Just watched a documentary called "A Dangerous Game" on the topic of gaming addiction. And honestly very few documentaries irritate me like this one.
NOTE: the 15 day time period the documentary used was during the summer holidays from what it showed ? none of the examples had school/work to go to.
The three examples the show used to show addiction were a 6 year old boy who played around 5 hours a day and threw a tantrum when his single mother tried to take his controller off him (last I checked young children throw tantrums if you take their favourite toy off them regardless of what it is), and abruptly let go after this. A 15 year old at school who played 160 hours over 15 days who his single mother said nothing to him and was worried about addiction. And an 18 year old who played 168 hours over 15 days and during the "detox" (not kidding they used that word) experiment he failed to cut down and again the single mother did nothing.
And I'm sitting watching this and thinking how irritating these examples are since in ALL three cases it's a family with one child and one weak single mother who doesn?t make an effort to enforce any discipline. Also they try to make the ?subjects? look even more helpless by introducing a ?detox? experiment which comprises of playing one hour per day for three years. The 18 year old cut down from 11 to 3 hours during this period and they still called him an addict.
In the end after the three year period the 6 year old played 1-2 hours a day but still acted like a spoilt dick to his mum, the 15 year old played less and focused on schoolwork more (should note that at 18 he would?ve had exams that he wouldn?t have had before). And the 18 did nothing until he was asked to go to Sydney to meet family and he decided to apply for a job when he got back.
But what annoyed me most of all was who the woman making the documentary would constantly say ?I know how heartbreaking a child playing too much is, because my son does it? and then give NO example. No average of how much he played, how he acted, nothing she just claims ?I know? with nothing to back it up. And of course she also used the good old ?murder because of games examples? ? because all game addicts do that.
One thing I did love though was when she interviewed a gaming representative who was saying addiction was a problem (she smiled at this) and then went on to say steps to stop it affecting health (lighting, distance from screen etc). And when she asked ?should gaming time be restricted? he instantly replied ?No, you can?t force someone to play less, it is the gamers responsibility to deal with the issue?. Now considering how she had imposed rules on the families to forcibly cut their gaming time seeing the smile get wiped off her face was priceless.
Summed up they claimed that anyone playing over 5 hours a day (average over 15 days) will likely have poor social skills, a drop in schoolwork quality and difficulty getting qualifications, a hard time finding a job and have anger management difficulties. Although really the problem with these families seems to be that the parents are all single mothers who have weak discipline and don?t try to tackle to issue directly ? they call a tv show to do it for them.
Don?t know about you guys but I play more than that and I?ve never failed a subject and am at university level now, have already got some good qualifications, am planning on a job once I?ve cleared my to-do list a little, am literally just about to hang out with my friend and have been out 4 times this week and am a pretty calm person.
Can't be the only one who exceeds the "limit" and performs normally right?
EDIT: Just remembered they told the story of a guy who killed himself in his computer chair and his mother assumed it was because of games
NOTE: the 15 day time period the documentary used was during the summer holidays from what it showed ? none of the examples had school/work to go to.
The three examples the show used to show addiction were a 6 year old boy who played around 5 hours a day and threw a tantrum when his single mother tried to take his controller off him (last I checked young children throw tantrums if you take their favourite toy off them regardless of what it is), and abruptly let go after this. A 15 year old at school who played 160 hours over 15 days who his single mother said nothing to him and was worried about addiction. And an 18 year old who played 168 hours over 15 days and during the "detox" (not kidding they used that word) experiment he failed to cut down and again the single mother did nothing.
And I'm sitting watching this and thinking how irritating these examples are since in ALL three cases it's a family with one child and one weak single mother who doesn?t make an effort to enforce any discipline. Also they try to make the ?subjects? look even more helpless by introducing a ?detox? experiment which comprises of playing one hour per day for three years. The 18 year old cut down from 11 to 3 hours during this period and they still called him an addict.
In the end after the three year period the 6 year old played 1-2 hours a day but still acted like a spoilt dick to his mum, the 15 year old played less and focused on schoolwork more (should note that at 18 he would?ve had exams that he wouldn?t have had before). And the 18 did nothing until he was asked to go to Sydney to meet family and he decided to apply for a job when he got back.
But what annoyed me most of all was who the woman making the documentary would constantly say ?I know how heartbreaking a child playing too much is, because my son does it? and then give NO example. No average of how much he played, how he acted, nothing she just claims ?I know? with nothing to back it up. And of course she also used the good old ?murder because of games examples? ? because all game addicts do that.
One thing I did love though was when she interviewed a gaming representative who was saying addiction was a problem (she smiled at this) and then went on to say steps to stop it affecting health (lighting, distance from screen etc). And when she asked ?should gaming time be restricted? he instantly replied ?No, you can?t force someone to play less, it is the gamers responsibility to deal with the issue?. Now considering how she had imposed rules on the families to forcibly cut their gaming time seeing the smile get wiped off her face was priceless.
Summed up they claimed that anyone playing over 5 hours a day (average over 15 days) will likely have poor social skills, a drop in schoolwork quality and difficulty getting qualifications, a hard time finding a job and have anger management difficulties. Although really the problem with these families seems to be that the parents are all single mothers who have weak discipline and don?t try to tackle to issue directly ? they call a tv show to do it for them.
Don?t know about you guys but I play more than that and I?ve never failed a subject and am at university level now, have already got some good qualifications, am planning on a job once I?ve cleared my to-do list a little, am literally just about to hang out with my friend and have been out 4 times this week and am a pretty calm person.
Can't be the only one who exceeds the "limit" and performs normally right?
EDIT: Just remembered they told the story of a guy who killed himself in his computer chair and his mother assumed it was because of games