So? The analogy still stands. You like games, you just don’t play them at home.
No, you play them once a month at an arcade for an hour or two. Big difference.
It’s really not. You’re not a “gamer,” but you play games. Just as I’m not a “hardcore soccer fan” (or whatever people call them) but I do enjoy a live game or two a year and I like the World Cup.
Maybe this is how YOU played those games. For plenty of other folks, well, there was a LOT of time and money spent in the arcade.
The only difference is you had to go somewhere, in much the same way that you might need to go to a basketball court. That doesn’t make it a different creature from playing baseball in your back yard.
I loved video games when I was a kid. I got an **Atari **when it first came out. For several years, my Christmas and birthday wishes were all “Atari cartridge!” A trip to the arcade was the best outing a young teen could have in my peer group. Then I got a Colecovision. Even better. The last “gaming” I did was when I was determined to beat Super Mario on the SNES.
So obviously I have nothing against video games per se.
But these days, I just don’t have have time to play video games. I have various other leisure activities I prefer. I love watching movies, sports on TV, reading. I collect books and am active on a website dedicated to my interest. I wake up at 4:15 in the morning and typically go to be around midnight. No time for adding video games to that schedule.
Given all that, I do have a somewhat negative view of what passes for “gaming” these days. It just seems so much more …I don’t know… addictive?
My stepson started college but got into some sort of computer game and X-Box Live thing. All night he’d play. Skip class to play games. He’d be on a headset all day and all night with random people he didn’t even know. To me, these are “pretend friends.” I mean, they’re about as real to him as Jessica Alba is to me watching a movie.
He’d wake up at 4:00 in the afternoon in a pissy mood. Then he joined the Army. OK, good for him. Put childish things behind and make a good path forward. but now he has “insomnia problems” and is taking meds. Still playing games. Can’t sleep b/c some level still needs to be beaten. Wakes up in the middle of the night to log back in. It’s no wonder his sleep patterns are all screwed up.
I’ve advised him to stick to a regular work/sleep schedule but what can I do? Getting to the next level of WOW or whatever is just more important.
Not sure if its available worldwide, but in the UK last weekend there was an utterly brilliant documentary How Video Games Changed the World. Addresses all the controversial issues and goes through the history of video games. I recommend it to everyone!
Does Jessica Alba talk to you while you watch movies? What a ridiculous comparison.
There we go. Video games are childish and the people who play them may as well be make-believe. Jesus Christ is this thread frustrating.
The word you are looking for is Hooligans.
Pretty sure you’re a figment of my imagination Justin. Just sayin’.
I considered that, but I thought that only applied to the UK.
Oh yeah, I’m a mythical bad man… Rat on your pop and Justin Bailey will get you.
Yes, flunking out of college in order to play video games is childish. Immature. Stupid. Self-destructive.
Staying up so late to play games so that it screws up your sleep patterns and end up on whatever scrip meds he’s on for “insomnia” is not a productive adult path forward.
He’s just about to separate from the Army with no college education, minimal adult skills, and no motivation to do much of anything other than log in and play. I can hardly think of a more childish outlook. “I wanna play gaaaaaames!”
The only person in this thread I’ve commented on is my stepson. He’s obviously hopelessly addicted. I have no negative opinion on someone who plays a game in their spare time and enjoys gaming as a part of a productive life.
There’s a colossal amount of middle ground between being some kind of weirdo who lets games dominate their life because of a lack of social skills and responsibility and a “gamer” like myself, who views video games as a hobby that I do primarily after the kid is asleep and after I’ve spent some time with my wife that day.
Even prior to the kid, I didn’t ever spend that long playing them- maybe the better part of an afternoon and evening, but not for days on end, and certainly not to the detriment of work or relationships. It’s a hobby, much like some men watch movies (you), some do woodworking, some collect stamps, some collect coins, some collect sports memorabilia, some are gearhead car guys, some are yard and garden people, some golf, some play tennis, some work out, some are avid sports followers and still others are home improvement hobbyists. I choose to play games- I fail to see why that’s childish or an issue compared to many of those things.
My gaming friends are much the same as me- a high school soccer coach/history teacher, an ex-Army Captain & telecom technician, a video game sound designer, an IT manager, a student & former Army NCO and a professional diver / Navy Reserve CPO. All have wives or girlfriends, and between us I think we have 10 children.
Is that what happened? Or is it easier to say that he’s addicted to games than admit that their might be some serious depression going on here? And I still don’t understand where the childish comes in? Just because it’s video games? If he’s truly “addicted,” shouldn’t you be more worried about getting him into a treatment program and less worried about being sure you call him a loser on the Internet? Isn’t that what you’d do if he were addicted to something “adult” like drugs or alcohol or gambling?
And honestly, when has “The Army will fix him!” ever actually worked for aimless people who seem to need real help? It’s a sitcom cliche that is actually pretty damn dangerous in real life.
See, here’s the problem. You cannot distinguish cause and effect here.
Is he screwed up because he plays video games? Or is he running to video games because he is screwed up? Sorry, but video games are NOT addictive. Not in any scientific sense of the word. But they ARE compelling, and that means that people who are looking for an escape from life will sink themselves in very deeply.
You are basically looking at this backwards. You stepson doesn’t need to quit games. He needs to figure out what’s ACTUALLY WRONG in his life. And apparently the answer wasn’t as simple as “Oh, he lacks direction and the Army will straighten him out.”
Your stepson needs help. Not because he’s “addicted to video games” but because he feels like he needs to hide in them to avoid the actual problems in his life.
Tried talking to the kid instead of judging the media?
But video games are addictive. If we can agree that gambling and shopping are potentially addictive, I can’t see how you can claim that video games aren’t. Video games stimulate the reward centers of your brain by giving you a clear and concise objective. Addictive video games follow the carrot-on-a-stick model where you keep chasing goals. Some people are prone to be addicted because:
1.) Video games do not require real life social interaction. You can interact with people online, but this is a much, MUCH simpler medium to communicate with. In an online game, you only need to be as socially conscious as that particular game’s subculture demands. This tends to be a race to the bottom which will often attract the least socially aware individuals.
2.) Video games tend to be linear in nature and favor rote memorization of patterns, information, and goals. This means you don’t have to ‘learn’ or adapt yourself nearly as much in real life. Its much easier in video games to learn through trial and error how to accomplish a goal, than, say learn how to give a good job interview or impress a woman enough to go out on a date. The less success someone has with the ‘abstract’ parts of their life, the more they get drawn into the ‘linear’ aspects because those (in the form of video games) “make sense” to the socially awkward person. We tend to avoid things we are bad at and focus on what we are good at. But in the case of video games, this can be a downward spiral.
3.) Video games, like shopping or gambling, are a departure from reality. People that have a hard time facing the real world can be drawn to video games (or just the internet in general) because in addition to being in a much more linear setting, you can be whoever you want to be. If you are physically ugly, uncoordinated, awkward around the opposite sex, etc you can put yourself in a fantasy world where you are top dog, handsome, charismatic, and useful in your world.
“Video game addiction” has very little to do with the game’s themselves. And the trusty DSM5 (yes, I’ll be that guy) doesn’t include video game addiction. Nor does it include shopping addiction for that matter.
If the country’s doctors can’t even agree on what “video game addiction” is (or if its even a separate problem from the depression these people suffer), blaming it on the game seems really narrow-minded.
FWIW, Internet Gaming Addiction is listed in the DSM-5’s table of contents at the Conditions for Further Study section. So I don’t think that mental health professionals think that the disorder is made up out of thin air, just that it’s not legitimate enough to get an insurance billing code yet. IANAM.D., but your point on it being a subset of depression mirrors my own thoughts, and I’d add perhaps an anxiety disorder or a subset of avoidant personality disorder.
How about if I REFUSE to agree that shopping is addictive? Where does that leave us?
There are games that run very close paralells to gambling, but they are currently still the exception and not the norm.
Just because something “provides an escape from reality” and people with some sort of mental disorder choose to overuse that escape does not mean there is anything wrong with that thing, any more than there is something wrong with soap because some obsessive compulsive people wash their hands hundreds of times a day.