194: The Five Habits of Highly Addicted Gamers

[Dean Sherwin]

The Five Habits of Highly Addicted Gamers

It's easy to spot the odd rituals and behavioral tics that signal addiction - even if the "substance" in question is a videogame. Dean Sherwin examines a handful of these curious gamer habits.

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[beddo]

The Five Habits of Highly Addicted Gamers

It's easy to spot the odd rituals and behavioral tics that signal addiction - even if the "substance" in question is a videogame. Dean Sherwin examines a handful of these curious gamer habits.

Read Full Article

From my experiences it's only novice players who move the controller or themselves with what's on screen. When I was a games tester there was a guy who did it all the time and it was a point of mockery (friendly banter).

If you're an experienced game player you realise that turning the controller isn't going to make the on-screen car turn more sharply. Moreover, moving your head isn't going to enable you to see around corners in the game.

 

[Arcticflame]

The Five Habits of Highly Addicted Gamers

It's easy to spot the odd rituals and behavioral tics that signal addiction - even if the "substance" in question is a videogame. Dean Sherwin examines a handful of these curious gamer habits.

Read Full Article

From my experiences it's only novice players who move the controller or themselves with what's on screen. When I was a games tester there was a guy who did it all the time and it was a point of mockery (friendly banter).

If you're an experienced game player you realise that turning the controller isn't going to make the on-screen car turn more sharply. Moreover, moving your head isn't going to enable you to see around corners in the game.

Heh, I do that and I am a very experience gamer. It's just because I'm extremely immersed in whatever task I'm doing. I think it helps me in many ways as I don't usually miss a trick and don't miss any details.

 

[Labyrinth]

The glare.. Hurts.. so.. good..

I honestly don't know if I'm addicted to gaming. I've been addicted to individual games in the past, playing them religiously, but never to the point where I couldn't put them down and walk away. That is once the blisters had started forming calluses and my eyes were crusted open from not blinking. Then I back away from the computer. Sometimes.

Addiction, obsession or hobby, gaming gives a lot of people a lot of quirks. I think we're more interesting for it.

 

[DayDay8421]

I knew I had passed into the dreaded addict category when a dream I had about a school reunion turned into capture the flag!

 

[thegaminggirlfriend]

The Five Habits of Highly Addicted Gamers

It's easy to spot the odd rituals and behavioral tics that signal addiction - even if the "substance" in question is a videogame. Dean Sherwin examines a handful of these curious gamer habits.

Read Full Article

From my experiences it's only novice players who move the controller or themselves with what's on screen. When I was a games tester there was a guy who did it all the time and it was a point of mockery (friendly banter).

If you're an experienced game player you realise that turning the controller isn't going to make the on-screen car turn more sharply. Moreover, moving your head isn't going to enable you to see around corners in the game.

Haha, I've been playing video games for about fifteen years now and I still do those things.

Frankly- and this is anecdata I'm presenting now- I'm far more concerned about the people who will all be playing a game together, but not communicating out loud, and you cannot get their attention unless you get a message to them in-game.

 

[Falcon22]

The Five Habits of Highly Addicted Gamers

It's easy to spot the odd rituals and behavioral tics that signal addiction - even if the "substance" in question is a videogame. Dean Sherwin examines a handful of these curious gamer habits.

Read Full Article

From my experiences it's only novice players who move the controller or themselves with what's on screen. When I was a games tester there was a guy who did it all the time and it was a point of mockery (friendly banter).

If you're an experienced game player you realise that turning the controller isn't going to make the on-screen car turn more sharply. Moreover, moving your head isn't going to enable you to see around corners in the game.

I was gonna come here to say pretty much the same as Beddo (and I noticed that other people replied the opposite). Maybe its just personal, but I think that if you are an experienced gamer, you should be able to play not devoting 100% attention to it. Or maybe that's just sports games, where patterns seem to emerge, so you can build up two identical goal-scoring plays in a football game without thinking too much about it.

 

[KBKarma]

I have a particular tic some people have noticed when I'm just using a computer: I blink less. I actually stop blinking. Some friends of mine have found it really scary, since they'll look over during a lecture and wonder why I'm not blinking.

I would, however, dispute that modders can be considered addicts. In some cases, surely. Others mostly use mods as a method of showing prototypes of their own games. An example would be the Half-Life mod Gunman Chronicles, which Valve later had published, or the entrants for the Make Something Unreal competition, who would have their mods released as a full game. In fact, a number of mod-makers have been hired by the company who made the original, thus getting a job from their mod. The most well-known examples are Team Fortress and Day of Defeat.

 

[UltraBlumpkin]

So the "5 Habits" you seem to identify are:

1. Intense Concentration
2. Talking to the game/AI
3. Modding/Altering the game
4. "Emergent Gameplay" - which I would call "creativity"
5. Suicide Gamers - limited to games where this is possible


I don't know what your experience is with video games, but I would guess you don't know any gaming addicts. I know "Top X" lists are all the rave in magazines these days, but this seems like a rather unfounded list for something that is so easily diagnosed. Let me give you a few ideas of what "Gaming Addiction" is really about:

1. The person stops caring about the real world around them, and chooses to live vicariously through a virtual one. (The next 4 fall into this general category, but I think this sums up the beginning of the addiction)
2. The game(s) take precedence over the person's real needs, such as eating, exercising and general hygiene. This is why South Park depicts a fat, unkempt loser eating cheetos.
3. The game(s) become more important than the person's job, family and friends.
4. The person develops reasons or excuses as to why he/she can spend so much time playing the game(s). They say "Oh I just gotta finish this one level" or "I just gotta get this achievement", and the task takes them hours, if not days to complete.
5. When the person becomes immersed in the game(s) while not playing it.


These might sound like a drug addicts habits, but that's because addictions always trend toward the same ends. These are very real issues, one's I've had to deal with personally to some extent, and with others around me. Regardless of the circumstances the point remains the same, when you become enveloped in a specific substance/world/state of mind, it will become all that matters.

 

[spuddyt]

So the "5 Habits" you seem to identify are:

1. Intense Concentration
2. Talking to the game/AI
3. Modding/Altering the game
4. "Emergent Gameplay" - which I would call "creativity"
5. Suicide Gamers - limited to games where this is possible


I don't know what your experience is with video games, but I would guess you don't know any gaming addicts. I know "Top X" lists are all the rave in magazines these days, but this seems like a rather unfounded list for something that is so easily diagnosed. Let me give you a few ideas of what "Gaming Addiction" is really about:

1. The person stops caring about the real world around them, and chooses to live vicariously through a virtual one. (The next 4 fall into this general category, but I think this sums up the beginning of the addiction)
2. The game(s) take precedence over the person's real needs, such as eating, exercising and general hygiene. This is why South Park depicts a fat, unkempt loser eating cheetos.
3. The game(s) become more important than the person's job, family and friends.
4. The person develops reasons or excuses as to why he/she can spend so much time playing the game(s). They say "Oh I just gotta finish this one level" or "I just gotta get this achievement", and the task takes them hours, if not days to complete.
5. When the person becomes immersed in the game(s) while not playing it.


These might sound like a drug addicts habits, but that's because addictions always trend toward the same ends. These are very real issues, one's I've had to deal with personally to some extent, and with others around me. Regardless of the circumstances the point remains the same, when you become enveloped in a specific substance/world/state of mind, it will become all that matters.

a single post better than the whole article

 

[UltraBlumpkin]

So the "5 Habits" you seem to identify are:

1. Intense Concentration
2. Talking to the game/AI
3. Modding/Altering the game
4. "Emergent Gameplay" - which I would call "creativity"
5. Suicide Gamers - limited to games where this is possible....

a single post better than the whole article

Why thank you =D

 

[ckeymel]

The Five Habits of Highly Addicted Gamers

It's easy to spot the odd rituals and behavioral tics that signal addiction - even if the "substance" in question is a videogame. Dean Sherwin examines a handful of these curious gamer habits.

Read Full Article

From my experiences it's only novice players who move the controller or themselves with what's on screen. When I was a games tester there was a guy who did it all the time and it was a point of mockery (friendly banter).

If you're an experienced game player you realise that turning the controller isn't going to make the on-screen car turn more sharply. Moreover, moving your head isn't going to enable you to see around corners in the game.

Heh, I do that and I am a very experience gamer. It's just because I'm extremely immersed in whatever task I'm doing. I think it helps me in many ways as I don't usually miss a trick and don't miss any details.

I also do this, in certain cases, and while I am not an extremely experienced gamer, I think it shows how immersed I have become in a game: I consider it a good thing.

 

[Socken]

So the "5 Habits" you seem to identify are:

1. Intense Concentration
2. Talking to the game/AI
3. Modding/Altering the game
4. "Emergent Gameplay" - which I would call "creativity"
5. Suicide Gamers - limited to games where this is possible


I don't know what your experience is with video games, but I would guess you don't know any gaming addicts. I know "Top X" lists are all the rave in magazines these days, but this seems like a rather unfounded list for something that is so easily diagnosed. Let me give you a few ideas of what "Gaming Addiction" is really about:

1. The person stops caring about the real world around them, and chooses to live vicariously through a virtual one. (The next 4 fall into this general category, but I think this sums up the beginning of the addiction)
2. The game(s) take precedence over the person's real needs, such as eating, exercising and general hygiene. This is why South Park depicts a fat, unkempt loser eating cheetos.
3. The game(s) become more important than the person's job, family and friends.
4. The person develops reasons or excuses as to why he/she can spend so much time playing the game(s). They say "Oh I just gotta finish this one level" or "I just gotta get this achievement", and the task takes them hours, if not days to complete.
5. When the person becomes immersed in the game(s) while not playing it.


These might sound like a drug addicts habits, but that's because addictions always trend toward the same ends. These are very real issues, one's I've had to deal with personally to some extent, and with others around me. Regardless of the circumstances the point remains the same, when you become enveloped in a specific substance/world/state of mind, it will become all that matters.

a single post better than the whole article

This.

 

[Stephen87]

I play Counter-strike Source Competitivly and Ive gotta side with Ultra on this one.

The style of the article sounds like a parent with kids or a purely console look at the querks of addicted gamers.

For those who dont game at my house, as I'm shouting/communicating at my team during a game, it must sound pretty severe...

Left for Dead is a great example for going nuts because if you get incapacitated by an infected zombie all you CAN do is yell for help. From anyone not used to the scene, it's a pretty one sided conversation...

Im just happy the neighbors haven't called the police yet, thinking im being murdered or somthing

 

[theSovietConnection]

So the "5 Habits" you seem to identify are:

1. Intense Concentration
2. Talking to the game/AI
3. Modding/Altering the game
4. "Emergent Gameplay" - which I would call "creativity"
5. Suicide Gamers - limited to games where this is possible


I don't know what your experience is with video games, but I would guess you don't know any gaming addicts. I know "Top X" lists are all the rave in magazines these days, but this seems like a rather unfounded list for something that is so easily diagnosed. Let me give you a few ideas of what "Gaming Addiction" is really about:

1. The person stops caring about the real world around them, and chooses to live vicariously through a virtual one. (The next 4 fall into this general category, but I think this sums up the beginning of the addiction)
2. The game(s) take precedence over the person's real needs, such as eating, exercising and general hygiene. This is why South Park depicts a fat, unkempt loser eating cheetos.
3. The game(s) become more important than the person's job, family and friends.
4. The person develops reasons or excuses as to why he/she can spend so much time playing the game(s). They say "Oh I just gotta finish this one level" or "I just gotta get this achievement", and the task takes them hours, if not days to complete.
5. When the person becomes immersed in the game(s) while not playing it.


These might sound like a drug addicts habits, but that's because addictions always trend toward the same ends. These are very real issues, one's I've had to deal with personally to some extent, and with others around me. Regardless of the circumstances the point remains the same, when you become enveloped in a specific substance/world/state of mind, it will become all that matters.

I second this, though I believe the original 5 in the article can be an indicator someone may be becoming addicted to games, they aren't in themselves signs of an addiction.

 

[Clemenstation]

So the "5 Habits" you seem to identify are:

1. Intense Concentration
2. Talking to the game/AI
3. Modding/Altering the game
4. "Emergent Gameplay" - which I would call "creativity"
5. Suicide Gamers - limited to games where this is possible


I don't know what your experience is with video games, but I would guess you don't know any gaming addicts. I know "Top X" lists are all the rave in magazines these days, but this seems like a rather unfounded list for something that is so easily diagnosed. Let me give you a few ideas of what "Gaming Addiction" is really about:

1. The person stops caring about the real world around them, and chooses to live vicariously through a virtual one. (The next 4 fall into this general category, but I think this sums up the beginning of the addiction)
2. The game(s) take precedence over the person's real needs, such as eating, exercising and general hygiene. This is why South Park depicts a fat, unkempt loser eating cheetos.
3. The game(s) become more important than the person's job, family and friends.
4. The person develops reasons or excuses as to why he/she can spend so much time playing the game(s). They say "Oh I just gotta finish this one level" or "I just gotta get this achievement", and the task takes them hours, if not days to complete.
5. When the person becomes immersed in the game(s) while not playing it.


These might sound like a drug addicts habits, but that's because addictions always trend toward the same ends. These are very real issues, one's I've had to deal with personally to some extent, and with others around me. Regardless of the circumstances the point remains the same, when you become enveloped in a specific substance/world/state of mind, it will become all that matters.

a single post better than the whole article

Yup.

Article wasn't great... based on anecdotal evidence and, in some places, a bit misguided in its logic (Really? becoming a modder is a sign of detrimental addiction? I'd say working on a mod is more likely an indication that someone is rather motivated - they want to MAKE entertainment rather than passively consume it). I don't really buy the argument that someone working on a mod is necessarily "obsessed" with the original game; they simply see an interesting framework that they can build their own game on top of.

 

[UltraBlumpkin]

So the "5 Habits" you seem to identify are:

1. Intense Concentration
2. Talking to the game/AI
3. Modding/Altering the game
4. "Emergent Gameplay" - which I would call "creativity"
5. Suicide Gamers - limited to games where this is possible....

a single post better than the whole article

Yup.

Article wasn't great... based on anecdotal evidence and, in some places, a bit misguided in its logic (Really? becoming a modder is a sign of detrimental addiction? I'd say working on a mod is more likely an indication that someone is rather motivated - they want to MAKE entertainment rather than passively consume it). I don't really buy the argument that someone working on a mod is necessarily "obsessed" with the original game; they simply see an interesting framework that they can build their own game on top of.

Honestly, I would consider a modder more of a hobbyist than the passive gamer. They are trying to develop the game into something else that they can enjoy and take pride in, much more so than earning an achievement. It's the same difference between a guy who "likes cars" and a guy who works on cars. One is content with driving the car as it is, the other is always looking to adjust it, make it better, make it different, etc. I believe the latter is much more admirable as a hobbyist.

 

[UltraBlumpkin]

So the "5 Habits" you seem to identify are:

1. Intense Concentration
2. Talking to the game/AI
3. Modding/Altering the game
4. "Emergent Gameplay" - which I would call "creativity"
5. Suicide Gamers - limited to games where this is possible...

I second this, though I believe the original 5 in the article can be an indicator someone may be becoming addicted to games, they aren't in themselves signs of an addiction.

I think you're right in that the author's 5 can lead to addiction, but I believe you and the author are confusing "game immersion" with "game addiction". Games are supposed to be immersive, something you can really get into. You need to feel like you are the character, and there is nothing wrong with that. Fallout 3 was a perfect example of that element of gameplay, which all critics applaud.

However, the difference between immersion and addiction can seem like a gray area. I believe "immersion" affects the way the individual interacts with the game, and it stops there. "Addiction" is when playing the game effects the way the individual interacts with reality.

 

[Sir_Montague]

I can't decide whether to be bothered or not by the fact that I hold some of these tendencies with my favorite games... But there always needs to be a goal for me as well... Something new to reach, or even something old, again... Like prestige mode in COD4. Can't say that I will stop once I reach 10th prestige, but for now I'm completely content continuously playing the game until I reach my lofty goal...