Last week a columnist in the Norwich bulletin in her i last column Family living Columnist Sharma Howard just openly bashed Gaming to the enth degree. this is the article
Sharma Howard: ?World of Warcraft? sheds new light on gaming addiction
"I have seen firsthand the crankiness, the cloudy eyes and the resistance to disengage when dealing with my sons and video games.
But now there is one video game I would be very leery about crossing my home?s threshold ? ?The World of Warcraft,? a multi-player role-playing game that has been dubbed the crack cocaine of video games.
This comes on the heels of a 15-year-old Swedish player who couldn?t detach himself from the game and suffered an epileptic-type seizure after 24 hours of nonstop playing.
Well, anything nonstop for 24 hours could cause health problems, but there seems to be a dearth of testimony from gamers who struggle with WOW addiction on the Web site www.wowdetox.
Their postings reveal college students who have flunked out of college, young housewives whose marriages are suffering, and countless other testimonies about how they shunned the real world to prowl around WOW, which has more than 11 million players worldwide.
In the game, players step into avatars: alternate identities such as wizards, dwarves, and warriors, all battling it out in an epic landscape to hunt for gold.
Gaming addiction has gotten plenty of ink, and doctors have given plenty of warnings on what is appropriate in terms of hours on the computer or on a gaming system.
Now, it seems the ante has been upped in England, where psychiatrists, concerned for the lost youth of WOW, will be infiltrating the game by adopting avatars and interacting with other players in the hope of injecting some semblance of normal social contact.
The articles I?ve read concerning this government-funded program makes it unclear if the psychiatrists will only be ?saving? English youth, or will be gravitating to any kid they see as playing for inordinate amounts of time on WOW.
That obviously raises the question of consent. It?s one thing for the English to intervene with their own citizens, but how can they target only their own in this worldwide game? Further, what about the consent from the parents of underage players?
Their goal is to blend in ? no ?white coats,? so to speak. There is the thought that they will need more experienced players to help them create support groups for teens within the game, and let these players be ?peer mentors.?
It is also reported the psychiatrists would like to set up a WOW Anonymous, which would be a weekly, in-game meeting.
Encourage schools
I fully support parents in regulating their children?s time on the Internet, as well as playing video games and TV watching. I also encourage schools to become more aggressive in educating children about time management and why monitoring time spent on video games is healthy.
Yet, the cynic in me says this approach is one where psychiatrists will have more to gain here than kids. They will emerge with a bevy of information and compelling stories to help them write research papers that excavate a new territory of human behavior.
The hard-to-reach players will more than likely just toy with the psychiatrists ? and remain elusive.
In 2001, the American Medical Association rejected video game addiction as a legitimate mental disorder 2012.
Perhaps the psychiatric community will have more research to convince their colleagues otherwise with such projects as getting where the action is, but I?m not sure of its efficacy on a WOW addict.
I believe extreme addictions to games such as WOW are best sorted out by parents and friends who can help players change their habits ? or enforce a bit of tough love ? even setting counseling as a condition.
These are the people who can best affect change ? not psychiatrists posing like the people they seek to treat."
And this is my concerned letter complete with links to escapist columns on why gaming is good
"Hello my name is *censored* and i would like to object to your last column. There may be adverse effects to playing video games but you could have Said it nicer unless you view gaming as a Useless pastime.I understand that there are some "game addicts" but saying that everyone that plays Wow is a Addict is like saying Everyone who bungee jumps off bridges is trying to kill themselves. The entirety of video gaming is to have fun. if you got into some of the things your children play you would notice some of the story telling in some of them are almost Shakespearean in there story telling. I admit some games have no story but some games like "the Thief trilogy" "Psychonaughts" and "Assisins Creed" would most likely entertain Simply on story alone.
I believe that gaming is not an issue you can say is all bad. there are articles that would support my side of the matter here is some i found at escapistmagazine.com
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_183/5627-Goodbye-Cruel-World
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/features/issue/183"
I believe this woman made this article as a last ditch effort to just say any one who plays video games can go die in a hole. Every few articles she does about her children playing video games just oozes with concealed hatred for the pastime. i think she has no idea. Like someone being homophobic i think she is Afraid of gaming and gamers.
Tell me what you think am i just being paranoid or is she being ignorant and impulsive.
Sharma Howard: ?World of Warcraft? sheds new light on gaming addiction
"I have seen firsthand the crankiness, the cloudy eyes and the resistance to disengage when dealing with my sons and video games.
But now there is one video game I would be very leery about crossing my home?s threshold ? ?The World of Warcraft,? a multi-player role-playing game that has been dubbed the crack cocaine of video games.
This comes on the heels of a 15-year-old Swedish player who couldn?t detach himself from the game and suffered an epileptic-type seizure after 24 hours of nonstop playing.
Well, anything nonstop for 24 hours could cause health problems, but there seems to be a dearth of testimony from gamers who struggle with WOW addiction on the Web site www.wowdetox.
Their postings reveal college students who have flunked out of college, young housewives whose marriages are suffering, and countless other testimonies about how they shunned the real world to prowl around WOW, which has more than 11 million players worldwide.
In the game, players step into avatars: alternate identities such as wizards, dwarves, and warriors, all battling it out in an epic landscape to hunt for gold.
Gaming addiction has gotten plenty of ink, and doctors have given plenty of warnings on what is appropriate in terms of hours on the computer or on a gaming system.
Now, it seems the ante has been upped in England, where psychiatrists, concerned for the lost youth of WOW, will be infiltrating the game by adopting avatars and interacting with other players in the hope of injecting some semblance of normal social contact.
The articles I?ve read concerning this government-funded program makes it unclear if the psychiatrists will only be ?saving? English youth, or will be gravitating to any kid they see as playing for inordinate amounts of time on WOW.
That obviously raises the question of consent. It?s one thing for the English to intervene with their own citizens, but how can they target only their own in this worldwide game? Further, what about the consent from the parents of underage players?
Their goal is to blend in ? no ?white coats,? so to speak. There is the thought that they will need more experienced players to help them create support groups for teens within the game, and let these players be ?peer mentors.?
It is also reported the psychiatrists would like to set up a WOW Anonymous, which would be a weekly, in-game meeting.
Encourage schools
I fully support parents in regulating their children?s time on the Internet, as well as playing video games and TV watching. I also encourage schools to become more aggressive in educating children about time management and why monitoring time spent on video games is healthy.
Yet, the cynic in me says this approach is one where psychiatrists will have more to gain here than kids. They will emerge with a bevy of information and compelling stories to help them write research papers that excavate a new territory of human behavior.
The hard-to-reach players will more than likely just toy with the psychiatrists ? and remain elusive.
In 2001, the American Medical Association rejected video game addiction as a legitimate mental disorder 2012.
Perhaps the psychiatric community will have more research to convince their colleagues otherwise with such projects as getting where the action is, but I?m not sure of its efficacy on a WOW addict.
I believe extreme addictions to games such as WOW are best sorted out by parents and friends who can help players change their habits ? or enforce a bit of tough love ? even setting counseling as a condition.
These are the people who can best affect change ? not psychiatrists posing like the people they seek to treat."
And this is my concerned letter complete with links to escapist columns on why gaming is good
"Hello my name is *censored* and i would like to object to your last column. There may be adverse effects to playing video games but you could have Said it nicer unless you view gaming as a Useless pastime.I understand that there are some "game addicts" but saying that everyone that plays Wow is a Addict is like saying Everyone who bungee jumps off bridges is trying to kill themselves. The entirety of video gaming is to have fun. if you got into some of the things your children play you would notice some of the story telling in some of them are almost Shakespearean in there story telling. I admit some games have no story but some games like "the Thief trilogy" "Psychonaughts" and "Assisins Creed" would most likely entertain Simply on story alone.
I believe that gaming is not an issue you can say is all bad. there are articles that would support my side of the matter here is some i found at escapistmagazine.com
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_183/5627-Goodbye-Cruel-World
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/features/issue/183"
I believe this woman made this article as a last ditch effort to just say any one who plays video games can go die in a hole. Every few articles she does about her children playing video games just oozes with concealed hatred for the pastime. i think she has no idea. Like someone being homophobic i think she is Afraid of gaming and gamers.
Tell me what you think am i just being paranoid or is she being ignorant and impulsive.
