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I have seen this first hand. I have a brother who is in his mid 40s, who works a good job at a major factory but will spend every dime he can get away with on a video game, has a room in his basement that is dedicated to video games and will lock himself away to play any time he has off. He will take off his vacation time to buy a new game and lock himself in the room to play. Very sad.
I have a brother who was into video games as young as about 9yo. He had every VG that came out starting with the NES system and going to several systems today. He fixed up a room in his basement dedicated to gaming. He has a good job at a major factory and makes good money but has no interest in traveling, spending time doing things with his two girls, or just going for a walk.
He will take vacation time to correspond with a new game that comes out so he can lock himself in his room and play it non stop. Anything can be an obsession that is unhealthy but VG and even social media seem to be tapping into a way for people to hide away from real life. I am not an old fogy who thinks VGs are the new fangled things no one needs. I have a couple systems I don't really play and will buy the ocsional game on steam that are puzzle based games like the Room ect. My wife and I take turns playing it and it can last a week or more for an hour or so at night. Once done I don't feel the need to play a game for a year or 6 months.
I game. A lot. Have gamed since I was a kid. I'm not addicted, but I agree that gaming can be addictive, and I believe that a lot of people on Twitch and even YouTube are addicts. In some cases, the addiction pays them well, however. If I was good enough in a game to get paid to play it, I won't lie, I would do it. The good news, (I guess?), is that I can't focus on one game, so I'm never top on any game. I like variety - and I'm not nearly as entertaining as some of the gamers who do get paid, nor do I feel the need to scream into the mic - which seems to be the big seller.
For every day people who don't get paid, well - it's like a lot of things that are addicting. People are addicted to the internet - I'm probably very close to that. People are addicted to television - they schedule their time around a show or a few shows. I've known people who do this.
Alcohol, of course, we all know can be addicting. I actually had a roommate one time who scheduled her drinking time in her planner. She would write down the times and locations of the Starbucks she would be working at that week, and then she'd write in what club she would be going to, for how long, on any given day. She literally planned her drinking. The good thing is, she always paid her rent on time - so even though she was a fricken alcoholic, she never caused problems at home - paid her bills...but her being drunk every time she was home was tiresome. She never did anything, it was just tiresome.
People plan their paychecks around drugs. When I worked in the Everglades, some of my co-workers would do this.
Video games keeping people from dealing with society isn't always as bad, but for your brother to ignore his 2 girls...yeah, that's a problem.
What do you do about it? You're going to get the same reaction that you get if he was addicted to drugs or alcohol. Taking something away from someone who is addicted is usually beyond the every day person's capabilities, even something like tv or video games.
I think the problem for your brother, and anyone in the family who is concerned, is that society doesn't really focus on that type of addiction. They view gamers are "losers" (not even close), or socially awkward, (kind of true in some cases), and essentially just cluck their tongue and move on to another subject.
What do you want to have happen? What do you want to do about it? Are you asking for help on that, or are you just pointing out that video games can be addictive? They can be. There's usually an underlying reason for all addictions - maybe he gets something out of it that he feels is lacking that he isn't getting at home?
It's an incredibly massive waste of time. Everyone needs some escapism now and then but what's going on now is crazy and unhealthy. I'm not even happy that my kids play at all, but I'm always the one cutting them off and making them do something else.
the games should be made illegal, this way the legal apparatus can go to work protecting him. It will start by taking all his money and resources so he wont be able to purchase any new games,then housing him in prison for a time so he learns to go without the games and ultimately releasing him back into our freedom loving first world society where he can re-assimilate under the supervision of a state appointed guardian.
Oh and he might be abble to secure some special privledges if he tells the kind authorities who he purchased the games from so they can be tracked down and rehabilitated through hanging, electrocution or poison.
Ahhh the good work of the state is never done
It's an incredibly massive waste of time. Everyone needs some escapism now and then but what's going on now is crazy and unhealthy. I'm not even happy that my kids play at all, but I'm always the one cutting them off and making them do something else.
My parents wouldn't let me play video games very much growing up. I was very heavily into it though when I was in college (pretty much the gamer stereotype) but after I got out of college, my time spent gaming slowly diminished. Today, I still play but casually and sporadically. I don't regret my time spent gaming at all as it was a fun hobby.
To me, this seems like just another thing for conservatives to be outraged about. Video games are better than drugs and sex aren't they? You should count your blessings.
My parents wouldn't let me play video games very much growing up. I was very heavily into it though when I was in college (pretty much the gamer stereotype) but after I got out of college, my time spent gaming slowly diminished. Today, I still play but casually and sporadically. I don't regret my time spent gaming at all as it was a fun hobby.
To me, this seems like just another thing for conservatives to be outraged about. Video games are better than drugs and sex aren't they? You should count your blessings.
What a stupid response. I am a Conservative, and I game. A lot. How typical of the left to label everything as left or right when it's not political. Anything to bash on the opposite party.
I dont understand why we even have the term 'gamers'. I grew up with the original NES, and we had one, most of my friends had them, some had Segas and other systems, but NO ONE was a 'gamer', we all played the games, but no one devoted ALL their free time to gaming, and it was rare for any adults to play the games, they may pick it up occasionally, but its not something they really got into, they were just something we did here and there, not sure how this devolved into what it is today.
I dont understand why we even have the term 'gamers'. I grew up with the original NES, and we had one, most of my friends had them, some had Segas and other systems, but NO ONE was a 'gamer', we all played the games, but no one devoted ALL their free time to gaming, and it was rare for any adults to play the games, they may pick it up occasionally, but its not something they really got into, they were just something we did here and there, not sure how this devolved into what it is today.
$$$$
As I said above, some people get paid a lot of money for gaming. You don't even have to be a professional gamer sponsored by a company. All you have to be is interesting, good at the game, and apparently the more you scream into your mic, the higher your view count goes - and that all adds up to a lot of money for some of these people.
My parents wouldn't let me play video games very much growing up. I was very heavily into it though when I was in college (pretty much the gamer stereotype) but after I got out of college, my time spent gaming slowly diminished. Today, I still play but casually and sporadically. I don't regret my time spent gaming at all as it was a fun hobby.
To me, this seems like just another thing for conservatives to be outraged about. Video games are better than drugs and sex aren't they? You should count your blessings.
Most of the people whining about video games are liberals. Anita sarkeesian and others have entire YouTube channel dedicated to bitching and moaning about games. Used to be a conservative thing up until this latest trend of feminist/racist/homophobic/intersectional nonsense.
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Video game adiction is real
