Australia's Okan Kaya likes Call of Duty: Black Ops II. In November he played the blockbuster video game for a world-record 122 hours.
"I'm a massive fan," he said. "I've been playing the series since the World War days and absolutely love it."
Circumstantial evidence suggests gaming can be as addictive as gambling. In July a Diablo III fan in Taiwan collapsed and died after a 40-hour session at an internet cafe.
Australian National University psychologist Olivia Metcalf has found concrete evidence that gaming is indeed addictive.
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Some peopled are more susceptible to becoming addicted though, but over gaming is more a form of extreme escapism rather than addiction, IMO of course.
Gaming /IS/ a common addiction.
That doesn't mean it's dangerous, let alone life-threatening.
You know what else are common addictions?
Coffee.
Chocolate.
Sex.
Masturbation.
Biting your nails.
It's not a big deal.
I may have come off as OTT lol its just ive been studying gamings effects on kids and found the medias representation of gaming is usually as a negative hobby that through their 'gaming addiction' makes kids violent and shoot classmates. This view bugs me as its basically not true and i could, have, write an essay about it lol.
Coffee and chocolate are are chemical addictions like drugs.
Im not sure if sex and masturbation are clinicaly recognised addictions, hypersexual disorder maybe but again not clinically recognised as an addiction disorder.
Sorry im going off on one again lol just defending gaming! (sh*t, maybe im wrong and actually am addictied lol), look i agree with most of your points but the word addiction is used wrongly quite commonly in these cases which leads to gaming being related with 'bad' things such as drugs.
When you start getting into mental dependence, it becomes a matter of mental disorder. A human can technically exhibit mental dependency on literally anything, so it seems silly to me for all these "scientists" to automatically target specific sources when they can't just throw it under the physical dependency category.
I know several people who lost their jobs due to their addiction to gaming.
I do seem to spend a LOT of money on gaming. And I have a terrible addiction.
I'm addicted to buying sealed games and slowly unsealing them and then smelling their factory fresh innards.
God have mercy on my soul...
I will buy my retail games from the store for a long as possible. A- I like to colllect. B- I like to sell what I don't want to collect.
Digital doesn't offer such flexability.
Indie games and smaller games all day long though:)
I can't stand COD anymore, it was once great but turned to shit.
This is why i play fighting games, and JRPG's more.
fighting games require skill, COD doesn't.
Uneducated, biased statement. All games require skill to be good at them.
bollocks.
next they'l say games can make you kill people. oh wait.
tip for 2013- gaming journalism is shit, take anything published in the so-called gaming publications with a pinch of salt.
playing games merely becomes a habit. nobody starts shaking or having withdrawal symptoms because they didnt get their gaming 'fix'
again, bollocks
I've had periods of times where I am playing for 10+ hours in one day for a few days, then some days I haven't even touched a game for a week. I go on holiday for a week or so and don't touch anything game related. I don't have cravings or anything and I love playing games. I own a whole load and put a lot of hours into them, but I know when to stop.
It's like drinking, I enjoy a drink and I can go weeks or months without touching alcohol. I don't crave it or feel the need to drink.
I think people are the problem, I know companies influence people to keep doing something, like nicotine in cigarettes, winning a lot of money in gambling, getting high scores in games, etc, but that's so they can get their wages.
The problem isn't addiction per se, it's the consequences of addiction. If I was addicted to carrots, broccoli and daily exercise it wouldn't be a bad thing.
As far as addictions go, I think gaming is no worse than TV and internet addiction - it can lead to a sedentary lifestyle.
One thing every gamer I know does have is a steady job or in school, how else to feed the habit.
I'm sure we've all realized we were addicted at some game at one point and thoroughly enjoyed it: I know I have.
I don't think we need a N4G-AA.
The Gaming addiction foundation of Sweden(GAFS) soon after declared Mario Bros a 'viable threat to sanity'.
Was in April,2013,this.
Some people get sucked into these fantasy worlds (fan fiction for books, tv shows, movies games, etc.) Some don't. It's the person not the media.
i like videogames since i came home from maternity, my parents said that the first thing that drew my attention was the atari 2600 my brother was playing, since i rememeber, i was always playing, and even after 25 years playing, i can ignore gaming for months without any problems.
"Video games kill! Video games are as addictive as drugs!"
What's next? "Video games support terrorism!"
Please...go pick on people whom actually cause real harm