Videogames: The New Homewrecker
- Thread starter Andy Chalk
- Start date
CVG have done a fun little piece on this.Andy Chalk said:
http://www.computerandvideogames.com/303761/news/wrong-video-games-causing-divorce-its-the-daily-mail-maths-challenge/
I kind of wish you guys wouldn't cover every retard statement the Daily Mail says about games, its only going to get their site more hits.
There's a board that looks at it and declares it I believe. Just like a mental illness has to be recognised by *whoever* as a mental illness.esperandote said:
It is an overused term in this day and age but you're talking to a group of people who over/mis-use the word "entitlement."Daddy Go Bot said:
I've seen video games be the reason a wife walks out on her husband. However, in that case I don't know the husband well enough to know what caused him to lose interest in his wife... she's pretty hot.
She did seem to be a bit of a princess though so maybe no amount of attentiveness would've satisfied her.
Maybe if the spouses wanting a divorce weren't such flabby-armed harpies, their (ex)husbands would probably take more interest in them instead.
Too bad the reason that split screen co-op left is because current consoles are too weak to render the game twice without the developers putting in a ton of extra work to cut back everything enough for it to work. Developer's technical limitations take a priority over gamers saying "I want split screen co-op!"Anachronism said:
Oh jeez not this shit again...
two part answer
1:---------------------
Addiction is a myth. All "addictions" are caused by having a shitty life, this experiment proved it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat_Park
Naturally the establishment hates this idea because it doesn't justify either authoritarians power over "evil addictive substances" or the presence of a "recovery" industry.
2:---------------------
99% of arguments between men and women in a relationship go like this:
Woman: You do too much of behavior X, you need to do more of behavior Y
Behavior X is one which does not directly benefit her, behavior Y is one which does directly benefit her.
Once a man realizes this and doesn't bother responding beyond a cursory "yes dear" he wins the relationship game.
two part answer
1:---------------------
Addiction is a myth. All "addictions" are caused by having a shitty life, this experiment proved it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat_Park
Naturally the establishment hates this idea because it doesn't justify either authoritarians power over "evil addictive substances" or the presence of a "recovery" industry.
2:---------------------
99% of arguments between men and women in a relationship go like this:
Woman: You do too much of behavior X, you need to do more of behavior Y
Behavior X is one which does not directly benefit her, behavior Y is one which does directly benefit her.
Once a man realizes this and doesn't bother responding beyond a cursory "yes dear" he wins the relationship game.
First I want to say that there is indeed such a thing as video game addiction. I was addicted in fact for quite awhile to text based muds (the first MMO's), and it was worse in many ways then a drug addiction. It was so addicting because you had non-stop constant stimulation and entertainment and so I played on average 14 1/2 hours a day for a year straight at the end.
Part of the problem was the kind of game I played, It encouraged you to play as much as possible as you were in competition with other people, and the game (back then) would reset every 12 hours or so forcing you to make equipment runs so you could progress as rapidly as possible. I would set my alarm by when the server would reset and over the course of 2 years (Before the final year when I played non-stop) I stopped hanging out with my friends, working, going to school or pretty much anything else eventually. That is certainly addiction and it was quite unhealthy. After accomplishing a huge goal (something that wasn't supposed to be possible) in the game I stopped and realized I had wasted the last year all together and that my life had totally gone off track and I stopped playing cold turkey (Even deleted my characters).
The urge to go back and play was very strong though, but I resisted it and 6 months later I met my wife.
I still play video games today, although I stay away from the more time intensive MMO's like WoW. I can see how some people who go overboard and stop caring about anything else might not be there anymore for their domestic partner, but to be honest if that does happen I think there was already a problem since the couple should be doing things together. If I had been married to anyone I cared about at all, let alone loved, I certainly would never have become addicted to video games in the first place.
The main reason you become addicted is because you enjoy the games and any source of endless enjoyment can be addicting. There are not many things you can do in life that never cease to be enjoyable. You can't eat constantly (you'd get to full), can't have sex constantly (you'd get too tired....and for that matter bored eventually.....even taking drugs non-stop would eventually cause you to need more and more, and get less out of it.
Video games on the other hand can give you a constant sense of enjoyment, accomplishment and even a sense of community. They are especially dangerous if you life sucks, you are lonely, in a relationship that is not working for you, or have things in life that you just don't want to deal with. That is of course why many people used to drink alcohol and become addicted to it, and video games to a large extent are a similar coping mechanism (although again....you can't drink ALL the time at least not for that long......you could play video games all the time as long as you have any source of re-occuring income or money saved up.
I want to mention one other thing, and that is unlike drugs, alcohol and other addictions, video games in many ways simulate real life (depending on the game), or at least other forms of entertainment. You probably would not normally think to yourself "I'd rather be doing heroin" when watching a movie...but that is certainly a common though for many video game players. You might have cravings for drugs etc, but you would not compare their use with all other things you do in life to entertain or enjoy yourself after you stopped taking them.
A video game addict can try to stop playing them all together, but as a previous addict I found it much better to simply take control and limit how much I play. I play video games while my wife watches her decorating shows, cooking shows etc....although sometimes I watch them with her even though I don't like them myself. We watch many other TV shows together and do many other activities together on a regular basis. If a couple is not interacting with each other or doing anything together then the relationship is already over, and in most cases that is not video games fault....in fact the excessive video game playing is probably BECAUSE of a bad relationship more then anything else.
Part of the problem was the kind of game I played, It encouraged you to play as much as possible as you were in competition with other people, and the game (back then) would reset every 12 hours or so forcing you to make equipment runs so you could progress as rapidly as possible. I would set my alarm by when the server would reset and over the course of 2 years (Before the final year when I played non-stop) I stopped hanging out with my friends, working, going to school or pretty much anything else eventually. That is certainly addiction and it was quite unhealthy. After accomplishing a huge goal (something that wasn't supposed to be possible) in the game I stopped and realized I had wasted the last year all together and that my life had totally gone off track and I stopped playing cold turkey (Even deleted my characters).
The urge to go back and play was very strong though, but I resisted it and 6 months later I met my wife.
I still play video games today, although I stay away from the more time intensive MMO's like WoW. I can see how some people who go overboard and stop caring about anything else might not be there anymore for their domestic partner, but to be honest if that does happen I think there was already a problem since the couple should be doing things together. If I had been married to anyone I cared about at all, let alone loved, I certainly would never have become addicted to video games in the first place.
The main reason you become addicted is because you enjoy the games and any source of endless enjoyment can be addicting. There are not many things you can do in life that never cease to be enjoyable. You can't eat constantly (you'd get to full), can't have sex constantly (you'd get too tired....and for that matter bored eventually.....even taking drugs non-stop would eventually cause you to need more and more, and get less out of it.
Video games on the other hand can give you a constant sense of enjoyment, accomplishment and even a sense of community. They are especially dangerous if you life sucks, you are lonely, in a relationship that is not working for you, or have things in life that you just don't want to deal with. That is of course why many people used to drink alcohol and become addicted to it, and video games to a large extent are a similar coping mechanism (although again....you can't drink ALL the time at least not for that long......you could play video games all the time as long as you have any source of re-occuring income or money saved up.
I want to mention one other thing, and that is unlike drugs, alcohol and other addictions, video games in many ways simulate real life (depending on the game), or at least other forms of entertainment. You probably would not normally think to yourself "I'd rather be doing heroin" when watching a movie...but that is certainly a common though for many video game players. You might have cravings for drugs etc, but you would not compare their use with all other things you do in life to entertain or enjoy yourself after you stopped taking them.
A video game addict can try to stop playing them all together, but as a previous addict I found it much better to simply take control and limit how much I play. I play video games while my wife watches her decorating shows, cooking shows etc....although sometimes I watch them with her even though I don't like them myself. We watch many other TV shows together and do many other activities together on a regular basis. If a couple is not interacting with each other or doing anything together then the relationship is already over, and in most cases that is not video games fault....in fact the excessive video game playing is probably BECAUSE of a bad relationship more then anything else.
8 hours is a bit much, might be an over exaggeration though. The problem is they only have one side of the argument.
There is no such thing as video game addiction. Most likely the marriage already had problems and video games were a way for the husband to escape the stress and to be frank I'd rather have troubles husbands and wives play video games all day than hit the bottle or the needle.
that's probably true. although there are plenty of drugs/behaviours that can become just as addicting mentally instead of going into physical withdrawal, and usually ppl don't really notice/care as much about them as the physically addicting ones, so it could really have a chance to do some serious damage to a person's life.Serris said:
Personally I think that any behaviour can become addictive. eating, video gaming, golfing, whatever. And let's face it, as ppl have said above, if a guy is spending 8 hours a day playing an MMO, he's probably trying to escape from something in the real world.
I have stopped playing video games as much as I used to but for a summer a few years ago me and my friends played alot of Halo on XBL and it's pretty easy to see how ppl could become hooked on playing upwards of 5-6 hours a day if they really wanted to. I can see alot of comparisons between it and gambling actually. didnt win this game? maybe next game! had a great game just now? next game will be better etc. For me it didnt really do anything to me on the level of becoming actually addicted (it just messed up my sleep cycle when I was playing till 4 in the morning), but for someone whose having problems in life (trouble at work, shy etc) then I could really see it becoming an addictive habit for either feeling empowered from winning/completion of quests and the socially interactive aspect.
If your husband/wife/significant other has started to play video games other than spend time with you, I would say your relationship already had problem far more serious than "he likes to play World of Warcraft."
People with addictive personalities can become addicted to most anything, but citing video-gaming as a divorce reason just screams to me: "UNDERLYING ISSUES."
People with addictive personalities can become addicted to most anything, but citing video-gaming as a divorce reason just screams to me: "UNDERLYING ISSUES."
Another case of the media leaping on the symptoms rather than the cause, couple isn't happy, one finds something to do rather than spend time with the person that now irritates them, and they irritate, and therefore it must be the fault of the evil games destroying marriages.
No mention that 100 years ago they'd just be out in a field violating local livestock rather than playing WOW, but hey, who needs facts when you've got an agenda to push, hey?
No mention that 100 years ago they'd just be out in a field violating local livestock rather than playing WOW, but hey, who needs facts when you've got an agenda to push, hey?
That could give whole new meaning to WOW terminology.HankMan said:
"LFG for Onyxia raid" would take on some...alternative interpretations
This was going to be my point. Find games you can share. If a woman wants her husband to go see a chick-flick with her, or some other activity that is truly her desire with him as a shared companion, then women should be ready to do the same.
I'm no angel. My husband LOVES Halo. God help me, when we get into any kind of disagreement, the evil side of me thinks, "Get Halo and SNAP it!" That is truly evil and happens when I am really upset, but I know it is his refuge from the day, his job and, yes, from me. I suck at Halo, so we don't share that (it would probably just cause another argument!), but we had a BLAST, most recently with the Portal 2 (just call me P-Body!!) coop mode and we are looking forward to some new downloadable material.
Even if it is as simple as Super Mario Bros, or some other cooperative game, I think before waging war against the machine, those feeling dejected should give it a shot! Use the tools before you to spend time together
I'm no angel. My husband LOVES Halo. God help me, when we get into any kind of disagreement, the evil side of me thinks, "Get Halo and SNAP it!" That is truly evil and happens when I am really upset, but I know it is his refuge from the day, his job and, yes, from me. I suck at Halo, so we don't share that (it would probably just cause another argument!), but we had a BLAST, most recently with the Portal 2 (just call me P-Body!!) coop mode and we are looking forward to some new downloadable material.
Even if it is as simple as Super Mario Bros, or some other cooperative game, I think before waging war against the machine, those feeling dejected should give it a shot! Use the tools before you to spend time together
Lol. That was true since the dawn of 3d graphics. Look at split-screen games from the N64... Co-op or not, if you can't spot the fact that the multi-player levels are less complex than the single-player ones...mjc0961 said:
So yeah. Lazy devs can't be bothered to tweak the level designs anymore...
I'd like to start off by saying that there's no such thing as videogame addiction. Or sex addiction, or chocolate addiction. There are people with poor self-control, people who make poor lifestyle choices, people who will grasp at pretty much any limp-dick excuse they can to justify their douchey behaviour... but "videogame addiction" is nothing more than 21st-century horseshit.
On to the topic!
On to the topic!
Yeah, you know, this pretty much sums up what I was going to say. I don't think the problem here is people playing games, it's people who get married when they shouldn't. They're too young, too immature, too hurried, whatever, they're too something to form a durable bond. The gaming isn't what broke up the marriage, it's a symptom of a marriage that was doomed from the get-go, and probably just one of many. If your man (or woman) didn't play that many games before you got married then clearly the relationship has gone wrong somewhere, and if he (or she) did and you didn't know about it (or didn't care) then there's nobody to blame but yourself.Bretty said:
As a collorary to the Daily Mail sucks, any study that is presented in the Daily Mail (or any fact) is probably wrong and misinterpreted beyond recognition, no matter how much it looks like the Daily Mail actually bothered to research something for once