Do computer games really affect us?

[dogwomble]

A quote from someone famous from Nintendo, whose name I forget:

"Computer games don't affect us as kids. After all, if Pacman affected us, we'd all run around in darkened rooms, munching magic pills and listening to repetitive electronic music".

[Bostonmess]

Negative.

Go! Go! Go! Go! Go!

[rascuache]

In the past they have affected me and i've noticed this more and more since i've been with sortius....

Basically, if i play a game alot (like for hours every day) or if he plays a game alot and i have been watching or just being around the comp, even if i'm doing something else. I'll end up dreaming about it...

some of the dreams i've had since we've been together have been about Counter Strike (I dreamt we on opposing teams and i got killed, scary) Red Alert 2 and Yuris revenge (that was a fucking scary dream) Viet Cong and lately, tetris and Dr Mario

I know now that if i dream about a computer game it usually means i've been playing it too much

[BlueBoy]

Originally posted by dogwomble
A quote from someone famous from Nintendo, whose name I forget:

"Computer games don't affect us as kids. After all, if Pacman affected us, we'd all run around in darkened rooms, munching magic pills and listening to repetitive electronic music".

Took me a while: http://www.marcusbrigstocke.com/pacman.asp

But yes, games affect me. Good ways and bad.

I've played games so much that I've *seen* them when I close my eyes. Rare occasions only.
On the plus side I can yell at and fight with my friends, but then we can sit down and play a multi game and it all comes good.

[Tyfus]

I used to see images all the time, but that was when SimCity first came around, when I was 10 years old or something...
Last game that got into my head must've been Civ3.
{and then there's REPETETIVE MUSIC!}

[SmaSheD_CoW]

I'm a CS addict, and yes it does affect me (eg, the mental images you guys are talking about), but I'm yet to be convinced that it's necessarily bad :)

It's much calling videogames an addiction. I would agree that I'm "addicted" to CS - whenever I'm bored and have spare time, I want to play it. Just because I'm "addicted", doesn't necessarily mean it's a bad thing.

I think of it like alcohol - having a reasonable amount on a regular basis (eg, a beer when ya get home from work, and maybe some wine with dinner), is not harmful, but if you've done it for a long period of time and try to stop, you will still find it hard. Are you addicted? Quite possibly. Is it a bad thing? Probably not.

[MisterBishi]

After playing Splinter Cell and both Metal Gear Solid games on the PS2 I swear I got to and from work every day for about 2 weeks without being spotted by a camera.

[Fuzzy Dice]

back when final fantasy tactics came out for the PS......i'd play it when i got home from work, right before bed. After a few nights, i started to dream about FFT battles. IN DEPTH - allocating points to my chars, strategic moves around the battle field.......

Also, there should be a CS addicts group, where either we try to help each other stop playing or just say piss on it and use the meetings as an excuse to set up matches. Go team [Wablammo!]

ps - if you ever play cs against fuzzy dice [wablammo!]....yeah that's me.

:p

[Dollputz]

I remember reading a news article about a boy who killed himself because he got scammed on Dark Ages of Camelot.

Thats probably the most extreme scenario I've heard as of yet, but I know it'll be pretty embarrassing to say something like "newb" or "brb" in your social circle.

[DJos]

I get bored too easily to get addicted to Single Player Games, when I had BroadBand, *Sobs Uncontrollably*, I would Play Quake et all several times a week for several hours but 56k DialUp soon cured me!

Now I get by with very infrequent LAN events with some old mates when I go back to adelaide for visits.

PS, 3 way mUltiPlayer Grand Turismo3 kicks ass, especially when you each have a wall+data projector+PS2 :cool:

[gamooma]

I read an article in the paper the other day that said kids learn more from computer games than from school. It was something about interactive learning verses structured learning... I can't quite remember. They made a scientific study of it and everything. That didn't really work as an excuse for why I ended up playing computer games instead of doing my homework...;)

[iaidoka]

I swear to you, back in the day of my heavy Everquest addiction (i feel like a reformed drug addict), one day I was at Chadstone and thought to myself "Damn I missed the bus, fuckit ill just cast Gate to get home"

[reaperman]

Buffy on Xbox - pissed me so much cuz it was so shit (and couldn't get passed a part, swear it took me like 50 tries), that i snapped the case. Since then my brother has used it against me every chance he gets. When he wants to use any gaming machine he just tells my parents i'm getting really pissed off and they order me off. For the sake of civility in the house i comply, then leave him with no hot water in the mornings for his shower, which if you live in Sydney you would know that right now that is punishment enough.

[Scythe]

The great part is that a lot of people still think that video games have no educational value, which means that the potential of video games as learning aids is almost totally ignored. I don't know about anybody else, but i find reaction times and problem solving abilities are much better among the people i know who play games, as opposed to those who don't.

[dozer]

gameplaying steals valuable time from other more wholesome pursuits such as your local church group or just doing the dishes you said youd get around to.

also after playing gta i feel like running infront of expensive cars, smashing the driver in the face and then taking the cops on a merry joyride.

[TK-421]

when my mate first got his sega master system 2 (the one with alex kid built in), we played bobble bobble from the time we got home from school, till footy training every day for about a 2 months.
i remember having a dream that followed the scrolling play of the game, falling through the floor at the end of each level.
i think that counts as an addiction
fuck that was a long time ago

[Nandragon]

I read somewhere (the JAMA) that the area accessed by the brain whilst playing video games is the same area stimulated by cocain.

[dogwomble]

Originally posted by Nandragon
I read somewhere (the JAMA) that the area accessed by the brain whilst playing video games is the same area stimulated by cocain.

Now that's an interesting comment. Have they proven any links to any other drugs? I'm just thinking ... why take cocaine when you could play video games? Would be a whole shitload cheaper (and you can't get "offsite backups" of cocaine!!!)

[dozer]

so thats why i saw that guy locked in a cubicle with his pda

[Fuzzy Dice]

BAH! he was fapping to pda pr0n.

[Nandragon]

Originally posted by dogwomble
Now that's an interesting comment. Have they proven any links to any other drugs? I'm just thinking ... why take cocaine when you could play video games? Would be a whole shitload cheaper (and you can't get "offsite backups" of cocaine!!!)

It was something along the lines that Video games stimulated the same areas which is why, you can't ever seem to quit playing the damn things. Not that it farked u up. Just the same pleasure stimulus.

Wonder, if sexual addictions stimulate the same areas.

[dogwomble]

Originally posted by Nandragon
It was something along the lines that Video games stimulated the same areas which is why, you can't ever seem to quit playing the damn things. Not that it farked u up. Just the same pleasure stimulus.

Wonder, if sexual addictions stimulate the same areas.

I suppose they would if you were playing pornographic video games.

[fastandbulbous]

I know when I've been playing a game too much when I start thinking of the world in game terms. Example: if I play a Sim City game too much, I'll be on the bus looking at the buildings going by, thinking Dense Commercial...........Light Industrial.............could do with rethinking this road layout.......

It's also becomes easier to picture the world as it would be in the game (whatever I've been playing too much), but I suppose thats just a sign of a really good game.

Just thought of another one - play too much Championship Manager and I get confused with real world and game transfers - I'll be chatting to someone and say "I see Nesta went to Barcelona for £50m.........oh wait, that wasn't real". Also when I watch a game (real life), I can't help of thinking about tactics as they are in the game, like Alex Ferguson is just sitting in the dugout infront of a screen, pissing around with his tactics a bit.

[still life]

Originally posted by TK-421

i remember having a dream that followed the scrolling play of the game, falling through the floor at the end of each level.
i think that counts as an addiction
fuck that was a long time ago

I dream of speedball 2 -_-

[Princess]

The only game i have ever finished was Rugrats for PSone... and that was cause i was bored in the middle of the holidays and had nothing better to do.

Usually i will sit down to play something and then think of other things i gotta do... damnit.... so i dont think im affected..

plus i dont like the killing things games..... i would prefer car racing or something cute and childish (rugrats, toy story) yay!!!

~Princess~

[chip256]

Oh boy do i get affected. some examples:

Played Magic Carpet 2 for about 5 days straight. on the way home i could have SWORN that a Sentinal (huge rock face that fires painful fireballs) was out in the middle of the paddock (was actually a water tank).

I have had dreams of coloured blocks falling down which had to be rotated (darn tetris/nyet).

i've lost count of how many times i've played Colin Mcrae and then drove home (word of advice: make sure there are no cops around).

i won't mention the times i played doom, or my current immediate reaction to situations by casting bone spear/frozen orb (Diablo 2).

but then, i enjoy it :)

[King_Crud]

I'm currently addicted to Pro Evolution 2 on the PS2, and have been for the last 6 months. Now i can't watch a football game without thinking of it on my PS2. My fingers get all twitchy and when the players don't do a pass that i would have done i get very frustrated. Watching Schevchenko during the UEFA Champions League was very frustrating because he didn't run around the plays as easily as on the PS2. <me now goes home to play more PS2>