Performance Enhancing Drug in Starcraft 2? Yes. - Page 17

On April 07 2011 07:21 NotGood- wrote:
Uhm people are prescribed adderall for a reason, and i think its a bad policy to not allow people to use their medication. Steroids in sports is different, because athletes are not prescribed steroids, so its useless to compare the two.

Also your opinion in the opening post is very misleading. adderall can help you focus, but unless the players are taking way more than their supposed too (abusing) they aren't gonna go into their own little world.

I take adderall and i dont really play any different then i do when i dont take it. In fact i would say i sometimes play worse, because i will focus more on one specific aspect of the game, like micro, and then forget i have to macro. Its probably easier to play starcraft with ADD, because of the number of things your attention needs to constantly shift between.

On April 06 2011 21:48 above wrote:
The people postingin the topic sound like the people that are enforcing and supporting the "war on drugs", such a waste of time, money, and effort.

Yes this is the field I study and work in. Almost every person here has no idea wtf they are talking about, "tried" it a few times, or read some bogus MD websites on it.

The only reason anyone thinks they are better on this is because you hold benchmarks on irrelevant things like "APM"... Cool, so you're cracked out on adderol and Spam clicking faster... Doesn't mean you're better. You won a few more games on it? Cool, it's a streaky game which you probably would have won anyways...

There are things called dopamine. Serotonin, endorphines and epinephrine... Now what they do is Control your mood, perception, and well, everything.... They are the reason you think you are playing better. You're not. Amphetamines increase physical activity, and sadly, sc2 is not a physical activity, it's a mental one, with multiple dimensions and thought processes involved. No drug will make you better then you can naturally be because everyone has a skill ceiling, and it's not going to make you better then what you can be.

Stop being so conservative, don't speak out of emotion when you don't understand the real hard scientific facts. This thread is pointless, with irrational vs. Rational opinions, and will never be settled because of the way we are all raised and how it's beaten into the heads of society that drugs are bad, but also make you better? Like how cocaine is listed as a performance enhancing drug... Have you ever tried playing a sport on coke? Doesn't work out quite like you imagine.

On April 06 2011 15:22 mnofstl007 wrote:
what about the placebo effect? Has this been discussed at all... I guess I should read the post.

But what about people popping these pills, that now people are providing evidence for saying they would make you worse, but the placebo effect is enough to still make them feel better. Because psychologically the players feel more focused/calm simply because their brain is telling them they should since they just took the drug that does that.

also any1 who is talking about Steroids and the negative side effects needs to do some legitimate research on them. I am just saying, I guarentee you a lot of the things you think about steroids and their "negative effects" are completely false.

I don't use steroids, but I have friends who do. And I know people who have done a lot of research on them. just saying. (I don't feel required to comment any more on the steroids matter besides: do your research. over 90% of the common steroid negative side effects are complete BS manufactured by the media.)

On April 07 2011 07:30 chonkyfire wrote:
Amphetamine will increase focus, self confidence and increase thinking power. What dosage do you take out of curiosity?

psychoactive drugs are relatively harmless when compared to physiological centered once. My point is: drugs to help concentration are very very common (Ritalin). If the argument that these will cause health problems arises, then I challenge you to figure out why Ritalin and other A.D.D. medication is so widely used to correct concentration disorders.

On April 07 2011 07:56 Honeybadger wrote:
It's also worth noting that adderall has a median half-life of 10 hours in adults. You can't test for it unless you have the player take a drug test immediately after each and every match, once per day...

This would be obscenely expensive, woefully inaccurate, and hilariously impractical.




lolno. It will increase CONCENTRATION up to a point (the difference between accuracy and precision should be noted here.) It has no influence on self confidence or thinking power. synapse response speed is unaffected, as are feelings of self-worth o_O

It's not an amphetamine like coke or speed (molecularly, it is) because the potency is so low. Senses of euphoria are not present unless you're abusing the crap out of it. And at that point, it's going to be giving you an irregular heart rhythm, involuntary muscle contractions, and potentially severe paranoia.

"It's not an amphetamine like coke or speed"

"It's also worth noting that adderall has a median half-life of 10 hours in adults. You can't test for it unless you have the player take a drug test immediately after each and every match, once per day..."

On April 07 2011 08:19 TreDawg wrote:
Work smarter, not harder.

Should we also ban things like practicing more than 8 hours a day? That's clearly an advantage for the players who do it. Should all pros have the same diet? The food you eat and how healthy you are plays a big role in concentration and mental/physical stamina.

A player who refuses to take any advantage they can is foolish, not righteous.

Whatever helps you get to the top is fine so long as you're willing to accept the consequences of doing it.