LA Times story on game addiction

Games
1

The LA Times ran a three-page story this morning about videogame addiction (I believe the LAT requires free registration). Without getting into another “OMG THE MEDIA R ALL BIAS” discussion (I thought the article was reasonably balanced), one thing caught my eye – at the end of the article they list a series of questions that some addiction expert uses to determine whether someone is possibly addicted to videogames. It’s similar to the stuff you see from AA or Gambler’s Anonymous. Check out the questions, and here are my answers regarding my current (and long-time) game of choice, World of Warcraft:

• When you’re not playing a game, do you find it difficult not to think about it?
Not really. I do sometimes think about the game when I’m not playing it.

• Are you uninterested in anything else besides games?
No.

• Do you feel unable to control how much you play?
Not really. But from time to time I play and then regret having spent so much time playing.

• Are you often late for appointments because of your game play?
Not anymore. That used to be a problem, but I now keep a wind-up timer on my desk so that I’ll remember to log off in time.

• Are you having difficulty managing daily life?
Not really. I often feel there’s not enough time to do everything I want, but that was true before WoW.

• Do you skip meals to play?
Yes.

• When you feel alone, do you use games to communicate with others?
Sometimes, but it’s not my exclusive remedy. I call, email, etc. people as well.

• Do you spend more than three hours at a stretch playing?
Yes, probably once or twice a week.

• Is game play preventing you from getting enough sleep?
Sometimes.

• Do you have headaches, dizziness or seizures?
No.

So if I score myself with 1 point for a yes and half a point for a qualified yes, that’s roughly 4 out of 10, depending on how you count it. The article doesn’t say what counts as “possibly addicted,” but I thought it was weird that so many of the questions were ones where I found myself going, “Well…”

The whole phenomenon is interesting. On the one hand, people become unheathily obsessed with lots of things. On the radio yesterday they were talking about some guy whose entire life is dominated by the Transformers. But on the other hand, it does seem like videogames, particularly multiplayer games, have some ability to latch onto the brains of susceptible people – and can even exert powerful influence on “normal” people (like me!). Is it something psychologists should be taking a closer look at? I’m not really sure. A lot of psychology, particularly this sort of “I’m addicted to X” stuff, has often struck me as just a bunch of ill-defined claptrap. I know we have some real psychs on the board (Sidd?). What do folks think?

2

I only answer yes to two or three of those questions (thinking about games, skipping sleeping, playing for 3-hour stretches), but I’ll definitely cop to being at least a minor addict. If I have a new game that I’m just getting into, it’s torture to be at work when I’d rather be playing it, and I substitute by reading as much as I can about the game without spoiling myself.

I deliberately have never played a MMORPG (at least not since MUDs in college) because I know I’d get obsessively sucked in even worse than I do for single-player games. LOTRO might be the one that breaks me if I keep reading about it here though.

3

Isn’t Fallout about 12 hours long? Is the guy playing it twice a night?

I guessed the reason for the suicide immediately. Was the problem Everquest? It sounds like a person that couldn’t handle social interaction or relationships normally or effectively. It’s no surprise that people like that flock to a virtual chatroom, where it’s easier to hide social handicaps. There’s probably a lot more to it than a couple of paragraphs can handle.

The “feel alone” question bugs the hell out of me. When you feel alone, do you communicate with others? A yes answer sounds good to me, unless that’s your only outlet.

4

At one point in the not too distant past I was playing WoW 50+ hours a week. Here are my answers for that time period.

• When you’re not playing a game, do you find it difficult not to think about it?
Not at all.

• Are you uninterested in anything else besides games?
Absolutely. Sex, for example.

• Do you feel unable to control how much you play?
No.

• Are you often late for appointments because of your game play?
Never, actually.

• Are you having difficulty managing daily life?
No. When I get home from work, I do my nightly chores – clean the kitchen, cat box, vacuum if necessary, etc. When I’m done, it’s game time. I spread my chores out over the course of the week so that I usually have an hour or less to do each night.

• Do you skip meals to play?
No.

• When you feel alone, do you use games to communicate with others?
Absolutely. It’s a multiplayer experience.

• Do you spend more than three hours at a stretch playing?
Every night. Weekends could be over 10 or 12 hours a stretch. This would include, however, using the restroom, making meals, getting drinks from the kitchen, etc.

• Is game play preventing you from getting enough sleep?
Not really.

• Do you have headaches, dizziness or seizures?
No.

50-60 hours, not an addict.

5

I hate those kinds of articles and questions. Half the time they are like if you answer yes to any of these are you an addict. I answered yes to 3 or 4 of those. It also depends on at what stage of a game we are talking about. Almost any MMORPG gets played pretty obsessively when I start out as I tend to burn through content pretty quickly. I do think about the game a lot in that time and look up items and read message boards etc. when I am not playing. Seems like pretty normal gamer behavior to me but probably according to these people I R TEH ADDICKTED. Or was, no more WoW for me.

6

I just hate calling things addictions when they’re really just compulsive behaviors. People get addicted to DRUGS, not doing something.

The other thing that bugs me is that someone who spends a similar amount of time watching TV wouldn’t be called an addict, would they?

7

The other thing that bugs me is that someone who spends a similar amount of time watching TV wouldn’t be called an addict, would they?

BUT VIDEO GAMES ARE EBIL!!

Seriously though I spend a shit load of time playing games but I wouldn’t ever call my self addicted. I do other things all the time I would just rather play games.

8

PC Gamer ran the best article on gaming “addiction” I’ve ever read a few issues ago. They basically clarified it as compulsive behavior that people in certain situations are particularly prone to (loss or separation from a loved one or friends; social introversion; can’t remember the others).

If you’re in one of those situations, you can just as easily become compulsive about your job. And people are usually applauded for becoming workaholics.

9

Hey wait, this feels an awful lot like a meme in the maki- oh well, too late, I’ve been sucked in:

• When you’re not playing a game, do you find it difficult not to think about it?
It depends, there’s often a ‘honeymoon’ period where I think about a shiny new game a lot, but it doesn’t last. But there is a steady stream of shiny new games…

• Are you uninterested in anything else besides games?
No, though I do sometimes have trouble making time for them. I’m interested in other things, but gaming is the ‘quick-fix’ that leaves less time for those others.

• Do you feel unable to control how much you play?
Yes, but not necessarily in the sense that they mean. Last night I intended to complete a few more series and do a bit of painting in Forza, but wound up only getting one race done due to other distractions pulling me away.

Though one of those other distractions was updating drivers and tweaking my Vista install, which you could argue was working towards a goal of being able to play games…

I should also be making more time for my other interests, as noted above, but I’m not sure whether that’s a symptom of addiction or just poor time management skills in general.

• Are you often late for appointments because of your game play?
No, I’m very punctual.

• Are you having difficulty managing daily life?
Not really, though my daily life is pretty simple to begin with. I don’t really have any Big Responsibilities like home ownership or kids to deal with yet.

• Do you skip meals to play?
No. I’m not much of a cook or gourmand though, so it’s not like I spend hours preparing meals to begin with.

• When you feel alone, do you use games to communicate with others?
I don’t talk to people very much in-game. Partly social anxiety, and partly just because there’s not too much overlap between gaming and a lot of my RL friends. Some aren’t gamers, other are gamers but in different genres or on different work/play schedules, etc. Most of my communication is e-mail or IM nowadays.

When playing MMOs, it was nice to just have some background chatter going on though, even if I wasn’t directly involved.

• Do you spend more than three hours at a stretch playing?
Yes, quite often.

• Is game play preventing you from getting enough sleep?
Not anymore. I used to stay up fairly late in my EQ days, but nowadays I head to bed around the same time regardless of whether I’ve been gaming or not.

• Do you have headaches, dizziness or seizures?
No.

I probably do play games too much, but the causality is unclear. Is gaming preventing me from hanging out with my friends as much as I should, or did I turn to gaming because our careers scattered us to the four winds and it became impractical to hang out with them as much…

10

Mental addictions, or compulsive behavior if you want to call it that, can be just as damaging as a physical addiction. I think it’s also harder to overcome. People can be detoxed from drug and alcohol addiction, but their behavior problems typically will cause a relapse.

11

Sure, because some kinds of behavior are less damaging than others. Gym rats are pretty healthy too. If you are at work all the time or at the gym all the time, what does that do to your personal relationships?

Better a workaholic than an alcoholic, but better still to have balance in your activities.

12

I’m hoping you meant “interested” here…

13

Of that list only the last 2 I said yes to. I’ve always had trouble sleeping and I do get headaches, but that could be allergy related. So far there hasn’t been a MMO that could really pull me in, and I’ve yet to put aside hunger to play a game.

Even though I guess I’m considered a hardcore gamer by now, I don’t think I play for more then 2 hours at a time most of the time. I do play marathon sessions if it’s a brand new game but I find I get burnt out if I play a game normally for 3+ hours at a time.

I just visited vegas and got a chance to see what a gambling addiction looks like, rooms filled with hundreds of people staring at a slot machine like their in a trance,it was abit creepy.

14

People get addicted to reading books. People get addicted to scrapbooking. People get addicted to team sports. All this boils down to “do you have a hobby you’re obsessive about?”

Substitute “having sex,” “scrapbooking,” or “shooting up heroin” for any of these and they’re just as applicable to a different crowd.

• When you’re not having sex, do you find it difficult not to think about it?

• Are you uninterested in anything else besides sex?

• Do you feel unable to control how much you have sex?

• Are you often late for appointments because you’re gettin’ it on?

• Are you having difficulty managing daily life?

• Do you skip meals to have sex?

• When you feel alone, do you call sex lines or cyber?

• Do you spend more than three hours at a stretch pleasuring the ladies?

• Is sex preventing you from getting enough sleep?

• Do you have headaches, dizziness or seizures?

• Did you install a hot tub just to facilitate sexual encounters?

15

I agree with this. You can turn almost anything into an “addiction” but that doesn’t mean any of it’s good for you.

I don’t think these tests are meant to be pass/fail. I think the idea is that taking the test offers you some perspective on your life.

16

Good thing I wasn’t drinking when I read that.

17

Addiction; the catch all excuse for poor behaviour.

18

Because if it’s an addiction, it’s not your fault! You’re a victim.

19

I was unable to control the amount of time I spent on the game for many months. Or, to couch it in DaveC’s terms, my behavior was so poor that I was unable to control it. I tried through a sheer effort of will to stop playing the game, and failed.

I am not a psychologist or a doctor and don’t know the official definition of addiction. I would only say that if I have been addicted to anything in my life, it was WoW.

I have not been playing much anymore, partly because the game is getting stale and partly because I am in the midst of a job/career crisis that makes all videogame concerns seem laughably trivial at the moment.

I intend never to start playing another MMO as long as I live. I hope I can stick to it. Whether the problem is in the game or in me, or some combination of both, it is obviously a genre I should stay away from.

20

I can’t figure out a single coherent order to my thoughts, so I’ll just list them:

  • As far as I know, the DSM-IV (the standard book of psychiatric diagnosis, referred to in the LA Times article) has no disorder of addiction. Depending on the severity, there’s alcohol/drug Abuse and Dependence. Dependence is the term associated with what people usually call addiction.

  • Like Athryn, I personally think the term compulsive behavior describes non-substance related problems – like shopping, sex, gambling, and gaming – better than the “addiction” label thrown around in support groups and self-help guides. The only one of these currently in the DSM-IV is gambling, and is given the label “Pathological Gambling.” Like others have noted, there’s a cultural component to this; it’s less abnormal in the U.S. to have an overwhelming focus on one’s children, or on one’s career, because those areas are seen as desirable by our culture.

  • Personally, I’d be pissed if the American Psychiatric Association includes video game addiction in the next revision of the DSM, without including criteria for compulsive behaviors with longer clinical histories, such as shopping or sex. If it were up to me, I’d make a single category of “Compulsive Behavior, Focused On…” that the clinician could fill in with the excessive behavior.

  • Since there’s no standard definition of these disorders, I’d be cautious with the results of any Problem Behavior Scale, like the one presented in the article. Maybe it can help you reflect on your life a bit, but there’s no published evidence I’m aware of that scores on this scale discriminate between people with and without the disorder.

  • I haven’t been impressed with the public statements of Dr. Maressa Orzack, who designed the scale and is quoted in the article. In other interviews, she’s made some wild claims about the percentage of addicted WoW players. She’s often quoted for these types of articles (being director of a Harvard-based clinic has PR benefits), but she hasn’t published at all on gaming addiction. The closest was a study she authored last year on the results of a program for males with compulsive Internet sexual behavior. I believe she relies mainly on anecdotal evidence, rather than controlled data, in making her claims, but doesn’t stress the limitations of this source of evidence.

  • Personally, I do believe MMOs can be played compulsively by some people, to the point where they interfere with other areas of daily life (e.g., relationships, work, school, exercise). My half-brother did poorly in his senior year of high school mainly due to WoW. Certain features of MMOs – specifically, the 24-hour access to intermittent rewards, both tangible (e.g., leveling, items) and social (e.g., guildmates, successful completion of big objectives) – make excessive play easier with this hobby than others. For example, it may be harder to get addicted to kayaking because you can’t do it at night, in winter or other excessive climates, and it’s harder to coordinate going with a friend. There’s few natural breaks built into MMOs.

  • I think that amount of time gaming is not by itself a reliable measure of problems; it’s got to interfere with other areas of functioning. I think some people can game 40 hours a week and not have it interfere with their lives. I do not believe the majority of players develop these compulsive behaviors, and I think that developers design these games to be entertaining, not compulsive.

  • I haven’t read any formal scientific basis for an “addictive personality.” Therefore, I believe that many compulsive MMO players would not have developed problems if they weren’t exposed to the games. I don’t believe that these players were destined to become addicted to something, and games just happened to be there. So while I feel we shouldn’t blame developers, they do have some responsibility. I haven’t made up my mind on the appropriate amount of responsibility, but the bulk of responsibility, IMO, is on the person with the compulsive behavior.

  • My advice: if you answer many of the questions “yes,” and you’ve been concerned about your gaming behavior already – missed appointments/classes, unhappy friends/significant others – you probably should ease back for a while. The original link to the LA Times article, as well as the July PC Gamer article mentioned above, are well-balanced sources of information. Most therapists I know would work with folks on this area, or any other compulsive behavior, for that matter.

  • Standard disclaimer: This is not professional advice; I’m a grad student in psychology and part-time college instructor. While I have many supervised clinical contact hours, I’m not yet a licensed clinician and don’t specialize in addictive/compulsive disorders. I have a long history of playing MMOs, but no compulsive problems besides throwing down excessive shamanic totems for the multi-colored disco effects. You should consult with a mental health professional for specific advice for your situation.