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Games For Health Conference 08: Neils Clark on understanding and dealing with game addiction

Posted May 9, 2008 at 8:18PM EST by QJ Staff

Listed in: Tags: insomnia

Neils Clark tackled video game addiction at the Games for Health 08 Conference - Image 1

Yes, addictions need to be dealt with, but it's important to first understand exactly what it is you're dealing with. That's why writer and researcher Neils Clark addressed the subject of video game addiction at the 2008 Games for Health Conference. His talk centered on the problem, its elements, real world relationships and its solutions.

Clark noted is that it has no differentiation between children and adults with regard to game addiction, though pathologies may differ. He also admitted that health professionals are still "in the interim" in their understanding of the addiction.

According to Clark, three distinct elements help us understand what constitutes game addiction:

immersion - Different people are immersed differently into different games.
culture - This is basically how the virtual world works. These worlds have structures and cultures all their own, so researchers need to look at how these elements relate.
how people interact with games - Generally speaking, people play games not for nefarious reasons, but because they get good things out of them (friendships, rewards, etc.).

Nevertheless, Clark admitted that pathologies tend to affect both real and virtual worlds (for example, insomnia due to excessive grinding in World of Warcraft). Researchers, however, still need a more robust way of looking at the problem because taking away a game also means taking away all the good things that go with it.

Clark noted that developers can be a big help in helping to solve the problem, as they can design tools to help players monitor their own playtime and remind gamers to pace themselves.

For the long term, though, Clark mentioned that both developers and researchers still need to connect with each other, work together, keep themselves up to date with the latest research and "move outside internet addiction criteria to get a handle on what's really happening."

Via Gamasutra

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spicyhamster do you have any idea the definition of addiction.. it does not have to be a drug substance to be addicted, why the hell do you think most people call *craft games *CRACK. an addiction is ANYTYHING that causes problems in you social/proffesional life, be it legal, emotional, or physical. ie a workoholic is addicted to work like an alcoholic is addicted to *duh* alcohol. If you cant pull yourself away or don't want to pull yourself away from ANYTHING, and feel it is need your addicted, if you get an attitude about someone interupting that addiction you are also a jerk on top of addicted. its all based in the brain specifically the chenical reactions that come from this or that, in most cases the brain releasing Ceratonin, endorphines, and many other chems the body makes naturally that make you feel happy causes the start for an addiction, ie the first time you eat chocolate, or the first line you do, or the first lotto ticket you buy that you win on, or even the feeling of blowing up your buddy from 5000 miles away in a GAME.. all addictions..

in short spicyhamster you need to study your facts alot more before being a JERK and saying a factless statement as "YOU'RE NOT ADDICTED. It's a video game, not cocaine!" cause in truth it has very similar (though also very different) effects on the brain

# Yeah, it is an addiction. — RudedoggX 2008-05-09 23:46

thanks stiks, spicyhamster really is an idiot.

# dude — spicyhamster 2008-05-10 00:51

do you know what you're talking about? you can spit out all this serotonin/endorphin crap all you want to try and make yourself look smart, but I took biology in high school too. Mental 'addictions' do occur, and in rare cases, people can get addicted to things like video games, but unlike physical addictions, you can pull yourself away from the screen and nothing will happen to your body. If you're hooked on meth and try to go cold turkey, your body will go into withdrawal, a physical symptom of getting off of a substance that your body (not your mind) has convinced itself that it needs. Are you saying that if I pull someone away from WoW that they will go into withdrawal like a crack addict? No. These days, people have stopped taking responsibility for themselves. Take a look at just about everything in a store. Everything has a warning label. CAUTION: Coffee may be hot. Are you kidding me? Someone actually sued McDonald's for not telling her that her coffee was hot. She won the lawsuit, and now every fast food chain has that warning printed on the label. It's ridiculous, and so are all these people claiming to be addicted to video games. Sure, every once in a while, some dude in Korea will starve himself so he doesn't have to stop playing WoW, but really, how many of us actually have it that bad? If you're hungry, hit pause, get up, walk to the kitchen, get some food, and if you must, go back to the game. Don't claim to be a victim.

# dude, stfu — spicyhamster 2008-05-10 00:53

be a man and take responsibility for your *****

# spicyhamster's opinion — Orlyeh 2008-05-10 01:03

Despite your opinion on what "addiction" is, it is recently, and in increasing frequency, applied to activities and compulsions that people have regarding activities that they perform and not just physical addictions. While it's easy to put the blame of one's own bad habits on addiction, it's also easy to blanket an entire phenomena as people just being "jerks".

A pathological gambler will suffer the physical symptoms of withdrawal just as a meth user quitting cold turkey albeit less severely.

Does this mean that everyone who plays WoW should be medicated so they stop? I wouldn't go that far, but I would also not go so far as to call anybody who has pyromania a "jerk" and tell them to get over it.

# well — spicyhamster 2008-05-10 01:15

wouldn't you call the pyromaniac that burned down your house a jerk? i would. pyromania/drug addiction/gambling are significantly different from call of duty. they have real world 'rewards.' pyromaniacs get the thrill of seeing a house burn down, drug addicts get the high, and gamblers get the occasional win. gamers get what? a spot on the leaderboards? a digital sword? putting down a controller involves no sacrifice whatsoever, unlike the aforementioned activities.

in response to your statement about blanket terms, i'll admit that it was a bit broad, but in my second post i pointed out that there will be the occasional gamer who games too much and causes physical harm to themselves (but most likely, they probably have more problems than video game addiction if they starve themselves to death), but in the case of the people who call in sick from work so they can play halo 3 for a week, i think its safe to call them jerks.

# Addictions... — Scarface88 2008-05-10 03:02

Everyone has addictions of varying degrees, be it drugs, games or such. An addiction to something that has no direct effect on the body is obviously a psychological problem. However, not everyone has the same psychological constitution and will to end their addictions; some smokers can more easily than others. It's very much the same with most things to which people can become addicted. Two people could be 'addicted' to a game, and once they realise their addiction, one of them may be able to quit, and the other may struggle. It's a question of willpower.

# Well... — Shatterdome 2008-05-10 08:42

Guess what....you can have mental withdrawal symptoms as well....

Yes, if you pulled a wow-addict away from wow and did not let them play they would show many signs of withdrawal, starting with emotional responses like anger and annoyance.....which could then lead to physical conditions as 99% of what happens with your body is controlled by your brain.......why do you think people suffer chemical withdrawal ? Over the course of the addiction their mind has told the body that this is the normal amount of the toxin you should have in your system(you think it's your body, but your body makes no decisions only the nervous system, which your brain is a part of), so if it falls below a certain point then the mind tells the body to kick in the withdrawal symptoms.....untill after you go long enough that the mind accepts this as the new standard level of the chemical in question.

I do agree with you that people love to pass the buck and that even with an addiction as serious as Smoking (said to be the worse as it is both "physically" and "mentally" addictive) can be stopped cold turkey.....it's all about will power....and....your mind.....

# uhhh.... — Shatterdome 2008-05-10 08:45

You are pretty narrow minded if you don't think that the brains reward center cannot be stimulated by digital entertainment.....

As far as the brain is concerned all information comming in through the eyes is real......

Just because you do something in real life, does not make it any more "real" to your brain then if you do something in a digital world....

So yes, many people do will that same level of pleasure/reward in doing something digitally and in some cases moreso then doing it in the real world.....

You need to broaden your horizons abit buddy....

# HAHA!!! — The Obsidian 2008-05-14 05:57

People can be addicted to ANYTHING!!!! What a useless article.......

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