayer online games, especially if we’re talking about sloppily designed zero-sum games. When a zero-sum game is not well-balanced, the “addiction factor” can skyrocket due to the fact that whether you win (get rewarded) or lose (get punished) is ultimately not dependent on your skill, but on some other factor such as luck. The strongest addiction is produced when the rewards come at random, without pattern, because the mind keeps motivating itself to go on “just a little bit more” and see whether the reward can be achieved.

Of course, all this doesn’t mean that games should be singled out. There are many other activities that can cause psychological dependency, such as watching TV, sex or work. And let’s not forget that substances that induce physical dependency are a lot more addictive and a bigger problem in general than any of the aforementioned activities. Bottom line: anyone who blames all our kids’ problems on games is probably a loon.

By: Brian

Brian — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 20:24:49 +0000

Personally is it addictive behavior sure. Is it an addiction no.

What I mean sitting down to anything for hours on end with no thought of sleep or food is addictive in nature but the games themselves are not the addiction the actions of the players, tv watchers, sports players, drivers, insert repetative action here are the problems.

The people that game for hours without games would watch tv or something else. Dont blame the games dont blame anything. Its really just human need for massive amounts of information.

IMO

By: diamondssaphire

diamondssaphire — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 19:19:00 +0000

I agree with the other posters. I think it is far from a psychiatric condition. If you need help to stop playing video games and find more meaning or purpose in your life, then by all means go talk to someone. To classify it as a psychiatric condition, I think that is ridiculous.

By: Peter

Peter — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 03:17:52 +0000

No I don’t think so. As soon as they define it as a condition then we will have believers. Perhaps we should tackle chocolate chip cookies and milk next especially those dunkers. Might be some agression there whether a full or partial dunker

By: Angela

Angela — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 01:51:44 +0000

If so, they should’ve made TV watching (especially soaps, game shows, and now American Idol) an addiction years ago. Thank God they didn’t or we’d all be drugged. So, no.