I don't think there's such a thing as "MMO Addiction" but rather specific game addiction, and THEN....it's not like everlasting for most people, so is it really an addiction? Probably not.
I've been addicted to UO, EQ2, and WoW....but only until I got sick of them. So I don't suppose they were really addictions but more just like projects from my hobby (MMOs) that I was really enjoying at the time. I managed to work, eat, sleep, have a family, etc. during the years I played these games too, so again....not likely addiction.
Maybe MMO addiction does exist for those poor souls who lose their families and jobs because of a game. I think so.
i myself was so heavily addicted to play eq1 back in 2002 that i only slept 3-4 hours a day so i could play 16 hours and still work some to pay for internet and sub.
some people have literally become so addicted to a game that they have played until they died of exhaustion related issues or dehydration.
some people (and it makes the news when they do) have sat and played games like wow, eq, and facebook farm until their child has died of neglect (both older kids getting in trouble with things they shouldnt get into and parent didnt notice, and babies starving in their crib).
so can people become addicted to a game? you bet your ass they can
I do all the time...with todays games it is really easy thing to do. ^_^
Same here. I haven't played an MMO in months.
Just check out the "top voted games" MMO list on the front page of the site. Change it from "development" to "released" and see why so many of us have been all but cured of our MMO addictions.
I do seem to be addicted to MMO hype, checking the latest GW2 videos and such, even though it looks like it may not even be out untill 2013(?!?) but this is what addiction becomes when you're starved for it.
Only MMO on the horizon now is SWTOR, a sort of beacon of bad MMO design that's been getting hammered on almost as much as its been hyped. My best hope of a fix, to just hope it isn't as bad as it looks, because there's just nothing else out there, with even Tera being pushed back another six months.
When I want a single-player story, I'll play a single-player game. When I play an MMO, I want a massively multiplayer world.
Go a week without playing an MMO. If you aren't addicted, then this should be easy.
I'll just leave this here and see what you guys do with it....
I'll use it as an example of how people will call anything addiction when they don't understand compulsion, habit, routine, marketing, peer pressure or any of the other factors that prompt people to return to something when they have an arbitrary reason to stay away from it.
I'd think a sign of a greater issue would be ceasing to enjoy a particular form of entertainment for a week because some random guy on the internet told them to.
I'll just leave this here and see what you do with it....
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein "Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
I don't know about others but i have never been addictive to MMORPG. It could be because i love outdoors and love spending time with family and friends. When MMORPG become more than just a hobby and pass time activity, you know there is a problem.
Go a week without playing an MMO. If you aren't addicted, then this should be easy.
I'll just leave this here and see what you guys do with it....
I'll use it as an example of how people will call anything addiction when they don't understand compulsion, habit, routine, marketing, peer pressure or any of the other factors that prompt people to return to something when they have an arbitrary reason to stay away from it.
I'd think a sign of a greater issue would be ceasing to enjoy a particular form of entertainment for a week because some random guy on the internet told them to.
I'll just leave this here and see what you do with it....
Addition / complusion are 2 very different things. While you are right there are many factors that influence people's decisions / make it difficult for people to stop doing things, addictions don't have limits. You may be surprised about how common addictive (aka obsessive) personalities really are. While many may get themselves addicted to helping things (healthy foods, exercise, etc.) there are just as many who don't.
Also, addictions aren't limited to any one thing in particular. One may not necessarily be addicted to MMOs per se, but rather the act of playing video games (or even social video games specifically) as a whole. You see this a lot when people complain about immersion and getting fully engrossed within a game. Typically such a person doesn't want to casually enjoy a game, but rather get engrossed in it.
Compulsiveness is merely the ease at which a person can change what he's doing. A compulsive person would just as easily start playing an MMO as would go outside and go swimming.
Go a week without playing an MMO. If you aren't addicted, then this should be easy.
I'll just leave this here and see what you guys do with it....
I'll use it as an example of how people will call anything addiction when they don't understand compulsion, habit, routine, marketing, peer pressure or any of the other factors that prompt people to return to something when they have an arbitrary reason to stay away from it.
I'd think a sign of a greater issue would be ceasing to enjoy a particular form of entertainment for a week because some random guy on the internet told them to.
I'll just leave this here and see what you do with it....
Go a week without playing an MMO. If you aren't addicted, then this should be easy.
I'll just leave this here and see what you guys do with it....
I'll use it as an example of how people will call anything addiction when they don't understand compulsion, habit, routine, marketing, peer pressure or any of the other factors that prompt people to return to something when they have an arbitrary reason to stay away from it.
I'd think a sign of a greater issue would be ceasing to enjoy a particular form of entertainment for a week because some random guy on the internet told them to.
I'll just leave this here and see what you do with it....
Addition / complusion are 2 very different things. While you are right there are many factors that influence people's decisions / make it difficult for people to stop doing things, addictions don't have limits. You may be surprised about how common addictive (aka obsessive) personalities really are. While many may get themselves addicted to helping things (healthy foods, exercise, etc.) there are just as many who don't.
Also, addictions aren't limited to any one thing in particular. One may not necessarily be addicted to MMOs per se, but rather the act of playing video games (or even social video games specifically) as a whole. You see this a lot when people complain about immersion and getting fully engrossed within a game. Typically such a person doesn't want to casually enjoy a game, but rather get engrossed in it.
Compulsiveness is merely the ease at which a person can change what he's doing. A compulsive person would just as easily start playing an MMO as would go outside and go swimming.
I never said they were the same.
Cheers!
EDIT: Jimmy, enjoy the camping trip!
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein "Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
Not a problem. There's nothing out there worth it for me to waste too much time on. However I can say that I have recently reallly enjoyed playing UO Second Age. But other than that there really isn't much. Heck I prefer console right now.
Horrible thread. Guy tries to start an argument about something that is proven in psychology books. Trollish. You can be addicted to any substamce, object, food item, other person you ever encounter. If something exists, someone out there is addicted to it. This is fact.
Completely and totally untrue. You won't find a registered psychologist, psychiatrist or practicing medical doctor anywhere that agrees with this.
Anything can be abused - even extemely abused. But addiction requies a disregulated receptor.
Venge
Actually my fiance is a Psychologist and as long as it consumes your life or you lose control over your behavior, it is an addiction. People have substance addiction, porn addiction, TV addictions, all kinds of addictions when it is maladaptive pattern of behavior that causes imparments in ones occupational, social, and recreational areas of ones life it is an addiction. Also, if you feel you don't do it as often as you would like you become irritated or people have told you maybe you shouldn't do it or you have this all consuming need to play an MMO it is and addiction.
So yeah MMOs can be an addiction and she isn't some "out there" psychologist on the fringes of her field this is well known by anyone who practices clinical psychology.
In all honesty at one point in my life I was addicted to an MMO. I raced home every night from work so I could play it almost getting in a few car wrecks, I would leave family events or social things with friends early or would not go at all. Oh yeah and people would comment on me having a problem with and I would get angry and lash out. So don't fool yourself MMOs can be addictive.
On a side note I will admit I do have a very addictive personality and have dealt with other addictions but luckily overcame all of them with time. Well now I'm addicted to working out and eating healthy hopefully I stay with that one.
Horrible thread. Guy tries to start an argument about something that is proven in psychology books. Trollish. You can be addicted to any substamce, object, food item, other person you ever encounter. If something exists, someone out there is addicted to it. This is fact.
There are many reasons why a person might feel compelled to play a video game despite the fact that they shouldn't. Exactly zero of them are properly called "addiction" by psychologists. Calling that an addiction makes about as much sense as calling a punch in the face an infection. It's a completely incorrect use of the term.
In medical school, disease is defined as "any clinical deviation from the norm." Take that to your punch in the face. So, saying my argument doesn't make sense and backing it up by an abstract metaphor? Does that make sense? No sir.
You can be addicted to *anything* that causes a release of chemicals in your brain. In reality, you're addicted to endorphines or serotonin, or something... but the basline object is a thing or action which causes this release, and the crux of said addiction. Yes, MMOs are a thing, thus MMO addiction exists.
Yet, if you read the initial post of this thread, it doesn't even approach such a sophisticated argument. It's trollish and I dare say it does not deserve any replies of intellectual debate on the topic.
Error: 37. Signature not found. Please connect to my server for signature access.
Horrible thread. Guy tries to start an argument about something that is proven in psychology books. Trollish. You can be addicted to any substamce, object, food item, other person you ever encounter. If something exists, someone out there is addicted to it. This is fact.
There are many reasons why a person might feel compelled to play a video game despite the fact that they shouldn't. Exactly zero of them are properly called "addiction" by psychologists. Calling that an addiction makes about as much sense as calling a punch in the face an infection. It's a completely incorrect use of the term.
In medical school, disease is defined as "any clinical deviation from the norm." Take that to your punch in the face. So, saying my argument doesn't make sense and backing it up by an abstract metaphor? Does that make sense? No sir.
You can be addicted to *anything* that causes a release of chemicals in your brain. In reality, you're addicted to endorphines or serotonin, or something... but the basline object is a thing or action which causes this release, and the crux of said addiction. Yes, MMOs are a thing, thus MMO addiction exists.
Yet, if you read the initial post of this thread, it doesn't even approach such a sophisticated argument. It's trollish and I dare say it does not deserve any replies of intellectual debate on the topic.
Wouldn't call it trollish, so much as just a bit of humor that the lot of you are taking way too seriously
Besides, the problem is that addiction has a variety of similar meanings, and people seem to want to choose their favorite and claim the others are wrong. It's not a matter of right and wrong, just ambiguous semantics.
When I want a single-player story, I'll play a single-player game. When I play an MMO, I want a massively multiplayer world.
Horrible thread. Guy tries to start an argument about something that is proven in psychology books. Trollish. You can be addicted to any substamce, object, food item, other person you ever encounter. If something exists, someone out there is addicted to it. This is fact.
There are many reasons why a person might feel compelled to play a video game despite the fact that they shouldn't. Exactly zero of them are properly called "addiction" by psychologists. Calling that an addiction makes about as much sense as calling a punch in the face an infection. It's a completely incorrect use of the term.
In medical school, disease is defined as "any clinical deviation from the norm." Take that to your punch in the face. So, saying my argument doesn't make sense and backing it up by an abstract metaphor? Does that make sense? No sir.
You can be addicted to *anything* that causes a release of chemicals in your brain. In reality, you're addicted to endorphines or serotonin, or something... but the basline object is a thing or action which causes this release, and the crux of said addiction. Yes, MMOs are a thing, thus MMO addiction exists.
Yet, if you read the initial post of this thread, it doesn't even approach such a sophisticated argument. It's trollish and I dare say it does not deserve any replies of intellectual debate on the topic.
Actually no you can't. Over there last decade there has been a great deal of neural research into that very idea and so far there is absolutley no evidence to support the hypothesis that you can be addicted to your own endorphines or other chemicals. The idea of an adrenaline junky, someone who is addicted to their own adrenaline (epinephrine, or norepinephine) so far false, as is the idea of addictive personalities.
Once the receptor is not regulating properly the external control, i.e. the drug, supplies the chemical that your body is not making/receiving properly. However you can have people with multiple disregulated receptors making them susceptible to a number of different addictions - implying an addictive personality, however it is still the receptors, and they could not be addicted to just anything.
Again an addiction is now defined as a disregulated receptor that requires an external locus of control. The others are now consided extreme abuse.
However many researchers believe there may be a grey area between extreme abuse and mild addiction - lots more sutdy needed.
And thats not a definition of disease that I've ever seen in my texts, or pubmed. It is far too broad and vague. Heck having streaks in your hair could qualify has a disease according to that. It does not take into account recognized signs, symptoms, specific anatomic alterations, pathology, distress, organs.... Here is what pub med states "Core disease is defined as a verifiable, self-conscious sensation of dysfunction and/or distress that is felt to be limitless, menacing and aid-requiring. In contrast, conditioned diseases are states labeled as diseases by virtue of consensus on prevalent sociocultural and medical values."
Venge
edit @ Valin - you are absolute right. That is one of the reasons the new DSM-V has gotten rid of the term addiction and will be using Abuse and dependence because the word addiction has become so overused no one is really sure what it refers to anymore. And if no one actually knows what you have, how do you treat it? While here on the forums we might find it entertaining to have endless debates on meanings. In the real medical and legal world, the meanings are clear or are attempted to be clear. We may say someone has the flu, however to the pathologist they have H1N1 or something else that more fully describes what they have and therefore the treatment that should follow.
Just because you don't like it doesn't mean it is bad.
Horrible thread. Guy tries to start an argument about something that is proven in psychology books. Trollish. You can be addicted to any substamce, object, food item, other person you ever encounter. If something exists, someone out there is addicted to it. This is fact.
There are many reasons why a person might feel compelled to play a video game despite the fact that they shouldn't. Exactly zero of them are properly called "addiction" by psychologists. Calling that an addiction makes about as much sense as calling a punch in the face an infection. It's a completely incorrect use of the term.
In medical school, disease is defined as "any clinical deviation from the norm." Take that to your punch in the face. So, saying my argument doesn't make sense and backing it up by an abstract metaphor? Does that make sense? No sir.
You can be addicted to *anything* that causes a release of chemicals in your brain. In reality, you're addicted to endorphines or serotonin, or something... but the basline object is a thing or action which causes this release, and the crux of said addiction. Yes, MMOs are a thing, thus MMO addiction exists.
Yet, if you read the initial post of this thread, it doesn't even approach such a sophisticated argument. It's trollish and I dare say it does not deserve any replies of intellectual debate on the topic.
Actually no you can't. Over there last decade there has been a great deal of neural research into that very idea and so far there is absolutley no evidence to support the hypothesis that you can be addicted to your own endorphines or other chemicals. The idea of an adrenaline junky, someone who is addicted to their own adrenaline (epinephrine, or norepinephine) so far false, as is the idea of addictive personalities.
Once the receptor is not regulating properly the external control, i.e. the drug, supplies the chemical that your body is not making/receiving properly. However you can have people with multiple disregulated receptors making them susceptible to a number of different addictions - implying an addictive personality, however it is still the receptors, and they could not be addicted to just anything.
Again an addiction is now defined as a disregulated receptor that requires an external locus of control. The others are now consided extreme abuse.
However many researchers believe there may be a grey area between extreme abuse and mild addiction - lots more sutdy needed.
And thats not a definition of disease that I've ever seen in my texts, or pubmed. It is far too broad and vague. Heck having streaks in your hair could qualify has a disease according to that. It does not take into account recognized signs, symptoms, specific anatomic alterations, pathology, distress, organs.... Here is what pub med states "Core disease is defined as a verifiable, self-conscious sensation of dysfunction and/or distress that is felt to be limitless, menacing and aid-requiring. In contrast, conditioned diseases are states labeled as diseases by virtue of consensus on prevalent sociocultural and medical values."
Venge
edit @ Valin - you are absolute right. That is one of the reasons the new DSM-V has gotten rid of the term addiction and will be using Abuse and dependence because the word addiction has become so overused no one is really sure what it refers to anymore. And if no one actually knows what you have, how do you treat it? While here on the forums we might find it entertaining to have endless debates on meanings. In the real medical and legal world, the meanings are clear or are attempted to be clear. We may say someone has the flu, however to the pathologist they have H1N1 or something else that more fully describes what they have and therefore the treatment that should follow.
Studies by whom? By you?
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Comments
I'm not subbed to anything right now. They stopped making good mmo's mmo's that I enjoy playing, I stopped playing. Was easy.
Hello,I'm a Dwarf Priest,and I'm an alcoholic.
I may know the least here,but I am the loudest about what I do know.
i myself was so heavily addicted to play eq1 back in 2002 that i only slept 3-4 hours a day so i could play 16 hours and still work some to pay for internet and sub.
some people have literally become so addicted to a game that they have played until they died of exhaustion related issues or dehydration.
some people (and it makes the news when they do) have sat and played games like wow, eq, and facebook farm until their child has died of neglect (both older kids getting in trouble with things they shouldnt get into and parent didnt notice, and babies starving in their crib).
so can people become addicted to a game? you bet your ass they can
i c wut u did ther
Simple. I've gone almost a year without playing an MMO. From the looks of things, might be another couple, or forever, before I play again.
Played: UO, EQ, WoW, DDO, SWG, AO, CoH, EvE, TR, AoC, GW, GA, Aion, Allods, lots more
Relatively Recently (Re)Played: HL2 (all), Halo (PC, all), Batman:AA; AC, ME, BS, DA, FO3, DS, Doom (all), LFD1&2, KOTOR, Portal 1&2, Blink, Elder Scrolls (all), lots more
Now Playing: None
Hope: None
Just check out the "top voted games" MMO list on the front page of the site. Change it from "development" to "released" and see why so many of us have been all but cured of our MMO addictions.
I do seem to be addicted to MMO hype, checking the latest GW2 videos and such, even though it looks like it may not even be out untill 2013(?!?) but this is what addiction becomes when you're starved for it.
Only MMO on the horizon now is SWTOR, a sort of beacon of bad MMO design that's been getting hammered on almost as much as its been hyped. My best hope of a fix, to just hope it isn't as bad as it looks, because there's just nothing else out there, with even Tera being pushed back another six months.
When I want a single-player story, I'll play a single-player game. When I play an MMO, I want a massively multiplayer world.
not addiction asuch but if somebody has got into the habit of logging in every day for 7 hours a day then they might find it tricky to break out of.
I'll use it as an example of how people will call anything addiction when they don't understand compulsion, habit, routine, marketing, peer pressure or any of the other factors that prompt people to return to something when they have an arbitrary reason to stay away from it.
I'd think a sign of a greater issue would be ceasing to enjoy a particular form of entertainment for a week because some random guy on the internet told them to.
I'll just leave this here and see what you do with it....
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
"Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
I don't know about others but i have never been addictive to MMORPG. It could be because i love outdoors and love spending time with family and friends. When MMORPG become more than just a hobby and pass time activity, you know there is a problem.
Addition / complusion are 2 very different things. While you are right there are many factors that influence people's decisions / make it difficult for people to stop doing things, addictions don't have limits. You may be surprised about how common addictive (aka obsessive) personalities really are. While many may get themselves addicted to helping things (healthy foods, exercise, etc.) there are just as many who don't.
Also, addictions aren't limited to any one thing in particular. One may not necessarily be addicted to MMOs per se, but rather the act of playing video games (or even social video games specifically) as a whole. You see this a lot when people complain about immersion and getting fully engrossed within a game. Typically such a person doesn't want to casually enjoy a game, but rather get engrossed in it.
Compulsiveness is merely the ease at which a person can change what he's doing. A compulsive person would just as easily start playing an MMO as would go outside and go swimming.
You mean like when I go camping for two weeks?
The extremely sad truth. ]:
Touche good sir... Touche
Soo true my friend.
FEEL THE FULL
FREE-TO-FLAME
FANTASY.
I never said they were the same.
Cheers!
EDIT: Jimmy, enjoy the camping trip!
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
"Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
^ This.
Ironically enough I was just reading this article from the Detroit Free Press about a Detroit Lions football player.
http://www.freep.com/article/20110803/COL22/108030381/Michael-Rosenberg-New-Lions-DL-back-NFL-after-bouts-addiction-depression?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|Sports|s
Correct, no such thing as MMO Addiciton.
Not a problem. There's nothing out there worth it for me to waste too much time on. However I can say that I have recently reallly enjoyed playing UO Second Age. But other than that there really isn't much. Heck I prefer console right now.
Actually my fiance is a Psychologist and as long as it consumes your life or you lose control over your behavior, it is an addiction. People have substance addiction, porn addiction, TV addictions, all kinds of addictions when it is maladaptive pattern of behavior that causes imparments in ones occupational, social, and recreational areas of ones life it is an addiction. Also, if you feel you don't do it as often as you would like you become irritated or people have told you maybe you shouldn't do it or you have this all consuming need to play an MMO it is and addiction.
So yeah MMOs can be an addiction and she isn't some "out there" psychologist on the fringes of her field this is well known by anyone who practices clinical psychology.
In all honesty at one point in my life I was addicted to an MMO. I raced home every night from work so I could play it almost getting in a few car wrecks, I would leave family events or social things with friends early or would not go at all. Oh yeah and people would comment on me having a problem with and I would get angry and lash out. So don't fool yourself MMOs can be addictive.
On a side note I will admit I do have a very addictive personality and have dealt with other addictions but luckily overcame all of them with time. Well now I'm addicted to working out and eating healthy hopefully I stay with that one.
In medical school, disease is defined as "any clinical deviation from the norm." Take that to your punch in the face. So, saying my argument doesn't make sense and backing it up by an abstract metaphor? Does that make sense? No sir.
You can be addicted to *anything* that causes a release of chemicals in your brain. In reality, you're addicted to endorphines or serotonin, or something... but the basline object is a thing or action which causes this release, and the crux of said addiction. Yes, MMOs are a thing, thus MMO addiction exists.
Yet, if you read the initial post of this thread, it doesn't even approach such a sophisticated argument. It's trollish and I dare say it does not deserve any replies of intellectual debate on the topic.
Error: 37. Signature not found. Please connect to my server for signature access.
Wouldn't call it trollish, so much as just a bit of humor that the lot of you are taking way too seriously
Besides, the problem is that addiction has a variety of similar meanings, and people seem to want to choose their favorite and claim the others are wrong. It's not a matter of right and wrong, just ambiguous semantics.
When I want a single-player story, I'll play a single-player game. When I play an MMO, I want a massively multiplayer world.
Actually no you can't. Over there last decade there has been a great deal of neural research into that very idea and so far there is absolutley no evidence to support the hypothesis that you can be addicted to your own endorphines or other chemicals. The idea of an adrenaline junky, someone who is addicted to their own adrenaline (epinephrine, or norepinephine) so far false, as is the idea of addictive personalities.
Once the receptor is not regulating properly the external control, i.e. the drug, supplies the chemical that your body is not making/receiving properly. However you can have people with multiple disregulated receptors making them susceptible to a number of different addictions - implying an addictive personality, however it is still the receptors, and they could not be addicted to just anything.
Again an addiction is now defined as a disregulated receptor that requires an external locus of control. The others are now consided extreme abuse.
However many researchers believe there may be a grey area between extreme abuse and mild addiction - lots more sutdy needed.
And thats not a definition of disease that I've ever seen in my texts, or pubmed. It is far too broad and vague. Heck having streaks in your hair could qualify has a disease according to that. It does not take into account recognized signs, symptoms, specific anatomic alterations, pathology, distress, organs.... Here is what pub med states "Core disease is defined as a verifiable, self-conscious sensation of dysfunction and/or distress that is felt to be limitless, menacing and aid-requiring. In contrast, conditioned diseases are states labeled as diseases by virtue of consensus on prevalent sociocultural and medical values."
Venge
edit @ Valin - you are absolute right. That is one of the reasons the new DSM-V has gotten rid of the term addiction and will be using Abuse and dependence because the word addiction has become so overused no one is really sure what it refers to anymore. And if no one actually knows what you have, how do you treat it? While here on the forums we might find it entertaining to have endless debates on meanings. In the real medical and legal world, the meanings are clear or are attempted to be clear. We may say someone has the flu, however to the pathologist they have H1N1 or something else that more fully describes what they have and therefore the treatment that should follow.
Studies by whom? By you?
Error: 37. Signature not found. Please connect to my server for signature access.
Can I ask,,,
whats the difference between Hobby and Addiction?
Philosophy of MMO Game Design