[UK] Panorama: Addicted to Games

Vequeth

United Kingdom1116 Posts

December 06 2010 22:21 GMT

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00wlmj0/Panorama_Addicted_to_Games/

This is UK only but you might see it pop up on some torrent sites over the next couple of days. The documentary is pretty rough going and paint a very bleak picture. Worth watching just to have some cool SC2 stuff on tv though, like the London launch and a quick trip to korea (to look at the starvation case).

Vinnesta

Singapore285 Posts

December 06 2010 22:46 GMT

I watched this as it showed on BBC, 2 hours ago. They make the same old points, and barely showed any depth to the discussion. Addiction is a spectrum, and a non-1-dimension one too. Yet game addiction was just portrayed as "he plays 10 hours a day, and hence he's addicted!"

In one scene, they were interviewing a WoW player as he was playing (see how biased they set up the scene to be?), and the player was obviously irritated. The interviewer seems concerned at the player's hostility, as though it is unnatural for someone to be irritated. Addicted to games or not, anyone would be irritated if you distract them while they are doing something else!

So addiction to games is obviously a problem. What did they suggest to be done? "Go to our website to read tips on safe gaming." No mention of policies being debated in Korea to curb gaming, or restrictions in China, or any comments about UK legislation. In conclusion, little thought was put into this episode, and it serves only to increase the paranoia of parents to gaming addiction.

sixfour

England11061 Posts

December 06 2010 23:25 GMT

On December 07 2010 07:46 Vinnesta wrote:
I watched this as it showed on BBC, 2 hours ago. They make the same old points

I haven't watched this, but Panorama rehashing old stuff as new news really wouldn't surprise me in the slightest.

Klive5ive

United Kingdom6056 Posts

December 06 2010 23:59 GMT

It was pathetic journalism to be honest. I watched it and laughed.

They start off with the point that video games aren't technically addictive and no study has shown this to be the case. There's no chemical addiction as with Alcohol/Smoking etc..

Then they jump to the case of a WoW player who played 20 hours straight and use that single case to make some point about how it's actually real (even though it isn't, with bad parenting anything can become an obsession). Watching TV for example.

The real low point was when some stuck-up, self important, prick sat behind some guy while playing WoW and said "why don't you do something normal like other people your age?.
Then he tried to make a point about how he couldn't answer him properly while playing, well of course not you jackass he's concentrating. That's like jumping into the middle of a football match, standing behind the goalie shouting "why aren't you giving me your full attention?!!"

Then they talked about that lady who played games while her daughter starved.
It was sensationalist bullshit. The first thing the doctor said was that this woman had mental problems before. That's right pick on someone who started with severe mental problems then blame the game they happen to play and say "LOOK! They're crazy!".....

It's so easy to point to the few extreme examples and make it all bad.
But never do they consider the alternative.
Being inside playing games is far safer than doing pretty much ANYTHING else.
You're supposed to be out drinking instead? Or driving a car/bike? Or just hanging around on the street? All those things are far more dangerous.
Obviously if you do something continously and don't balance your life then that's bad. That's what parents are for. Doing pretty much anything too much is bad.
But if you want to spend 6 hours a night playing WoW there's definitely nothing wrong or bad about that.

Adeeler

United Kingdom764 Posts

December 07 2010 00:08 GMT

The usual passing the buck of bad parenting onto games as a cop out.

PanoRaMa

United States5070 Posts

December 07 2010 01:12 GMT

no i'm not!! :[

Hidden_MotiveS

Canada2562 Posts

December 07 2010 01:18 GMT

On December 07 2010 10:12 PanoRaMa wrote:
no i'm not!! :[

Yeah you are! Unless they're talking about the panorama from the UK...

Kerotan

England2109 Posts

December 08 2010 04:47 GMT

I wasn't originally going to comment on this as generally I think the programme was trash, and I didn't have much more to add, but John walker has done a stunningly good editorial on its over at Rock Paper Shotgun, which is worth a read.

reQ

United Kingdom45 Posts

December 12 2010 02:00 GMT

I watched this with a mate and we were stunned as to the nonsense they were spouting..

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