If it's not the violence...

[Gamereviewgod]

... then it's the addiction.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050524/tc_afp/afpentertainmentgame

Am I the only one who thinks psychiatrists make this out to be so much worse than it is to take advantage of dumb parents?

[Milk]

Psychiatrists have a hard time dealing with human variation. Look at the big overreaction to Dungeons & Dragons in the '80s, or the whole Freudian thing with women.

[Gamereviewgod]

I just went to the MAVAV website for the first time after reading that. My god, these people are idiots...

This is what passes as a fact to them:

"Fact: Hardcore gaming not only leads to video game addiction and abrupt lifestyle changes, but to crime and felony as well. Hardcore gamers never buy computer video games. Instead, downloading illegally copied video games or “warez” is the only method acceptable by the underground. Buying a legit copy is grounds for abandonment by community groups. You may not be buying your child videogames, but they can illegally obtain them off the internet."

So, who here never buys video games? Who writes this crap?

[VACRMH]

Hmm, I was under the impression that MAVAV was a joke.

[Crush Crawfish]

I just went to the MAVAV website for the first time after reading that. My god, these people are idiots...

This is what passes as a fact to them:

"Fact: Hardcore gaming not only leads to video game addiction and abrupt lifestyle changes, but to crime and felony as well. Hardcore gamers never buy computer video games. Instead, downloading illegally copied video games or “warez” is the only method acceptable by the underground. Buying a legit copy is grounds for abandonment by community groups. You may not be buying your child videogames, but they can illegally obtain them off the internet."

So, who here never buys video games? Who writes this crap?

:shameful: I literally felt my IQ dropping as I read that. I'm most definitely a hardcore gamer, and I've never commited a crime in my life, and I sure as hell don't steal games, either. I've never even heard the word "Warez" in my life until I read that.

Basically, It boils down to people needing a scapegoat for everything that goes wrong. "Oh, little johnny wouldn't steal! It must be those evil video games!!" Seriously, I die a little inside everytime I hear video games being accused of such ridiculous crap. x_x

[RetroYoungen]

It's a real shame how people won't take credit for their own screw-ups anymore. It's always someone else's fault.

"Dammit, Johnny took a dump on the lawn again! Those video games made him do it! And on top of it all he's stealing the neighbor's pink flamingos too! Damn you, Rockstar!"

It's just getting too far out of control.

[Gamereviewgod]

Hmm, I was under the impression that MAVAV was a joke.

I've seen them quoted by numerous sources, including CNN. Very, very real unfortunately.

[§ Gideon §]

C'mon, guys! Lighten up; it's free publicity!


... okay, I'm just trying to look on the bright side...

[Promophile]

"The mother said he threatens to kill her, or himself if the parents make him stop. The psychiatrist told the mom not to make him stop."

This kid is fucked up in the head. I'd hand him a knife and tell him he's not playing anymore video games and that he should feel free to stab himself in the neck, he'd be doing society a favor.

In all honesty you can get addicted to anything really. They have studies done in Japan that say 10 pct of teenage males are "K-somethings" (can't remeber the word, sorry), which are people who totally divorce themselves from reality, chosing instead to live their lives through anime and video games.

[shopkins]

This is the alleged true story of MAVAV. A class project and hoax:

http://a.parsons.edu/~dyoo/2002-3/interactivity/mavav/

[Berserker]

My opinion of most major media coverage of gaming, which more or less encompasses bits on violence/addiction/piracy, is that it's basically convenient fluff fodder. It provides a rather easy avenue for having stories, things to fill up a schedule, while simultaneously providing enough of a fear factor to provoke many people(probably unsuspecting concerned parents for the most part) to pay attention.

It must be a convenient device to be able to throw out there when you don't want so many/any pieces covering those ever-touchy world issues, or when simply nothing very fear-inspiring or attention-grabbing is going on at that particular moment.

So basically, it's this generation's AD&D/"Eeevil heavy metal music" scare fluff. That doesn't nescesarily mean we should ignore it, though. In fact, as someone who's passionate about video games, I prefer to keep my eyes and my ears open, and I look forward to the moment where it boils over to the point where an opposing viewpoint MUST be put forth, if such a moment exists.

[lendelin]

I just went to the MAVAV website for the first time after reading that. My god, these people are idiots...

This is what passes as a fact to them:

"Fact: Hardcore gaming not only leads to video game addiction and abrupt lifestyle changes, but to crime and felony as well. Hardcore gamers never buy computer video games. Instead, downloading illegally copied video games or “warez” is the only method acceptable by the underground. Buying a legit copy is grounds for abandonment by community groups. You may not be buying your child videogames, but they can illegally obtain them off the internet."

So, who here never buys video games? Who writes this crap?

This is out for a long time. David Walsh is bad, but he isn't even the worst, it is Anderson from the University of Iowa.

The emphasis shifted from game violence to addiction for a year now. The reason: empirical research about game violence and behavior ran against a wall. There is not the slightest empirical evidence that violence in games leads to violent behavior.

Two years ago The National Institute on Media and the Family headed by Walsh prepared the next big topic: game addiction. On their website back then they listed already all the anecdotal 'evidence' Walsh fed the journalist of the yahoo article; and he, like a good boy, repeats the horror stories.

If you look actually at the research, they are merely correlations, not cause-effect relationships. "Long-term studies about game addiction?" I wanna see them, as far as I know, there are none. I remember one from their website, but in the actual paper the authors admitted that a causal relationship cannot be concluded.

I read once a paper by Anderson, in which he concluded: we don't really know A, but if A exists, then it leads to B, C and in all likelihood to D. If you play games, you end up as a criminal. I'm not kidding. If you get a parking ticket, you'll soon rob a bank in all likelihood.

Maybe these agenda-driven researchers should think about the statistical fact that teenagers convicted of a crime are much less exposed to "violent" media (movies, games, music) than your average teenager.

Could it be family and peer groups who play the decisive role? Nah, that is too far fetched.

[zektor]

Somebody should tell these people they can put a "less violent" switch on a Mortal Kombat arcade machine and be done with it....

[Graham Mitchell]

"A young woman divorced her husband because all he would do would be playing games. A man lost two jobs because of video games."



No. The woman divorced her husband because he's a piece of shit, and the man lost two jobs because he's irresponsible. Any reasonable person (and don't kid yourself; the majority of the game-buying public are reasonable people with no psychopathology at all) would not neglect their wife to play a video game, or ditch work to play a video game.

In continuation with what lendelin was saying, there may be an association with video game addiction and other problems, but that's due to a personality trait (psychologists call "High novelty-seeking behavior") common in people with antisocial personality disorder. These people are getting in trouble with the law because they ignore authority. There is a high association of drug and alcohol addiction as well, so why not video games too?

These people aren't getting addicted to video games because video games are bad. They're getting addicted because either they lack the self-control to be reasonable about it, or they've got a personality problem for which addiction is a symptom. If you took away the video games, they'd just replace it with some other vice.

Stupid media.

[Aswald]

... then it's the addiction.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050524/tc_afp/afpentertainmentgame

Am I the only one who thinks psychiatrists make this out to be so much worse than it is to take advantage of dumb parents?


Aside from inventing "ADD/ADHD," now they are saying that extreme Star Wars fandom is a "mental disorder." If you've ever read through a DSM, you'll see that EVERYTHING is becoming a "mental disorder." Which requires their "help" and, of course, a (lifetime) of drugs.

This can give you an idea:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0890420254/ref=sib_dp_pt/002-0645786-4999205#reader-page

No- you ain't the only one. They have been doing this for decades, now. Hell, back in the 1980s, there was even "dog psychiatry." So why not weird things with humans?

[Nature Boy]

So, who here never buys video games? Who writes this crap?

I'll be a bit of a Devil's advocate: there are *definitely* people who post here who feel that way. I won't name any names, but I've read more than one "why would you buy it if you can download it for free" post in my time.

(There is always a heavy load of "get lost dude/tte" that follows to be sure, as we are all collectors and don't want those negative vibes here, but it happens).

I personally wonder how many of those psychiatrists steal cable/satellite feeds, and if they blame *that* on video games too... :)

[CartCollector]

Here's are some advocacy groups that should be out there:
MAF-ISFSV (Mothers Against Falsely-Interpreted Statistics For Shock Value)
Scare-Tactic Media Corporations Anonymous

My opinion on MAVAV: It's either made by the stupidest mothers ever, or is the single greatest use of The Art of Trolling. (http://www.digitpress.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=53238&highlight=art+trolling)

[evildead2099]

These people aren't getting addicted to video games because video games are bad. They're getting addicted because either they lack the self-control to be reasonable about it, or they've got a personality problem for which addiction is a symptom. If you took away the video games, they'd just replace it with some other vice.

Stupid media.

Well said.

[Arcade Antics]

Aside from inventing "ADD/ADHD," now they are saying that extreme Star Wars fandom is a "mental disorder."
In all fairness, given the quality of Episodes II and III, I could see why they'd say that. LOL

Okay, all funnin' aside, I couldn't possibly say it any better than Berserker M already said it. So here are his words again. So very, very true.


My opinion of most major media coverage of gaming, which more or less encompasses bits on violence/addiction/piracy, is that it's basically convenient fluff fodder. It provides a rather easy avenue for having stories, things to fill up a schedule, while simultaneously providing enough of a fear factor to provoke many people(probably unsuspecting concerned parents for the most part) to pay attention.
Nailed it.