Addictions and Obsessions

Yes. This is what I spend my free timing doing.

The topic of the day seems to be gaming now-a-days and the crazy stuff that the Government and People-Who-Think-They-Know-Better-Than-I-Do-About-It (now known as PWTTKBTIDAI or PWT) are pushing for new laws and health plans to be implemented.

My father turned to me this morning to tell me that according to "experts" spending three and a half hours (or more) on a computer game is a sign that you're addicted. Now, as a gamer myself who spends more than three and a half hours playing a computer game, I can honestly say that is pretty much nonsense. According to the report that he was watching, these experts are pushing for people who play more than three and a half hours a day to be admitted into a psychology rehab or forced to seek psychological help is just... mind bogglingly stupid.

But if you pretty much put their theory into the real world, is doing three and a half hours of anything now considered an addiction. If I read a book for more than three and a half hours, am I addicted to reading? Or work? Or study? (Note: Not that I do that anyway.) Sure, I may spend endless amounts of hours on a computer game or MMORPG, but I'm not to the level that should be classified as an addiction.

–noun

the state of being enslaved to a habit or practice or to something that is psychologically or physically habit-forming, as narcotics, to such an extent that its cessation causes severe trauma.

I can play games for endless hours, but sooner or later I'm going to get bored. Not even a computer game can really hold my rather temperamental attention span, if I really don't feel like playing I end up having the game in an alternative tab and end up surfing the internet for a couple of hours mindlessly refreshing facebook until something interesting pops up. I play an MMORPG that I haven't renewed my subscription to in several months cos I couldn't be bothered playing it anymore. This isn't the sign of an addicted person. An addicted person are those that spend 15 hours a day, every day on the game and wear diapers because they can't be bothered going to the bathroom. A) That's really flipping gross and B) These are the kind of people who need treatment, not the casual gamer like you or I who happen to enjoy doing something for more than ten seconds like a hyperactive squirrel on red cordial.

I won't deny that I don't have an obsessive personality, because I do. I've had times when I've been completely obsessed with something or someone to the point where I kinda go a bit whackadoodle and flip out, no, I'm not going to recount those tales to you because I actually like maintaining some semblance of sanity. Thankfully, I've gotten over it and have now mellowed out a bit in my old age, but still. There is a distinct difference between the people who are actually addicted to gaming and those of us who know when we've reached our limits and decide to go outside and enjoy ourselves in our other hobbies.

Granted, me and other hobbies right now don't get along that well, mainly because I've suddenly become the leader of the Guild I'm in and now have an extra commitment besides occasionally popping on and hitting up some instances. I do plan however, after I have finished several assignments that are rearing their ugly heads at Uni that I want to retake up cross-stitching and start saving up for that eight month trip to France. I also plan on actually writing that novel that I occasionally mention.

I know I've digressed but my main point of this entire (and slightly short/ranty) post is that the "experts" that are trying to push these things through are the kind of people who look down their noses at the Gaming and Geek (and/or Nerd) culture and see it as wrong and somehow as a disease. We don't go around telling them that they need to stop playing Golf because they enjoy it too much and spend most of their free time playing it. I just want these people to step-off their high-horse podium and pick something more pressing to deal with, like education and sustainable energy.

That is all.