Video Game Addiction

[FamilyFriendlyGaming]

What can we do to help those who are addicted to video games?

I feel so bad for those who enslaved to the industry and can not break free. Any ideas how we can help those hopelessly enslaved to video games?

 

[SUNSTONE]

Leave them be.
With in time, they will get bored.

 

[HolyFire X]

Don't let them buy new games.

Trust me, this works EVERY time. They get bored, and then stop playing. With no new games, the excitement's gone, and they're unaddicted.

 

[SUNSTONE]

With kids it is different.
You have to regulate everything they do.
But when they are adults, you can't hold their hand through life.
As an adult a person that goes to the extreme, will learn the laws of sowing and reaping the hard way.
Like they may get fired, and then they learn to have some self control, or they get fired again.

Gaming is a very good thing.
For me, I learned that I could do almost anything, because I was a world champion videogame player.
In the movie "Shaolin Soccor", the one brother kept saying "You're are a kung fu master, believe in yourself." to the other brothers who were down, depressed, in dispair, over their situations. He pointed out their experience in Kung Fu as to say "If you can do that, you can do anything that you set your mind to".

This is one of the reasons why college is so important. If you go through college, and get a degree, you have just worked for something and achieved it.
Too many times people quit before they even get started, why? Because they don't believe they can do it.
So I wouldn't kick a person off of a game thinking it's all bad.
That experience from a game, or sport, may just be the encouragement that is needed to help them succeed in life.

I used basketball to get over my fear of failure.
I used poker to learn how to read people, this is important because before I would say anything without realizing how offensive I was.
I used videogames to realize my potential.
I used my job as a food server to get over my fear of talking to people.
All of these things God tied them together. His love, wisdom, and reasoning helps guide me through life.

Now, with all of that positive experience, I am going after my dream profession.
Without that experience, I wouldn't have the strength to get through it, I wouldn't have the strength to believe in myself.

 

[HolyFire X]

True, some things help people in certain ways that it might not help others.

What we're talking about though are people who are negatively impacted by video games. Sure, it's helped you, and even me too in some sense, but there are people out there who have serious problems with video games. Like addiction to gambling, they get addicted to games.

We're trying to figure out a way to fix these addictions, not justify them.

 

[Witness Of His Love]

Leave them be.
With in time, they will get bored.

Never a truer statment, Sunstone! You can only play so many games before they all start looking and playing the same. Boredom sets in and people move on to other things. And, who knows, their compulsion may garner a job for them in later life working as a game designer or programmer. The industry is wide-open for new talent.

Peace

 

[Dust and Ashes]

Leave them be.
With in time, they will get bored.

Very true. I used to be pathetically addicted to video games. Now, I've played most of them and none of the new games coming out are truely innovative so what's the point of playing the same game with a different name?

That's not to say that someone with an obsessive bent won't choose a video game or games to fixate on but the problem is something deeper than video games in those cases.

 

[FamilyFriendlyGaming]

Leave them be.
With in time, they will get bored.

And what if they become one of those crazed shooters and start murdering people? Would you care if they came after your family?

 

[FamilyFriendlyGaming]

With kids it is different.
You have to regulate everything they do.
But when they are adults, you can't hold their hand through life.
As an adult a person that goes to the extreme, will learn the laws of sowing and reaping the hard way.
Like they may get fired, and then they learn to have some self control, or they get fired again.

Gaming is a very good thing.
For me, I learned that I could do almost anything, because I was a world champion videogame player.
In the movie "Shaolin Soccor", the one brother kept saying "You're are a kung fu master, believe in yourself." to the other brothers who were down, depressed, in dispair, over their situations. He pointed out their experience in Kung Fu as to say "If you can do that, you can do anything that you set your mind to".

This is one of the reasons why college is so important. If you go through college, and get a degree, you have just worked for something and achieved it.
Too many times people quit before they even get started, why? Because they don't believe they can do it.
So I wouldn't kick a person off of a game thinking it's all bad.
That experience from a game, or sport, may just be the encouragement that is needed to help them succeed in life.

I used basketball to get over my fear of failure.
I used poker to learn how to read people, this is important because before I would say anything without realizing how offensive I was.
I used videogames to realize my potential.
I used my job as a food server to get over my fear of talking to people.
All of these things God tied them together. His love, wisdom, and reasoning helps guide me through life.

Now, with all of that positive experience, I am going after my dream profession.
Without that experience, I wouldn't have the strength to get through it, I wouldn't have the strength to believe in myself.

Am I the only one who finds this post self server, and self congratulating?

 

[FamilyFriendlyGaming]

Never a truer statment, Sunstone! You can only play so many games before they all start looking and playing the same. Boredom sets in and people move on to other things. And, who knows, their compulsion may garner a job for them in later life working as a game designer or programmer. The industry is wide-open for new talent.

Peace

Rapists and school shooters are also the outcome sometimes.

 

[FamilyFriendlyGaming]

Very true. I used to be pathetically addicted to video games. Now, I've played most of them and none of the new games coming out are truely innovative so what's the point of playing the same game with a different name?

That's not to say that someone with an obsessive bent won't choose a video game or games to fixate on but the problem is something deeper than video games in those cases.

Don;t you care enough about them to want to help them?

 

[Dust and Ashes]

Don;t you care enough about them to want to help them?

How would you suggest they be helped? It is an extremely complex problem that involves much more than just people addicted to video games. Some people are predisposed to addictive behaviour and choose video games because of the stimulation/rewards, some just have nothing better to do (in their opinion) so they spend all their time playing video games, some people (probably a small minority) are "addicted to video games" in the way that the problem is generally percieved and there are probably many others who fall in between or to either side of these categories.

I'm not a psychologist or a sociologist or a psychiatrist so I don't know enough about the issue to be of any practical use to anyone. Sure I care about people and I have concerns for people who play video games to the exclusion of having a normal life and normal friendships. What do you suggest I do?

 

[SUNSTONE]

And what if they become one of those crazed shooters and start murdering people? Would you care if they came after your family?

Videogames have made crazy shooters?
Who?

 

[SUNSTONE]

Rapists and school shooters are also the outcome sometimes.

Rapists? Who? What game has inspired people to rape others?

School shootings had the motive of rejection. They just used games or movies for how they would get revenge.
They were set on doing some damage, but it videogames had nothing to do with the motive.

 

[SUNSTONE]

Am I the only one who finds this post self server, and self congratulating?

Jealous much?

 

[ffman]

I guess I could consider myself a video-game addict, and I'm not a rapist or a school shooter. Video games (when I played the as a child) help me become such a good reader. Of course, I'm not as 'addicted' as I've been. Right now, gaming is about the only thing I can do; I had surgery for a brain tumor, so I can't work or enter college until at least next spring.

 

[Witness Of His Love]

Rapists and school shooters are also the outcome sometimes.

Rapists and school shooters have deep emotional problems that games have nothing to do with. You do them an injustice by making such a statement. They're usually lonely, abused and isolated children who grow into angry teens and adults. Blaming games will not reach these children or help them with their problems. You must address the things causing the hurt inside and set about healing them.

If all it took to prevent these people from committing crimes by taking away their video games we should be so lucky - but doing so will not solve their deep-set emotional problems. They will continue to have angry, hateful and hurting feelings inside prone to expressing them violently. You might as well put a bandaid on a broken limb for all the good it would do.

The people who can be helped are those who feel they're addicted to games. Admitting that, they are asking for help. To ease them away from playing too many hours at a time will be healing for them. Whatever other emotional problems they may be suffering with must be solved in other ways.

 

[FamilyFriendlyGaming]

How would you suggest they be helped? It is an extremely complex problem that involves much more than just people addicted to video games. Some people are predisposed to addictive behaviour and choose video games because of the stimulation/rewards, some just have nothing better to do (in their opinion) so they spend all their time playing video games, some people (probably a small minority) are "addicted to video games" in the way that the problem is generally percieved and there are probably many others who fall in between or to either side of these categories.

I'm not a psychologist or a sociologist or a psychiatrist so I don't know enough about the issue to be of any practical use to anyone. Sure I care about people and I have concerns for people who play video games to the exclusion of having a normal life and normal friendships. What do you suggest I do?

How do we help those addicted to sex, alcholol, and/or drugs? There is existing methodology - use that. A man died because he would not stop playing to eat or drink. Do you really want that to be the image of video games?

 

[SUNSTONE]

How do we help those addicted to sex, alcholol, and/or drugs? There is existing methodology - use that. A man died because he would not stop playing to eat or drink. Do you really want that to be the image of video games?

Psst! Total noob for sure! If he didn't die, I was going to kill him, being the gaming god that I am!

 

[Dust and Ashes]

How do we help those addicted to sex, alcholol, and/or drugs? There is existing methodology - use that. A man died because he would not stop playing to eat or drink. Do you really want that to be the image of video games?

If I personally knew someone who was addicted to video games and was in a position to help them, I would certainly do so. But please don't imply that those of us who may not have the same calling as you or may not be properly "equipped" for such action don't care. I know you have met with a lot of apathy and veiled (or not so veiled) ridicule because of your passion for this issue. That very denial/enabling does more to demonstrate the reality of the problem than any amount of statistics or arguing.

I understand the issue because I was addicted to Everquest (and gaming in general) for 2 years and saw the strain it put on my marriage. As I strive to conform to the image of Christ, my interest in gaming has dropped dramatically and I have literally quit buying games because I just don't play them. I do understand but I don't know anyone who has this problem and it is not my calling to search them out. I am working with a small group of dedicated people on building a mission church in our town right now so between that and my job, I'm staying busy and don't have time or resources to start a "Video game addiction" ministry.

Please forgive me if this comes across as uncharitible. I admire what you are doing and I wish you the best but there are people in my town who are starving for truth and I'm trying to help build a place for them to be fed. I'll start doing something for the video game addicts here after we get the Church established and growing.