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Underground > Games & Gameplay >

Excessive Gaming

21:33 / 10.08.05

A South Korean man has died after reportedly playing an online computer game for 50 hours with few breaks (Linkidj).

This is obviously a very exceptional case, but it touches on something I've given some thought to over the last few weeks, itself really stemming from a lengthy discussion I had with a friend about his concerns over his son playing - what in his view constituted - far too many online games.

My own gaming seems - as it always has done - to go through brief periods of furious gameplay, although those periods have gotten shorter and further apart as I've gotten older.
Back when studying at university I might not have touched a game for months, but would then spend a near solid week playing, say, Baldur's Gate from start to finish (which, if the hand strain due to hours of mouse clicking was anything to go by, was probably a pretty bad idea).

Of course, the major difference here was that in those days online gaming was but a pipe dream of developers, so those long hours were spent solo, which, in respect of the thread topic, might be considered more potentially harmful than online games which are driven - to one degree or another - by social interaction.

Online gaming, however, is something I confess to be fairly inexperienced with (there are only so many times you can play RTSs online and have your rear-end handed to you on a plate by some spotty American teenager before it becomes necessary to save whatever face remains by going back to playing against the PC).

So I'm interested in the views of other posters on excessive gaming, both on and offline.
Do you game excessively? Is it necessarily a problem? And when does a healthy interest become an addiction?

13:44 / 11.08.05

I know alot of gamers, but I don't think any of them game too much. Think of it like any other passtime; as long as it isn't interfering in the necessary things in life (paying rent, eating, bathing, etc.), than it isn't a problem. As soon as you start losing friends and getting evicted, then yeah, you have a problem.

Having said that, I think playing only one game at a time can be a bad thing. Don't believe me? Play tetris for 6 hours then go look at a tile floor.

Online gaming adds a new element to it. I remember the days of Ultima Online when I would get home from school and immediatly log in and stay there untill I would pass out. I think for some people, this is socially unhealthy, as they may not be interacting much with others. For me though, it actually strengthened a few relationships because I would always have atleast one meatspace friend I would game with. It's all about how the gamer approaches his gaming. If you lock yourself in your room and spend all your time either single-player wandering online fields alone, you're seperating yourself from the outside world and are gaming too much. As long as you keep that umbilical to the outside world, and you take care of your responsibilities, I don't think there is such a thing as 'too much gaming'. Then again, I have a funny lump on my wrist from gaming so much...

unheimlich manoeuvre

14:38 / 11.08.05

And then there are the health worries of carpal tunnel syndrome, repetitive strain injury and back problems.

*Goes out for a walk*

20:18 / 11.08.05

Civilization. What a game, I played it and it´s later versions (Civ2+3, Alpha Centauri) excessively. When I was lying in bed, I was seeing the streets, units and cities with eyes closed. One single game, with all its exploring of science and continents, building and destroying of nations and economies, and those extreme (often world) wars was so motivating.

I never found a game with that addictive potential again.

They work on civ4 now. I hope, I will be able to pass on it. But sooner or later, it will be up for grabs for 5€. Oh the temptation.

All Acting Regiment

20:36 / 11.08.05

Upthread, the mention was of somebody's son playing too many games. I don't know how old this kid is, but if excessive gaming is ever going to damage (male) development- and I'm not saying it always will, mind- it's probably in the early teens, simply because there's a lot of challenges then and it's, let's face it, sometimes a bit easier to sit in doors and play a game than go out and grow up.

00:15 / 12.08.05

Excellent point, Legba.

And dear god does civ2 take forever, Mistoffelees. Nothing should make a man forget he has to urinate, but civ2 can do that for twelve hours.

08:19 / 12.08.05

Civilisation in its various forms has hooked me. It started with the original on the Amiga, which when I was teenager I would play for maybe 32 hours Saturday morning to Sunday evening. An amount that with hindsight I would say was too much, mainly for the reasons that Legba has mentioned. Civ 2 hooked me during University and was probably responsible for me missing a few essay deadlines.
Anecdotes aside I think you can draw a parallel with drinking - the odd binge isn't going to do an awful lot of harm, but if it starts interfering with your life, then it's too much.

09:27 / 12.08.05

Just one game of civ2 from the stone age to the end took me a week of playing 12 hours a day.

And the bastards at firaxis have the nerve to promote civ4 as addictive!

"the best and most addictive gameplay of any strategy game ever created"

10:27 / 12.08.05

Good god, yes. Civ in all its incarnations has been a bane for me. It's the epitome of "just one more turn" games, where you think the next step will lead you to some kind of resolution, and it just gets you further in the shit. In that way, it is like any other addiction. Luckily it doesn't directly danage your health while you're doing it, but the psychological knock-on must be significant. I don't think you're alone in the "troop movements while you sleep", and wonder how your neurons are being rewired with such a sustained repetitive activity. Imagine ice skating for such long periods of time, for example. You'd be getting very good very fast. It makes me wonder sometimes what my brain is being trained for with these games. Is it useful or not?
I know there was one game I played obsessively when I was about 15 that used the number keypad to move. I challenge ANYONE to type numbers on a keypad faster than I still can thanks to this game (very handy when I was a bookseller looking up ISBNs). I can't think being able to hold WASD for long perios of time playing GTA will ever be as useful.

11:37 / 12.08.05

It makes me wonder sometimes what my brain is being trained for with these games. Is it useful or not?

Oh, I think, you can learn a lot from civ. In the early nineties, a teacher asked us, what would have been an effective way for citizens to fight a dictatorship without resorting to violence. When I mentioned "not paying taxes", she was really impressed and asked me where I got that idea. Well, civ of course! Those bloody citizens, not coughing up the money I so desperately need to build those new stealth bombers that will kick the russians tank inforced butts.

12:11 / 12.08.05

I played Everquest and other assorted games wayyyy too much in my mid to late teens... like, all the time, for a few years. It took serious tolls on my development, which I haven't yet got over (i'm 21), but that i realise exist and pretty much know how to combat. I think alot of young men play games alot to escape from the world, for various reasons, and yeah, it's a bad thing.

But the thing is, it seems like you can't really do much about it forcefully, as a parent, besides being a good example to the guy. In fact, my parents' keeping on the path of kindness and generosity but non-intervention worked in my case, as I was shown every day a beautiful example of human existence which highlighted my own state of poverty... which motivated me to change!

In all cases you can't generalise too much though, it's all dependent on the individual case. But I would say playing a lot (and i mean alot) is broadly a sign of some kind of a problem..

13:49 / 12.08.05

Ah, Sid Meier...how he stole so much of my youth. I'm gratified to see some mention here of Alpha Centari, since I thought it was an utterly superb - but vastly overlooked and under rated - game, and one with which I spent many hours.

Actually I'm interested in opening up this discussion and touching on the subject of the amount of time you spend playing games against the contrast of your increased age and the change in the games themselves.
To put it into perspective, I used to spend hours - pish, days - solidly playing some of the ancient Amiga games (Civ, Pirates!, Eye of Beholder, etc.). Now however, I rarely find games can hold my devoted interest for anywhere near as long (even games which require a lot of time investment like Civ, HOMM4, Morrowind).
Is this due to the fact that I'm older, and have less time/interest in gaming, or have the games themselves changed at some level, such that they are becoming entertaining only in short bursts and more suited to a generation of gamers who have a vastly smaller attention span?

14:59 / 12.08.05

Tez: I'm the same, used to spend days playing games, hours at a time, over a period of weeks. Now if I have a new game I may have a few days where I play for hours, but even then rarely do I hit double figures, and this honeymoon period rarely lasts over a week. I don't know if that's because I've changed (grown up?) or whether games aren't as interesting. I think it's probably the former (the changed bit at least, if not the grown up bit), though maybe it's more that I'm outside the target audience. There's the lack of time as well compared with my school-days and if you've spent all day staring at a screen, spending your evening staring at a screen loses its appeal.
Just re-read that and it's not that coherent, but I think it makes sense.