S. Korea's Stress-Driven Online Gaming Addiction 231
techsoldaten writes "The Washington Post is running an article about the ever-increasing problem of videogame addiction in South Korea. From the article: 'The situation has grown so acute that 10 South Koreans -- mostly teenagers and people in their twenties -- died in 2005 from game addiction-related causes, up from only two known deaths from 2001 to 2004, according to government officials.'"
Is it the games? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Is it the games? (Score:4, Insightful)
It seems to me that if they went out for smokes, a lot fewer gamers would be dying. At least in the short term.
We have a major lesson here: get up and take a walk every couple of hours.
Re:Is it the games? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Is it the games? (Score:2)
We have a guy like that at work. He still gets around every couple of hours - there's just no 'up'.
Re:Is it the games? (Score:2)
Re:Is it the games? (Score:2)
They don't have to 'go out' for smokes they just smoke right there. It's not like the US where smoking is banned in virtually any enclosed structure. So they get to breath in the smoke AND get fatal blood clots from sitting in one position for hours.
Re:Is it the games? (Score:5, Interesting)
Before, I could not hold down a job, or maintain any sort of lasting relationship. My relationships with family members were severly strained.
Now, that I am a MMORPG addict, my relationships with my (most recent) girlfriend and family are excellent by comparison, and I have been able to hold down an excellent full time job for a year.
It is all a matter of perspective. There are many worse things in this world that a person could be doing with their spare time.
And, to be honest with you, how is spending 10 hours "gaming" any different than spending 10 hours reading fiction, or watching TV? They are all "wastes of time", right.
Time that could have been spent...
Re:Is it the games? (Score:4, Insightful)
We're all addicted to things
Re:Is it the games? (Score:2)
When some students sleep for 2-3 hours per day, it's a fair guess that things are getting a bit too competitive, thus giving a need for an outlet. The article goes on this line as well, and also mentions the still socially conservative culture.
Re:Is it the games? (Score:2)
Re:Is it the games? (Score:2)
Re:Is it the games? (Score:2, Insightful)
Actually, recent studies show that gaming gives the brain more mental stimulus than reading or watching TV because it requires a level of human interation. This is because the gamer has to try to figure out what the opponent's thinking. This type of stimulus helps prevent people from developing a short tempered personality.
Re:Is it the games? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Is it the games? (Score:2)
Re:Is it the games? (Score:4, Insightful)
I don't believe that. If you've ever watched someone play AB or WSG in WOW, you'll see just how short tempered players can get.
Re:Is it the games? (Score:4, Informative)
Maybe these PC baangs should put ReoPro [drugdigest.org] on the menu.
Re:Is it the games? (Score:4, Informative)
Reopro is not a prophylactic (prevention) agent. Heparin or low molecular weight heparin is usually used in hospitals to prevent this to happen in the patients who stays in bed for many days or weeks. A filter in the lower vein cave to prevent the migration of the clots are something used. But honestly we can't seriously suggest all these options for these guys. These drugs all have potential secondary effects of bleeding anywhere (skin, GI tube, or even worse in the brain).
Usually as some of you said, the best advice is to walk like 2-5 min every hour. This is even more true for the women, taking birth control pill, pregnancy, smoking, or obese.
Deep vein thrombosis is a medical emergency. The symptoms are pain in the calf or leg, asymetric swollen leg, skin color change.
I did a computer engineering degree from 1995-1999 playing about 40 hours a week Warcraft II online. I then did my M.D. from 1999-2004, playing probably 20 hours a week Warcraft III online. I am now a resident 2 in diagnostic radiology. I was for sure addicted (or at least at risk) to these highly competitive games. I am a competitive person. Japan, Korea and US are all very competitive countries where competition is inherent to the culture. Probably inconsciently, for me these games were a way to show to someone else I was better than him. Any competitive human being gets satisfaction from this. Evolution forced this to be in our genes.
I disagree a little bit about the opinion saying it is a complete waste of time. Hand-eye coordination and speed is very useful in many works; complex decision about a multi-parameters real-time situation can also be useful in the life. If I had a software company or if I would be on the admission commitee of a medical school, I would hire any top 10 world players of a RTS game. At least if they can show they can be functionnal in the life.
The only thing I was honestly surprised to see about that article was the main cause of death. Before reading it, I was almost sure the main cause would be suicide like in many others addictions. They didn't even talk about it. Maybe this is only a underreporting bias where the relation of suicides aren't that clear with the hardcore gaming like in the case of the deep vein thrombosis relation.
Small detail added... (Score:2)
In addition to the position-related troubles (aka "economy class syndrome"), we can also add :
- Hardcore gamer are sedentary, and lack physical exercise, which makes them overwheighted.
- Most will have bad eating habbits (more junk food than the WHO's recommended 5 fruits and vegetables per day), which also makes them overwheighted.
- Along other health problems, this is another risk factor for deep vein thrombosis
You forgot One easy Drug to prevent DVTs Aspirin! (Score:2)
My wife and I both take it starting 3 days before we fly now.
Quick note of warning - DVTs in people younger than 18 years of age is almost unheard of. I bet that most of these people who died were probably older and smoked (many Koreans smoke from what I've read). Aspirin is not recommended for those less than 18 years of age, also because of Reyes syndrome.
I'm an orthopaedi
Re:Is it the games? (Score:2)
Re:Is it the games? (Score:2, Insightful)
In a poll of 100 gamers, Survey Says... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:In a poll of 100 gamers, Survey Says... (Score:2)
Beware MMORPGs (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Beware MMORPGs (Score:2)
Re:Beware MMORPGs (Score:2)
They also know it about smoking, eating unhealthy (but tasty) food, drinking alcohol, watching TV - and they still do that as well. It's called life, or filling up the gaps between sleep intervals with something more enjoyable than the dullness of plain existence ;-).
Re:Beware MMORPGs (Score:2)
Re:Beware MMORPGs (Score:4, Insightful)
I've been console gaming since the Atari 2600, PC gaming since 1989. Coming out of it I was honstly surprised by how much time WoW had been consuming and how much I had neglected other things. Seriously, online friends are nice, but after a retrospective rational analysis WoW did more to hurt my productivity, creativity, social life, and health than anything else ever has. I'll admit that my play time was above average, but people need to be made aware of how much the game blinds you so that they can make their own rational decisions. Other hobbies are easy to enjoy in moderation, MMORPGs seem designed to promote long term obsessivness like nothing else that's not a drug. You don't realize what you're giving up.
Re:Beware MMORPGs (Score:2)
Re:Beware MMORPGs (Score:4, Informative)
Is it?
No seriously, is it?
I've often felt the way you do about these games, but to me the idea that they might in some way interfere with rational decision making at least sounds plausible.
Before dismissing the possibility, I'd like to see some scientific research.
-- Should you believe authority without question?
Re:Beware MMORPGs (Score:2, Interesting)
Its the same game you got interested in.
Game you started playing.Game you bought.Value of expected entertainment.
A sense of accomplishment for playing.
Game that has your friends in.
Game that you can communicate better then real life.
Game where you can roleplay anything.
Game that has strong community.
Game where you can choose exactly what you want.
A detachment from real life.
Real life runs in separate process.
Game that can compete with real life.
Game that is superior
Re:Beware MMORPGs (Score:2)
You could say the same about heroin, alcohol, mairjuana, sex, or anything else that people get addicted to. It's their own fault that they get addicted, but people should still be warned about the addiciton potential of those substances/activities. It isn't denying personal responsibility, it's acknowledging realities that have been experienced by millions of people.
Re:Beware MMORPGs (Score:2)
I disavow the modern claim that you can be psychologically addicted to something - e.g. sex, marijuana or video games. While all three trigger pleasure centers, especially the seratonin cycle, none of them alter the body's ability to produce it's own natural happiness. Actual chemicall
Re:Beware MMORPGs (Score:2, Insightful)
Yes, especially if you're a competitive and goal oriented person you can lose yourself. That's what I'm warning people against - I knew I was playing a lot, but it's just a game right? I didn't realize what an impact it was having on the rest of my life. And I didn't play the most, by far. There are people out there who have spent 90-95% of their free time in WoW since it launched. It's something informed consumers should be aware of.
I had never played a MMORPG before and didn'
Someone's been slacking (Score:5, Funny)
hmmm (Score:5, Funny)
Re:hmmm (Score:2)
Pretty Safe Addiction; (Score:5, Insightful)
Sorry guys, not that significant. How many people die every year due to any sort of drug related addiction?
A hell of a lot more.
Re:Pretty Safe Addiction; (Score:2)
Re:Pretty Safe Addiction; (Score:2, Interesting)
Next sticker on the box: "Warning: Death or dismemberment may ensue if this product is used in excess"
Wow. If only people acted like the "advanced species" we are supposed to be.
Re:Pretty Safe Addiction; (Score:3, Funny)
Just put some weights by the computer and lift when you're waiting for respawn. You'll either get buff or you'll get better at CS.
Acceptable Addiction vs. Unacceptable Addiction (Score:5, Insightful)
In Korea, the story is quite different. In Korea, you would consider someone with different blood [adoptkorea.com] to be inferior and to be not worthy of your help. The overwhelming majority of adopted Korean orphans are adopted by Westerners. The typical Korean could not care less about orphans -- or abused children. In this kind of cold, brutal environment, an abused child has nowhere to run. So, the child escapes into on-line gaming: a fantasy world where the abused child can have the wonderful childhood that he cannot have in real life.
Painful flashback (Score:5, Interesting)
For whatever other qualities my parents had, and much as they did give me some good education too, they had two problems:
1. Between them and grandma, I had exactly zero privacy.
It may sound like "wtf, he'll have privacy when he's on his own, not in _my_ house", but seriously, please don't do that to your kid. Even the most affectionate cat needs its moments when it's alone.
It's not even just that _they_ were with me all the time (I couldn't even just go to a freaking summer camp, one of them had to come there to keep keeping an eye on me), the worst was that they told everyone every single detail I ever did. It's a freaking nightmare to live with your whole life posted on a public billboard, so to speak. Virtually _noone_ is _that_ extroverted. It gives everyone in town control over your life: e.g., you can't tell your friends "sorry, can't come now, I haven't finished homework" when you know they already know, or will find out, exactly at which hour you were already done with your homework. Or not without quickly losing every single friend you ever had.
Or to give an example that's still traumatic to think about, I had a girlfriend at some point in high school (yes, I wasn't that nerdy) which pretty quickly got addicted to my computer. Well, fairy 'nuff, I'm not even opposed to sharing the computer, but let's at least try to do something else too. So I pull a "let's go out today, mom doesn't let me use the computer today." (Right, I'm losing all nerd credibility here;) Mom actually called her to tell her that's not true. That was one relationship that went down hill very fast thereafter.
2. Their approach to "rewarding" any personal initiative was, well, best illustrated by Mac Hall Comics [machall.com]. (It's just a comic and safe for work.) Just about everything I did was most likely to be met with, literally, "*sigh* Who the hell told you to do that?" or "*sigh* Who the hell told you to do it like that?" It was as good as a slap in the face, let me tell you.
You get the idea.
Thing is, programming was something that side-stepped both issues and put _me_ in control. Finally. Bloody finally.
Now they're both programmers and perfectly capable of understanding what I did there, but:
A) Anyone they _could_ tell stuff like "our little Moraelin used a goto instead of a loop today" (and have any hope they'd understand that) was usually way outside the circle of people I was in. Which was as good as having some privacy for a change.
B) They were actually pretty easy to satisfy in that domain. I suppose that when a kid writes machine code and it works, it's pretty hard to pull a "*sigh* Who the hell told you to do it like that?" (And I really mean machine code: the 1K RAM in a ZX-81 wasn't enough for an assembler, so I had to convert it to hex by hand.) If nothing else, it works.
It's not that simple, grasshopper (Score:2)
Just about the only point where I managed to finally have some peace was when I finally finished university and moved to
Let's put it like this (Score:2)
And unlike science, where you can measure X accurately, in terms of inter-personal relations and human feelings, all "axioms" are more of a matter of education, goals, social convention, etc. Two people can be perfectly logical,
Re:Let's put it like this (Score:2)
I am by no means an expert in socialization, but in my own experience, I find that the best friendships in my life are with people with whom I can say "I don't feel like doing anything today." and that being all the reason I need to say no to them.
Perhaps there is a reason that you feel down and do not want to go out, then you can talk about it, or simly the reason could be that you want to spend time with a n
Re:Painful flashback (Score:2)
Amen. How true that is.
I still pretty much have to roll for will power (to use a bad D&D metaphor) to start doing anything. Somewhere in the back of my head there's this circuit going "you know, mom wouldn't approve my doing it, or doing it like this" for just about anything. While I _do_ overcome that, yeah, it never ceased to exist.
Re:Acceptable Addiction vs. Unacceptable Addiction (Score:2)
Take for example this extract from the Chinese classic "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" where Liu Qi is afraid his stepmother will kill him so that her son can inherit:
The young man soon left, and
Re:Pretty Safe Addiction; (Score:3, Interesting)
The danger they are describing isn't a physical one (for the most part) but a social, personal and pyschological one primarily - the deaths simply highlight how extreme the problem is in some people.
Replace the word gaming with internet, wouldn't you sit up and take notice if several people died from internet addiction?
That said, I don't blame gaming, because it might as well be r
However (Score:2, Insightful)
However, they were very easily preventable. Online gaming communities should make time more aparent to players. If an account has been active for 4 of the past 5 hours, the account should be locked for an hour. It would take maybe 2 hours to write, test, and rollout. This doesn't need to be a law, or regulated, or any of that. Game companies should see this killed some people and as a courtasey to
Re:However (Score:4, Insightful)
This whole nanny ideal where technology or the government needs to watch out for us in every little way is stupid. Yes, people are dumb, they do things to an excess. It is not the job of everyone else in the world to solve that problem via regulation because it doesn't do any good anyhow. You do not cure an addict through force, they can only cure themselves by choosing to.
The real answer is to understand what leads to game addiction, what the signs are, and for people who care about the addicts to confront them with their problem and help them through it. It's no different than alcohol addiction. Most people don't get addicted to alcohol, some do. The answer is not to ban alcohol.
Re:However (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:However (Score:2)
Concentration (Score:2)
Don't assume that just because your body lets you know when it needs something, the same will be true for everyone else.
Re:Concentration (Score:2)
Re:However (Score:2)
Re:However (Score:2)
Re:Pretty Safe Addiction; (Score:2)
Yes, I am kidding.
The scary thing is that you could die at all (Score:2)
So obviously to DIE from it you have to do it to an extreeme excess, to th
more dangerous even than killer weed! (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Pretty Safe Addiction; (Score:2)
Sorry guys, not that significant. How many people die every year due to any sort of drug related addiction?
A hell of a lot more.
It's of course not just about the deaths; these are just the tip of the iceberg of problems that can come along with it.
Statistically insignificant, totally irrelevant (Score:2, Informative)
0.000000153% of the total world's population.
10/48,422,644 [cia.gov]
0.000020651% of the South Korean population.
So, yes, compared to the total deaths in S. Korea from cancer (~65,000 in 2004) or suicide (~12,000 in 2004) [source] [asianews.it] I would say it is rather insignificant.
I mean, "every day, 37 Korean children under the age of 14 are killed or injured as pedestrians in road traffic accidents." [source] [safekids.org] These people were playing video games too much.
Should have been indoors playing games (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Pretty Safe Addiction; (Score:2)
Survey (Score:5, Funny)
The last 14% just said "no gooks ffa snipers r0xor teh n00bs kekeke k thx~~"
Re:Survey (Score:3, Funny)
The other 25% were too busy hax0ring Korean MMOs to respond.
Re:Survey (Score:3, Funny)
They died doing what they love... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:They died doing what they love... (Score:2)
Damnit South Korea (Score:5, Funny)
Signed,
Mrs. Korea
I hear someone is available... (Score:2)
Dupe. Marathon gaming still a problem. (plz read) (Score:5, Insightful)
For those 'afflicted', they see it as the only means of escape from a stress-filled, dead end life into a world where they have the power to do just about anything. For a handfull of people, that is all they have to live for hence their marathon gaming sessions and (sometimes unfortunately) subsequent death.
If society at large wasn't so materialistic and cash-driven (gotta make a buck no matter what the cost), the stress levels would go down dramatically so people wouldn't do marathon gaming anymore as a means of escape from their 'pitiful' lives. Perhaps they could do 'great things' that would benifit society worldwide as a whole without the relentless pressure to 'grab cash' along the way just to stay alive....
Re:Dupe. Marathon gaming still a problem. (plz rea (Score:2)
if it's as bad as you say, then my money's that the last thing some of these guys breathed was a sigh of relief.
Re:Dupe. Marathon gaming still a problem. (plz rea (Score:4, Insightful)
People generally want to be respected and liked by their peers. And "in a materialistic society", part of the way people are judged is material wealth. It's hard to decide to not be materialistic when that means people you know will look down on you.
Yes, it's definitely an individual problem, not "just" a societal one - if you pick your friends right, you'll know people that won't think less of you because of your house size. But the more materialistic societies make it that much harder - the same people that would be able to resist in one culture would collapse and go with the crowd in a different one.
Corrected (Score:2)
People generally want to be respected and liked by their peers. And "in a materialistic society", part of the way people are judged is material wealth. It's hard to decide to not be materialistic when that means people you know will look down on you.
Yes, it's definitely an individual problem, not "just" a societal one - if you pick your friends right, you'll know
Re:Dupe. Marathon gaming still a problem. (plz rea (Score:2)
The problem:
Big Business
Big Media
Big Government
Big TROUBLE!!!
I disagree. In a nutshell:
Big Business - The undisputed engine of modern civilization. Without it....'Dark Ages' (pre late 18th century, the time of the Industrial Revolution [wikipedia.org])
Big Media - The megaphone of Big Business which are the true customers of it. Inescapable (advertising everywhere -- even in b [bathroomadvertising.com]
Re:Dupe. Marathon gaming still a problem. (plz rea (Score:2)
-matthew
in the meantime (Score:3, Insightful)
Industrial rat-race? (Score:3, Insightful)
Fuzzy statistics (Score:5, Interesting)
At last. . . (Score:4, Insightful)
FTA:
"Game addiction has become one of our newest societal ills," said Son Yeongi, president of the Korea Agency for Digital Opportunity, which offers government-funded counseling. "Gaming itself is not the problem. Like anything, this is about excessive use."
And later:
"There is nothing wrong with kids relieving stress through games," Chin said. "But parents need to watch for the warning signs of addiction. If a child gets violent when told to stop playing a game, that's one of the first indications that there's a problem."
It's refreshing to see a take on this which doesn't involve video games being the spawn of the devil.
Re:At last. . . (Score:2)
Hm. (Score:5, Funny)
"kekekeke zerg rush ^___^"
How can people even acomplish this feat?! (Score:2, Insightful)
OK, serously, how the hell can you find something enjoyable for more then a few hours. I play games all the time; I even read Slashdot while flying in WoW, but I cannot play that game for more then 8 hours with out dying(in game) from lack of attention to my health bar. it just stops being fun after a while and becomes a chore. What do I do? I LOG OFF and DO SOMETHING ELSE! I can see being stuck longer then you want in a rai
Online Gaming is worse than drugs (Score:3, Insightful)
10 pounds? (Score:2)
You don't gain 10 pounds on "one meal a day of instant noodles". If that's the only solid food he had, he must have had sugary soft drinks for the calories.
Heroin vs RPGs (Score:5, Insightful)
-Isolation as a result of everquesting all day was even more severe than my worst run on heroin. Heroin alienated my friends, but when I was everquesting, I didn't have any friends to go back to because they were all online. Heroin could be combined with school, and even if it suffered, I was still making it to my classes mids and finals. Everquest/rpgs and school are mutually exclusive - You are either doing one or the other. If you are gaming all day, that is ALL you are doing.
-Self delusional thoughts on heroin and while playing everquest seemed to be similar in ways. In both worlds you feel like you are the master of your universe. The problem is, that feeling gets so strong, both things seemed to be better than experiencing actual life. A fantasy world was way more enjoyable at the time in both cases.
-Health - Now these two were almost exactly the same. Heroin doesn't "damage" your body (except in cases of overdose), so the health concerns are from personal neglect. In both cases, I would stop showering, brushing teeth, eating as little as I could to stay alive.
I was an everquest addict before I ever tried drugs. I finally quit playing before college after seeing friends fail out because of everquest. When I finally tried hard drugs (ie opiates), it seemed like I feel right into it at once, I had a learned behavior with addiction. I used to joke when I started heroin that smack wasnt as bad as eversmack. I don't have the answers though, I just wanted to demonstrate any kind of addiction is bad.
Hope this is insightful.
Trade schools (Score:2, Interesting)
I have an above average intellige (nothing special, half the world has that) and was in the top classes at the trade schools (for dutch people, lts and then mts). Yet while still focusing on some theory it also had plenty of practice sessions. LTS first two years were "general" mea
I can quit (Score:2)
Online Game makers understand how to hook you (Score:2)
Re:Online Game makers understand how to hook you (Score:2)
In a pencil and paper game a game-master/dungeon-master can change results on the fly during the game in order to achieve certai
Interesting. . . (Score:2)
After playing a Star Wars RTS for half a day, I stood up and almost fell over. I felt disoriented and horrible, had a crazy head-ache and then surprised myself by actually vomiting.
I figured it was food poisoning or something, as I'd never had that reaction to a game before, and I'd played thousands of hours worth.
The next time it happened, however, I'd been eating well and only a couple of hours had passed. Same symptoms, same game.
Then it
Re:Interesting. . . (Score:2)
After playing a Star Wars RTS for half a day, I stood up and almost fell over. I felt disoriented and horrible, had a crazy head-ache and then surprised myself by actually vomiting.
I figured it was food poisoning or something, as I'd never had that reaction to a game before, and I'd played thousands of hours worth.
Yeah, Star Wars RTS does that to everyone.
In Korea, only young people play videogames (Score:2)
Re:Not {justabout the deaths (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Not {justabout the deaths (Score:2)
Well, here's your answer (Score:2)
Mind you, back then it wasn't too hard to program your own game, so most of that time was spent programming rather than just gaming. When you looked at a game that could run in 1K RAM on a ZX-81 or later in 16K RAM on a ZX Spectrum, even having the most rudimentary ideas of BASIC could lead one to think "I can do my own, and add
Re:Not {justabout the deaths (Score:2)
Boss, is that you?
Re:This is a very stupid article. (Score:2)
Accidental drowning due to jumping rope? That's a leading cause of death, right behind heart disease, Chuck Norris, cancer, and Jack Bauer. Or have you gone looking up "facts" in a "book" again? Next time, ask your gut, not some dead tree.
Re:Hmm (Score:2, Funny)