As a person who was borderline addicted to games or whom at least felt he had been, I wanted to propose a few things that perhaps can be implemented to help people with addiction tendencies be able to buy and enjoy entertainment such as Starcraft 2. I'm assuming that the game currently has a text in its User Agreement that Blizzard will not be accountable for its overuse. Here's a list of things I propose a player to do:
1) Make a timer feature that shuts down the game after a predetermined number of hours each day. - A lot of "addiction" actually comes from gamer endurance (binge tolerance) and lost track of time. Addicts usually ignore the time of day, when our innate senses warn us to go to sleep before it gets too dark outside. - Set up parental control programs and give control to a trusted friend. I will actually pay extra money to Blizzard (~$10) if they can add time restrictions to my account.
2) Offer self incentives to show up at real world events for the game - Convince friends to go to meetup events for local lans, cosplay parades, and similar festivities where artistic talent or any talent pertaining to the game can be put on show.
I really cannot think of anything more right now. This is a call for player accountability, so that we won't one day see some person dying over Starcraft 2 all over the news.
I'm not trying to make game addicts go from geeky to glamorous all in one go, although that would be nice. I'm hoping that curbing addiction overall may help the image of E-sports.
Parents groups would make a massive uproar if blizzard made it so they had to pay 10$ for the game to not work after a certain time of day. Anyway, Im pretty sure you can put parental settings for your self to restrict how many hours your on starcraft a day. not entirely sure but yep.
On September 11 2011 04:58 Geordie wrote: Parents groups would make a massive uproar if blizzard made it so they had to pay 10$ for the game to not work after a certain time of day. Anyway, Im pretty sure you can put parental settings for your self to restrict how many hours your on starcraft a day. not entirely sure but yep.
Why wouldnt it be free and cost 10$...you can already get third party programs to do things like close an application after certain amounts of time...
On September 11 2011 04:18 IzieBoy wrote: As a person who was borderline addicted to games or whom at least felt he had been, I wanted to propose a few things that perhaps can be implemented to help people with addiction tendencies be able to buy and enjoy entertainment such as Starcraft 2. Here's a list of things I propose:
1) Make a timer feature that shuts down the game after a predetermined number of hours each day. - A lot of "addiction" actually comes from gamer endurance and lost track of time. Addicts usually ignore the time of day, when our innate senses warn us to go to sleep before it gets too dark outside. - This timer shutdown feature can be arranged on a one-time only basis, and would require a small fee of $10 each time it is changed by the user.
2) Offer more incentives to show up at real world events for the game - Maybe encourage more meetup events for local lans, cosplay parades, and similar festivities where artistic talent or any talent pertaining to the game can be put on show.
I really cannot think of anything more right now. Honestly, I don't see Starcraft as an addicting game, but from what I've heard, among hardware reasons, this fear of "wasting precious youth" is a factor that keeps many people from accepting my introductions to Starcraft. Their feedback makes me feel like a drug dealer sometimes.
Are you seriously serious?
1- You can get your own timer by either using an alarm clock, cell phone, ipod, internet program and probably the computer itself. "Addicts usually ignore the time of day, when our innate senses warn us to go to sleep before it gets too dark outside." What the hell really? A lot of people have messed up sleep schedules but that is more laziness than addiction, playing Starcraft at 10 AM gives you the same experience as playing Starcraft at 10 PM. There is also a very large clock in SC2's menu, you will undoubtedly see it every time you finish a game even if you are constantly laddering, that means you are reminded of the time every 5-20 minutes EASILY.
2- Maybe I don't want to go to a shitty cosplay parade. There are virtually no lans in the area I live (The one that I went to was straight up godawful, 'started' at 11PM and didn't finish till probably 10 AM the next day for ~32 people), and theres theatres and cinemas in every city, if you want to see an orchestra you probably can pretty easily, unless you live in a rural area.
How is telling people about the game similar to a drug dealer's actions? I really hope this thread gets locked ASAP to be honest.
Learning self control is a part of life. And usually when someone is addicted to games, it's because that person is covering up some other problem in their life by escaping. If it weren't for the game, they'd probably find some sort of other "addiction", so I don't think your solution will help the real problem.
On September 11 2011 04:18 IzieBoy wrote: As a person who was borderline addicted to games or whom at least felt he had been, I wanted to propose a few things that perhaps can be implemented to help people with addiction tendencies be able to buy and enjoy entertainment such as Starcraft 2. Here's a list of things I propose:
1) Make a timer feature that shuts down the game after a predetermined number of hours each day. - A lot of "addiction" actually comes from gamer endurance and lost track of time. Addicts usually ignore the time of day, when our innate senses warn us to go to sleep before it gets too dark outside. - This timer shutdown feature can be arranged on a one-time only basis, and would require a small fee of $10 each time it is changed by the user.
2) Offer more incentives to show up at real world events for the game - Maybe encourage more meetup events for local lans, cosplay parades, and similar festivities where artistic talent or any talent pertaining to the game can be put on show.
I really cannot think of anything more right now. Honestly, I don't see Starcraft as an addicting game, but from what I've heard, among hardware reasons, this fear of "wasting precious youth" is a factor that keeps many people from accepting my introductions to Starcraft. Their feedback makes me feel like a drug dealer sometimes.
Are you seriously serious?
1- You can get your own timer by either using an alarm clock, cell phone, ipod, internet program and probably the computer itself. "Addicts usually ignore the time of day, when our innate senses warn us to go to sleep before it gets too dark outside." What the hell really? A lot of people have messed up sleep schedules but that is more laziness than addiction, playing Starcraft at 10 AM gives you the same experience as playing Starcraft at 10 PM. There is also a very large clock in SC2's menu, you will undoubtedly see it every time you finish a game even if you are constantly laddering, that means you are reminded of the time every 5-20 minutes EASILY.
2- Maybe I don't want to go to a shitty cosplay parade. There are virtually no lans in the area I live (The one that I went to was straight up godawful, 'started' at 11PM and didn't finish till probably 10 AM the next day for ~32 people), and theres theatres and cinemas in every city, if you want to see an orchestra you probably can pretty easily, unless you live in a rural area.
How is telling people about the game similar to a drug dealer's actions? I really hope this thread gets locked ASAP to be honest.
Thanks for your honest feedback. What you are saying is what I have totally never thought before.
You seem like a very cold person. Maybe your lack of sympathy shows problems in other areas of your life. May you enjoy a wonderful life.
On September 11 2011 04:18 IzieBoy wrote: As a person who was borderline addicted to games or whom at least felt he had been, I wanted to propose a few things that perhaps can be implemented to help people with addiction tendencies be able to buy and enjoy entertainment such as Starcraft 2. Here's a list of things I propose:
1) Make a timer feature that shuts down the game after a predetermined number of hours each day. - A lot of "addiction" actually comes from gamer endurance and lost track of time. Addicts usually ignore the time of day, when our innate senses warn us to go to sleep before it gets too dark outside. - This timer shutdown feature can be arranged on a one-time only basis, and would require a small fee of $10 each time it is changed by the user.
2) Offer more incentives to show up at real world events for the game - Maybe encourage more meetup events for local lans, cosplay parades, and similar festivities where artistic talent or any talent pertaining to the game can be put on show.
I really cannot think of anything more right now. Honestly, I don't see Starcraft as an addicting game, but from what I've heard, among hardware reasons, this fear of "wasting precious youth" is a factor that keeps many people from accepting my introductions to Starcraft. Their feedback makes me feel like a drug dealer sometimes.
Are you seriously serious?
1- You can get your own timer by either using an alarm clock, cell phone, ipod, internet program and probably the computer itself. "Addicts usually ignore the time of day, when our innate senses warn us to go to sleep before it gets too dark outside." What the hell really? A lot of people have messed up sleep schedules but that is more laziness than addiction, playing Starcraft at 10 AM gives you the same experience as playing Starcraft at 10 PM. There is also a very large clock in SC2's menu, you will undoubtedly see it every time you finish a game even if you are constantly laddering, that means you are reminded of the time every 5-20 minutes EASILY.
2- Maybe I don't want to go to a shitty cosplay parade. There are virtually no lans in the area I live (The one that I went to was straight up godawful, 'started' at 11PM and didn't finish till probably 10 AM the next day for ~32 people), and theres theatres and cinemas in every city, if you want to see an orchestra you probably can pretty easily, unless you live in a rural area.
How is telling people about the game similar to a drug dealer's actions? I really hope this thread gets locked ASAP to be honest.
Thanks for your honest feedback. What you are saying acts like a foil to what I am saying.
You seem like a very cold person. Maybe your lack of sympathy shows problems in other areas of your life. May you enjoy a wonderful life.
I may be a fairly blunt or cold person by some peoples' standards at times, but that is simply my personality, especially when I find something to be ridiculous, for example your OP.
I find it to be ridiculous because I find the things you mention to be both unnecessary and a waste of time (Those are the same things I suppose). I gave my reasoning in my previous post.
I do not have anything against anyone on this site, and I feel that most of the people can handle a little bit of criticism without getting too upset. I don't want to make anyone mad but at the same time I want my opinion to be voiced as clearly as I can voice it. It is very easy to go overboard on the hyperbole though, I admit it, but if one to were never exaggerate their opinion would not be heard, especially on the Internet in a text format.
If you wish to give me more details on why you think my post lacks sympathy (beyond the lack of "I feel for you bro" cookie cutter responses), I would be glad to elaborate.
If you want to use your timer idea, you can set parental controls on your battle.net account to disallow you from playing after certain hours and at certain times of day. Just have your room mate or other friend control the password so you have to go through him, or something like that so you can change it if you really need to.
On September 11 2011 05:20 Geovu wrote: 1- You can get your own timer by either using an alarm clock, cell phone, ipod, internet program and probably the computer itself.
An alarm clock, cell phone, and so on all cost money as well. I have all of them, but isn't it strange that a player has to keep one of these accessories by their side (in a condom box) to be able to safely play Starcraft 2? I don't think it's too much to ask for Blizzard to allow people to set their own time restriction rules. In fact, I think Blizzard should have a game addiction division to identify and help possible addicts on their product. Moreover, I think more studies should be done to determine the average number of hours a person plays before he or she goes down the slippery slope and this should be incorporated into a recommended maximum hours of gameplay a day.
On September 11 2011 05:20 Geovu wrote: 2- Maybe I don't want to go to a shitty cosplay parade. There are virtually no lans in the area I live (The one that I went to was straight up godawful, 'started' at 11PM and didn't finish till probably 10 AM the next day for ~32 people)
What I meant to address and hopefully fix is the cultural vibe that gamers give off. While nobody will say it to my face, I can tell that their eyes shift further up over their noses when I mention Starcraft 2. If you go to lan parties, you'll notice some of the people wearing band or sports jersey uniforms for the very reason to balance out the "negative" gamer image.
On September 11 2011 05:20 Geovu wrote: How is telling people about the game similar to a drug dealer's actions?
It is when there are game researchers advising companies like Blizzard on how to make their products more addictive for a "high and constant rate of play". This, I think, is the elephant in the room.
On September 11 2011 06:08 Geovu wrote: If you wish to give me more details on why you think my post lacks sympathy (beyond the lack of "I feel for you bro" cookie cutter responses), I would be glad to elaborate.
I think in your overall message you are trivializing a real suffering as something gamers deserve for binge gaming. There's a statistic somewhere that 1 in 10 gamers are addicted. Are 1 in 10 basketball players addicted to basketball? I've never seen a friend play more than 7 hours of basketball at a time and who isn't pro. Two out of four of my gamer friends used to play more than 7 hours of Starcraft in each sitting. Therefore, this problem in E-sports is very real.
i really love ur idea of having the game turn off after a certain amount of time. i really dont wanna waste 3+ hours playing a game but time just goes and goes... neat idea ^^
shouldn't be a problem to make an outside app that will turn off any program after a determined amount of time.. but to be honest, if you have trouble taking a break on your own, you're only gonna turn it off/find some workarounds.. work on your willpower instead of this.
An alarm clock, cell phone, and so on all cost money as well.
On September 11 2011 04:18 IzieBoy wrote: - This timer shutdown feature can be arranged on a one-time only basis, and would require a small fee of $10 each time it is changed by the user.
Great logic here. Who doesn't have a cell phone or clock? What addicted gamer would voluntarily subject himself to a time restraint which he has to pay to remove? And as other ppl pointed out there is already a parental timer to use, which is FREE,
And for "incentives" to take place in LANs what exactly do you mean? I'm not even sure I understand what you hope to achieve with more people taking part in LANs/tourneys.....wouldn't that just promote enjoyment of the game leading to more playing time and higher chance of addiction?
Sorry, but you come off as a bit overly naive and idealistic. I'm sure there are studies on gaming addiction and how to properly manage it out there on the web. These aren't really going to help much.
On September 11 2011 06:51 IzieBoy wrote: An alarm clock, cell phone, and so on all cost money as well. I have all of them, but isn't it strange that a player has to keep one of these accessories by their side (in a condom box) to be able to safely play Starcraft 2? I don't think it's too much to ask for Blizzard to allow people to set their own time restriction rules. In fact, I think Blizzard should have a game addiction division to identify and help possible addicts on their product. Moreover, I think more studies should be done to determine the average number of hours a person plays before he or she goes down the slippery slope and this should be incorporated into a recommended maximum hours of gameplay a day.
I do not think it is that strange. If you are practicing basketball but commonly find yourself playing way more than you should (E.G. Missing meals and other important activities) then you would probably need to do the exact same thing, bring a timer of some sort so do not lose track of yourself. That seems like a much simpler fix than telling stores they have to sell a timer with each basketball purchase.
On September 11 2011 05:20 Geovu wrote: 2- Maybe I don't want to go to a shitty cosplay parade. There are virtually no lans in the area I live (The one that I went to was straight up godawful, 'started' at 11PM and didn't finish till probably 10 AM the next day for ~32 people)
What I meant to address and hopefully fix is the cultural vibe that gamers give off. While nobody will say it to my face, I can tell that their eyes shift further up over their noses when I mention Starcraft 2. If you go to lan parties, you'll notice some of the people wearing band or sports jersey uniforms for the very reason to balance out the "negative" gamer image.
I didn't notice any of those things at the LAN, MLG Anaheim or any other Starcraft congregation, I myself usually wear a black t-shirt and shorts. Maybe those people always wear band/sports jerseys? People wearing band t-shirts every single day is not that uncommon I find, probably the same for jerseys though I don't notice, so they were probably just wearing the same thing they usually wear.
The cultural 'vibe' is exaggerated from rare cases such a WoW addict showering less than once a week, peeing into bottles, and forgetting to feed their pets until they die and rot for over a month before they notice. The last example is true, but anyone who does something like that probably has a more serious mental issue that simply wasn't worked out, and if video games were not around, the person would have simply gotten into the same situation with something else. However, same stereotypes exist in literally anything else imaginable, all based off of rare, usually but not always untrue scenarios.
For example, a pedophile is always portrayed as a disgusting, creepy middle aged man with beady eyes and a moustache, when in reality I doubt that is a very common common case, and of course there are woman pedophiles out there; and while I am by no means an expert with much knowledge in subject, but many pedophiles are probably are able to cope with their unfortunate condition and live normal lives. Christians are often portrayed as closed-minded fools that all think homosexuals, soldiers fighting in a war, and masturbation are works of the devil. I could offer more examples but I think you understand the picture that most stereotypes encompass the most extreme scenario possible.
On September 11 2011 05:20 Geovu wrote: How is telling people about the game similar to a drug dealer's actions?
It is when there are game researchers advising companies like Blizzard on how to make their products more addictive for a "high and constant rate of play". This, I think, is the elephant in the room.
I do not find anything unusual with game companies trying to make a more addictive product for a "high and constant rate of play," because in other words, it simply means they are trying to make more fun and enjoyable games. The way they phrase is as if they were showing their results to shareholders and the people forking over the budget for the games they are making. Of course it sounds all evil and sinister when you use words like 'addictive' instead of 'fun' and 'constant rate of play' instead of 'high replay-value,' but it is simply what they do.
I personally also feel quite unnerved when I read things like that, but unfortunately it's just the requirement in a business and society run off of profit and the bottom line.
I think in your overall message you are trivializing a real suffering as something gamers deserve for binge gaming. There's a statistic somewhere that 1 in 10 gamers are addicted. Are 1 in 10 basketball players addicted to basketball? I've never seen a friend play more than 7 hours of basketball at a time and who isn't pro. Two out of four of my gamer friends used to play more than 7 hours of Starcraft in each sitting. Therefore, this problem in E-sports is very real.
Selection bias. I am assuming you are a heavy gamer (Based off the fact you are posting this thread on TL with an account with more than 50 posts) so assuming that is true you would simply be more likely to know gamer addicts rather than exercise addicts. I have heard of many stories of people with an exercise addiction, which leads to problems just as bad as an addiction to video games. I am not disagreeing with you that it is a real problem, and probably is more common than exercise or sports addiction, but you are looking at it with a biased view when really you should be looking at the bigger picture with a more general view.
If someone is seriously addicted to video games, the addiction should be treatable the same way as most other addictions. Mind you, in most cases video game addiction is a vice that is much less harmful to oneself and those around him/her than virtually any other addiction, such as gambling, drugs, real life violence or anything that involves breaking the law (Stealing, lying, cheating, rape).
On September 11 2011 07:59 Loanshark wrote: Sorry, but you come off as a bit overly naive and idealistic. I'm sure there are studies on gaming addiction and how to properly manage it out there on the web. These aren't really going to help much.
Aren't there like 140 million Chinese who are addicted to games? Who are you saying is naive? Also, it's hypocritical to say Americans should shrug off game addiction when your government is actually making laws concerning gaming.
Game addiction is personal for me, because the time I spent playing games is disproved of by society. It doesn't matter if I enjoyed playing it, or if I became the Gary Kasparov of Starcraft 2. It doesn't make it any better whichever way you tell a potential employer that you took a few months off to play games. How is something like taking a year off to travel so much better than playing games?
The reason for this? There are addicts out there who don't enjoy being addicts. There are addicts out there who hurt others with their addiction. Some can help themselves. But many are also crying out for help. Their word of mouth is a red mark on E-sports.
This whole discussion is to fix the community's suffering elements, even if it means taking legal action against game companies such as Blizzard. Humans are going to be humans. It's time for the big corporations to shoulder some responsibility. We can do with less extreme addict stories in the news: stop the future Alexandra Tobias, Kim Sa-rang, Rebecca Colleen Christie out there.
On September 11 2011 07:59 Loanshark wrote: Sorry, but you come off as a bit overly naive and idealistic. I'm sure there are studies on gaming addiction and how to properly manage it out there on the web. These aren't really going to help much.
Aren't there like 140 million Chinese who are addicted to games? Who are you saying is naive? Also, it's hypocritical to say Americans should shrug off game addiction when your government is actually making laws concerning gaming.
Game addiction is personal for me, because the time I spent playing games is disproved of by society. It doesn't matter if I enjoyed playing it, or if I became the Gary Kasparov of Starcraft 2. It doesn't make it any better whichever way you tell a potential employer that you took a few months off to play games. How is something like taking a year off to travel so much better than playing games?
The reason for this? There are addicts out there who don't enjoy being addicts. There are addicts out there who hurt others with their addiction. Some can help themselves. But many are also crying out for help. Their word of mouth is a red mark on E-sports.
This whole discussion is to fix the community's suffering elements, even if it means taking legal action against game companies such as Blizzard. Humans are going to be humans. It's time for the big corporations to shoulder some responsibility. We can do with less extreme addict stories in the news: stop the future Alexandra Tobias, Kim Sa-rang, Rebecca Colleen Christie out there.
I agree that gaming addiction is a huge problem. I never said it wasn't. I don't mean to say that addicts should just "help themselves". But what you've proposed in this blog doesn't seem like a good, logical solution to me.
EPT
