Thread: The problem with games

A few questions arose in since my two best friends bought themselves World of Warcraft. They have the game for 3 weeks, and all day and all night all they can talk about is the game itself. Don't get me wrong I've also played the game and I like it. But the fact of the matter is that slowly but surely they lose their "life". They hardly get out any more and even when they do all they talk about is the game.

And as if that wasn't enough, they say things like:"Its become my second nature..." or "I get a nervouse brakedown when I somebody loots my mob..." I know the game is a good one and as mentioned before I've also played for a while, but I was never drawn by it that much. When its just a damn game and that it dosn't deserve to kill you're braincells over, they respond:"You couldn't understand since you don't play with passion..."

I don't know....please tell me you're thought it.

Everybody seems to go through a phase of being addicted to something or another, I guess computer games are better than drugs. I find people lose interest after a while, a nephew of mine was bought an 'X-Box' [or whatever you call these things], for christmas, and does sod all else morning noon and night, (for doing so well at school )- I'll wait to see how well he does next term....

yeah...well I know that people are adicted to something in a part of their life, yet that is why I'm concerned. The thing is that not only teenagers or younger play this game. Adults and even elderly(for them it is a pretty good way to spend their time). And I know of a child that died in front of the computer because she played that much of the game and didn't eat or sleep that she died. Not the part of death is that which concerns me, but the fact that it is rediculouse to get so angry and furiose over a game, it just dosn't make any sense.

well World of Warcraft in particular, i don't play it but i got friends that do, seems like you can't finish that game and because of that you can always keep going keep doing something and in the case of a MMORPG theres a large number of other people there to do it with.
other games you get sick of because its the same repetetive point and shoot or accelerate, brake, turn, accelerate over and over again. having not played WoW i guess theres more to the game than that, esspecially if your paying money on a monthly or 3 montly basis.

Yes it is true that you can never get to the "finish" because almost each month or in 2-2 weeks you get new content. And when u get a to a high level again new stuff is adedd and for each "special" day like: 8 march or new years there are allways special things. Even so... it seems to me like they have grown like "dependent" of the game.

There is no problem with games
The only problem is with humans
Especially those who cant handle games

I am inclined to say you are right zelos... this is the same as the acusation of shooters and other violent games being the cause of kids with guns. I cannot agree on this, and it is simply a fake on which governements blame and cloack their own lack of care for the upcoming generation. I do not blame the game, mind you.., I'm just saying that there is something wrong with the fact that ppl have nervouse brackedowns because of it.... It is alarming where people have gotten to.

I concure.
If your kid cant handle games dont give games to them

Well the fact is that you should first teach him "how to handle" the games and then if nothing else play along with him. I mean in case you're a father(I'm 17 so it isn't really my case) play with him, and explain sometimes whats wrong with doing and so on. You simply just cannot give a 8 year old Doom 3 or manhunt, not only because he dosn't know how to handle it but it will effect his mental evolution.

Yeah, games. I don't know. My older brother went from intense Diablo II to World of Warcraft. He is really into computer RPG games. I've played them both. I really enjoyed Diablo but I am somewhat inpartial to Warcraft. I don't have a desktop computer myself so I would always use his for gaming.

Over all, I am rather jaded by home gaming. Whether it be PC or console. Some of those racing and first-person-shooter games for PS3 and Xbox 360 are pretty damn impressive graphics wise. Yet when it comes to recreational interfacing I am all about "Arcade Games".

Remember how awesome it was back through out the 80's and early 90's? I do. Riding my bike downtown on the weekends and during the summer and hanging out at the local arcade with my friends. I love the experience of walking into an arcade center. The darkness (walls painted or sometimes carpeted with dark red or burgundy) the dim lighting, the rapid flashing of mulit-colored images, an ocean of various electronic game music and sound effects all blended togather creating a symphony of 'arcadia-exotica'. And the neverending struggle of having to decrumple your bills in order to be deemed worthy by the quarter machine.

And the games themselves? Oh baby.....where to begin. Atari, Konami, Namco, Nintendo, Neo Geo, Sega, Midway, Capcom. -/\- Donkey Kong, Mario Bros, Space Invaders, Dragons Lair, Spyhunter, Pac-Man, Golden Axe, Golden T, Rad Mobile, Metal Slug, 1941, Shinobi, Ninja Gaiden, Double Dragon, Street Fighter, Mortal Combat.....just to name a few.

Arcade Games rock! You have to pay, you have to stand, you actually have to leave your house. Plus, you can only spend so much time playing an arcade game because ..."Hey my clothes are dry" or "Hey the pizzas here" or "Hey the movie is about to start" or "Hey....it's time to go"
The point is that playing arcade games usually meant getting out and intermixing with the real world. 8)

Indeed, when I was little I usualy went to the vilage in which I have a house and there at the local pub there where a few video games. Never been to a big arcade center. In any case, it was very fun, I don't really remember the name of the game but it was a little dude with a hammer and I needed to guid him through obstacoles and stuff, very nice. I also played diablo an finished the game several times. Also I like the RPG style very much.

As you said the ps3 games are out of this world graphic-wise. Gears of war and all that. Yet I am not at all sure of the immersiveness you can actualy get by playing them. Not to mention that a ps3 is arround 500-600 dollars so it is much to prohibitive for me and I find it a waste of money TBH. This same friend had an old sega-megadrive console and it was allaways a thrill to play double-dragon and Teenage Mutant ninja turtles.

My first and last console up until now is the Super Nintendo....I can still remember first time when my parents bought it for me from germany and came along with Aliens, Super Tenis and others. When my father inserted the Alliens gamecard, I was allways scared out of my witts and allways left the room. Oh how fun where those days with that ultimatly simply graphics.

I used to play WoW, but quit. I very much like this type of game, though WoW specifically is kind of boring to me.
But in these games moreso than other games, the more time you put in the better the result is for your character and if you really want to get some of the better things in the game, have a powerful character, and see all the content it's a REQUIREMENT that you put in many hours a day.
If you play these games casually like you might any other game, you will fall behind friends, be m ediocre in terms of character ability, and *never* see all the content the game has to offer.
The games are designed with huge timesinks so even hardcore players have stuff to do - they want that premium every month.

True...yet I hardly think it gives anyone reason to get nervouse breakdowns over it.

Well when you invest so much time into something, it becomes more personal. Even though it really is "just a game" it's hard to justify that to someone who just sent say, 12 hours working on something and then it doesn't pan out, or someone else ruins it. It is "just a game" but their 12 hours is just as valuable to them as 12 hours you spend on something in the real world.

i think games are good in moderation, im a bit of a 'hard-core-gamer' as some people call it, but i do things in the 'real world' too.

if these freinds of yours are actualy constantly thinking and talking about their games 24/7 they have an addiction.
it may sound stupid but you can have a computer game addiction, just as serius as a gambling addiction (but with less severe effects)

(now for my rant)

people who say games are bad annoy me.
just like any form of media there is a lot of rubish and potentialy harmfull stuff, but there is allso a lot of great stuff too.
for example if you have ever played Planescape:Torment, that is practicaly an interactive book and in my oppinion is a masterpiece
(call me a nerd if you want)

one final thing, if you dont approve of violent video games DONT PLAY THEM! i dont like shakespear, therefore i dont read/watch it.
and if your a concerned parent dont let your child play violent games rather than try and ban evreryone else from playing them
(read age ratings and content warnings ffs)

im done <phew>

I love games. But I've never played world of warcraft. And after being told how addicting it can be, I don't think I may, as I know of yet.

As a gamer myself, I understand wanting to kick back and enjoy a decent interactive story for awhile. People do take it too far however. I feel if it starts to take priority over other important relationships or things in life that it is a problem.
Just as anything else it can become an addiction.
I agree that the fault doesn't lie in the game. It's just a story and some artwork. People should be able to distinguish and realize what is important in their lives. If their relationship is failing because one of the people is playing a game for 12hrs a day and it's taking priority over their husband/wife/gf/bf/family, It's a problem. If it interferes with actually living, it is a problem.

my point is, it's fun. people should enjoy it. but keep in mind if the power grids were to fail, this whole intangible world fails too, and none of it will matter.

why this focus on electronic gaming?
i know plenty of people addicted to tabletop games as well, such as magic: the gathering, where thousands of dollars are spent on getting ... CARDS.
i mean, its a damn sheet of cardboard with pictures printed on them and people literally pay hundreds of dollars for the rare ones.
or warhammer 40k? again, you can spend a fairly large amount of money,
and sink countless hours into painstakingly painting little tin-men?
model trains? yes, theres addictive cases of this as well, where some people has outfitted whole BARNS with railroad tracks, and alienated themselves from family in pursuit of their hobby...
and while we're at it, theres people who so obsessively collect money,
that they take no heed of people who are killed in the process.

i think the same drive that makes people want to succeed in games,
is what drove this guy to create a miniature ferrari:

http://jimsgarage.wordpress.com/2007...ature-ferrari/
when you want something with enough passion, you're going to fight to get it, no matter the cost, and having insurmountable obstacles in your way of reaching that goal, can be maddening.

and i'd say, its that same drive who's gotten us to where we are today.
if there hadn't been for some crazy, addictive personalities of the past,
we'd never had airplanes, computers, cars.... heck, we'd probably never had even been able to tame horses, if some crazy o'le coot hadn't convinced himself he could ride around on their backs.

It is possible to design an online game such that collective human brain power solves enormous problems that computers alone cannot. This is similar to the concept of distributed computing, where each personal computer employs "spare CPU cycles" to do its bit crunching on some monumental problem.

The happily addicted gamers need not feel they are doing "work".

Google TechTalks - Human Computation

"Tasks like image recognition are trivial for humans, but continue to challenge even the most sophisticated computer programs. This talk introduces a paradigm for utilizing human processing power to solve problems that computers cannot yet solve..."

Well.. I`m what you can call a "moderate" gamer, as I get easely bored from games and like to jump alot from game to game.

But from my past experiance you can say that there`s some sort of link between the charecter and the player(in RPG games :P).
Lets say for instence that your charecter dies, upon his death you probably loose some of your equipement and some expriance points (it verys from game to game).
And offcourse you wont quit from the gime just beacuse you died, that`ll just be stupid, then you know that you need to get back on the wagon and get that l00t/exp back, which takes time.
Which means upon thath you loose a real life time, it can be a couple of minutes , couple of hours or even a couple of days if you lost a really rare item. This experiance could be really froustrating and some people dont take it nicely...

Now... computer games (especially MMORPG`s) are not bad as you might thinks...
Take me for instence, I started playing runescape when i was at 6th grade, I hardly knew any english then and infact I called my 1st charecter 'Legolas 2th' xD

I played RuneScape for total of like 1.5-2 years(with many pauses from time to time, by the total time invested i assume was 1.5 years...).

Nowadays I can confidently say that if I havent played RS my english was in deep shyt these days...
Jus` me 0.02$.

Cheers,
tony

Originally Posted by Pong

It is possible to design an online game such that collective human brain power solves enormous problems that computers alone cannot. This is similar to the concept of distributed computing, where each personal computer employs "spare CPU cycles" to do its bit crunching on some monumental problem.

The happily addicted gamers need not feel they are doing "work".

Google TechTalks - Human Computation

"Tasks like image recognition are trivial for humans, but continue to challenge even the most sophisticated computer programs. This talk introduces a paradigm for utilizing human processing power to solve problems that computers cannot yet solve..."

Now THAT is a very interesting prospect!