Poll of the Day > Are you addicted to video games?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I for sure am. I enjoy games that punish me for playing them, and it takes a long time to get good at them.

I call mithrix daddy every time he spanks my ass

Of course I am

I heard lots of people are work addicted; they go into withdrawal when they quit working and can even die without intervention

Lokarin posted...

I heard lots of people are work addicted; they go into withdrawal when they quit working and can even die without intervention

Sounds like a fucked up way to live

No I don't feel a compulsion to play and I can turn off the game to do something else whenever.

My only thing is I game for an hour or so before bed every night and sometimes I have a hard time stopping not so much because I can't stop gaming. But more the fact that once I stop my evening of relaxing and smoking weed is over and I have to face the fact that tomorrow is another day of work and errands before I can relax again

Haven't played a video game since Monday, so I'd say no

Depends on the game and what we're characterizing as "addiction." There are definitely games that I routinely lose track of time playing, resist having to stop, and/or continue to think about when I'm not playing them, and while there's room to question whether that's actually addiction or just a reflection of the fact that they're fun (or in the case of the last point, a game like Factorio where a huge part of the game is planning builds and that can happen to some extent even with the game turned off), those do fit the usual bills for what people call video game addiction. There are also other games that don't hook me like that, though, and on the whole I don't really have a problem with not gaming if I have a reason to want not to. As cliched as an addict saying "I can quit if I want to" is, I genuinely don't have a problem quitting when I want to, I just frequently don't want to because I'm having fun and don't feel the need to justify that fun to myself by forcing myself to stop. There's also the fact that my resistance to stopping is often more a symptom of procrastinating whatever else I need to be doing than a matter of being addicted to the game, though it's a very fine line between the two.

I think it would be most accurate to say that I'm somewhat addicted to some games.

You could do a case study on me and video game addiction

Nope, I regularly go weeks without playing

I wish I had more time to play them

Nah

MightBeOverSoon posted...

I'd say that if you are, you know

I'd argue that most people who are addicted to things don't necessarily know. Because they don't really admit it to themselves. "I've got this under control", "It's just a little bit now and then", "I can quit whenever I want."



adjl posted...

Depends on the game and what we're characterizing as "addiction."

I mostly go by the old DSM-IV definitions for addiction and abuse, where you've basically got a checklist of possible symptoms and the more of them you check off the more likely you are to be dealing with an addiction or abuse scenario (though the DSM-V combined the two categories, I still kind of like the differentiation between degrees of addiction).

There's a pretty good checklist to use here though:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_addiction#American_Psychiatric_Association



To add to that list, here's some other possible categories/questions from the old DSM definitions that I'd say are probably applicable as well:

- Recurrent failure to fulfill major obligations (are you skipping work/school/etc or otherwise letting your gaming impact those things?)

- Recurrent use in physically hazardous situations, such as driving an automobile while impaired (are you gaming on your phone while driving? Would you ignore a fire alarm if it went off while you were in the middle of a raid in an MMO?)

- Continued use in spite of social or interpersonal problems caused by use (is gaming ruining your social life?)

- Continued use despite knowledge of having a persistent physical or psychological problem that is likely to have been caused or exacerbated by it (are you gaming in spite of having back problems, hand cramps, or vision problems seemingly caused by too much gaming?)

It depends on the game.

If were going by the stuff that PO asked, then no

I do like video games a bunch, though But I also do go for long periods without them There are times when I do want to play them a ton But thats usually when its new (or new to me) For example, when I first played Hollow Knight like a year ago, I wanted to play all the time And would play for hours when I had nothing else to do or going on Or now, since TotK is still new, and I have so much to do, Ive been playing that a lot That said, if I dont play then, Id also be fine. Ill just read or watch YouTube

I'm pretty sure I used to be. Not so much anymore. Most games just don't hold my interest for too long anymore. I might game a couple days a week, or not at all for a couple of weeks.

TTRPGs on the other hand, I might be addicted to. I have weekly get together where we play a random tabletop campaign. My whole week is thrown off, if we need to cancel.

No, but they are my favorite hobby.

No, not addicted, but after doing stuff in the yard and house all day, I really need something to unwind. After playing video games doesnt work since being bad at them is normal for me, I usually read a book.

On certain games; MMORPGs in particular.

But I quit them over a year ago, fortunately with no noticeable withdrawal symptoms.

Only games I was ever addicted to are Diablo 2, Guild Wars, and Morrowind. I literally avoided WoW because I was afraid it would become a new addiction. Guild Wars is way more casual but I still managed to get hooked on that.

These days I can barely play a game for an hour or two without getting bored or feeling like I'm wasting time. Sadly.

More often than not I feel like I have to force myself to start a gaming session rather than the other way around. I guess in a different sense this could be a form of addiction. I still intrinsically enjoy games to an extent but perhaps not as much as I should for how often I play