An exclusive gaming industry community targeted
to, and designed for Professionals, Businesses
and Students in the sectors and industries
of Gaming, New Media and the Web, all closely
related with it's Business and Industry.
A Rich content driven service including articles,
contributed discussion, news, reviews, networking, downloads,
and debate.
We strive to cater for cultural influencers,
technology decision makers, early adopters and business leaders in the gaming industry.
A medium to share your or contribute your ideas,
experiences, questions and point of view or network
with other colleagues here at iVirtua Community.
The first step, as always, is admitting you have a problem. Most gamers have encountered the issue, whether through anecdotes, in their own lives or via the stream of alarmist news of far eastern gamers' fatal marathon play-sessions, and now the Netherlands' Smith & Jones centre believes it might have the answer.
Founded as a house for 12-step programs of varying addictions, the centre is undergoing preparations for a new treatment residential program covering games. From the centre's website: "We began to see a need for such attention in this area in 2005, when a small number of clients being admitted into the WILD HORSES CENTER for drug and alcohol addictions were also telling us about their compulsive gaming behavior. [. . .] We had never heard of people spending up to 16 hours on a game trying to 'level up'."
Smith & Jones is just as forthcoming as to its method of treatment, claiming it has observed "withdrawal symptoms as chemically dependent people" and have concluded that the truly game-addicted have no other option than to give up the gaming ghost entirely, by means of replacing those "time warp" hours with real-life high-adrenaline replacements.
More information on the centre and its gaming program, set to open this July, is available at their website.
Quote:
Xbox, Counter Strike, Quake and EverQuest are names that many of us have never heard. For many young people these names have become an obsession.
Computer and video games can be fun and innocent. Most people can play computer games without trouble. However, 20% of all gamers can develop a dependency on gaming.
Many of these individuals have neglected family, romance, school, and jobs; not to mention their basic needs such as food and personal hygiene… all for a video or computer game.
The WILD HORSES CENTER has the very first outpatient addiction treatment program for problem gamers in Europe. As of July 2006, we will have the first residential gaming treatment program in the world. The counselors and therapists at the WILD HORSES CENTER have developed a new program, specifically designed for compulsive gamers. The GAME ZONE treats compulsive gaming with many of the same tools that we use for other obsessive/compulsive behaviors, implementing the 12 Step Program as our treatment model.
We began to see a need for such attention in this area in 2005, when a small number of clients being admitted into the WILD HORSES CENTER for drug and alcohol addictions were also telling us about their compulsive gaming behavior. This was new to our staff. We had never heard of people spending up to 16 hours on a game trying to “level upâ€ÂÂÂÂ.
What really worried us was that some of the cases we saw were as young as 8 years old.
I was reading the Wall Street Journal last night and I saw an article on addictive gaming in South Korea. Apparently 2.9% or people aged between 9 and 39 are addicted to gaming and must seek help. The government has had to set up loads of counselling places for the "addicts". One of the reasons given by the WSJ for the extreme amounts of gaming (mainly online gaming - MMORPGs) was the fact that S. Korea is the "most wired nation" - 70% of the nation has high-speed broadband (compared to 45% in Japan and 33% in the USA).
Apparently the death toll from addictive gaming (in Korea) was 10 people last year - it is also on the rise in Europe and the USA. One man (who was addicted to online gaming) was interviewed - he played from 8AM to well past midnight for many weeks - surviving on one meal a day.
I saw that article too ANd I doubt all the Gamers would go to Counselling places; but if they made it more like a Lan Centre, I guess it would be better.
maybe games should have built in systems, where the Game will save and stop, It's always MMORPG's, because the user feels they have to have so much involvement, it takes over their real life, unlike a God/RTS Game where you are in control.
June 2005, A couple from Incheon, South Korea, allowed their infant to die of neglect caused at least in part by their obession with World of Warcraft.
August 2005, Mr Lee, a 28-year-old South Korean man, died of exhaustion in an Internet cafe after spending a solid 49 hours playing Starcraft. A resident of Taegu, he seems to have collapsed after failing to eat or sleep during his marathon session. He died in hospital, of what was presumed to be a heart attack. He had been fired from his job the previous month for playing computer games when he should have been at work.
Yeh I suppose with MMORPGs, due to the fact that they never end, it's easier to become addicted. I'm not really a fan of MMORPGs - I find it a bit too repetitive sometimes - I prefer Strategy games (because they actually make you think) and FPS. BTW Sam, did you get asked a question in the English Language paper about computer games?
I enjoy RTS for the same reason, and some FPS. Yeah, I did get asked that question, and another about Reality TV. I usually score high in the persuasive writing/2 sided debate questions, well, I did because I got an A in English and History
Yeh, I prefer persuasive writing as well - English (Language) is my best subject mainly because of that. How do you know what you got for English and History?! I guess that is your mock score.
That's my coursework and Mock score, and what i'm pretty shure i'll get I also like Geography; thats easy, and I don't like maths, although I son't do bad in it for some reason. I have got the final result for English Language as I did that a while back and got an A.
So now we know the favorite subjects of the Strategy gamer, now for the MMORPG gamer? Or do they even go to School
Hahahahahah, I don't mind maths, and I like Geography - the sciences are probably my favourite subjects (except Chemistry, because I am bad at that).
Most of the MMORPG players that I know do not do too well academically, or in sport - not due to lack of ability, but probably due to game addiction. I'm sure that most of them do go to school (if they are supposed to). Or, at the very least, they go somewhere to 'grind', 'level up' or whatever. Favourite subjects might include such things as: mining, spellcasting and goblin-killing.
Currently having exams atm, and thankfully I managed to get myself unhooked from both an FPS and a MMORPG (give it up for me! :>).
And perhaps I break the MMORPG mould, but I play octopush (underwater hockey) at least once a week, football every other lunchtime, play cricket ~once a week (yeh, so that's basically a few hours standing about on a field but shh), walk the 3-4 miles to and from school~ everyday (ok... I'm usually late so I spose it tends to be more of a run ), and I'm not humm, how can I put this... 'Academically challenged'
Why the hell did I join and start posting at about midnight when I've got 4 exams tomorrow? (Is my MMORPG personality shining through here? - oh dar )
I would describe you as being a human being that occasionally plays MMORPGs, not as an MMORPG player that occasionally acts like a human being. I know several people who are really obsessed with MMORPGs. Are you doing A levels atm? I don't know any 6th Formers who have 4 exams to do in a day!! Good luck!
(Thnx! and they went ok, and pretty much as I expected)
Yeh A levels, though they're only kinda short 1:00 - 1:30 exams so it's not too bad, even if tehre are thousands of them... Annoyingly I had a clash so spent my lunchtime being 'supervised' in the staff room . The two other guys I was with have a 3-subject clash >.< so they also have to be 'supervised' until tomorrow when they have another 2 exams (eaaaheahehe- oh I'm I bad person).
Ok, at least he admits it; and seriously now; all of the game deaths are due ot MMORPG's, and as i've already said, they are the type of game anyone can easily become addicted to, with the right conditions.
They think about the game their playing, every second of the day, they relate to the game, the talk about it, and when they can get to a computer, they must play on the game; in extreme circumstances; compomising food, sleep and drink.
They are often quiet and lack communication skills, as they are too used to interacting with a computer, and usually are weak to some extent.
Below is some of what I wrote as part of a psycology essay; edited for preference to this thread.
Maintaining an in character presence is definitely one of the top rules os MMORPG-ers. Such as 'brb' or 'lol', 'noob', 'pwned', you get the idea. I know an MMORPG fanatic, and honestly, how stupid do you sound, saying 'kk' or 'lol' James Coobs.
Players create virtual characters to represent them online. The skills and personality traits they give their character influence their role within the game.
Unfortunately, typical MMORPG’s have a very transparent and simplistic, almost infantile story. What this means is that the player cannot really change the story because it is designed to be static and unchanging. The most fundamental evidence of this is that your character throughout the entire story has no dialogue options when speaking to NPC’s beyond being able to say yes I will do the quest or no I will not. What this is telling you is that the story goes in one direction. You can either choose to follow the one direction the story goes in, or you can play the game for other reasons entirely.
And here’s where it really fails. When you get to the lonely woods, there are 15 other players looting the same tree trunk for a magical necklace that keeps re-spawning no matter how many times it is picked up. You bring it back, and the NPC says thanks! Then you see 15 other players do the same thing and they are all thanked as well. Then new people who haven’t done the quest yet show up and the NPC asks them to go get the necklace as well. A person who actually cared about story and immersion and (dare I say it...) role playing, would try to talk to the NPC and would try to say: “Hey I just got you your missing necklace, why do you keep asking everyone else to get it, what’s going on here?”
Furthermore do we want to expose our youth to games like these? The most sensitive time in a person’s social growth is during their teens. Do we want them to get used to the idea of living out their desires in a virtual world where individual ability and independence is de-emphasized in favor of group dependency? Do we want to raise our youth as critical thinkers or as conformists? Just like television, gaming hours need to be monitored and limited closely. You have a problem if you have to force your teen to go out and flirt with other teens.
Suffice it to say that an MMORPG does not behave like a game per se, but rather like a reconstituted and specifically designed reality substitute; an online virtual world where people can log on and behave however they want to for an unspecified amount of time. Is this a game? Not really. Is this role-playing? It can be, but it is in no way related to the game itself. People do not role-play in relation to the game, since the story elements are so trite. They role-play in relation to each other. Once again, we are dealing with a reality substitute, a social arena where people can pretend to be someone else, or just be themselves, be as cruel or as kind as they want to, be as social or as anti-social as they want to, and be as constructive or destructive as they want to.
In light of this, I think a renaming process is in order, MMO’s are neither RP (role playing), nor G (games). A more suitable name would be MMOPW; Massive multiplayer online persistent world. The most fundamental and damning aspect of the MMOPW, and why they are not games is located in their fundamental philosophy behind how rewards are distributed. Invest lots of time and be determined and you will be rewarded. I am not saying that working for your rewards is bad. Earning your keep is a good lesson, as long as it takes into account that rewards are not obtained solely on effort, but also thanks to ability. Also, the whole philosophy of rewarding effort or ability for that matter exists in the real world. A game should not try to mimic the real world in such a fundamental manner. Players should find playing the game fun to begin with, whether or not they are rewarded should be irrelevant. If the game ceases to be fun, and you are still plugging away just for rewards, then it isn’t a game anymore, and you should stop, no matter your motivations. A game should be enjoyable in and of itself, engaged in for its own sake, like that which is intrinsically good according to Aristotle. According to Aristotle, doing something for the sake of something else is base. Now while working your ass off at a job you hate just to pay the bills may be bad, unfortunately you have to pay your bills and put food on the table, so your choice is limited. Why then, when you can choose a form of leisure, would you engage in an activity that mirrors the dissatisfaction you generate from your work??
I remember reading somewhere that some kids tryed to copy a scene from the game Grand Theft Auto by standing on the side of the street and shooting at cars. I think also some kid went and broke into a few cars.
Digg Topic
Tag topic on On del.icio.us
Technorati Search
Post to Slashdot
ANd I doubt all the Gamers would go to Counselling places; but if they made it more like a Lan Centre, I guess it would be better.
), and I'm not humm, how can I put this... 'Academically challenged' 
- oh dar )
