Can You Really Be Addicted to Video Games? (New York Times)

[Deleted member 431]

In May, the World Health Organization officially added a new disorder to the section on substance use and addictive behaviors in the latest version of the International Classification of Diseases: "gaming disorder," which it defines as excessive and irrepressible preoccupation with video games, resulting in significant personal, social, academic or occupational impairment for at least 12 months. The latest edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the American Psychiatric Association's clinical bible, recognizes "internet gaming disorder" — more or less the same thing — as a condition warranting more research.

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full read here: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/22/...ed-to-video-games.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share

Long but fascinating and scary article about video game addiction. Talks about one particular story specifically and selves into how games are designed precisely to be addictive and promote compulsive behaviour.

 

[nsilvias]

you can be addicted to anything but i dont see how games are any worse than tv addiction micro transactions and gambling aside

 

[Angst]

I am mildly addicted to video games. I think about them far too often and it has a mildly negative impact on my life.

I worry it will get worse, so I am taking steps to fight it now.

 

[lazygecko]

I think it's more of a confluence of overlapping factors that can cause people to descend into addictive behavior patterns centered around gaming. Especially online ones that heavily involve a social/community component, which is particularly effective at tapping into our yearning for acceptance and social status among our peers (and some value this kind of gratification a lot more than others). Some games can be described as very addictive on purely a mechanical basis, but more often than not I don't think it's that alone which can really push someone over the edge. Civilization's game design is notoriously addictive and can make people lose themselves completely in the experience for the better part of the day, but you don't really hear about anyone ruining their life over Civilization and desperately needing to get their "fix" when they're not playing it.

 

[striderno9]

I have definitely considered if I have an addiction to games. I'm pretty sure I do. I just try to combat it by being productive with my life and making sure I reach the goals I set for myself.

 

[Mitch]

Absolutely. I was addicted to WoW and Ragnarok Online. During my senior year of highschool I would stay up until 2-3AM and would neglect the majority of my homework. Once I graduated, I'd play at work for hours, 5 days a week. Then go straight home and play until I slept.

My addiction most likely stopped me from going to college out of highschool and kept me from doing much in regards to learning up until 2015.

 

[CountAntonio]

Yes. They are the perfect form of escapism.

 

[Lobster Roll]

I won't discount that people out there are truly addicted to video games, but I don't think that video games themselves are an addictive product. Video games are a form of escapism, and some people are more dependent on escapism than others.

Also this quote is basically where I stand on this.

"It's absolutely not an addiction," says Andrew Przybylski, director of research at the Oxford Internet Institute. "This whole thing is an epistemic dumpster fire." People enjoy and sometimes form all-consuming passions for countless activities — fishing, baking, running — and yet we don't typically pathologize those.

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But when it's games ... it's obsession and addiction for people that are passionate.

 

[MadMod]

You can easily overdo anything in life, but there's nothing physically making you addicted to them unlike drugs, alcohol etc. You're not exactly going to get withdrawal symptoms from not playing COD for 2 days haha. I get that they can have addictive features, this is talking from a personal perspective, but tbh I don't really have an addictive personality. I just feel like its more based off the mental health of the individual than the product being the root of the problem.

 

[PlzUninstall]

It's definitely a problem. With the rise of games as a service and battle passes becoming more prevalent games are even more intune with how we play and dangling rewards for us to work or pay towards. We've had a few stories over the years of gaming excessively ending in neglect of jobs/children/ourselves and also excessive spending on microtransactions.

I'm fully convinced that if we don't start taking this more seriously - it's going to be a huge problem.

you can be addicted to anything but i dont see how games are any worse than tv addiction micro transactions and gambling aside

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These things are ingrained into so many games nowadays you can't really consider them to be completely separate.

 

[Firewithin]

i would tend to disagree but then ill remember the 5 years i spent playing WoW

 

[Deleted member 431]

you can be addicted to anything but i dont see how games are any worse than tv addiction micro transactions and gambling aside

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The article addresses this but you've touched on micro transactions and gambling and some games are purposely made to be addictive and entice you to keep playing. Those are one way.

 

[TaySan]

Of course. Anything that can give you pleasure in your mind can be addictive.

 

[Zonal Hertz]

I never got addicted to gaming until I got into competitive multiplayer in like 2004/2005. Once it had a social element to it I was gone to the world. I'd say for like 8 years I was probably playing 6 hours on schooldays and like 12 hours a day on any day off.

It's not since I've grown up and had a bit of distance I realised how much I used to game. Like I still game a lot and think I'm pretty balanced lol.

It was never any hooks or lootboxes that did it to me. Just the fun of always being able to compete and being social with like minded friends online.

 

[Box]

I know a manager of a bookies in York. He told me the same bloke is waiting for him to arrive every morning, and he has to tell him to leave at close of business. All he does all day is play the virtual horse racing game. Rarely wins but shoves up to 100 quid a day into it.
When I asked him if he intervenes, he told me he did once, and thus is unable to since. Being told by upper that unless he spends significantly more all of a sudden or literally has a breakdown in the shop, to leave him to his 'game'

 

[garion333]

you can be addicted to anything but i dont see how games are any worse than tv addiction micro transactions and gambling aside

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Those are kinda big things for folks.

TV doesn't also tend to give the same dopamine boosts that gaming can, so saying "you can be addicted to anything" is minimizing the potential issues people can find themselves in.

 

[Nome]

I won't discount that people out there are truly addicted to video games, but I don't think that video games themselves are an addictive product. Video games are a form of escapism, and some people are more dependent on escapism than others.

Also this quote is basically where I stand on this.



But when it's games ... it's obsession and addiction for people that are passionate.

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Pathological addiction is usually characterized by having a negative impact on other aspects of your life.

 

[Unicorn]

you can be addicted to anything but i dont see how games are any worse than tv addiction micro transactions and gambling aside

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There's additional social pressures that go beyond FOMO discussion like keeping up with a TV show would elicit.

 

[Lobster Roll]

I never got addicted to gaming until I got into competitive multiplayer in like 2004/2005. Once it had a social element to it I was gone to the world. I'd say for like 8 years I was probably playing 6 hours on schooldays and like 12 hours a day on any day off.

It's not since I've grown up and had a bit of distance I realised how much I used to game. Like I still game a lot and think I'm pretty balanced lol.

It was never any hooks or lootboxes that did it to me. Just the fun of always being able to compete and being social with like minded friends online.

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Is that really so bad, though? You were participating in a social activity with friends with whom I assume you would be chatting with during slower moments in the gaming session. You were actively participating in competition which is also beneficial. You said it best yourself, the social element was what drew you in. It's not like you were stunting your social life to play these games.

 

[Z-Beat]

Yeah, you can be addicted to anything

 

[Edify]

Gaming addiction can be a lot more than just escapism. Games at their core are operant conditioning mechanisms and I can say from experience that it's possible to get sucked in and crave that feedback even when you have an otherwise happy and fulfilling life.

 

[Zombine]

Gaming lends itself to addictive spending.

 

[What-ok]

Humans addict to everything if allowed to.

 

[Pendas]

My favorite part of this article is game companies pushing back on the "video games are addictive" talking-point, then turning around and hiring gambling analysts to make their games more addicting with gambling mechanics.

 

[Chopchop]

I've definitely been addicted before. There was a period of time when I would play RO pretty much anytime I wasn't at school or eating at home. Sometimes it would be 10 hours a day or more. I did this on and off for a few years.

Even though I think I learned a lot about myself and other people by socializing online during that time, it definitely wasn't healthy. I saw everything through a lens of "when can I go back to do x in game" and would plan everything I did around that. When I wasn't gaming, I was constantly looking at the clock because I was always tracking boss spawn times in my head, and wondering how to catch the next spawn when I could get back on. The most telling sign of the addiction was how goddamn itchy I felt whenever the game went down for any reason.

While it wasn't bad enough to make me drop out of school or anything (though I knew people in-game who did), it definitely was an excessive and unhealthy amount of gaming.

And that's just for an MMO before microtransactions and lootboxes were a thing. Games are way better at hooking people now, and that's not good.

 

[Josh5890]

Absolutely, mentally at least.

 

[Stinkinmushroom]

you can be addicted to anything but i dont see how games are any worse than tv addiction micro transactions and gambling aside

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Your addiction to an online game like LoL or wow can go on forever basically. Tv and movies, once you've seen something, its done. Its not limitless in time. If you know what i mean.

 

[Deleted member 40102]

Ummm looking at my self basically living virtual world..... I can certainly say yes.

 

[Buff Beefbroth]

I wish I was addicted to video games. Then I might actually play through my backlog.

 

[Dyle]

If we recognize gambling as something that you can be addicted to, then we should recognize gaming in the same way, because they operate nearly identically, target the same parts of our brains, and occur in similar, largely solitary places.

 

[carlsojo]

Tbh I'm addicted to buying video games and never finishing them.

 

[Asbsand]

You can be addicted to video games. If you deselect a social life or important things like studying or working to play video games (unless it's a vacation for a hyped game) I think it's addiction and I can say that because I've been very guilty sometimes of choosing games over things that matter, and in that case when you're unable to see that yourself or stop yourself it is an addiction.

 

[Dixie Flatline]

I can stop anytime I want!

 

[Silence_and_I]

To people who say video games are addicting, do you also consider playing single player storybased games addicting?

I can understand that multiplayer games can become addicting and I have experienced that myself. But there is no such thing for single player games that you can finish in a fixed playtime.

And by the way, I consider playing single player games an opportunity to learn something new (new story, characters, settings, etc). It's almost similar to the experience you get from reading books or watching movies/TV shows. I believe that it's good for the mind and helps you grow as a person.

So in the end I would say multiplayer games can become addicting but the same doesn't go for single player games. It would be great if they don't address the issue to the whole "video games" term.

 

[Deleted member 60096]

I won't discount that people out there are truly addicted to video games, but I don't think that video games themselves are an addictive product. Video games are a form of escapism, and some people are more dependent on escapism than others.

Also this quote is basically where I stand on this.



But when it's games ... it's obsession and addiction for people that are passionate.

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I mean its basically just like gambling addiction in a way, gambling doesn't have a physically addictive aspect to it, its entirely pyschological.

 

[Deleted member 49319]

I can understand that multiplayer games can become addicting and I have experienced that myself. But there is no such thing for single player games that you can finish in a fixed playtime.

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Singleplayer games also have the "activity-reward" cycle which can be very addictive.

 

[Dogui]

I think it's a problem when every game is put in the same basket. Like there's highly addictive games such as competitive online stuff or mmos but for the average joe it would mean that every game ever is exactly the same, no matter if it's a 3 hour long narrative detective game or something.

Like when you read a news about how videogames are all about mtx and lootbox when it's actually a minority that does that.

Not saying short games can't be addictive, just that it's a problem to put everything at the same tier.

 

[Mathieran]

I'm not addicted to games but I spend far too much time on Era.

 

[Wolf Parade]

Tbh I'm addicted to buying video games and never finishing them.

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This right here. Send halp.

 

[Wolf Parade]

I think it's a problem when every game is put in the same basket. Like there's highly addictive games such as competitive online stuff or mmos but for the average joe it would mean that every game ever is exactly the same, no matter if it's a 3 hour long narrative detective game or something.

Like when you read a news about how videogames are all about mtx and lootbox when it's actually a minority that does that.

Not saying short games can't be addictive, just that it's a problem to put everything at the same tier.

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Important point. Video game as a term is too broad in the context of discussing addiction. The vocabulary used in these discussions has to evolve because it's a catch all phrase for wildly different game experiences.

 

[Cels]

In the course of my conversations with dozens of compulsive gamers, a familiar narrative began to emerge: A young man repeatedly suffered some form of rejection from his peers; hurt, he turned to video games to soothe and distract himself; the games gave him a pretense of the kinship and achievement he never knew in the real world; when he left home for college or moved into his own place — and the familial checks on his day-to-day activities were lifted — his fixation on games intensified until it consumed him.

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🤔

Why suffer in a world that has no place for you when you can slip so easily into one that is designed to keep you happy, and is more than happy to keep you?

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meirl

 

[Bing147]

The way the question is phrased is silly in that you can be addicted to anything. You can be addicted to hot sauce, balogne sandwiches, or spinning in circles. None of those things are physically addictive and while that doesn't mean the addiction can't be very real for someone, the issue that would need fixing for those addictions lies within the person and not the product.

The real question is whether video games can be physically addicting. We know slot machines and gambling can be and many games bring in elements of that so yes, games certainly can be. The question that isn't necessarily answered is whether gaming outside of those elements is physically addictive. I would argue no, but I'd be interested to see a detailed, peer reviewed study.

 

[Silence_and_I]

Singleplayer games also have the "activity-reward" cycle which can be very addictive.

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To be honest everything in life has this cycle. When you go to work, there is that reward at the end of the month that pushes you to go to work. When you start a relationship, there are many rewards (physically and mentally) that push you to do that. Video games are just the same. But the thing is that single-player games will finish after 5-100 hours of playtime, so you can't really stay addicted to them. As long as you pursue your life goals, there is nothing wrong with playing single-player games or even multiplayer games. You just need to learn how to manage your time.

 

[Deleted member 27771]

The way the question is phrased is silly in that you can be addicted to anything. You can be addicted to hot sauce, balogne sandwiches, or spinning in circles. None of those things are physically addictive and while that doesn't mean the addiction can't be very real for someone, the issue that would need fixing for those addictions lies within the person and not the product.

The real question is whether video games can be physically addicting. We know slot machines and gambling can be and many games bring in elements of that so yes, games certainly can be. The question that isn't necessarily answered is whether gaming outside of those elements is physically addictive. I would argue no, but I'd be interested to see a detailed, peer reviewed study.

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This is a really disingenuous argument. Many modern games have multiple mechanics and systems to keep players "engaged" and returning. Some of these mechanics even dress themselves up in casino gambling trappings - but maybe thats just because that makes it more fun.

I doubt a peer reviewed article would change your mind. Certain gaming folks are just unwilling to engage in critical thinking around these issues.

Honestly a better argument would just be "screw this, I like games and escapism and don't give a shit about potential downsides". Instead I always see these semantic dances - I need more info, or well anything could be addictive.

 

[Nuclear Muffin]

Many video games are purposely designed to be addictive substances. They are every bit as potentially addictive, and damaging, as illicit drugs, smoking and alcohol; only they are potentially even more dangerous by virtue of being duplicit in their nature.

Skinner box games should be regulated and treated like any other inherently addictive substance; just like gambling...

 

[DoubleTake]

This is a really disingenuous argument. Many modern games have multiple mechanics and systems to keep players "engaged" and returning. Some of these mechanics even dress themselves up in casino gambling trappings - but maybe thats just because that makes it more fun.

I doubt a peer reviewed article would change your mind. Certain gaming folks are just unwilling to engage in critical thinking around these issues.

Honestly a better argument would just be "screw this, I like games and escapism and don't give a shit about potential downsides". Instead I always see these semantic dances - I need more info, or well anything could be addictive.

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.....I dont see a semantic dance at all...did you even comprehend what they said. It was nothing but a measured response.

Gambling and slot machine esque mechanics can be addicting and so games with those can be physically addicting due to the dopamine rushes they elicit. Hes not disagreeing with that thought.

But the fact is that more extensive research needs to be done on games without these explicit mechanics to determine if games in their own can be physically addicting.

 

[nded]

it's definitely a thing. No reason not to find out more about the methods certain video games try to keep you playing and ways to address them when they become a problem.

 

[Deleted member 49319]

To be honest everything in life has this cycle. When you go to work, there is that reward at the end of the month that pushes you to go to work. When you start a relationship, there are many rewards (physically and mentally) that push you to do that. Video games are just the same. But the thing is that single-player games will finish after 5-100 hours of playtime, so you can't really stay addicted to them. As long as you pursue your life goals, there is nothing wrong with playing single-player games or even multiplayer games. You just need to learn how to manage your time.

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In-game activities and rewards are balanced exquisitely that you can always expect some reward before your attention span expires so that you are willing to invest 30 more minutes into it. That's why it can be addictive. There is no obligation put on the player but they always feel they can't stop playing.
Life is not designed that way and it is also much much more chaotic unlike in games you can almost always expect consequential outcomes from your actions which contributes to a feeling of control.
Singleplayer games can be beaten but we constantly look for more more in other games to our taste.

 

[Velezcora]

I am mildly addicted to video games. I think about them far too often and it has a mildly negative impact on my life.

I worry it will get worse, so I am taking steps to fight it now.

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I think about games a lot but I wouldn't say it's detrimental because I think about other topics too and are fully capable of having varied conversations with others.

How is it for you? Its good idea to have more than one hobby to keep your personality varied.

 

[Silence_and_I]

In-game activities and rewards are balanced exquisitely that you can always expect some reward before your attention span expires so that you are willing to invest 30 more minutes into it.
Life is not designed that way and it is also much much more chaotic unlike in games you can almost always expect consequential outcomes from your actions which contributes to a feeling of control.
Singleplayer games can be beaten but we constantly look for more more in other games to our taste.

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For me, it's not quite like that. I play and quit whenever I want. If you learn how to control your behavior, you won't face any trouble.

By the way, I don't see addiction to single-player/storybased games a threatening issue. It's like you are addicted to watching movies or reading novels. It's not gonna ruin your life, you might as well learn lots of life lessons from some of these video games, improve your cognitive functions and also enjoy your time. There are many benefits to playing video games and very few downsides.