We are all game addicts to some extent – whether it’s our readers, one of our many talented writers, or you – yes you.
We play games, talk about them with peers and write articles about them. Video games are an interest, a hobby, and a passion for many of us.
The difference is how we control our desire to play games. Like any addiction, video game addictions can get out of hand, but when? Certainly when it causes harm to yourself or others – affecting life temporarily or even, in extreme cases, fatally.
Malnourishment was ruled the cause of death – the neglect stemmed from the parents addiction to an MMO called PRIUS - which they often played for twelve hours a night at a nearby internet cafe.
The police were set to arrest the parents after the child’s funeral but the couple had disappeared. The authorities finally located the parents this past Wednesday and the two were arrested for neglect. They admitted to feeding the child rotten milk and spanked the crying child on numerous occasions. Ironically, in the PRIUS (similar to The Sims), the couple’s digital avatars were also married and raising a child – the digital child was perfectly healthy.
This isn’t the first fatal conclusion to a case of gaming addiction – last year a 28 year old man dropped dead after playing Starcraft for fifty hours straight without stopping to eat or drink.
Additionally, last month there was a near fatal incident regarding an overly committed World of Warcraft player. The young man attacked his mother, brother and grandfather after the simple request from his mom to simply quiet down a little. the player felt his WoW experience shouldn’t have been interrupted and went after her. His brother tried to intervene at which point the grandfather also noticed the commotion. When the grandfather saw the young man choking his mother and threatening to kill everyone, the older man grabbed his gun. The grandfather grazed his grandson’s forehead with a bullet. Ultimately, the young man was arrested – all because he was asked to turn down the volume on his game.
With the rapid evolution of technology, interest in the video game industry is rising just as fast. Games are becoming more and more realistic – and even more addicting. The examples of extreme game addiction are only a small portion of the plethora of similar occurrences. Fatal endings are clearly the worst cases, but gaming addictions can put a damper on relationships, education and careers. The certain growth of these situations, in addition to the severity, should be a red flag with the need for solution.
Almost every game requires some form of account – Xbox Live, PSN, Battle.net. Maybe it’s up to the game server providers to set up some form of monitoring system on their networks. Logging the trends of each account and flagging potential risky gameplay patterns may help prevent future issues. If it seems consistent, the account could be temporarily locked and require communication with the gamer before unlocking their system again.
Governing gameplay within each game may be another solution. Depending on the length of the game, there could be an internal timer and if the game is played, for example, five hours straight then the game auto-saves and locks the user out for a certain amount of time. This will force them to take a break and snap back to reality. Certain titles on the Nintendo Wii suggest taking a break on occasion during load screens – a step in the right direction but that’s only certain games on one platform.
When it comes to kids being addicted, parents should be the biggest solution. Children are vulnerable and extremely drawn to games and it’s up to the parents to ensure that their gameplay is controlled.
I have an eight month old son, and I know he is my priority. The only times I will play games are during his naps and after he goes to bed for the night.
I personally wouldn’t play games around him – that’s as good as neglect. A child needs a parent’s attention and care. I knew having a child would change my habits and day to day routines, and I accepted that with open arms.
Life is a gift, especially one you’ve created. It’s not worth throwing that away on video games – after all, without life there would not be video games.
No matter what situation or circumstance, gaming addiction is a tough thing to break. It’s becoming more of an issue, proving sometimes harmful or fatal, and generally a new issue our techologically evolving world is facing. Being the severity of it’s consequences, this is something that may need attention sooner rather than later.
How do you view video game addictions? What ways do you think could help govern gaming addiction?
Sources: ABC News, True Crime Report
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Good article! I think your right about having a lockout setting, it would be good for concerned parents and gamers that want to cut back…its only healthy!
Wow. I can’t read stuff like this without worrying about every little thing. I say that I am indeed addicted to games as sometimes my game playing gets in the way of me completing a 32page comic book on time. On a couple of occasions i had to take half payment for being a week past deadline. But when I read this, i realize that my addiction is not as severe as I thought.
It’s disgusting to read that parents can raise a digital child but cannot raise their own flesh and blood.
It’s disgusting to read that a mother would let her child's addiction get so severe that he knows nothing of discipline. And it’s disgusting that I know such crimes are committed in the name of gaming everyday.
I play games 2hrs a day on weekdays…But the way I see it, I don’t watch TV at all (at freaking all…the last show I watched was…ummm…. Season 3 of Smallville) and so 2hrs of videogames a day isn’t very much. However, even with the 2hrs of game playing I felt like I was getting addicted so I stopped for a week to get back to life.
There is control over your gaming addiction just like there is a control over any other addiction. Some people just rather live without being responsible for their own lives …I’m rambling….jeez
I'm going to try and address this in the order I read it.
Articles like this are why I have so little faith in society as a whole sometimes. I beleive addiction does exist. People can become chemically dependent. Putting the label of “addiction” on something like playing too much video games is weak at best. Addiction is “the state of being enslaved to a habit or practice or to something that is psychologically or physically habit-forming, as narcotics, to such an extent that its cessation causes severe trauma.” And I don't believe video games meet this criteria. You are not “kind of an addict” either, it's pretty cut and dry. If you don't meet the definition, then get over it.
The fact is the parents who let their baby die cause they were playing a video game doesn't make them addicts. It makes them horrible parents who killed their child. And I am truly entertained by the story of the kid attacking his mother when she asked him to “turn the game down”. Not for the fact that it was a violent crime and almost resulted in a death. But because it happened at all. Not knowing the full story I will guess this person is a minor, i.e. still under his parents “rule”. Why in the hell was he allowed to play so much that he got to be like this?
What does the evolution of technology and realism of games have to do with anything? So no one ever played Mario for hours and hours growing up? You mention this but then don't give any follow up so I am curious. Are you saying that no kid played “too much” on his NES as opposed to now on a PS3? I played a lot, and I mean a lot of Duck Hunt as a kid. More than games I play now. I didn't then go outside and shoot a real gun at real ducks and I didn't try and kill my parents when they told me to turn off the NES and go to bed.
And I am truly appalled by the suggestion of anyone but the parents regulating this. Yes, every game system requires some sort of login. I'm very curious to see who would come up with the “rules” to govern such oversight. And it opens that very slippery slope. What one person considers “too much” as opposed to another person. Or why stop at the amount of play time, lets regulate the type of game as well. I play video games for anywhere from a half hour to a couple hours about 3 nights during the week. On the weekends I might play more. I might get really into the game on Saturday night and play for 4-5 hours in one sitting. Who are you (said governing body) to tell me “that's too much”? I also read a lot. Are you going to monitor my Kindle and tell me to stop reading after a couple hours? Or monitor my tv and tell me I watch too much tv? And how long are you going to lock the game system? An hour? A day? Once again, who decides this?
It was at this point you finally made the point I am trying to make but not quite. Parents should be the biggest solution. They should be the solution, the end. You get a bit cheesy after that with all the “life is a gift” stuff. And truly, good job on focusing on your 8 month old. Thats what a parent should do.
I think the word addiction is being thrown around way too much and I think it's being used to defer blame. Either from a crap parent who doesn't monitor their child and actually raise the child right or from the 30 year old who neglects his friends/family/job/etc. Both are just looking to point the finger away from themselves and should look in a mirror when looking to place blame.
I think you made some good points, Jon, but I vehemently disagree that the responsibility for regulating game time lies with anyone except the gamer, his/her loved ones, and/or his/her parents. It is not up to the game developers, online service providers, or console makers to arbitrarily decide what constitutes “too much.”
Like Jason, I think the word “addiction” is thrown around too often. Do I believe it's possible to be addicted to video games? Yes. But I don't find the fault in the developers or the games themselves. The fault is within the gamer, and the “addiction” could just as easily be to film, television, eating, working out, etc. These people become unable to function without some sort of external stimulus, and the fact that it happens to be video games in some circumstances is completely irrelevant. If it weren't games, that void would be filled with something else.
Stories like this are sad, and it's really unfortunate. But I don't think the blame should be put at the feet of games, developers, publishers, console makers, or anyone not personally connected with the afflicted. The blame rests solely on the person participating in the harmful behavior, or the people directly responsible for that person's behavior (IE: parents).
I'm going to point this out to you.
I used to be a video game addict. I played xbox live all day, every day, from dusk till dawn and dawn till dusk. I would become lethargic and hermit-like. I would snap at my parents when they wanted me to get off my ass and do something (like cleaning my huge garbage mess around me) I grew fat, became short fused, and let it affect my work, social, and personal life.
Then my parents stepped in, and took away my internet.
I became depressed and even more lethargic, sleeping all day, not eating at all, and just became a drain on everyone and everything. I even became skinny to the point of malnourishment.
But after a few months, I finally was able to get over my “loss” and have now stepped up to bat. I have a pretty well paying job, I get along fine with my parents, and friends. Now I only play a couple hours a day, and I do something Physical on the weekends. The point is, that video games CAN become an addiction, often becoming habit and a way of life, in a way that can physically affect you, or those around you.
I'm not saying games are bad, I'm just saying MODERATION IS NEEDED, even if the parents have to step in and pull the plug.
Thanks Mom and Dad, I owe you one.
And FYI, I'm 18. Not 30.
Locking me out of something that I PAID money for? I would refuse to play such games until someone either quit with the idea, or someone like the jailbreaking iPod genius found a way to hack that program out.
For the time when you played xbox all day every day, you weren't an addict, you were a loser. And when you're parents took away the internet and you became depressed and lethargic, same deal. Please don't take that as a personal attack. It's not.
Just like you said, after you got over it you stepped up, got a job, and things have gotten better with your friends/family. And that's good to hear. You were a punk teenager (we all were at some point) and you got over it. I still wouldn't say you were addicted. Just my opinion.
Sorry, I just have to throw an “LOL” out there for this. What's with the FYI about your age? My example of the 30 year old was just that, a random example. Haha. Just thought that was a strange reply.
The story about the neglectful parents is frightful and disgusting. It's unfortunate that those heavily addicted gamers that one would try to target with a forced lockout would be the same ones who are adept enough to crack it with a few swift keystrokes — it's like anti-dope laws: those who want it can find it with ease.
The only way to really eliminate addiction is to change human nature. Anyone willing to take up that project has my best wishes.
It's interesting how touchy you get about the word “addiction” or “addict,” and also are very particular about presenting what it IS. At least, in how you present what an addiction is by the definition you gave or how supposedly it's expressed. You're very clear about how addiction can be used to defer blame, yet exempt yourself from any with relation to the topic in question.
Still, it's telling when a person tries to utterly control an argument like that. For every favorable comment another makes about what addiction is you find an exemption in yourself or your own interpretation. The fault often seems to lie with the parents, sometimes the person doing the behavior, or the idea of addiction itself . . . but never whether people actually get addicted to something like video games. When that doesn't work out, you assume the social graces of a rabid pit bull and insult faceless people.
I've heard of people like that, but I think they're called “addicts” and often what they live in is called “denial.”
Otherwise, it's hard to see why you'd choose to somewhat jump off the handle at an article which is by and large trying to offer a cautionary response to an actual problem. Whether you choose to word it as an “addiction,” it'd be a harder sell to deny such behavior Jon mentions here as not being a problem.
man thats crazy all over videogames how could they neglect their child just to play the sims together for 12 hours they should be killed in the same way they killed their child. I am werid about videogames I love checking this site daily for videogame news, yet i really only play about 5 hours worth of gameing a week. I like reading about it more than I do playing I mean after about a hour I usually get bored and turn it off no matter what game it is. Its just crazy to think that people are dying from video games.
The grandfather grazed his grandson’s forehead with a bullet. Ultimately, the young man was arrested – all because he was asked to turn down the volume on his game.
They arrest his corpse ?
Your dismissiveness of video game addiction as a reality is premature. Emerging psychiatric research indicates that video games could actually restructure dopamine (a pleasure chemical, something your brain produces during sex, eating, etc.) passages with repetitive play. I'm not suggesting that video games are some sort of social evil, but rather that a fear of chemical addiction to video games is reasonable. I occaisionally 'binge' game, and I know that it can be a difficult behavior to stop- certainly, our biology doesn't work with us to desist highly pleasurable activities.
I just think that for some people it doesn't matter the “vice”, they will do something to excess. Called it “addictive personality” or “weak willed”. If it comes to be that video games induce a chemical reaction, I still feel that it would only be a problem for people who almost need a vice in their life. Just like a person who takes a drink of beer and then can't stop drinking and goes on binge. The most famous example I can of in the reverse is George Carlin. He did cocaine (I think) for a number of years and one day decided he didn't want to anymore, and never touched drugs again. You say you occasionally binge game. That's fine. And you had some difficulty stopping. But back to the original examples given. You didn't become negilgent or even violent as a result. You were overall easily able to “unplug” and go about your life.
iim a big game addict myself but im 12.. aslo these people r idiots .. i mean why would u neglect a child for a little video game and are they so D*** lazy and in to the game to by some good milk and they r playing it at a cafe im pretty sure they have milk there …and the dude who plays wow thats just stupid i dont have an opinion….see when i play video games i get a little furstratid but i do it ..but i do negelt of my chores but i wont kill any body for video games… i mean even the most retarted person on earth no better then that ah well
Addiction is not limited to a chemical dependency; a psychological dependency can also be a form of addiction. This coupled with the fact that the game can also influence the body’s production of endorphins with bursts of adrenaline make gaming a prime candidate for addicts. How would you explain gambling addicts or sex addicts? The simple fact that you only see drugs or alcohol as addictive substances just means you learned your psychology from Google and maybe you should look into your research techniques. An addiction is formed when normal inputs regulating mental, psychological or biological regulation or stability become replaced by one stimulus…… If you take one source in your life and hang your whole being on the exposure to that substance you have become obsessive or addicted to that substance or stimulus.