‘Gaming disorder’ is officially recognized by the World Health Organization • Hacker News Board

Re: ‘Gaming disorder’ is officially recognized by the World Health Organization

#231

Post by krageon » Thu, Jun 21, 2018, 2:18 PM UTC

naravara wrote: post #193

kibwen wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> As crazy as these articles have been about gaming addiction being a medical condition are I appreciate that you're sort of equivocating here to preemptively deter the critics, but I'll take a stronger stance. Gaming is indisputably "addictive" in the layman's sense, even if people seem to get grumpy over using the term "addiction" for anything other than substance abuse. Regardless of what we call it, the detriment…

With MMOs it might be the melding of an addictive feedback loop with actual socializing. Most WoW addicts I've met seem to have pretty tight relationships with their guildmates or in-game friends. You hear something similar from people who quit smoking, about how they miss the social aspect of taking breaks to go outside and chat.

After you quit smoking you can just still take breaks and go outside with your still-smoking friends though. After you quit an MMO it's really hard to get the same amount of social time with your former mates, especially if they still play.

Re: ‘Gaming disorder’ is officially recognized by the World Health Organization

#232

Post by krageon » Thu, Jun 21, 2018, 2:22 PM UTC

bitL wrote: post #119

nostrademons wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Arcades absolutely did promote addiction, they just sucked at it compared to today's games. In a classical arcade, you walk into a darkened room filled with animated CRTs and strange noises. They literally have blinders, designed to shut out your peripheral vision so the game is the only thing in your consciousness. When you die, you have 30 seconds to insert more coins and continue, otherwise you have to start all o…

> they just sucked at it compared to today's games Games these days are far far more interesting than most movies, TV shows or other forms of entertainment. With photorealistic rendering coming combined with AR they might even override the need for exploratory travels outside pure relaxation stays (i.e. if you can visit Alaska/Antarctica/Japan/Petra/whatever with photorealistic graphics, would you really want to trav…

I don't disagree with your premise about games being far more interesting than most other forms of entertainment, but I cannot take you seriously when you say that any form of rendering (no matter how photorealistic) can compete with being in a different place with different people. That is a complete experience, and would need to be simulated with far more senses and to a far higher degree than is currently possible to even come close to the experience that travel will give you.

In fact, I'd say that the "I'm here now and I can't be anywhere else for a while, I'm really stuck in it and everything is exciting and new" aspect of traveling really cannot be emulated by a medium that you know you can stop consuming at will, at any time.

Re: ‘Gaming disorder’ is officially recognized by the World Health Organization

#233

Post by krageon » Thu, Jun 21, 2018, 2:31 PM UTC

watwut wrote: post #103

sasaf5 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This. Play 2 hours of videogames and babyboomer parents start loosing their minds (but not after spending the whole evening watching TV)

Through, if you say hello to them or ask them questions during that time, they will not yell at you. They don't demand to be tiptoed around like gamers do. They also don't swear loudly and randomly during that time at teammates. They are able to join family dinner preparation with everyone else - they don't do "just one more game" ad-infinity. They can tell when their favorite show ends when they want to not be disru…

The problems you listed are absolutely issues with people watching sports as well, but have nothing to do with the subject material. It's a people problem and can be resolved on that level. Let's not pretend that this is somehow unique to gamers or sports fans or really any other involved hobby.

Re: ‘Gaming disorder’ is officially recognized by the World Health Organization

#234

Post by feocco » Thu, Jun 21, 2018, 3:18 PM UTC

anyfoo wrote: post #225

feocco wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's a poor comparison. Equating ads to playtime? Sure you can tangentially involve DLC as an "ad" but it's a big stretch. Regulating length of ads is silly too. You can just purchase the show and watch it with no ads. Or don't watch the channel. Or watch different content. Seems the above comments are generalizing to justify controlling media consumption. Regardless of which side regulation comes down on. I…

I don't see why regulating the length of ads is silly at all. Several countries have been doing it for many decades. It works really well and has not led to any slippery slope, and made television much better overall. I have direct comparisons available from living in several countries during my lifetime--do you? The slippery slope has been going down the opposite hill, actually, in America: It's amazing how much les…

Slippery slope is not in regards to ad length. It's about the desire to regulate "sustained gameplay" mechanics in games.

You act as if the only media you can consume is via cable. There's virtually unlimited options in our age for media. The majority of it is free, not counting cost of internet.

X(media) is not provided by solely corporate entities. If someone wants to have a half hour ad(or infomercial) in their content, people will watch something else. It's shortsighted if there's a monopoly on X so your choices are limited. But that's the furthest thing from the truth in today's age in regards to media.

Re: ‘Gaming disorder’ is officially recognized by the World Health Organization

#235

Post by feocco » Thu, Jun 21, 2018, 3:22 PM UTC

zaarn wrote: post #227

feocco wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's a poor comparison. Equating ads to playtime? Sure you can tangentially involve DLC as an "ad" but it's a big stretch. Regulating length of ads is silly too. You can just purchase the show and watch it with no ads. Or don't watch the channel. Or watch different content. Seems the above comments are generalizing to justify controlling media consumption. Regardless of which side regulation comes down on. I…

>Regulating length of ads is silly too. It's not really. The limited amount of adspace, about 10 minutes full screen and 4 or 5 minutes side, some banners, have greatly increased the value of ads on TV. More expensive ads also means the ads are of much higher quality and less annoying than the US ads. Buying the content is of course always an option but this is largely form an era before buying content was even an op…

If we lived in a world where cable was the primary form of media consumption, I wouldn't think ad regulation was silly.

Like you said, we live in a new era. I think the idea of that regulation feels antiquated with the near unlimited choices now.

Regardless, this is off topic. My extreme tl;dr - keep lawmakers grubby paws off my video games!

Re: ‘Gaming disorder’ is officially recognized by the World Health Organization

#236

Post by jokoon » Thu, Jun 21, 2018, 10:46 PM UTC

As crazy as it sounds, I think I managed my gaming time by actually designing my own because the games i have been playing never satisfy me.

I usually get bored pretty easily, and there are no games that can really make me play for a long enough time because there is something that frustrates me about the game mechanics.

It's actually very satisfying to think about game design as a programmer, and to spot what can be improved in games i like so i might better enjoy playing and sharing them in the future.