Where Politics And Video Games Collide

@E. Zachary Knight:

"I think this whole game addiction thing was less a move to help the “addicted” get insurance coverage and more a move toward government control of games. If the medical industry couls classify gaming as an adiction then the governement could have put similar restrictions on games as they do Alcohol and tobacco."

They could try, but some things aren't as easily regulated. Take sex for example, the desire of an abundance of which also is considered a disorder that some insurance companies will pay for treatment over. People go to meetings for this just like AA. People who are "afflicted" with this addiction sometimes manage to keep jobs they would have normally lost due to content loaded at work by anyone other than themselves. Don't get me wrong, the American government does a GREAT job regulating a natural function of our bodies. On a whole though, how effective are their efforts to curtail unwanted, excessive, or deviant behavior? Not very. The laws on the books aren't even used in most cases unless it suits a situation, such as keeping some citizens in a spotlight when they are seen as truly deviant and unwanted by the morally-jubilant community.

@Tom:

"Asking a heroin addict to stop doing heroin is COMPLETELY different then asking a gamer to put down the controller."

There's a show on cable Wednesday night I think you may want to watch that may shed some interesting light on this. I'll check when home to see what time and channel it is on (I've set the dvr to record it). From the commercial it led me to believe part of it would include doctors showing scans of people's brains as they played games. I have no idea of the slant the show is going to take, but I wouldn't put it out of the realm of possibility that videogames may trigger similar pleasure areas of the brain that produce dopamine and so forth.

Is it possible to get hooked on games? Of course. We all know people with a lot of OTHER problems who fall into games as an escape or for fun. Can a game infect everyone? Doubt it. Food can produce that high enabling some people to eat continuously to remain feeling good, the side effect being the massive girth they build in the process. While we are a larger society now, most people are not even half as huge as severe food addicts get.

Hot peppers produce a rush for me that would be considered a high, although peppers are the hardest thing I touch besides a drink now and again. I also eat them in a far less quantity than would begin to do damage to my body. I am not addicted to peppers although I love them and enjoy them when I do partake. A lot of chemical dependencies as you say are horrible in the change they affect on the body. Most people can't just stop smoking. Nearly all of the people I know who game a LOT still are able to put down the controller for work and friends. I agree that equating videogames the same as drugs is extreme, however for some people (as with everything else we come into contact with) there may be a safe and unsafe quantity of consumption. Meaning some people need to be aware of this and stay away from games if that is what it takes.

I would imagine a videogame habit is only one of many potential habits that someone prone to addictive consumption could fall into, that larger issues underneath the surface need exploring. Until we have scientific efforts and results overshadowing the peanut gallery, this is just something else we will have to deal with as gamer. BTW, Youtube has a great skit from SNL from years ago about children who are arcade junkies. I will link that here as well if I saved it in my favorites. I think it fits perfectly into today's headlines and needs a revision.