
Video Games and the False Sense of Achievement - mmhsieh
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0747563219301153
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Joking_Phantom
The title of this submission should be changed to reflect the content of the
paper - it neither talks about gaming in general, nor does it imply that video
game achievement is false.

To clarify, this study focuses solely on "problematic gamers," a
categorization that is still under flux, and also depends on other diagnoses
that are also not well formalized, or require rigorous examination of a
patient’s life beyond what is normally required for mental illnesses that are
more apparent.

Neither does it state that video games give a false sense of achievement. It
only observes the prevalence of achievement and challenge as a self identified
motivating factor for why problematic gamers continue to play games, despite
knowingly suffering from functional impairment.

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Joking_Phantom
To reply to the actual content of the paper:

Understanding the factors behind video gaming as a problematic behavior
separate from addiction is quite useful. Oftentimes, video games and other
behaviors are driven by needs satisfaction, rather than physiological
dependence. The needs for community, social activity, for achievement,
purpose, and other commonly recognized human needs are often partially or
fully satisfied incidentally by maladaptive behaviors. Moreover, even in cases
of physiological dependence or behavioral addiction, other factors still come
into play that encourage the behavior.

We constantly hear from drug addicts and alcoholics, that part of their push-
pull factor is the community of other users that they identify with and
receive support from, social aspects of their negative behavior, etc. It's not
enough to counter their physiological dependence on the stimulation itself -
their other needs that were previously satisfied by the activity, must be
satisfied by other means, or relapse becomes much more likely.

Spending too much time on the phone, computer, internet, video games, drugs,
social media, news, books, etc. There are a myriad of behaviors that can be
excessively performed by individuals, to the harmful neglect of their other
needs. Today’s world is more full than ever of dangerous and maladaptive
behaviors - this is one ail that technology has almost certainly contributed
to, with or without ill intent. Though education and institutions to help
maladaptive individuals are certainly ways to help, it is difficult to say if
they can completely solve this problem, or if it is a price we have to pay in
order to continue the upwards progress of technology as a whole. To be clear,
technology has only lowered the barrier to people neglecting themselves. The
root causes have always been there to some degree.

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MagnumPIG
Wonder where this title comes from?

What makes a sense of achievement "false"? As far as I can tell, this isn't
defined in the article. Is climbing mount Everest a "true" achievement? What
about winning a chess match? Solving a riddle? Is there something about games
that make the the achievement any lesser?

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jolmg
I interpret the title to mean that a true achievement is something that is a
step towards a better life as determined by each person. Haven't read it yet,
but I imagine that the problem it alludes to is how people get trapped in a
cycle of escapism -> life gets worse -> escapism. The "false" sense of
achievement would be those that make you feel like you've achieved something,
when actually your life outside of the game hasn't improved at all.

This isn't to say that true achievements can't come from playing games, but I
believe for most people the achievements that come from games are false by
this definition.

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martin_henk
E-sports professionals and successful full-time streamers might be a different
story.

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yomly
I think "Video Games" is clickbait for HN and overly generic.

There's a gulf of difference from Maple Story and Candy Crush to say Star
Craft and CS Go

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jolmg
Why is this flagged?

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dcftoapv
.

