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Panorama - Addicted to Games?

mattx

By mattx
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dwhyte85

dwhyte85

Posted
Posted
Anyone else watch this fine example of bad journalism ?

 

BBC iPlayer - Panorama: Addicted to Games?

 

I watched it, I think a problem does exist for some people... but addiction can come in many forms. That said, I thought it was quite funny and if anything it gave good publicity to WoW... the guy commented on how good it was and that it wasn't Blizzards fault he kept playing it - it's just a great game. :)

 

Gaming is the new watching TV for hours on end, with a sort of social aspect... some people get addicted to that, some people get addicted to games, some gambling and some weird stuff like Manga... people who have an addictive nature get addicted...

mbird

mbird

Posted
Posted (edited)
And I was too busy having a real life, spending time with my missus in bed.....

.... playing splitscreen Call of Duty online :)

 

Thank goodness Sony TV's Have PAP (picture in picture)

 

COD+Friends, good times :)

 

EDIT: the other bird is pretty good at COD online.

Edited by mbird
Rawns

Rawns

Posted
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I watched it. It made me angry. So angry, I put a boot on a kicked a hole in my sisters door. I should have gone out and got wasted in stead.

 

The impression I got from it is: "If you play World of Warcraft, your as bad as Hitler"

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MK-2

MK-2

Posted
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my dad called me saying he'd watched it and telling me about it. it sounded ridiculous. sure i play games, and have on occasion played through the night, but if i fail university or lose my job because of it then its not because the game is so lifelike and immerses me, its because im a dick.
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aerospacemango

aerospacemango

Posted
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Hi everyone,

 

My name is Mango, and it's now 2 years and 3 months since I last "played for hours at a time". I used to need my fix of CoD, Battlefield, Half Life etc etc, but I've managed to break the addiction.

 

Also, having a 6 year old, and a job working with PC's is not conducive to wanting to play for hours!

 

Oh, and the OH isn't too keen on it either! I can get away with the occasional hour....here and there...but any more than that, feels like I am wasting family time.

teejay

teejay

Posted
Posted
And I was too busy having a real life, spending time with my missus in bed.....

 

 

 

 

 

.... playing splitscreen Call of Duty online :)

 

Bet you let her play with your rocket launcher and you got to play with her landmines.....:getmecoat:

Hightower

Hightower

Posted
Posted
Bet you let her play with your rocket launcher and you got to play with her landmines.....:getmecoat:

 

No, the landmines are currently under going maintenance so the rocket launcher was all for me

tech_guy

tech_guy

Posted
Posted
I'm a reformed character now and probably spend an hour, if that, a week playing games. Back in the early nineties I was awful and probably spent half of my waking hours playing the various incarnations of Doom. When Quake came along I was well and truly buggered.
mrbios

mrbios

Posted
Posted (edited)

I feel I've had a gaming addiction, spent the better part of 2 years playing CSS to death, parents got angry at me, for about 12 months i barely left the house, went to bed at 7am every day and woke up at 2-3pm, I'd wake up and play then play until i was tired enough to go to bed, sometimes with 24-48hr stints of playing. But after those initial 12 months i stopped being an anti social, glued to a computer chair person, instead i actually got out and about and experiencing things i wouldn't have otherwise. I played in a sponsored team, we went to boot camps in Worcester on a monthly basis and went to competitions like the Newbury iseries LAN events, all things I'd never have done without that addiction. Like the guy who was hooked on WoW and tried to get away i tried to get away but couldn't still play it fairly regularly today but I've got a better life/game balance going now.

 

Though i don't understand how xbox/ps3 players can get addicted to something when there is nothing to gain from playing it day in day out, same goes for WoW (unless there is something to gain?) in CS/CSS at least you had competitions, your aim was always to get as good as you could and to win money. Without that drive to win i'd never have bothered.

 

When i had a job for part of those two years i'd go to work thinking about the game, make up tactics in my head etc it was definitely an addiction as i felt this constant urge to be playing it whenever i could, and if i was away from it i wanted to get back to it.

 

EDIT: That's another point, i was in college for part of the time i was playing it, i never let it get in the way of college and still passed my course, did work i needed to when i was home and THEN played. So i completely agree with everyone who says blaming the game for screwing up general areas of education isn't an excuse.

Edited by mrbios
mattx

mattx

Posted
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I was well and truly buggered.

 

Hope you lubed up.

I'm letting the missus play with my joystick tonight. And no, it's not a quickshot two. [ You have to be quite old to get that, but as tech_guy is, he won't have a problem.......you old git. ]

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Sarconia

Sarconia

Posted
Posted

I'm watching this now on iplayer via my PS3...

 

I hate to admit this but having been gaming for many years now I can definitely say that when I was a child I was addicted to gaming. I used to play for up to 8-10hrs at a time, even used to get enraged when my parents told me to go to bed at various hours of the night. I used to bunk off school to play games quite frequently. It was like gravity, I was being pulled into the games and heck, I wanted to get away from my real life (for many reasons) so that just made it easier for the games to take over.

 

Nowadays, my gaming is perfectly under control as I don't want to escape my real life quite so much, quite frankly I'd rather have sex than play my playstation! (Wouldn't we all I suspect) I still play games quite a lot, maybe for 2-3hrs every other night and a bit more at the weekend. I exercise at the gym, watch TV, read books, craft and sew things - it's all about keeping yourself occupied with things other than gaming, once you've found other things to do, the gaming simply won't seem to be as important, it'll just become another hobby in which you engage in now and then.

 

I wouldn't say that gaming is bad, just that it can be addictive to some given the circumstances or that particular person's susceptibilties.

MkII

MkII

Posted
Posted

The rats who obsessed with random rewards weren't addiction prone rats, they were ordinary rats. Seems to me like it's more the strength of your personality that saves you from wasted time playing games

 

/cynic

Sirbendy

Sirbendy

Posted
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... no, it's not a quickshot two. [ You have to be quite old to get that, but as tech_guy is, he won't have a problem.......you old git. ]

 

I'm old too then. They were damn good units!

Guest Guest

Guest Guest

Posted
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Its funny, when i was a lad we were all "addicted" to games but we were also addicted to football. At the time we got greif from people for playing football, even had the riot police come and remove us for playing football on the... village green :confused:

I'd bet that anyone I asked now would love for the kids to be going out and playing abit of footy with real life friends rather than talking to "killa_daz_865" on CoD, or one of their 274623846292549 "friends" on facebook.

 

I must say I've got to mirror mk-2, if you fail in something its not because someone or something made you fail, its because you are a dick. There are plenty of people addicted to drink and/or drugs who still lead perfectly productive lives. Heroin or CoD, no real comparison for me there.

Edited by Guest
dwhyte85

dwhyte85

Posted
Posted (edited)
The rats who obsessed with random rewards weren't addiction prone rats, they were ordinary rats. Seems to me like it's more the strength of your personality that saves you from wasted time playing games

 

/cynic

 

It's slightly different comparing the test in a controlled environment where the rat was fed by pushing down on a lever then they took the food away but randomly treated on lever pushdown... if a rat is hungry, of course they're going to push down on a lever!

 

If they stuck a rat next to a PS3 with a rat-sized controller and gave them the option of a TV, a mini-desk with some books... i'd suggest that it's a good comparison.

 

I can understand the basis and what they're getting at but... I don't think it can be fully applied to gaming based on the skinner box experiment or the dogs and the bell ringing.

 

I do think you're right, some people will get addicted but I think that's more factors of home life, social life & mental state.

 

Rather than just addiction I think it can be escapism.

Edited by dwhyte85
mrbios

mrbios

Posted
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Rather than just addiction I think it can be escapism.

 

Must admit i use games to get away from "life" at times, sitting watching TV my mind wanders and if there's something worrying me or stressing me out i can't happily sit there, but if im playing a computer game i've always felt my mind is completely occupied that way and nothing else bothers me, i can escape reality completely in that brief moment.

Butters

Butters

Posted
Posted

I was definitely addicted to gaming, especially playing CoD:MW in a semi professional format. Going home every night, strategising and then playing and would literally go mental at myself if I missed a shot etc.

 

Now that I have a job in London, my gaming time is the occasional play on the Xbox or Football Manager.

 

Now got an addiction to watching a full tv series back to back....

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