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If one goes by the old Einstein definition of insanity, then, yes, one could argue that there is much insanity in our community. We, as a group, gripe about things that the industry does to our games, and we, as a group, continue to buy into their shit.
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Crosmando: So what about spending endless hours glued to your mobile phone like normies do, is that a mental disorder too?
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tinyE: that's one addiction I never have to worry about.
yeah pagers can't hold your attention like a smart phone does.
I can see it now,
TinyE: "I can't call anyone from out here."
Friends with cellphones:"why not we get good reception"
TinyE: "not enough cord...."
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tinyE: that's one addiction I never have to worry about.
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Dejavous: yeah pagers can't hold your attention like a smart phone does.
I can see it now,
TinyE: "I can't call anyone from out here."
Friends with cellphones:"why not we get good reception"
TinyE: "not enough cord...."
XD
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LootHunter: After some consideration, I think that this piece of news is not as bad as it sounds. After all there IS already eating disoder (several kinds in fact) and yet no one prohibits food or forbids eating.
They should! If everybody stopped eating, there'd be no more problems! Any, ever again!
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TARFU: 1992 and the debate around Mortal Kombat perhaps? That brings back memories.
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drmike: Or D&D?

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-26328105
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Nelko_Lazar: Hmm, makes you wonder when they'll finally make Internet Addiction Disorder official.

Oh yeah. That'll make 'em insurance companies scream.
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drmike: Appears that they have done studies on it:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_addiction_disorder
Studies, yes. But that's not official until it makes World Health's DSM.

It's not on DSM IV, and they don't have the guts to even draft it for DSM V.
The "article" only mentions the World Health Organization in passing a couple times, instead relaying the thoughts of a knoxville housewife who doesn't care for video games and her son answering one question the way she wanted.(Sarcasm: yeah, I'm sure the little kid knows what addiction is-or even gaming really at this point in his life /sarcasm) So that's the same as since the 80s. only with less vitriol spewing and hate filled ignorance.

@Telika: You have a point, though personally I think there are other contributing factors like the internet training us to not see other users are people or that most children playing CoD don't seem to have learned how to socialize with humans. Combining the two might possibly make for a messed up generation that hates to deal with live people.(definitely noticing that some kids/teens in my community really have that last one)


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F4LL0UT: I'm actually surprised the WHO is only declaring it an addiction now. I read reports of studies on this topic more than ten years ago and already then it was pretty clear that video games can be as addictive and devastating as various drugs.
You're just too damn silly. Video games can give a 23 year old college student a stroke and leave her braindead? Cause liver/kidney failure? Drive you to giving blowjobs for $5 behind a ghetto bar so you can get the new call of duty? Go to jail(?) get out of jail, shank somebody you're robbing so you can get some arcade action and go back to jail? Unless you're mormon or something and feel the naughty words and premarital sex in the witcher is gonna literally send you to hell, I find your position utterly absurd, and frankly a bit demeaning to human life.

Feel free to call yourself a chocoholic or say that you're addicted to cheeseburgers or games, it's nonsense the same as "loving reese's cups" but it's your life so have fun. In reality fat people are not all "addicted" to food, and a heroin or cocaine/crack addiction kills enough millions of people in my country alone, costs the government hundreds of billions of dollars, and destroys millions more lives that it seems clear humanity doesn't really give a shit about human life itself, just talking points.

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pmcollectorboy: The universe has a sick sense of irony. Twitter and comic book and gaming sites are now blowing up with the news that an innocent guy was shot to death by cops after a Call of Duty player tried to pull a swatting prank but sent the wrong address.]The universe has a sick sense of irony. Twitter and comic book and gaming sites are now blowing up with the news that an innocent guy was shot to death by cops after a Call of Duty player tried to pull a swatting prank but sent the wrong address.
Swatting is a "prank" in the same sense as putting a pipe bomb in someone's mailbox when you think they'll see it and not be opening it. Since it's CoD he's probably underage, but I hope that dirtbag is adult and goes up for accidental murder(murder 3?).

On a less serious note, I wonder if you guys remember Jack Chick. We're past him, but apparently it's gonna be a while before anyone takes a professional informed look at this issue.
Post edited December 30, 2017 by Sturleson
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Sturleson: Swatting is a "prank" in the same sense as putting a pipe bomb in someone's mailbox when you think they'll see it and not be opening it. Since it's CoD he's probably underage, but I hope that dirtbag is adult and goes up for accidental murder(murder 3?).
He's saying it's not his fault.

http://www.news.com.au/world/north-america/innocent-man-killed-by-police-after-call-of-duty-gamer-made-prank-call/news-story/adcc25621b213e6ef73b3b6d6fdcd985
“The arguement can be made that the police would never have showed up if I hadn’t made the call, however, I don’t believe I’m the only guilty party involved in this whole incident, considering I was contacted and, you know, almost instructed to swat, and taunted to swat,” he said.
I gather he hasn't talked to an attorney yet. Admitted he was involved and talking to a YouTube journalist? This guy still has all of his marbles....
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Sturleson: You're just too damn silly. Video games can give a 23 year old college student a stroke and leave her braindead? Cause liver/kidney failure? Drive you to giving blowjobs for $5 behind a ghetto bar so you can get the new call of duty? Go to jail(?) get out of jail, shank somebody you're robbing so you can get some arcade action and go back to jail? Unless you're mormon or something and feel the naughty words and premarital sex in the witcher is gonna literally send you to hell, I find your position utterly absurd, and frankly a bit demeaning to human life.
You know, almost any addiction can have a seriously negative impact on one's life, the problems can be medical or social and possibly of other nature that I can't think of and there's been more than enough cases where video games have had devastating effects on individuals or entire families. And to me it's quite ironic that you accuse me of having a stance that's "demeaning to life" when in my eyes it's your stance that is seriously downplaying the dangers of the "softer" drugs and their victims.

Sure, playing video games is not substance abuse, they won't directly cause extreme harm to your body like giving you a stroke or a heart attack or cancer but that kind of stuff is just the tip of the iceberg anyway. Video games can result in a powerful psychological addiction that can seriously inhibit one's ability to lead a healthy life and take care of crucial responsibilities. People have been fired because they felt it was more important to keep grinding in World of Warcraft than go to work. There have been cases like an infant dying because its parents were too busy gaming or somebody killing their legal guardians due to being denied access to video games like in case of Daniel Petric or just getting interrupted during an online match. There's also been more than enough cases of extreme sleep-deprivation caused by video games that resulted in death (incidentally that DOES get pretty close to the consequences of substance abuse, doesn't it). And those are just the extreme cases that make it into the news, nobody can safely know how many lives were ruined by video games in less spectacular ways. And in this brave new world where there's no upper limit to how much money can be spent on a single game we can expect games to cause similar financial trouble as gambling addiction more and more often in the future like in this case. So, maybe there actually already have been cases of armed robbery because somebody had spent all their savings on micro transactions?

Anyway, video game addiction can be quite literally as dangerous as substance abuse or other serious kinds of addictions like gambling. Sure, the more extreme cases like homicide caused by video games may be corner cases but those suggest that there's a lot of more subtle dangers which can be particularly devastating due to how widespread gaming is and that it largely targets children.
Ok. Gamers are officially insane. About a month already.

www.who.int/features/qa/gaming-disorder/en/