Taking Away the Stick

If you’re intent on being a technology badger, then now might be a good time to cover your eyes. If you’d like to stop that pesky poking from the “game addiction” knowledge-stick, then read on. We’ll do a basic rundown on games, addiction, and the magical phrase game addiction.

Games

A lot of the comments on “game addiction” come from people who clearly don’t understand the differences between single player, multiplayer, FPS, RPG, MMO, or any other game. Some people don’t even understand the possibilities inside of a simple or popular game, like Halo or Solitaire.

Videogames are more vivid and enchanting than they ever have been. Explaining or learning game basics may seem difficult, but it really isn’t hard with the right strategy. If you want to explain games to someone new, or you’re looking to understand games yourself, then I suggest you guide the conversation or research with two questions.

These are two elements that you’d find in any game: How you interact with real people and what you do inside of it. The first question is usually explained with descriptors like “single player,” “multi-player,” etc. Gamers usually describe the second question with acronyms like “FPS,” RPG,” or “RTS.” While these clues will be daunting to some and challenging for many, learning the very basics of gaming can be stimulating and very self-rewarding.

Addiction

If social apprehension occurs because people don’t understand games, it no doubt happens when people don’t understand addiction, a topic hotly debated by many academics.

This is a good place for me to stop and explain my incessant use of quotations around the word “addiction.” Take heed. While addiction has a scientific meaning, it evokes a unique imagery for everyone, especially therapists working with substance abuse. Medical professionals almost always prefer the term “dependency.” The DSM-IV, the diagnostic and statistical manual used by psychologists, psychiatrists and medical professionals for the purposes of focusing treatments, never uses the term “addiction.” Unwarranted use of the word “addiction” in conjunction with games just is not a good idea.

Game Addiction

Like my old pal Captain Obvious used to tell me, rushing to judge somebody’s life is never a good idea. Technology badgers might insist on an intervention, or even harbor grudges against players whose hobbies don't harm themselves or anybody around them. They don’t want to acknowledge it, but some people can balance a healthy and productive lifestyle with a large amount of play.

Of course there are some who can’t. An excellent portrayal of these “two sides to the story,” was the popular ‘view from the top’ post. The ‘Soul Kerfuffle’ blog didn’t feature just the one player writing on how World of Warcraft negatively impacted his life. The blog featured posts which rebuffed and balanced that view against those of the larger community of gamers. A second gamer then wrote a post stating, again, what should have been obvious: many players just enjoy these games!

Surprise! He posed three questions which he felt should be asked of gamers who are thinking about leaving massively multiplayer online games, “Are you getting something out of it? Is it fun? Are you sacrificing things in real life to do it?” In his opinion the player writing the ‘view from the top’ post really had nothing to gain by playing, and he was actually the one that recommended that the player quit.

While the Soul Kerfuffle blog made a concerted effort to acknowledge and represent both sides of the argument, a number of other sites don’t. The website wowdetox.com allows people to post anonymously regarding Blizzard’s World of Warcraft, prompting them: “Tell the world your reasons for leaving the addicting game!” This website has pros and cons. It gives problem gamers an outlet and a venue where they can see that other people might have the same problem. These people need support, and the recognition that they get from sites like this may not be available from friends, family, or even therapists in their geographic area.

This is a novel idea with potential, but for the time being we have to examine such sites with a critical eye. How qualified are the people giving advice on mental health? Basically, do sites like this have the potential to cause harm? If so, is this harm mitigated by the service they’re doing? As in, do these sites help people cope or do they just use different sticks to poke different badgers? There are many other such sites, for instance gamerwidow, olganon, and gamingsucks. If the ultimate goal really is to take away the ignorance sticks, then it’s going to be pretty interesting to see how these sites evolve.