Video Game Addiction

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A video game addiction can certainly grow into a big problem. It can be an expensive habit, time consuming, it makes a person sedentary, and it can result in a person neglecting the more important things in life. Many video games inherently have qualities that make them addicting such as high difficulty levels, achievements for remarkable feats, incentives to complete the game 100%, an online community of gamers to compete against, a leveling system which entails the player to pour hundreds of hours to become top dog.

I was a big video game addict during middle school and early high school. That was most likely because of Aspergers as Aspies generally tend to avoid engaging in social activities and enjoy the opportunity to live in their own personal world where they can control. But as a progressed through high school, I gradually phased out of my gaming addiction. Yes, I still do play video games at a normal level, but it's not nearly as much as it used to be.

There are several reasons my addiction phased out through high school. I've picked up more responsibilities, I needed to focus more on my studies, I became more social, I needed to free up more time, I recognized my addiction was harmful to me, and overall my tastes have changed. I see gaming as a hobby fair and desirable, but as a lifestyle, no I don't think gaming is a good lifestyle.

I see little point in spending hundreds of hours on something that will not matter at all in 5 years. Most of all, it does not produce a productive end result in the way that different hobbies such as outdoor activities or reading do. I'm not against video games. Everybody has their source of entertainment whether it's movies, TV, or etc.

Personally, it is sad to see that some of my friends have become so consumed with video games (especially MMORPGs like World Of Warcraft), that it is hard to have a relationship with them. They are intelligent people, but can only have a conversation about computers or video games - and literally nothing else. Much of the time, I am even unable to talk to them or see them because they are too busy playing video games and it is impossible to do non-gaming things with them.

But this is my personal opinion on it: what do you think of it?

At one point in life I thought of gaming as a complete and utter waste of time, because as you said in 5 years it won't matter, and also because to me even now it doesn't matter. For the past 2 years I have been gaming almost every night, somedays more than others, but it's something I've enjoyed doing off and on since I first started on the computer. I enjoy it and I see it as an unwinding from the real world and all of the difficulties I have with dealing with people in general. I've worked as a CAD draftsman since it's been around. I even taught the course for 17 years +. So spending long and agonizing hours at the computer is part of my conditioning. Ok nuff said ...I'm off to play Quakelive.

As far as I know I am NT.

A video game addiction is not bad compared to some other addictions. The biggest problem with being addicted to video game is that they can get in the way of school and work. It's also easy to withdraw from social interaction when you have AI to successfully communicate with on a video game.

About the "five years" statement that I said, sometimes games won't even matter in a few months, like fads ("Who cares that you beat Arkham Asylum, we're all playing Borderlands now").

Perhaps I'm lucky, but I don't find any of those things addicting at all. Except perhaps for the "competing online" thing, as expressed through Gratuitous Space Battles (you post a fleet, and other people try to beat it) and Dwarf Fortress megaprojects (you try to make something gargantuan or astonishing to show off, like a clock or computer), which aren't direct competition.



I have the impression that the rate of turnover of games has increased considerably over the last year or two.

What exactly do you mean by "rate of turnover"

I mean like what you said, the rate at which games come in and go out of fashion seems to me to be faster now. Purely a subjective impression though!

I still play my games from the 90's. I enjoy a lot of games today, but much of the new ones just feel generic. The industry seems to be trying to cling onto the most popular thing around.

I agree. Today's games suck. That's how I beat my own personal gaming addiction; they stopped making good ones. There's only so many times I can play Civillisation 2, X-Com Apocalypse, and Fallout.

fallout 3? and soon fallout new vegas?

No, no no. The original!

My games are probably older than some of the forum users here

Nope. Not addicted. I have bought more video games per month for the last 10 years. I think my library is around 200 PC Games, and 10 ps3 games (lol). I had memory recollection problems of games I bought but don't really remember. =P. Yep, not addicted. Have no addiction . It's just a hobby!! !!

Oh moog. Do you post on the nma-fallout, duckandcover fallout fansites?

No Ravenitrius, I don't, but I did lurk on both for a while.

And by the way, I think you need an intervention

It wouldn't surprise me at all if aspies were a lot more prone to video game addiction. And Internet addiction too, which is something I struggle with yet.

I can very happily say I'm addicted to video games, the computer, and the Internet. And I'm very glad for it. Also, the 5 years argument is a rather bad one. Say I spend my time playing football or racing cars. What will I have in 5 years? Memories, exactly the same damn thing I'd have with gaming. Or pretty much any other hobby there is. Hobbies are there to waste time and to entertain you. Very very few hobbies have lasting things to them. But they all have memories to return to.

I'm pretty sure you were just kidding on that intervention. I'm perfectly fine with my game addiction. Muahahaha. Ohhhh the internet. Can't live without that. <3

Hehe, one of my favourite fictional characters is introduced suffering from having a permanent link - called a Gridlink - to the internet (well, a futuristic internet) embedded in his brain too long. I usually refer to myself as being Gridlinked to the 'net.