Game addiction and drug addiction are not quite linked
By Andrew on Friday, August 10th, 2007 at 12:35 AM PST In Gamer Life, Games Industry
If you’re “doing” a bunch of World of Warcraft, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re doing a bunch of coke. But they’re still addictions.
There are some serious concerns about addictions, especially among parents when it comes to their children, and what we find out from GameAlmighty.com is that although there is one study which highly suggests that drug addiction and video game addiction are linked, there is no conclusive evidence. The article reads:
…researchers gathered 100 male college students from various economic backgrounds, ages 18-21. They randomly assigned each guy to play either Grand Theft Auto III or the Simpsons: Hit and Run for a 10 minute period. Afterwards, the men were questioned, and those who played GTA III were more pessimistic, more uncooperative, and more likely to approve of weed and alcohol than their counterparts who played The Simpsons.
But this is followed by the head of the experiment stating that more research needs to be done in order to backup the findings, and that they were “hardly conclusive.”There are quite a few gamers at home who have problems with drugs, it seems. And it’s understandable, since the high-energy of games might very well go hand-in-hand with the high-energy of some drugs. One of the clinical social workers mentioned in the article said, “There’s a real relationship between gaming and drug use. They’re both escapist behavior. And when it’s 4:00 a.m. and there’s nothing else to do when you’re wide awake, just pop in the game and you‘re occupied.”
Ah, so video games don’t necessarily precede drug use, quite possibly it’s the other way around. But what about the professional circuit? There is money at stake, and expectations are high.
While the circuit isn’t exactly clean, the article states that it’s far from dirty. Drug use just isn’t a problem. “If it is [a problem], the players are doing a damn good job of keeping it a secret,” Nathan Jones, a gamer who placed second in state qualifiers in the CPL Australian Quake 3 World Tour, said in the article. “Then again if you want to get straight down to the nitty gritty of what you count as a drug, I drank 12 cans of Red Bull before a tournament last year, and I gotta say, I thought it helped my game a bit.”
Okay, illegal drugs might not be a problem in the pro-circuit. And who can blame them, Red Bull is great, especially for long drives where you need to stay awake at three in the morning.
But from the looks of things, at least from GameAlmighty.com’s perspective, there is not an immediate concern. Other research might prove otherwise, though. We’ll have to see.
That sounds like incredible bullshit.
100 test subjects and questions about “Weed and alcohol”. It’s not like they were comparing ACTUAL drug use between gamers and non-gamers, or even asking drug QUESTIONS to gamers and non-gamers. They had two sets of gamers play a kid friendly game and an adult game, and ask the two groups questions on what they “approve” of.
What is wrong with weed and alcohol, anyway? One’s legal, and one’s the safest narcotic on earth. We’ve got bigger things to worry about than weed and alcohol. Show me a male college student who disapproves of weed and alcohol and I’ll show you a wuss who needs to get his priorities straight and stop worrying about what other people are ingesting.
Jetsetlemming I agree with you. Many college students and others approve of this. I dont think it matters what game you play, if your going to do any of these drugs, you will even without games. It is true that it is a way of escape i can see that. But using games to escape is for fun and no harm, drugs some are no harm either, Marijuana and Hash never hurt anyone. the rest your on your own.
As for those Red Bulls, thats something id never drink. its only super coffee. you get a burst of energy and then crash worse. why bother?
I have friends that would smoke the green through a dirty sock, but wont play video games. and others the opposite. This article does have some points i guess but doesent apply to the real world, this again only gives certain types of video games a bad name, which isnt fair.
The one thing I would say is this: the “research” doesn’t even say that the gamers would USE weed or alcohol, only that they would approve of it. Honestly, I’ve been through college, and I know pretty much everyone see drug and alcohol use, and whether they do it or not, could care less what other people do. It’s a loaded study that proves nothing.
What study are you talking about? Could you post a link?