Addiction Awareness

Community General Discussion
83

What would be the point? The previous standard DSM never included games since the evidence wasn’t really substantial, and the current standard by ASAM is that basically anything is addictive because it’s not about the substance, or even how much you participate in it, but how the brain perceives rewards.

1. QUESTION: What’s different about this new definition?

Answer:
The focus in the past has been generally on substances associated with addiction. This new definition makes clear that
addiction is not about drugs, it’s about brains. It is not the substances a person uses
that make them an addict; it is not even the quantity or frequency of use. Addiction
is about what happens in a person’s brain when they are exposed to rewarding
substances or rewarding behaviors, and it is more about reward circuitry in the brain
and related brain structures than it is about the external chemicals or behavior that
“turn on” that reward circuitry. We have recognized the role of memory, motivation
and related circuitry in the manifestation and progression of this disease.

https://www.asam.org/docs/default-document-library/20110816_defofaddiction-faqs.pdf

tl;dr: Games aren’t addictive, they are (one of many) means addiction is expressed.

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84

:popcorn:

86

By that logic anything in excess can be as bad as cigarettes.

I agree that there is a problem and some people need help. Just being aware isn’t always enough because time just passes when you play and you can say man I’m hungry but after this or this, until you never actually get something to eat.

I think it is hard to change a person directly. This information really is for family members and friends that are worried about someone they feel has this problem so they can talk to said person and ensure they don’t play for unhealthy lengths of time without moving eating or doing things that keep a person alive. Something that would have to be a habit worked through and probably helped with if they’re truly that addicted.

I have to disagree with your comparison to cigarettes though… anything in excess is bad for you.

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87

True, i agree my comparison to cigarettes was bad because comparing one unique addiction to another is bad. All things in excess are bad, yes.

88

32 hours? Pfft. When they are awake 58 hours for a Ragefire spawn in EQ then they can play with the big boys of loss of sleep. :zzz:

89

32 hours is pretty casual.

90

Blizzard is only looking out for our health needs! We should be grateful!

91

OP, I appreciate your concern, but you and I both know what’s going to happen to this thread as soon as mods file into the office…

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92

Back when I was young, stupid, immortal and in college with enormous amounts of free time that I hate myself for, I once spent 48 hours straight playing EvE online.

There were small 10 - 15 minute bio breaks throughout, but I was conscious and actively playing for 48 hours.

The reason being, is because our Alliance was running high-value convoys (before jump freighters existed) from null-sec to high sec space and I was part of an EW squadron running security.

We had to secure the route, got word from spies that it was compromised, secure another route, fight off pirates, punch through the inevitable gate camp leading to high sec space, and then wait for the slow as hell freighters to move through… I think it was 40 jumps to get where they needed to go, and we were moving 20 + freighters packed to the brim with high value stuffs. 10’s of billions of isk worth of null sec goods to bring to market.

The interceptors had to go through and get 0 KM bookmarks for the route distributed to the freighter pilots, and we could only move 1 - 3 freighters onto the gates at a time because if you warped them all in as a blob, they’d bounce off each-other and end up having to impulse drive onto the gate from 10 - 15 Km way… or in one worst case scenario 40 Km away.

Then there were the inevitable ambushes by the logoffski tactics… enemy spies got the route, distributed it to raiders, who moved further along the route than our security element, and set up warp-points at the perfect range for their guns to the gate, then logged off so that their presence in the system wouldn’t be found. The spies then warned them we were coming, and as the freighters started to show up, they logged in, warped to their firing positions and we had to fight them off, then recover losses, which meant securing the freighters, and bringing up empty ones to scoop up the rubble.

All told, the freighter operation itself took like 12 -13 hours or so… but the escort and security duties from before and after, and then getting everyone safely back to home base in null-sec took 48. And I still lost my fancy Battleship on the return trip. :\

Never again will I devote that much time to a video game in a single play through.
Never.
Again.

I was absolutely miserable the entire week afterwards… I cannot imagine anybody pulling that off with any regularity and maintaining anything remotely approaching a healthy lifestyle or not keeling over after two - three weeks of trying it.

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93

So you want kids to do m*** or join the opiod crisis?

Lol these feelings of low self worth and lack of belonging aren’t going to be cured by people quiting video games :joy: I’d much rather they play 32 hours of video games than od on opiods.

Costs less money and is less likely to kill you when you don’t pay your tab. Nope let’s convince more kids to play more games for longer :+1:

94

This is actually true. From the get go, Blizzard wanted to create a game that encourages people to step away from the computer. They wanted to reward players that took breaks from the game, which is why rested XP was created in the first place.

95

The friend that got me into WOW in 2004 had to quit to save his marriage as he was working 40 hours per week and playing 45 hours per week. I was playing about 25 hours per week and my wife was going nuts, so I cut back to about 15 hours a week and have kept it at about that rate ever since. I just do what I feel like for fun and don’t need to compete for raid spots. I only LFR and other things at that level including PVP. My friend decided to give it another go last year, but only went 3 months before getting obsessed and had to quit again. Other than me running him through old content for mount drops or titles. We never really played together. Since he was working on a mission and I was just playing a game. I couldn’t get him to use his boost so we could play together because that would mean that he missed out on content. But then he had to quit right before he got to my level.

96

I think that’s a bad example since I had to make extra runs to get my trinkets. Rings can be the same way for some specs I think. Overall, you’re not necessarily wrong… but it honestly depends on the individual.

97

I’m not saying video game addiction isn’t a problem but chances are you won’t see a video game company raising awareness for such.

98

“I was going to play for 32 hours straight, but you know…that tip on the loading screen really convinced me to take a break”

Said no one ever.

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99

Personal responsibility. it’s a thing

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100

One day, games will be required to put addiction labels on them just like cigarettes have labels on them for cancer. It may not be in the near future, but itll definitely happen in the future. Nay sayers will obviously react negatively, but there will be warnings on the box or download.

Theres gonna be a classic hot coffee case and one of the major gaming giants is gonna be caught in it. I suggest that blizzard preemptively do it, just in case, just to be safe.

101

Get the backing to show that games cause something as serious as cancer and we’ll talk. The labels aren’t on cigarettes for their addictive nature… they’re there because of cancer.

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104

So you want to hold the game makers accountable for a lack of self control?

I don’t want to sound cold, but personal responsibility is on the individual. We dont need a warning label on everything, for anything bad that can happen from using it. I dont need a warning label that tell me not to use the lawn mower as a hedge clipper. Bad things will happen, but its not Lawnboys fault if i chose to try.

For those that have these problems, It is good projects like you mentioned exist to help.

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106

Blizzard is already addressing the wow addiction problem…they made BfA.

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