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Analyze That: Only 8% of Gamers Can Be Considered Addicted

news.softpedia.com — A new study related to videogames and addiction is out and the results are rather interesting for the average gamer. The study, which was conducted by the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists Congress, shows that one in 12 gamers or about 8% of those who play videogames are showing signs of addiction.

Who dugg this? Made popular May 30, 2009

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  • FOR3MAN, on 05/30/2009, -1/+64Is escapism an addiction or a lifestyle?

    I have friend who's entire lives revolve around boating, sports, and so on. Nobody calls them addicts, so why do gamers have to play defense on topics like this?
  • gothicform, on 05/30/2009, -0/+35What if you read books for 20 hours a week? Is that an addiction too? How about if you watch tv for three hours a night? Addiction is not related to how much you do something but rather what happens when you go without.
  • ctabone, on 05/30/2009, -1/+34That's because they couldn't pry the real addicts away from their computers for the survey...
  • RyanGaines, on 05/30/2009, -0/+33Breaking News: The World of Warcraft fan base encompasses 8% of total gamers!
  • EssPii, on 05/30/2009, -0/+23Damn... a whole lot of people must be addicted to their jobs!
  • JAGUART, on 05/30/2009, -1/+21Yea, and the other 92% can "quit anytime they want'
  • GoatsonBoats, on 05/30/2009, -3/+22Gamers are just the new "punks" and "degenerates"...a scapegoat that society has chosen to pick on. Not a whole lot of people pick on skaters anymore.
  • akula89, on 05/30/2009, -0/+14Gaming is not a crime
  • FOR3MAN, on 05/30/2009, -2/+14I am happily married and have been a "gamer" since the eighties. Gaming has "gotten me laid" way more than my Detroit Lions season tickets or golf ever have. My wife actually prefers gaming because that way I am home and not out

    You're just adding to the fire friend.
  • defektiv, on 05/30/2009, -0/+10Amen. I would get sick of people treating myself and others like me like outcasts for liking something "unconventional", but my video game hobby doesn't really require an opinion from anyone else. That's the beauty of it..

    MMA, Football, American Idol, Knitting, Cars.. everyone has their thing, video games have just ALWAYS been socially outcast as hobbies. Growing up I was constantly told I would never make anything of my life because of them. Now I make more than everyone in my family combined.
  • MattyDienhoff, on 05/30/2009, -1/+11And who said it was?
  • angers, on 05/30/2009, -0/+9yet she probably watches American Idol/TMZ every day for 2 hours.
  • Wreckage, on 05/30/2009, -1/+10The other 92% were too busy playing video games to respond to the study.

  • moosechild, on 05/30/2009, -0/+9In later news, of the 8% of gamers that are actually addicted to their games, 100% said they had played WoW at least once in their life...
  • Orlex, on 05/30/2009, -0/+8I will when MLB '10 comes out
  • Spacejack, on 05/30/2009, -0/+6"sports boating and so on have you doing physical work along with the mental stimulation"

    You know the guy said something about people being fanatic about sports. The people who actually play them to any effect account for a very low percentage of that. Most people appreciate sports from a couch, or at best from a seat in the stands. This does not provide physical work, nor much in the way of mental stimulation.
  • sooner82, on 05/30/2009, -6/+12but 93% have never gotten to second base
  • ASSASSYN360, on 05/30/2009, -0/+6Could you have been any more accurate with that comment. Good job.
  • mrfizzle, on 05/30/2009, -3/+9Only eight percent? That seems like a really high percentage of people to be addicted to something.
  • directedition, on 05/30/2009, -1/+7Yes.... I remember very clearly when Google went down for a few hours.... my coworkers had resorted to carrier pigeons, sooth seers, and alchemists before the servers returned to us.
  • DrFrizzy, on 05/31/2009, -0/+5Do not accept the utterly unproven theory that human beings can be addicted to anything other than drugs. Dysfunctional behaviors are not addictions and it is counterproductive to use that kind of language to describe them.
  • ZombieSociety, on 05/30/2009, -0/+4There was a guy addicted to video games on Intervention once. He thought he WAS Max Payne.
  • bpwrinn, on 05/30/2009, -1/+5Except I don't suffer from relapses when I lose it!
  • Griminald, on 05/30/2009, -0/+4FTA:
    "After the release of the study, a number of sources, like ABC News and Doctor Cheryl Olson from Harvard, questioned it because of the fact that the participants were not selected at random but rather through an online panel that promised material rewards to those who took part in the study,"

    Nothing like promising loot to a gamer to get them to play. It can't, unfortunately, make them honest. ;)
  • Subduction, on 05/30/2009, -2/+6That's actually not accurate.

    Many drugs without physical withdrawal symptoms can be powerfully addictive. Most addiction scientists believe that between physical dependence and psychological dependence, psychological is by far the harder of the two to escape.
  • Floyder, on 05/30/2009, -1/+5and 1% are bad at math...
  • TheMachine1, on 05/30/2009, -1/+4"Analyze That" is a great movie.
  • hatdrop, on 05/31/2009, -0/+3damn right i never got to second base, i skip that ***** and go straight for home plate!
  • jmpeagle, on 05/30/2009, -4/+7videogames can become a compulsion but not an addiction. There are no physiological withdrawal symptoms.
  • dpbBryan, on 05/30/2009, -0/+2So, people that work 40 hours a week are addicted?
  • FOR3MAN, on 05/31/2009, -0/+2Wii?
  • Shaflugi, on 05/30/2009, -1/+3Most inspirational comment on Digg ever. +1!
  • inactive, on 05/30/2009, -1/+3You can have a psychological addiction to anything. The article did not say physically addicticted.
  • impedance101, on 05/31/2009, -0/+2How many become professional gamers?
  • inactive, on 05/30/2009, -0/+2Tom Cruise, is that you?
  • ctabone, on 05/30/2009, -0/+2http://wowdetox.com/
  • retoretoreto, on 05/30/2009, -0/+2I'd like to think this story was only submitted for a comment like that.
    But looking at "history" I think he's too busy to plan that.
  • drgmdp, on 05/30/2009, -0/+2has anyone really been far even as decided to use even go want to do look more like?
  • getoffmybridge, on 05/30/2009, -5/+7Skateboarding is not a crime
  • Recluse84, on 05/30/2009, -0/+1Im addicted only as long as it takes me to finish the game.
  • graywolfz10, on 05/31/2009, -1/+2for3man you best be joking...
  • Spacejack, on 05/30/2009, -0/+1It's all relative, man. If someone gets a particular charge out of model railroads or the opera or fondling skunks or whatever, then that's gonna go to the top of their happiness scale, and by comparison the rest of their life will seem "less happy." Happiness is contingent upon experiencing things that you personally enjoy, not things that large numbers of other people enjoy. Besides which, large numbers of people DO enjoy some of these things. Just not the LARGEST numbers of people... so what does this really come down to other than some kind of popularity vote?
  • Valyn, on 05/31/2009, -1/+2"Amen. I would get sick of people treating myself and others like me like outcasts for liking something "unconventional", but my video game hobby doesn't really require an opinion from anyone else. That's the beauty of it.."

    Even as I am about to turn 30, I find that I still prefer things that are unconventional. Just like my taste in movies. I tend to like a lot of foreign movies more than the generic Hollywood movies. Pan's Labyrinth, Battle Royal, Brotherhood of the Wolf, Leon ( well, anything with Jean Reno...) etc.
  • ganymede2010, on 05/30/2009, -0/+1Tell that to 11 million people who play warcraft.
  • Valyn, on 05/31/2009, -1/+2If all 11 million people with WoW accounts were even active, lat alone addicted, every single server would crash.

  • Liability, on 05/30/2009, -1/+2Ownership is yours
  • punisher101, on 06/01/2009, -0/+1This study is so ridiculous because its "gaming" addiction. How many people are addicted to television and spend hours upon hours stuffing ***** junk food in their orifice and watching an endless stream reality shows. Just another additional negative connotation to video games.
  • hex9979, on 05/31/2009, -0/+1of the 92% who weren't addicted more than half never heard of LOZ: Orcarina of Time. I smell foul play!
  • CoD4, on 05/30/2009, -0/+1you try and take this controller off my hands!
  • bigdnl, on 06/26/2009, -0/+1I'd love to see an episode of Intervention about this. Never seen someone withdraw from a video game.
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