
WHO says video games are “digital heroin” - lerie82
http://rss.cnn.com/~r/rss/cnn_topstories/~3/TWkVIk5hMRI/index.html
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arpa
Hey now. The title is absolute clickbait. WHO does not say video games are
"digital heroin". There is a single reference to heroin in the beginning of
the article: "Watching as a video game ensnares their child, many a parent has
grumbled about "digital heroin," likening the flashing images to one of the
world's most addictive substances."

The article is about WHO including videogame addiction in ICD as a mental
health state, and the submission title should reflect that.

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Rotdhizon
As crazy as these articles have been about gaming being a medical condition, I
believe it. I'm in my early 20s, ever since I was in my mid teens I was
addicted to video games. All through grade school and in college now, I
struggle to put the controller down. I routinely don't get enough sleep
because I can't stop playing. As soon as I come home I am on, and I won't get
off until the early hours of the morning. It's a mixture of reasons why I
guess; it keeps my mind off of reality, I enjoy the satisfaction of winning
frequently, and it fulfills my desire of being in a progression based system.
Achievements, knowing that my actions will eventually unlock achievements and
level-ups, it keeps me going. I can't play games that don't have progression
systems of some sort because I feel like without progression, it's a waste of
time. Sure you can kind of get that in the real world, but it's harder and
takes so much longer. Why do that when I have an easy alternative sitting on
my desk? I really want to break my addiction to gaming as it really does
affect some parts of my life, especially academic.

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wilsonnb2
Personally I agree with the WHO and think that gaming addiction is a much
larger problem than we currently think it is.

There are a lot of aspects to it but I think the biggest one is just that
video games are _ridiculously_ stimulating compared to other activities. I
have similar issues with TV shows now that binge watching entire seasons or
shows at a time is easy, and with browsing certain parts of the internet like
Reddit and HN.

Going from having your brain being heavily stimulated to being less stimulated
or not stimulated at all is hard. It doesn't feel good. That's why it's hard
to not "just watch one more episode" or "just play one more game" even though
I _know_ it's not going to be just one more.

The desire to avoid understimulation bleeds over into many aspects of your
life. It's hard to writing the next part of your CRUD app when you could be
scrolling through Reddit comments. It's even hard to read a book or play
guitar, which I know I will enjoy, when I could be doing something more
stimulating instead.

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sempron64
Based on market size and broadness of appeal, I think that video games in
general are significantly less addictive than social media or gambling, which
have much wider appeal and greater impact. _some_ video games exploit gambling
addictions, and are easily regulated (via bans on unlimited microtransactions
for example, which remove the incentive for game designers to generate
"whales")

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fwsgonzo
Im assuming they are referring specifically to exploitative games like the
mobile idle genre where you always have to do something and you really cant
leave the game alone if you want to "maximize" everything.

Im playing Bloodborne right now and its 2-4 hours a day just because of how
the game is made. I will die horribly and just put the game away for the day.

Other games, like Minecraft, is just a co-op sandbox. A social hangout. All it
needs is a treadmill, and its good enough for me.

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wilsonnb2
The three most addictive categories in my opinion, and in no particular order,
are mobile games, competitive games (League of Legends, DOTA, Overwatch), and
MMOs (World of Warcraft, EVE, Guild Wars, RuneScape).

You are correct that games like Bloodborne and Minecraft won't be a problem
for most people, but for some they certainly will be. Any game that can be
described as fun for some segment of the population will also be addictive to
a small subset, because the same qualities that make it fun make it addictive
to some people.

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jezfromfuture
Pete Townsend really needs to stop with this social commentary.

