So, the whole article is based on:
If you do fun stuff a lot, you might miss out on great things like hanging out with your parents or doing thought provoking homework.

‘Course, that would be too easy and lame. Karen Pallarito slaps on a few buzz words and the comparison to Alcoholism and you’ve got a real gem.

I think this would have been better off left on yahoolol’s frontpage…
I’m going to go kill monsters and slay demons to get away from this article for a few minutes…

This actually brings up some very important questions. Namely: can any specific activity which causes you to procrastinate from your supposed “duties” be considered a “disorder”? I don’t see it this way at all.

My personal opinion can best be summarized by the following:

Procrastination is one of humanities greatest achievements over the animals. Where they are driven by instinct, we are driven by motivation—something we can easily resist.

And with that in mind, this article is a load of bullshit. Comparing it to something which is physically addictive like Alcohol violates so many rules of logic I won’t even begin…

All I have to say is, tell the “1 in 10”‘s parents to get off their collective asses and do some parenting.  Any kid that can put in this amount of video game time is not addicted to games, they are being ignored by their parents.  What kid is not going to choose playing games over doing homework and chores?  None, if allowed to do it and not taught any better.

Wow, this article is just ridiculous.

Lets look at the questions.
“Have you every played [video games] as a way of escaping from problems or bad feelings?” This can be applied to anything thing someone can do, read sport work etc (by the fact that when people do these things they can block out stuff).
So it a poor question in that the kids most of the time wont understand what the researchers mean, after all there are problems in anyone life that are beyond there control and as such the best thing to do is use a distraction of some kind.

“Have you ever lied to family and friends about how much you play [video games]?” OK this is more relevant but here the thing the lieing can go both ways, depending on who it is, I.E. a game mad friend might make you say you play more than you do (in an attempt to fit in). So again it a bad question if it had been on the other hand: “Have you ever lied to family and friends to make it seem you spent less time playing [video games]?” it be more relevant.

The veracity of the report aside, I believe that videogame addiction should be recognised.  It exists, I have known people who are most assuradly addicted. Not all were minors however.

I’m sure some people can lose themselves in video games, letting work, family, sleep, etc. take a back seat to gaming.  Anyone that lets this happen, I would say they are addicted.  However, I stand by my first comment in this thread as children have no power other than what their parents allow.

Can any specific activity which causes you to procrastinate from your supposed “duties” be considered a “disorder”? I don’t see it this way at all.

Read up my friend, by definition an addiction is “the condition of being habitually or compulsively occupied with or involved in something.”

I’m going to go kill monsters and slay demons to get away from this article for a few minutes…

 
You’ll know when you’re addicted or not, especially if those “few” minutes transform into hours...

So, the whole article is based on: If you do fun stuff a lot, you might miss out on great things like hanging out with your parents or doing thought provoking homework.

‘Course, that would be too easy and lame. Karen Pallarito slaps on a few buzz words and the comparison to Alcoholism and you’ve got a real gem.

Lame eh? Any volunteers care to partake in an experiment? See how long you last without thinking about Diablooolololol…

It’s a word called denial. Addiction is real. Believe me (as an addict myself) I’m still capable of a binge Diablo sprees every now and then. If you think I’m alone in this matter, you’re just that much more [insanely] in denial. At any given time, over half my friend list is populated with people who play 24/7 (these are not bots, they are human bots!)

Furthermore, you remember how typical fast-food joint’s used to have “play spaces?” Yes, (this is old news) but if you haven’t checked lately they’ve replaced every single one of them with video game consoles! As a result, all we see thesedays are zombified children staring into dead space. So really, I’m not all suprised about the article, the most shocking “controversy” about it is how LATE their findings were.

The worst I’ve seen are adults with children, who have introduced them to video games and play 24/7 and don’t even realize they’re creating a clone of their addictive selves. It’s really sad, because the earth has so much more to offer in experience, vibrancy of color, and interaction than sitting on our collective behinds -staring into the void of dead space.

First off, I agree with Galtrovan.  It would be interesting to see what these ‘game-addicted’ kid’s family lives are like.  I am fully convinced that many of the world’s problems start with parenting.  But instead of looking for the root of a problem, I guess it is just easier to blame an outside source, like video game companies.  All of a sudden, all those years of bad parenting and raising children you should have never had goes away, and the blame is somewhere else.

Am I stupid enough to believe that game addiction doesn’t exist at all?  Of course not, but just like other addictions, I hate it when people focus on what the addiction is, rather than what caused the addiction in the first place.  Someone lost their marriage from playing too many games?  Their marriage was probably doomed in the first place.  Someone neglects their children from playing too many games?  Probably never wanted to raise the children in the first place.  Someone plays without eating or sleeping to the point of death, or near death?  Hey guess what?  Said person probably didn’t want to live in the first place. 

I personally, probably fall into the category that the article speaks about.  I am no longer a child, but I certainly have used video games much like one would use drugs.  That is just it though, I come from a childhood, a demographic that is more likely to fall to addiction.  Considering the alternatives, I think video game addiction was the lesser of evils.  I could have abused drugs or alcohol, and harmed myself physically.  I could have used sex, and either end up with diseases or unplanned pregnancies.  In that respect, spending a few too many hours playing a video game is pretty harmless.

I fear that this post may not come across as clear as I wanted it to, but my main point here is that one out of ten children is likely to have issues beyond gaming, and gaming is just the “drug of choice,” and not the problem.  Take away the games, and the child will still have issues.

Edit:  My apologies on bumping such an old post.  I just saw that original was quite a while ago, but only read article for first time today.