I think it maybe possible. I'd call it a small "if."

I think games can be addicting like Pizza and Soda are. It's a hard habit to want to kick.

But it doesn't destroy lives. Games should be treated the same. Too much of anything is not a good thing, but it's a personal resposibility for moderation.

And Byron completely jumped the gun on this one. What kind of journalist [sic] reports BEFORE research?

Addiction should only be combated when it interferes deeply with work or personal relationships. Some people are predisposed to getting finding an outlet to boredom real quick. Chuck something away, and they will find comfort with something else.

Take for instance how things are monitored in one of my workplaces. They don't let you visit too many websites, because we can get addicted to web surfing at work which is wasting company time and spending "empty dollars" on the payroll. But, if there are people that are easily distracted, they will do something distracting anyways. If you take much of the interwebs away, maybe they will loiter around for a bit, or bug other nearby coworkers.

This wasn't supposed to be the premise of limiting recreational activities at the job. Since no one could get addicted to surfing the web, they can get addicted to doing something else. And it always happens with certain kinds of people, no matter what you remove. You can improve production at the job, but you cannot remove recreation completely.

Video Game Addiction is only an addiction if it causes harm to the individual's life. And even then the AMA hasn't decided if it's an addiction or not. Perhaps that TV show should have thought of re-taping due to the high profile of the Byron report.

I'm addicted to caffiene, I have a true chemical dependancy that results in withdrawl symptoms if I do not consume any. I love playing video games, but I didn't play any yesterday and I feel fine.

Some people like doing stuff, so they do it a lot. Byron likes talking about things she doesn't understand, does that mean she is addicted to it?

Yes, some people have issues where they spend hours on MMOs, but most of them had little to no social life before this. And like it or not, they have a bigger social life with the millions of other people they see every day. Besides, shut ins mostly have agoraphobia and those who turn to MMOs are comforted while able to commune with others, even if virtual. Remember, those are other people on the other side of the tube.

All in all, she calls games childish. So, she appears to be talking about children who get addicted. Well, if the kid is playing video games instead of doing schoolwork, maybe the issue is avoidance not addiction. Many kids don't like school. Maybe the kid has issues learning. Call the Sylvan Learning Center today, we can help your child discover the problem and solve it with specialised tutor-- Wait, that's from a commercial.

Anyways, my forehead is staring to pound and my hands are shaking, I'm going to go play some COD4.

[...] wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptAn MCV UK report on a recent episode of Am I Normal?, a TV show featuring Dr. Tanya Byron, has caused some concern among gamers. During the program, Byron, author of the widely read, British government-commissioned report on the effects of video games and the Internet on children, looked at video game addiction. Byron made comments that appeared to liken video game addiction to dependence on street drugs: It might seem ludicrous to compare a childish computer fantasy game with hard drug addiction. But addiction counsellors offering treatment to gamers argue that there are key similarities in the way that the consumer gets hooked into coming back for more… [...]

I liken gaming "addiction" to gambling addiction, which is an addiction that is accepted as real. Certain people have a predisposition to becoming hooked on activities that have nothing to do with chemical intake. The pleasure, the thrill, and the social aspect can be intoxicating. Of course, not everyone that sits down at the Blackjack table becomes an addict, and the same is true for playing video games.

The important thing is not to blame the game itself for the addiction. Instead, it's important to be on the lookout for extreme changes in behavior in a very small percentage of players, and try to help them overcome their fixation.

And before some of you freak out and cry about how you aren't an addict, remember that no one said you were. There's a difference between "playing a lot," and "playing until your real life falls apart." Perhaps the reason some gamers are so defensive about the issue, is because they know they play way too many hours and feel subconcious guilt?

@Tyler
Btw, I also just kicked my caffeine addiction. I have been on a 1liter a day diet mountain dew addiction (if you want to call it that) for the last 11 years. However, with the latest price hikes I just couldn't afford it any more. So I just stopped, I took Alieve for the caffeine headache, and that was it.

And I didn't bother removing the source of temptation either. Wife still drinks Diet Mtn Dew and I've had a half empty 2 liter bottle on my desk for the last month.

@Are'el
By your logic then there is such a thing as "Television Addiction" or "Sports Addiction" etc etc. Gambling addiction IS different that video game addiction. When a person is gambling they are utilizing their real-world money for a chance to obtain more real-world money. For a minority of people, this creates a devistating cycle in which they will either win big and assume that winning occurs often, then spend a lot of money trying to replicate that win but never doing so. That's the best case for a gambling addict. The worst case is that they lose big and then start saying to themselves "If I keep playing, I will win eventually and make the money back."

When looking at video games vs gambling there are no concrete links other than time spent at the activity. However you can link the time spent to any other activity in existance. Am I addicted to school because I spend 64 hours a week on it? Am I addicted to work because I spend 15 hours a week on it? Am I addicted to reading because when I get a new book I finish it on the day I bought it, even if it takes me 5 hours straight reading? By your logic, I am addicted to all of these things.

Gambling addiction is a real problem caused by a person's guilt and disappointment for losing mixed with the perceived hope of re-obtaining everything that they have lost. Video game addiction is not an addiction. It's a hobby that the paranoid perceive as an addiction.

@Talouin

If you here a aloud whooshing noise, thats just several people's points going over your head.

Your pwnage managed to outweigh the spelling errors. No worries.

@Rhade
I work in the Gaming and Lottery industry and deal with gambling addicts on a daily basis. I just get irritated when I see people comparing things that have the possibility to be an addiction to a very serious problem.

@Rhade
This is true unfortunately. I probably did come off over the top upon re-reading my post. I get his point that a chemical element doesn't have to be present for an addiction to be present, however that fact alone isn't enough to declare something to be an addiction.

Video game obsession is probably a better monicker than video game addiction. They are a time sink like anything else. In the realm of MMORPG's however, which is pretty much what I think of whenever someone mentions this topic, there is a viable case to be made due to the social pressure related to the genre of game and the dependance of others upon you.

I apologize for coming off the wall over this topic, gambling addiction's just a touchy spot for me because it's the reason why people demonize the industry I work in.

Theres definitely an addiction issue comperable to gambling addiction. I think comparing it to drug abuse is over the top though.

I should read all the posts before replying.


Game addiction is like gambling well depending on the game. MMO addicts do see gains for time played. Raiding for gear PvP for gear bragging rights etc... There is a tangible reward in their minds. Same as a gambler even when a hard core addict gambler is up they still keep going for the next big win. Same with game addiction from an MMO stand point.

Game addiction does indeed ruin lives. Look how many folks in Korea China and Japan played to death in 3+ day sessions not stopping to sleep or eat in some instances. Look at the couple that starved their baby to death.

I would say those are life shattering examples of how games can be addicting. To certain personality types I think games can be addicting to the point of destroying a life.

I have a very good friend who will not have internet connection at his house because he WILL put online play ahead of everything. He recognized the problem and took steps to keep it from becoming an extreme.

Actually, yeah, these is such thing as being "addicted" to TV or Sports. Just because people are reluctant to use the word "addiction," doesn't change the fact that there are people out there that let their jobs, relationships, and general health suffer to overindulge in these activities. And yet, it isn't the fault of the television, or the sport. Not everyone becomes addicted. It's just that some people are prone to obsessive behavior to certain forms of entertainment.

The two key ingredients of "addiction" are:
1. Allowing other aspects of your life suffer for your obsession, to the point of serious consequences (like failing College because you couldn't get off the computer long enough to go to class).
2. Inability or unwillingness to stop even after you see it hurting other parts of your life.

That's the major difference between "addiction," and playing a lot. Just because you play an MMO for 30+ hours a week, doesn't make you an addict. Losing your job because of it, does.

I think addiction to games is more like addiction to Television or the like, it's not so much a question of a 'need' for that particular stimulation, and more like the fact that, like TV etc, it becomes a habit, if the person cannot watch TV or play Video games and keep to their regime, then they feel a bit lost as to what to do instead.

Not that this isn't in itself bad, I've seen people base their holiday lodgings based on whether it had a TV or not, which makes no sense whatsoever to me, bad it's not so much a physical addiction as a mental one, and not nearly as strong as many forms of mental addiction.

Mental addiction is very difficult to treat, oddly enough, physical addiction can be targetted down to a particular substance, mental addictions go through fads, someone will be obsessed with one thing for a while and then move onto another, as was mentioned earlier an 'addictive personality' is the common example of this.

So yes, video games are addictive in my opinion, but not through any component that the companies put into them beyond other forms of entertainment, but because of the mental make-up of a certain percentage of people who play them, and if video games did not exist, that percentage would merely hook onto something else and get addicted to that instead.

Of course it's possible - how else do you explain WoW's stellar success? (Tongue planted firmly in cheek).

People can become addicted to just about anything. Sex, exercise, tanning, collecting, self-mutilation, internet browsing, pornography, certain other people etc., etc.. Though different from a 'drug addiction' in that the chemical element is produced internally, there is always a chemical component involved; the brain functions are one big mess of neurochemicals. Endorphins, serotonin, adrenaline... these are the reasons people enjoy doing things. If someone takes a recreational behavior that they enjoy to the point that it becomes an unjustifiably negative impact on the rest of their lives because of the time and money invested in it, if they constantly think about it and become moody when they can't have it (neurological withdrawel), if they're compulsively driven to seek it out, it's an addiction. Yes, it's probably a crutch indicative of a greater emotional disturbance. So is frequent heavy drinking. That doesn't mean it isn't an addiction. I don't believe gambling or drinking should be outlawed because of some people's predilection towards addiction, but that doesn't mean I'm going to insist that addictions to such things don't exist, either.

@JustChris
Take for instance how things are monitored in one of my workplaces. They don’t let you visit too many websites, because we can get addicted to web surfing at work which is wasting company time and spending “empty dollars” on the payroll.

That's probably just be trying to save bandwidth costs mate, a few knobs wasting their days watching youtube crap will eat up the download limits on a company connection pretty quickly. I remember when I was doing my IT diploma we had trouble with that, 2 members of the class more interested in online games & videos than actually learning stuff.

As for the addiction thing, AbsumZer0 was right about almost anything being addictive on a psychological level. There doesn't have to be a physiological reaction to an external checmical element for it to happen, the end result is the same either way, a thing that the brain determines is necessary for its operation. Hell when you get right down to it, thats all love is...