Gaming addiction - your thoughts?

Anything to do with games at all.
pixelwinx
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PostRe: Gaming addiction - your thoughts?
by pixelwinx » Thu Mar 14, 2019 4:14 pm

I think I’m probably more addicted to the thought of playing games and also reading about them etc. I dunno but it seems the reality never lives up to what I expecting.

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more heat than light
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PostRe: Gaming addiction - your thoughts?
by more heat than light » Thu Mar 14, 2019 4:17 pm

I think it's pretty obvious that I have a bad addiction to Gamerscore hunting. I'm at the stage now where I'd find it very difficult to give up on 15 years of it now, and it's not like I have achieved (lol) anything else noteworthy in my life, so strawberry float it.

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Dual
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PostRe: Gaming addiction - your thoughts?
by Dual » Thu Mar 14, 2019 4:58 pm

more heat than light wrote:I think it's pretty obvious that I have a bad addiction to Gamerscore hunting. I'm at the stage now where I'd find it very difficult to give up on 15 years of it now, and it's not like I have achieved (lol) anything else noteworthy in my life, so strawberry float it.


:lol:

:(

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Jordan UK
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PostRe: Gaming addiction - your thoughts?
by Jordan UK » Thu Mar 14, 2019 9:16 pm

I definitely feel that, for me, it has always verged on being an addiction. I lead a stressful life and gaming has always been my go to way of escaping. With a young family, I've really had to reprioritise how I spend my time and have had to force myself away from gaming as I simply don't have the time. I most certainly get a sense of anxiety / stress from not being able to game any way near as much as I used (a few hours a week) which shows that it's a more than a hobby. It's probably a healthy change but I still fear missing out / miss it as a means to chill and take my mind off of things.

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kerr9000
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PostRe: Gaming addiction - your thoughts?
by kerr9000 » Fri Mar 15, 2019 5:38 am

I love playing games and I could play the right one happily for hours for days and days but I wouldn't say I'm even a touch addicted as I've never missed work over it nor have I ever put off plans with a loved one in order to game.

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Cal
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PostRe: Gaming addiction - your thoughts?
by Cal » Fri Mar 15, 2019 1:50 pm

Gemini73 wrote:'I ignored my children to play video games'

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.co ... y-47333027

Read this article this morning and while video game addiction has been recognised by the World Health Organization as a real thing I remain somewhat sceptical. I guess that stems from the fact that gaming has played a positive role in my life rather than produce anything negative. If the World Health Organization is correct then given my own life long anxieties and hang ups then surely I'd be the perfect candidate for becoming a "gaming addict".

Thoughts?


I'd agree with you about the positive effects video games can have. Overall, videogames have provided me with countless hours of entertainment, maintained my interest in art, design and even broadened my interests into other areas, such as history and music (especially orchestral music). The net positives, for me, far outweigh any net negatives (expense might be one such). Added to all this is something I very much believe in - the therapeutic benefits of playing video games. We all have bad days, perhaps some hard times, personal issues, anxieties or even depression or illness. I've found that during such moments video games can often provide a welcome respite - some distraction if you will. I dunno, I think maybe the good far, far outweighs any possible bad. Just my take.

The Last Ginja
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PostRe: Gaming addiction - your thoughts?
by The Last Ginja » Fri Mar 15, 2019 4:24 pm

I've been gaming since Space Invaders and addiction had never been a issue until last year. I'd always dipped in and out of games over the years, with the occasional game consuming my time until I completed and always single player games. Never to the point of neglecting family,friends or work though.

I enjoyed Destiny 2 when it came out, played through the campaign, did some strikes, had some fun. We even had a raid group going and after a couple of months of Friday nights, with an ever rotating squad and teaching the new players the ropes we finally beat Callus. I was done. I'd had my fun and moved on only coming back to run through the 2 dlc "stories".

Then came the moments of triumph in the run up to Forsaken. A few of my online friends were talking about it, so I decided to jump back in. I got totally obsessed with it. I was playing every week night until 2am, sometimes later. I was drinking most nights and waking up not fit for work. I'd go to work but was thinking about my next Destiny fix. I did call some sickies here and there though. I put on weight, was irritable all the time and neglected my wife and kids to a degree. Something I'm not particularly proud of now but I didn't really see the problem at the time.

One day about a month after forsaken had been released I suddenly realised the armour I had spent so long getting during the triumphs was now just sitting in my vault gathering dust. I now had better armour, better guns, better shaders (lol) and realised what I'd done. Now don't get me wrong I knew the power levels were going to raise, they always do, but the need to do it just manifested. I just stopped playing it like that. I stuck it on a few weeks back just to have a look and all the new quests were sitting there to be grabbed and I found it all overwhelming and turned it off.

I deleted it on Wednesday to make room for The Division 2...

TLDR; Gaming addiction is just like any other addiction. No I didn't believe it either.

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Curls
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PostRe: Gaming addiction - your thoughts?
by Curls » Sat Mar 16, 2019 6:57 am

I only game now when I'm bored. I have a switch with me with zelda on. It was an amazing thing to have last year when j lived in the falklands and a great escape from the bizarre life down there.

I haven't touched it much at all since being back in the UK and then moving to Cyprus.

I would say I game most these days when I'm bored and lonely, normally when I visit my parents in Wales then. Zelda was the last game iplayed properly.

I have an Xbox one and switch but realistically they just gather dust. So many games of this generation I haven't touched like fallout 4 and Diablo etc that new 10 years ago would have loved to play. I just feel a bit meh about it all now. It's a shame really, a lot of old friends still game and I've really lost my connection with them.

If I do game it'll be for an old franchise like Zelda or Resident Evil and I'll quickly bash through it in a quiet life period and then not game again for a while. Or I'll just pull out a game I've played many times before.


Games ive played In last 3-5 years.

Zelda Botw
Resident Evil 7
Resident Evil Remake getting every achievement on Xbox One
Sunset overdrive
Skyrim

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Trelliz
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PostRe: Gaming addiction - your thoughts?
by Trelliz » Sat Mar 16, 2019 7:25 am

The Last Ginja wrote: I suddenly realised the armour I had spent so long getting during the triumphs was now just sitting in my vault gathering dust. I now had better armour, better guns, better shaders (lol) and realised what I'd done. Now don't get me wrong I knew the power levels were going to raise, they always do, but the need to do it just manifested. I just stopped playing it like that. I stuck it on a few weeks back just to have a look and all the new quests were sitting there to be grabbed and I found it all overwhelming and turned it off.


That's how live service games work to encourage that kind of compulsive behaviour - artificial scarcity, making the numbers come up and drip-feeding content just enough to keep you coming back. Throw lootboxes into that mix and you have a dangerous combination.

I've been through a couple of rough patches where i was unemployed for a while, so i turned to gaming as the only 'fun' thing i could do as i already had the machines and games. Weirdly these periods were both at the launches of forza horizon 3 and 4 so i played those a lot, and they kind of got me through.

With 4 though, after i was sorted and settled back into life i looked at all the limited events, mountains of cars i'd gotten but never driven, all the "do this list of things by the end of the week to get this shiny" and asked myself had i really enjoyed any of it? Coupled with the increasing coverage of lootboxes and general industry shadiness i took a long look at why i was gaming and, over christmas, essentially bootstrapped myself out of those kind of games.

The real last straw was going from assassins creed origins to yakuza 0. The former is a sprawling, massive game that does just that; offering a treadmill of content in a huge but empty area meant to keep you spending more versus a game which offers so much without asking more than the game price in return, packed into a dense but finite package and telling such a good story in the process.

Over christmas I have either sold a lot of my physical games or taken a long look at my steam library etc and uninstalled/hidden loads of games i picked up on a whim because they were cheap, not because i like them or their genre. I realised i was doing things like livery designs in forza because i wanted to do something visually creative, so i have used that money from selling stuff to get back into tabletop wargaming, which is its own money pit but at least you have a physical thing i've created/painted which can't be taken away/turned off when the next game comes along.

jawa2 wrote:Tl;dr Trelliz isn't a miserable git; he's right.
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KjGarly
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PostRe: Gaming addiction - your thoughts?
by KjGarly » Sat Mar 16, 2019 10:13 am

The Last Ginja wrote:
TLDR; Gaming addiction is just like any other addiction. No I didn't believe it either.


But it isn't is it.

I have a PS4 Pro, Switch, Xbox One X, gaming PC and 3DS XL and I "love" playing games. I don't neglect my daughter and shunt her to play a game, I don't sell everything in my house to fund my 'habit' or sit begging outside a shop all day for spare change or mug and steal to buy games. My partner is a smoker whose always crying poverty and yet that's something you'll never likely hear from me.

I pay my half of the rent, pay all food bills, water and TV license as well as my own personal bills (mobile phone, Sky TV/Broadband/phone, credit card) and never leave myself skint.

Explain how it's different to someone who watches TV, football or movies?

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PostRe: Gaming addiction - your thoughts?
by Gemini73 » Sat Mar 16, 2019 11:17 am

KjGarly wrote:
The Last Ginja wrote:
TLDR; Gaming addiction is just like any other addiction. No I didn't believe it either.


But it isn't is it.

I have a PS4 Pro, Switch, Xbox One X, gaming PC and 3DS XL and I "love" playing games. I don't neglect my daughter and shunt her to play a game, I don't sell everything in my house to fund my 'habit' or sit begging outside a shop all day for spare change or mug and steal to buy games. My partner is a smoker whose always crying poverty and yet that's something you'll never likely hear from me.

I pay my half of the rent, pay all food bills, water and TV license as well as my own personal bills (mobile phone, Sky TV/Broadband/phone, credit card) and never leave myself skint.

Explain how it's different to someone who watches TV, football or movies?


This.

My skepticism regarding "gaming addiction" remains.

Last edited by Gemini73 on Sat Mar 16, 2019 2:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.
The Last Ginja
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PostRe: Gaming addiction - your thoughts?
by The Last Ginja » Sat Mar 16, 2019 11:20 am

KjGarly wrote:
The Last Ginja wrote:
TLDR; Gaming addiction is just like any other addiction. No I didn't believe it either.


But it isn't is it.

I have a PS4 Pro, Switch, Xbox One X, gaming PC and 3DS XL and I "love" playing games. I don't neglect my daughter and shunt her to play a game, I don't sell everything in my house to fund my 'habit' or sit begging outside a shop all day for spare change or mug and steal to buy games. My partner is a smoker who's always crying poverty and yet that's something you'll never likely hear from me.

I pay my half of the rent, pay all food bills, water and TV license as well as my own personal bills (mobile phone, Sky TV/Broadband/phone, credit card) and never leave myself skint.

Explain how it's different to someone who watches TV, football or movies?


But it is though isn't it. Did you actually take the time to read my post? I didn't need to spend any more money as I already had everything there I needed. I can't say I wouldn't have spent more money whilst I was in the depths of my addiction had I needed to. I needed that fix of playing more, and that fix was readily available. We're not talking about someone who sits down to watch a film, soaps or whatever.

I don't appreciate you trying to belittle what I went through to be honest. I don't often post on here or anywhere, but I felt I had something to say on this subject.

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Jordan UK
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PostRe: Gaming addiction - your thoughts?
by Jordan UK » Sat Mar 16, 2019 11:56 am

The money thing is really telling. A few years ago, I built a high end PC and had all of this gen’s consoles. I must have bought 50-odd games in a year which I couldn’t possibly all play. Such behaviour suggest addiction. I paid all my bills, passed appraisals at work, stayed in my relationship. Doesn’t mean it was a healthy thing to do.

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KjGarly
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PostRe: Gaming addiction - your thoughts?
by KjGarly » Sat Mar 16, 2019 12:11 pm

Belittle you? Wtf you talking about. I just don't appreciate what I count as a hobby being regarded as the same gooseberry fool as an alcoholic/drug user/smoker.

It's a hobby and something I enjoy, not something I need in my life or start turkying for when I don't get the play anything in a day. Don't get me wrong, back in my youthful days I'd say it was escapism from what was a gooseberry fool life thanks to god awful gooseberry fool parents. Absolutely no difference than enjoying reading, watching movies/TV or supporting your favourite footie team. I mean, at least I'm not getting smashed in a pub every match day acting a banana split.

Can do that from the comfort of my own home without the drink thankyouverymuch.

The whole addiction bullshit is nothing more than an excuse and I feel the same when some deranged, sick piece of sub-human stain murders x amount of innocent people and they lump gaming as part of the reason why they've done it.

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PostRe: Gaming addiction - your thoughts?
by Cuttooth » Sat Mar 16, 2019 1:05 pm

KjGarly wrote:Belittle you? Wtf you talking about. I just don't appreciate what I count as a hobby being regarded as the same gooseberry fool as an alcoholic/drug user/smoker.

It's a hobby and something I enjoy, not something I need in my life or start turkying for when I don't get the play anything in a day. Don't get me wrong, back in my youthful days I'd say it was escapism from what was a gooseberry fool life thanks to god awful gooseberry fool parents. Absolutely no difference than enjoying reading, watching movies/TV or supporting your favourite footie team. I mean, at least I'm not getting smashed in a pub every match day acting a banana split.

Can do that from the comfort of my own home without the drink thankyouverymuch.

The whole addiction bullshit is nothing more than an excuse and I feel the same when some deranged, sick piece of sub-human stain murders x amount of innocent people and they lump gaming as part of the reason why they've done it.

Is your point that you're not addicted to your hobby? If so, congrats I guess? The Last Ginja says he unfortunately was to the detriment of other parts of his life. That doesn't somehow make all gamers addicts. :?

Nor does an addiction not exist just because someone can afford to fund it through normal means; the financial cost isn't the sole factor.

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RichardUK
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PostRe: Gaming addiction - your thoughts?
by RichardUK » Sat Mar 16, 2019 1:37 pm

I have gone from playing games almost everyday to now maybe once a month, I seem to have lost all interest in them but it may be due to a lack of any recent releases that interest me, so I am not addicted but I do become obsessed with things and go from one thing to another, at the moment its anything made by Apple, I look for things that I may not need or even want but I buy them to add to my collection, I spend time reading about up and coming product rumours etc, I am sure when a new Xbox or PlayStation comes out I will become obsessed with that and buy games and accessoires that I don't want but feel like I have too because its new and "exciteing", before Apple it was Lego and over the years its been many different things

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PostRe: Gaming addiction - your thoughts?
by The Last Ginja » Sun Mar 17, 2019 12:16 am

Cuttooth wrote:
KjGarly wrote:Belittle you? Wtf you talking about. I just don't appreciate what I count as a hobby being regarded as the same gooseberry fool as an alcoholic/drug user/smoker.

It's a hobby and something I enjoy, not something I need in my life or start turkying for when I don't get the play anything in a day. Don't get me wrong, back in my youthful days I'd say it was escapism from what was a gooseberry fool life thanks to god awful gooseberry fool parents. Absolutely no difference than enjoying reading, watching movies/TV or supporting your favourite footie team. I mean, at least I'm not getting smashed in a pub every match day acting a banana split.

Can do that from the comfort of my own home without the drink thankyouverymuch.

The whole addiction bullshit is nothing more than an excuse and I feel the same when some deranged, sick piece of sub-human stain murders x amount of innocent people and they lump gaming as part of the reason why they've done it.

Is your point that you're not addicted to your hobby? If so, congrats I guess? The Last Ginja says he unfortunately was to the detriment of other parts of his life. That doesn't somehow make all gamers addicts. :?

Nor does an addiction not exist just because someone can afford to fund it through normal means; the financial cost isn't the sole factor.


Thank you. As I said in my post that the other guy didn't actually read it happened once in 40 years, but it just takes that one thing to grab you. I'm not tarring every person with the same brush, nor saying everybody who plays games are addicts but addiction is real and it happened to me. The only other thing that has ever got me addicted is nicotine, which I have now quit, and I say to all my children the only thing I ever regret is starting smoking. None of them smoke, so I guess I did something right.

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Mommy Christmas
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PostRe: Gaming addiction - your thoughts?
by Mommy Christmas » Sun Mar 17, 2019 5:52 am

I play games because i hate reality.

:dread:
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Knoyleo
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PostRe: Gaming addiction - your thoughts?
by Knoyleo » Sun Mar 17, 2019 9:14 am

KjGarly wrote:
The Last Ginja wrote:
TLDR; Gaming addiction is just like any other addiction. No I didn't believe it either.


But it isn't is it.

I have a PS4 Pro, Switch, Xbox One X, gaming PC and 3DS XL and I "love" playing games. I don't neglect my daughter and shunt her to play a game, I don't sell everything in my house to fund my 'habit' or sit begging outside a shop all day for spare change or mug and steal to buy games. My partner is a smoker whose always crying poverty and yet that's something you'll never likely hear from me.

I pay my half of the rent, pay all food bills, water and TV license as well as my own personal bills (mobile phone, Sky TV/Broadband/phone, credit card) and never leave myself skint.

Explain how it's different to someone who watches TV, football or movies?

This is a really narrow definition of addiction that you have. What you're describing are the extreme consequences of an addictive behaviour left untreated, often in unlucky circumstances, but addiction is something that takes hold of people long before their lives fall apart completely.

Think how many smokers there are out there who have good jobs. Just because they're not poor, does it make them any less addicted to nicotine? Equally for people who drink while holding down a good job. A lot of noise has been made about the "acceptable" alcoholism of middle class professionals, but just because they still hold down a job and don't beat their children, doesn't mean they aren't chemically dependent on alcohol.

I'm surprised people aren't more open to the idea of gaming being addictive. Loot boxes are literal skinner boxes, and game studios use well researched psychological tricks to build reward mechanisms that will drive repeat and compulsive behaviour. Games are being deliberately designed to be more and more addictive, and yet you'll still sit there and say it can't be because it's just a hobby, and you like it, and you're fine? Some would say that sounds like denial.

pjbetman wrote:That's the stupidest thing ive ever read on here i think.
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KjGarly
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PostRe: Gaming addiction - your thoughts?
by KjGarly » Sun Mar 17, 2019 10:21 am

Gaming addiction - your thoughts?

Clearly IMO means strawberry float all. Personally I believe my gaming hobby, something I've had for 30+ years, isn't an addiction and that's my opinion on the matter. If someone else neglected his family at one point in the past 40 years by staying up all hours playing Destiny strawberry floating 2, drinking (That would have also contributed a lot) and having his work routine suffer besides the family then he has the problem and its great he's knocked that gooseberry fool in the head, I honestly believe it is great he has but don't tar all gamers with the same brush.

No, I've never neglected my family and never in the 17 years working in the same job had to take a day off because of my hobby. Maybe I do have a narrow view on addiction, I've never once smoked a cigarette or tried/taken any drugs besides what would have been prescribed to me via my GP and I don't drink at all.

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