RandyC Posted December 7, 2010 Share Posted December 7, 2010 Did anyone see this last night? It's been discussed before but not really on national TV in the UK. I remember back when I was in my teens being very addicted to Quake/Quake2 (DM & TF) so I can sympathise. However that was just a phase and I don't have a obsessive personality so I haven’t been addicted to the same level in any game since. http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00wlmj0/Panorama_Addicted_to_Games/ A few things I noticed: About 7mins in they filmed the faces of kids playing games - one of them doesn't blink and so cries when he plays. I sometimes stick my tongue out (so my GF says):) What is your gaming face? The violent WoW kid was worrying ... I have seen some of the clips on YouTube of some obsessive kids being cut off however this reaction was extreme. The family did the right thing but I wasn't expecting the reaction. The couple in South Korea that left their baby to die whilst they played online for up to 18 hours a day ... very sad but I feel that they weren’t stable enough in the first place to raise a family and someone should have intervened earlier like the single mother in the UK they mentioned. I laughed when the obsessed 20yr old was talking to the reporter when playing WoW. I think he should have made an effort and shut the machine down when he had the reporter round - he came across as spoilt (someone seems to be paying for his habbit with all the good kit he was playing on) and not wanting to do anything else in his life. The gaming mechanics point is pretty obvious to me but I suppose to others they need it spelt out how these random rewards are designed. What do you all think about this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vice Posted December 7, 2010 Share Posted December 7, 2010 Personally I get bored of games to fast to get addicted. I usually buy a game play it a lot for the first 2-3 days then barely play it 5-6 times over several months. There is only a handful of games I play frequently like Minecraft and Team Fortress 2 but even that is like an hour a week now. I think games are a bit like drugs some people get addicted to the high they can provide and it completely consumes them but other people are able to just enjoy it like any other form of entertainment. Personally I think a lot of people are addicted to TV spending 40%+ of their free time sat in-front of one but I don't think the BBC would cover that :laugh: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick H. Supervisor Posted December 7, 2010 Supervisor Share Posted December 7, 2010 I started watching it last night, but then it cut off because I didn't realise I was watching a recording. :( I'm probably going to try and get hold of it later and watch the rest. I found myself for most of the beginning smiling at the way things were being put. Then I realised that the reason for that was that they were dumbing it down for people who weren't gamers, whereas I am a gamer. There was one point where I got worried, and that was when one of the "addicts" was talking about playing a game. He said that one moment it was 15:00, and the next thing he knew it was 19:00 or 20:00. That made me wonder if I should consider myself a gaming-addict since I regularly experience the same thing. However, I quickly brushed the thought aside for several reasons. One because it only happens on the weekend, it's the only chance I get to game. Secondly I don't play all night long, because thirdly I still turn off the console to go and have drinks with my friends. I remember playing SWG a few years ago, and so I can see the addictiveness of an MMORPG. Since it is like having something of a second life, there is easily the potential for you to get separated from the real world. But I have a hard time imagining that other forms of gaming can be addictive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WelshBluebird Posted December 7, 2010 Share Posted December 7, 2010 I think it was poor journalism to be honest, focussing on the extremes and not presenting a fair representation at all. Of course I didn't expect anything else, but it was still disapointing. As for the actual "issue". There isn't one IMO. Anything can be addictive. People can get addicted to shopping, TV, sports, excersise, working, sleeping etc etc. Yet we don't see TV shows about those, or calls for them to be investigated. At the end of the day someone getting kicked out of uni, or not going to school, or losing contact with friends because of games is very rare. The fact that around half of UK households have a console, yet things like this a very rare shows how much of a non issue it is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrCheese Posted December 7, 2010 Share Posted December 7, 2010 This show did annoy me, almost every person they used as an example already had existing mental conditions, i.e the woman who let her baby die had issues before she started gaming. These are the kind of people that would get addicted to anything given enough chance. Panorama sometimes really is the daily mail of TV news reporting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RandyC Posted December 7, 2010 Author Share Posted December 7, 2010 I think it was poor journalism to be honest, focussing on the extremes and not presenting a fair representation at all. Of course I didn't expect anything else, but it was still disapointing. As for the actual "issue". There isn't one IMO. Anything can be addictive. People can get addicted to shopping, TV, sports, excersise, working, sleeping etc etc. Yet we don't see TV shows about those, or calls for them to be investigated. At the end of the day someone getting kicked out of uni, or not going to school, or losing contact with friends because of games is very rare. The fact that around half of UK households have a console, yet things like this a very rare shows how much of a non issue it is. Lazy, perhaps however concentrating on the extreme cases as with other forms of media sells papers or makes people watch and this programme is no different. If I wanted to see a balanced view I would look at many sources and write an opinion rather than seeking out just the extreme cases and writing an argument based solely on them which is what happened here. It is an issue for some but as you mentioned it also applies to almost everything we do and it's up to friends and family as what happened with one of the kids in the programme to step in and take action. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duality Posted December 7, 2010 Share Posted December 7, 2010 http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2010/12/06/editorial-panorama-addicted-to-games/ A good response to the program. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teebor Posted December 7, 2010 Share Posted December 7, 2010 Damn I missed this, I wanted to see it. I've set it to record on Thursday so I can watch it as I will be playing games on my PC too much to watch it on iPlayer :D I expected this to be a witch hunt before it started as it is panorama and I also said they would show the people in Korea who get violent irl over games and take it to extreme. From the sounds of it I was only partially right? My most extreme moment was when I played a game for three days without sleep, but I regularly loose hours playing a good game like Civ4 or TF2. However I have never considered myself addicted to dangerous levels. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oceanmotion Posted December 7, 2010 Share Posted December 7, 2010 Guardian review Good read. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RandyC Posted December 7, 2010 Author Share Posted December 7, 2010 Guardian review Good read. This is the first time I have seen it discussed on a prime time TV documentary in the UK. I think this Guardian journalist seems better placed to write on the subject than the concerned parent who presented the Panarama show. Speaking of parents I must of been asleep when the mother of one of the kids in South Korea says "she has tried hitting him" to stop her son playing games ... good parenting :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Salty Wagyu Posted December 7, 2010 Share Posted December 7, 2010 Speaking of parents I must of been asleep when the mother of one of the kids in South Korea says "she has tried hitting him" to stop her son playing games ... good parenting :) Yeah I don't remember hearing that last night either, think they might have cut it out? After all the programme had live subtitling from the 888 service, that usually is the case when a programme has just recently been made on the day of broadcast or the day before, and they did not have time to arrange the subtitles. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crisp Posted December 7, 2010 Share Posted December 7, 2010 The couple who let their baby die from gaming so much, how to they even afford to live? Or even pay to visit the PC cafe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nicholas-c Veteran Posted December 8, 2010 Veteran Share Posted December 8, 2010 If you want to catch it on iPlayer - http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00wlmj0/Panorama_Addicted_to_Games/ Wow, just caught this and wow... It was incredibly one sided... Things like facial expressions? That is called concentration. Once again we are onto video games corrupting children... No. No. No. I do not agree with that at all. It is bad parenting and the fact that children are given 18 rated games. Yes, children and even adults can become addicted. However it should be the parents job, as they do with TV and so on at early ages to stop the children. Anything can be addictive if you are not taught to control it. Also. Laura croft... Who is Laura croft...? Summary: Once again the media giving gaming a bad light. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Green_Eye Posted December 8, 2010 Share Posted December 8, 2010 http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2010/12/06/editorial-panorama-addicted-to-games/ A good response to the program. Perfectly sums up this whole ridiculous show (Y) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subject Delta Posted December 8, 2010 Share Posted December 8, 2010 It's possible to become addicted to almost anything. I mean personally I absolutely love gaming, and spend many hours doing it, but then at the moment I am out of work, and single and have little else to fill my time. I never put gaming above my priorities. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
He's Dead Jim Posted December 8, 2010 Share Posted December 8, 2010 heh, not a gamer myself, but now intriged enough to boot the media pc and watch the prog on the iplayer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
He's Dead Jim Posted December 8, 2010 Share Posted December 8, 2010 Seen the documentary now. I do know a few individuals quite obsessed by WoW, but they're middle aged adults, I wonder how game addiction compares to Facebook addiction? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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