Is Online gaming an addictive drug??

[Nicko187]

Ever since Socom 1 came out i have been hooked. Now that the second one came out i can't possibly stop playing. My DSL went down for a couple of weeks and i thought my life was going to end!!! I have over 400 hours into SocomII alone.

[Demonshadow9]

depends on the game my brother plays soccom2 online .It looks addictive as hell , right now im playing gunbound.

[Tank]

Online gaming is addictive, yes. Thats both good and bad. Its good that your actually spending your time doing some quality gaming, but its bad that it's taking a toll on the amount in my wallet.

[Tyrdium]

I've been addicted to online games before, but I think that for me, at least, the Internet in general is much, much more addictive. I don't do a ton of gaming, but I start to go into withdrawl if I can't get my forums and Slashdot. :D

[technician]

I rember dedicating 10 hours to Elite Snipers from Warcraft III. And I still suck. So yes, online games are intensely adictive.

[Tamanegi Sensei]

If online gamin sucks so much time from ya, then yes it can be addictive

[Kurorakuda]

Let me tell you from experience: Online gaming is a very bad habit, especially if you can't control yourself. I blew 3 months of my life stuck infront of my computer screen playing Ragnarok online, and all I had to show for it was 5 F's and a bad eye-sight.

[Tyrdium]

Come to think of it, it can't really be considered a drug. Addictive, yes, but not a drug. Just to be pedantic (note: I took a couple irrelevant meanings out for the sake of brevity):


1. A substance used in the diagnosis, treatment, or prevention of a disease or as a component of a medication.
2. A chemical substance, such as a narcotic or hallucinogen, that affects the central nervous system, causing changes in behavior and often addiction.

Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
;)

Basically, a drug has to be something ingested. Internet games, while addictive, are not ingested (I hope).

[Zee'd]

"2. A chemical substance, such as a narcotic or hallucinogen, that affects the central nervous system, causing changes in behavior and often addiction."

ever thought about how cults recruit zealots? They use the all-natural body-produced happiness chemicals to "cause changes in behavior and often addiction" (amongst other things). Its kinda well documented. AND some scientist says Online games are the same grain of salt.

[Zero]

Addictive or not, they're fun to play :GD Jeez, at the rate I'm going switching off between Gunbound, WCIII FT, and Call of Duty, all outside activity will cease to exist by the time World of Warcraft is released.

[Sleeping Buddha]

Evercrack anyone?

[Knives]

i dont think it's addicting as anything else

[DystopianSnoMan]

online gaming isn't necessarily addictive. You have no attachment to it, nothing that you've built up, no permanant account with virtual tangible possessions (levels, money, loot, etc).

MMORPGs ARE addicting because in an MMORPG, you HAVE such virtual online property. Unlike a game like starcraft where you can play the game and then stop playing for any amount of time without consequence, an MMO forces you to continue playing due to the constant and everchanging enviroment inherent in all MMOs. People continue to level, gain wealth, get better equipment, etc in MMOs, thus forcing you to do so as well so as not to be left behind. In starcraft, there is no such compulsion to play..

This makes MMORPGs addicting. Online games, however, are only as addicting as normal videogames or anime. If you think that even this addiction is too much...

Then why are you here posting on a forum dedicated to anime addicts? :P

[Nicko187]

Originally posted by DystopianSnoMan This makes MMORPGs addicting. Online games, however, are only as addicting as normal videogames or anime. If you think that even this addiction is too much...

Even though Socom II isn't an MMORPG you still dont want to spend long periods of time not playing because of the ranking systems. This keeps it much more addicting than any normal videogame because you are striving to be better than as many players as you possibly can.

[Chichiri Sama]

Originally posted by Tyrdium
Come to think of it, it can't really be considered a drug. Addictive, yes, but not a drug. Just to be pedantic (note: I took a couple irrelevant meanings out for the sake of brevity):

;)

Basically, a drug has to be something ingested. Internet games, while addictive, are not ingested (I hope).

Ever hear of a metaphor?

Btw: Yes, I do believe MMORPG's to be an addiction, but not online games in general. Like one user mentioned, it's literally a virtual world (//Hack anyone??). Time passes, things happen in the world. MMORPG's can easily be addictive, because so much time is needed to stay good or "high leveled" in the game.

[The Crimson Pig]

Most definitley online games are addicting, I heard that some guy actually quit his job just to stay home and play Everquest, and apparently it's an even bigger problem in Korea. One of my friends is currently hooked on Socom for PS2, and I fear that once I get my network adapter next week, I will be as well.

[Zero]

Originally posted by The Crimson Pig
Most definitley online games are addicting, I heard that some guy actually quit his job just to stay home and play Everquest, and apparently it's an even bigger problem in Korea. One of my friends is currently hooked on Socom for PS2, and I fear that once I get my network adapter next week, I will be as well.

The existence of "Wives against Everquest" (or at least something along those lines) proves that Evercrack has certainly gotten a hold of the souls of many around the world.....Glad I don't play that game. Then again, WoW may claim me should it be as good as it looks. :GD

[Zhou Yu 999]

It is very addictive ... I play Diablo 2 online all the time, I've spent too much time playing that game

[bwing55543]

No. Halo and Jedi Outcast online, for me anyway, are fun, but by no means addictive. In fact, I didn't play either game for a while.

[Pedro The Hutt]

Most definitley online games are addicting, I heard that some guy actually quit his job just to stay home and play Everquest, and apparently it's an even bigger problem in Korea. One of my friends is currently hooked on Socom for PS2, and I fear that once I get my network adapter next week, I will be as well.


But then, MMORPGs can be big bucks, despite being against the User End License Agreement, there are many people, and even business' and sites that make a tasty mint out of selling high end weapons, items, or even in-game money in exchange for real money, or they even sell their characters/accounts with high level characters and equipment for much money, all because some people are entirely too lazy to play the game properly and would rather just buy the 1337 stuff/characters, and then brag and flaunt it around as if they did all the effort themselves.

[laborpilot86]

Actually the game that has the most problems with online addiction is a soccer manager simulator called Championship Manager. It actually provides with an addiction help-line number if you play too much:eyebrow:

[Raiden]

I wouldn't say they were addictive because as fun as they are you get the comedown that is the people you have to play against, they, cheat, lie and swear. No thanks, i only play on-line when i've got nothing better to do!

[Chr0nic_STDs]

Halo2 ate up soo much of my time after it's realease, i didn't stop playing it 2 years, then i thought i finally got the monkey called xbox live off my back, but then here came Gears of War to eat up my social life once again

[Milkymagic]

Yes and No. All depends on your personality and level of interacton with the outside world. Coming from somebody who's played video games his whole life, going outside does only a few things for me. Of course, I would play some basketball with friends or take the occasional bike ride, but these days it's one of three things dominating my life (maybe we'll add in a fourth for whatever project I have brewed up). And please note this is only on a normal day, given we all have our spurts of breaking the habit.

30% Internet Surfing (message board, chat, shopping, reviews, blogs, etc.)
30% Video Gaming
30% Anime Viewing
10% Miscellaneous (writing, reading, music, calling friends/family).

Obviously an online game (especially an RPG at that) would contain two of the main three, making it quite the interactive experience for myself. Right now I'm playing Phantasy Star Universe in the wake of beating the original four Phantasy Star games, and much to Raiden's credit, I agree those four games were probably more fun for me than PSU overall. But this has to do with the bare-bones gameplay I'm speaking of when I say this, because a game like PSU relies on its community to uphold its enjoyment value, and if there isn't anyone online (or anyone tolerable at that), you won't be either. Add in the rather number-savvy elements, and we may have the solution for helping people with obsessive-compulsive disorder on a bad day.

Right now I'm having fun with it, but there's always a bad day here or there with a few agressive folks who boot me out because I don't meet their requirements, or I'm in a party that doesn't quite have what it takes to advance further in a mission, bogging down the fun factor as it were. Thankfully, my interactions with the good folks I've met have made the experience worthwhile, as we always talked about stuff in our lives while hacking away groups of monsters. Am I addicted? For now I'm definitely playing it everyday, but the constant grinding burns me out faster than my peers. I only played FF XI for three months before quitting due to having trouble finding parties and the punishing difficulty of the world of Vanadiel, and I abandoned WoW because I just couldn't master it or (again) find folks who wanted to play alongside. So like I mentioned above, if the community remains rich with good folks, I'll probably stick around. And maybe in due time, even become addicted.

[LadyYuina]

I don't really think so. People might be addicted for a while, but the majority of the masses usually get tired of it and quit. I played FF XI for a year and then I stopped playing, cancelled my account, and all because I got tired of it. A lot of other people did the same thing. See?

[Osaka!]

I think that depends on the person. Some people may become addicted but just for a while. Eventually you are gonna get bored of the same gameplay and dated graphics. But certainly there are addicts. Just take a look at World of Warcraft or any other online game that has been released years ago but still has a strong community ie Counter Strike and Starcraft

[Sanda]

Well, I don't actually think so... the only online game to which I was addicted was Ragnarok... but after a lot of bad players and injustices I gave it up.

The other games I played eren't as catchy as Ragnarok and I lost interest after a week playing them.

Sanda

[The Geomancer]

Well...

Online gaming, in my opinion, is no more addictive than TV, Videogames, D&D, etc. (On that note, I find it kind of ironic that people are easily in a fuss over online gaming addiction, but you rarely hear about TV, Music, Radio, etc. addiction... just a thought) The only difference is the player of said game, and whether he/she can remove himself from the game or not. If it was as much of a threat as some claim (no one here, mind you) then if I sit down to play ____ Online, I should automatically be addicted no matter who I am. In my experience, that's not the case

well.. that's my 2 cents

[ZZalapski]

I avoid MMORPGs like the plague. A friend actually divorced his wife because she was spending too much time on EverQuest.

[Akito]

When you really suck at the game and/or get your ass served 70 times in a row, the addiction starts to wear off.

This is how my experience with Starcraft went when I tried getting back into it.

[The Geomancer]

as an additional note, this video gives an interesting perspective (http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=-5327497459334792260&q=wow+gamers+talk)

[Pedro The Hutt]

Hm, watched a few minutes of it so editing of this post, or a follow-up post might come still. But a) I don't trust a man whose shirt reads "LOLI" and b) he certain downgrades the issue by saying that there is no such thing as a serious WoW addiction. Just ask college teachers around the globe how many students mysteriously disappeared for days when Burning Crusade launched. There are people who are very much addicted to this game. So to say that it doesn't exist really makes him seem like a man in denial, not the best start to an hour long lecture then.
Edit 1: He also makes several points and arguments that are almost too easy to counter and fire back onto him.
Edit 2: Keep in mind, he has good points. The media does exaggerate stuff, but he seems to ignore the fact that amongst those millions of MMO nuts, there are those who are truly fascinated by the thing to an unhealthy level.
Edit 3: Ahah! Finally, fifty minutes into the film he admits that people CAN get addicted to WoW if they have a personality that's prone to getting addicted to begin with. Finally the key point has been hit. But thing is however, it's easier to get addicted to get things like WoW than it is to oh, walking around the very same block every day.

[Roark]

Keep in mind that this isn't just saying that "OMG THE WoW WILL GET YOU ADICKTED LOLZ!" This isn't something that will affect every person, or even a large number of people. Rather, it's more like gambling addictions, which do hit some people and are real.

[fugupinkeye]

I'm not certain it is all about addiction. For me the draw, the urge to play excessively comes from the online nature of the game. As has been said before, you can't turn the game off, and when you turn it on tomorrow, begin right where you left off. The more you interact with others, the more you become aware of real time passing while you are not there playing. Another problem is that the whole world plays online games, so group events tend to be scheduled, not spontaneous, therefore the 'need' to play at a certain time, the actual obligation. This is what looks like an addiction to others.

[Pedro The Hutt]

But then, it's no different from playing football at a scheduled time with your team/or friends. So one has to wonder why some people feel the need to treat it as something entirely different anyway.