Mike at Techdirt (one of my favorite tech industry blogs, btw) lashes into consultants who “seem addicted to coming up with new addictions”. In particular, this one is on video game “addition”:

The latest is a story about a new “detox center” for video game addictions. This one was set up by (I kid you not) a group of “addiction consultants.” Perhaps treating drug addicts was a bit too much of a pain, so they figured video gamers (or worried parents of rich suburban video gamers) would be easier targets. … The addiction consultant mentions how playing games makes endorphins kick in, leading to the addiction — in an attempt to show how video gaming can have a chemical dependency issue as well. Of course, there’s one fairly big problem with this whole thing. Medical research a few years ago showed there’s no such thing as a chemical addiction to video games, and that games are no more addictive than school or work.

Obviously Mike has never played Civilization IV (just…one…more…turn…). I refuse to accept that there is no chemical dependency on that game. How else to explain the VAST amount of my life that have been spent on Civ since the early 90’s?? Surely I’m not responsible. dammit.

[edit – forgot to link to Mike]

  • Digg
  • Sphinn
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • StumbleUpon
  • Tumblr
  • Twitter