Gaming Addiction

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I'll preface this by saying that I do have an addictive personality, so this is something I take very seriously. In the past I've struggled with alcohol, mostly, but have gotten that completely under control thanks to the support I receive from my family. However, I'm not going to preach. Having said that, for those who played (or still play) MUDs, get ready for some nostalgia.

When I was younger (we're talking 11, 12 years old) I played a lot of MUDs and continued to do so well into college. To be fair, I played a lot of two MUDs: Apocalypse IV (which graduated to Apocalypse V and is now known as Apocalypse Forever and located at telnet://apocmud.org:4000) and Enertopia.

Apocalypse you may have heard of; Enertopia, probably not. In fact, I just logged on Apocalypse for the first time in quite a while and, to my surprise, there are 6 people online! Granted, this is considerably less than in its heyday when 100 unique people would be logged on at any given time. I would spend hours upon hours in front of the computer leveling my characters, trying to pop equipment, bartering and what-have-you.

ApocFE Login

Eventually I found another provider that offered unlimited time (thanks, friend's brother's friend I didn't know). I would spent eight hours a day playing one or more MUDs, mostly using the zMud client (couldn't stand TinTin++) and playing multiple characters simultaneously.

I still have the character files with all my triggers and aliases and variables, not to mention a (very outdated, surely) equipment database. Ah, the good ol' days.

But, like all things, that too passed. That, and I honestly wasn't very good.

Text-based MUDs gave way to the MMORPG (massively-multiplayer online role-playing game; a mouthful, I know), but the chance for addiction never ebbed. In fact, it seems to have grown considerably and branched out beyond adolescents and college kids.

The October 2009 issue of the American Journal of Family Therapy contains an article by Dr. Kimberly Young, the director of the Center for Internet Addiction Recovery, called Understanding Online Gaming Addiction and Treatment for Adolescents.

There's not a whole lot to say about it, really. It's a good resource for what to watch for if you're concerned someone may be addicted to gaming (it's really no different than the tell-tale signs of alcoholism: preoccupation, losing interest in other things, lying about/hiding usage, becoming defensive or angry when confronted, and withdraw, both social and psychological). Abstract:

South Park World of Warcraft Episode

Their addiction is a noble one, however: they dedicate all day, every day to beefing up their characters in order to kill a superpowered character who gets his kicks by pkilling lower-level players. In the end, they decide to just play the game and not take it so seriously.

Some people never reach that conclusion.

In fact, there's an entire chapter devoted to "information overload" in Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives by John Palfrey and Urs Gasser. On page 187 they write the following:

While the generalized title is "internet addiction" it's clear the focus is on MMORPGs, as, regardless of how addicting Stumbling may be, there's only so many times you can run across Charlie the Unicorn.

Addiction really is nothing to be scoffed at. Thinking something is innoculous or "just a game" is a dangerous thing, too. People can become addicted to nearly anything and adolescents are particularly prone to this sort of behavior as it can provide them without an outlet they, perhaps, can't find anywhere else. In WoW, for instance, the unpopular teenager is a well-known and respected guild leader.

Still, I'm not entirely sure you need to pay $14,000 to kick the habit.

Citations:

Palfrey, J., & Gasser, U. (2008). Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives. Basic Books.

Young, K. (2009). Understanding Online Gaming Addiction and Treatment Issues for Adolescents. American Journal of Family Therapy, 37(5), 355-372. doi: 10.1080/01926180902942191.

 (Originally posted at Teach Video Games on September 28, 2009.)