Gaming Detox Center Opens In Netherlands 106
Edge Online reports on the opening of a gaming detox center in the Netherlands. The Smith and Jones center's 12-step program for a gaming-free life is set to start accepting patients next month. From the article: "[The center has] concluded that the truly game-addicted have no other option than to give up the gaming ghost entirely, by means of replacing those 'time warp' hours with real-life high-adrenaline replacements."
Give em what they really need. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Give em what they really need. (Score:1)
Yeah, I play too much WoW.
Re:Give em what they really need. (Score:2)
A strange place, Holland... (Score:3, Funny)
About most gamers I know (Score:2, Funny)
Re:About most gamers I know (Score:2)
Re:About most gamers I know (Score:2)
Re:About most gamers I know (Score:1)
any movie/show/event that happened in that time...
no idea at all.
But (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:But (Score:1)
Sorry I don't get it so Pacman eats "Gaming"?
Oh dear god. (Score:4, Insightful)
Hell, were there comic book detox centers, or did that ever get this far?
Re:Oh dear god. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Oh dear god. (Score:1)
Back on-topic with detox centres it is, unfortunately, all about money again...If you can make a clinic work for emptying yours bowels then I am sure that this game addiction clinic will rake it in. If not in customer's money, in government spending. Karem
Real life adrelenaline (Score:1)
Re:Real life adrelenaline (Score:2)
hmmm (Score:4, Funny)
So in essence.... (Score:3, Informative)
You don't cure addiction by simply replacing the means through which the adrenaline rush is achieved. You cure it (or at least mitigate its negative impact) by improving the person's coping mechanisms. Everything else is snake oil.
Re:So in essence.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:So in essence.... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:So in essence.... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re:So in essence.... (Score:1, Flamebait)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:So in essence.... (Score:1)
Um, care to cite some sources for that statement?
Though I don't agree with the idea that "religion is evil", even a cursory reading of a world history text makes it abundantly clear that people have killed each other over their re
Re: (Score:2)
Re:So in essence.... (Score:2)
The case could be made that they only substituted one kind of bureaucratic+hierarchical religion for a bureaucratic+hierarchical personality-cult. Too-powerful ideological organizations run by the all-too-human are the problem, not the labels on those bureaucracies.
Re:So in essence.... (Score:2)
Although the Nazi's were considered secular, Hitler was attempting to cleanse an aspect of himself plus many of the Nazi's were catholics. Moreover, the Catholic Church is porported to have been aware of what the Nazi's were doing to the Jews and in fact supported it. So this incident of Genocide cannot be relegat
Re:So in essence.... (Score:2)
Actually the Buddhist government of Tibet was a pretty brutal religious dictatorship before China took over.
Of course, they replaced one dictatorship with another, but don't pretend that things were all sunshine and
lollypops before the commies rolled in.
Re:So in essence.... (Score:2)
Re:So in essence.... (Score:2)
I am not a 12 stepper but I have seen many people reall
Re:So in essence.... (Score:1)
I don't have a problem (Score:4, Funny)
Before the trolling really begins... (Score:2)
If someone here in the states went to a 12 step program to try and kick a destructive gameing habit I think they would be laughed right out of the clinc.
People don't see this as a real problem but gameing can bring out OCD and addictive behavior in people prone to i
Re:Before the trolling really begins... (Score:3, Insightful)
Only if they were lucky. There are plenty of quacky 12-step programs in the states to "treat" damn near anything you can think of. And by "treat" I mean take your money and time while feeding you BS and catchy slogans.
You're right, OCD can be a real problem. A problem that should be treated by a real expert, not something you should "give to god" (she
Re:Before the trolling really begins... (Score:2)
It has been my experince that the first and hardest step is to ask for help.
And yeah I should have chosen my words more carefully.
Re:Before the trolling really begins... (Score:1)
"Take" as in "require"? Nope. See "What does it cost..." on pages 9-10 of this [alcoholics-anonymous.org].
Re:Before the trolling really begins... (Score:2)
Sounds like a challenge! (Score:5, Funny)
See you n00bs at Level 12!
A necessary service (Score:5, Funny)
Re:A necessary service (Score:1)
Re:A necessary service (Score:2)
In case you were referring to the semi-legal status that marijuana enjoys in The Netherlands: that substance isn't physically addictive (though mental problems may occur with heavy usage), and furthermore The Netherlands has one of the lowest percentages of drug addicts. Draw your own conclusions!
One More Turn... (Score:1)
Real life? (Score:1)
The only thing that really comes to mind would be a team sport, preferably soccer (sorry, the rest of them suck). Actually, that isn't all that bad of an idea - paintball can be a pretty intense sport depending on how you play. Finding a replacement for the RPG types such as myself would be a little more difficult. Short of handing them a parachute and throwing them off a cliff I c
Re:Real life? (Score:1)
But what about the worn out gamer's body? (Score:1)
Re:But what about the worn out gamer's body? (Score:2)
Vecna, probably.
Re:But what about the worn out gamer's body? (Score:2)
Am I the only one confused by the second picture? (Score:2)
They should start the article with "If 'LEEEEEEROY JENKINS' means anything to you, we've got the cure for what ails you."
Solutions for Critical Thinkers (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Solutions for Critical Thinkers (Score:2)
Maybe they meant to say 12-step "Mythology" for an alternative set of fantasy creatures. Like the Roman Goddess of Freedom, Feronia.
I don't think gaming is a drug perse (Score:4, Insightful)
Gaming is like this because it allows us to shorten the path between activity and reward. MMORPG's are an excellent example. For all the complaints about grinding you can level up an awfull lot faster then in real life. Just you try to become master in any craft in a month or two. In WoW this is no problem.
I don't think gaming itself is addictive but rather this rush of a quick fix. After a long day at work where you didn't get anything done and were even the remotes chance of a promotion is years away you can simply go into a game and achieve a level, complete a quest in a night with the game telling you are the best player ever.
We all like to be complimented and when I am on a rampage in Unreal Tournament I feel good. Oh sure it is shallow over a real life promotion in my job or being told you are loved by your partner BUT I can go on a rampage a dozen times in a night. Being told I am the best by my gf I max out at maybe 2-3 a night.... okay week.... year....alright I am happy if I can get a cat to pur, happy?
In a way I think games are like soaps are for women. There certainly is an element of addiction in how some of them follow soaps. The point is that soaps to speed up the action -> reward cycle. A soap family can go through more stuff in one episode then most people have in their entire life giving you the rush of their artificial life quicker then you could ever get yourselve.
Yes offcourse it is artificial but so is masturbation. However when masturbation is a locked door away and sex with another person means at minimum finding a desperate person with a drinking problem it becomes a question of what you prefer. Quick fix now or possible good fix after lots and lots of hard work.
Games allow us to be heroes, that is a hard drug to resist.
Re:I don't think gaming is a drug perse (Score:3, Insightful)
Heroes? A word comes to mind. (Score:1)
Looking for 15 others (Score:5, Funny)
More importantly... (Score:1)
Re:More importantly... (Score:1)
Re:More importantly... (Score:1)
All or Nothing? (Score:5, Insightful)
Grrr... the whole 12 step, give it up completely concept
just strikes me as so wrong. I've seen a couple of people
try this with AA, where they end up being too damn fragile.
Any exposure the the forbidden activity (even being around
others doing it) becomes a personal crisis.
People need to learn to live with these things instead of hiding from them.
Re:All or Nothing? (Score:3, Insightful)
People need to learn to live with these things instead of hiding from them.
Have you ever overcome an addiction?
A real one? A compulsion so strong you can't control it on your own?
No? Then don't knock it. At least they're not doing it anymore.
Re:All or Nothing? (Score:2)
1. It relies on an external (spiritual) force to enable you to quit. It reinforces the perception of the addict as helpless victim, when in fact your addiction is a choice, at least at some level. If you don't want to stop, you won't.
2. It doesn't work that well. [orange-papers.org] You are never considered cured, and studies (including one commissioned by the AA themselves) have shown the 12 step program to have a worse failure rate for remission than just deciding to stop.
3. Its cult-like
Well in the case of alcohol (Score:3, Insightful)
For gaming, I dunno. There's not the chemical
Godspeed, my dears.. (Score:2)
hrm... (Score:2, Insightful)
sounds like they want to substitute one addiction for another...
nice and counter-productive.
Re:hrm... (Score:1)
Thank god (Score:2)
Gamers (Score:5, Funny)
DHMO (Score:2)
Model of addiction (Score:1)
Re:Model of addiction (Score:1)
Re:Model of addiction (Score:2)
Ask yourself:
Most of us might think we could say yes to a few of these, but consider the word "regularly" carefully. Do you play
Re:Model of addiction (Score:1)
Re:Model of addiction (Score:1)
Makes you wonder (Score:2)
In order to replace the fantasy excitement with real excitement, we provide various activities for the gaming clients, some of which are high adrenaline and provide the thrill of real life situations. Our coaches work with the clients to find new activities with which the client can fill the lost "time warp" hours.
When I read this, I thought to myself, "Okay, they don't like what these people are doing in their spare time, so they're trying to get them to do something else that they prefer."
I mean, let'
I am not an addict! (Score:1)
Gaming and Politics (Score:2)
"real-life high-adrenaline replacements" (Score:1)
BackLash! (Score:1)
Obligatory X-Men reference (Score:1)
An interesting problem (Score:2, Insightful)
Okay, so I've seen quite a few comments to the effect of, 'Games are just another way to spend your free time'. This is true, and people can quite frankly become addicted to pretty much anything. Most addictions to games, movies, books, trying to take over the world, happen because the person in question isn't really.. well, grounded in life. They start to view their hobby(games for example) as the way deal with things, rather then really deal with them. Generally, they were probabl
Re:An interesting problem (Score:1)
Not so in an online interaction. People wi
Three cheers for the english language (Score:1)
I would admit myself... (Score:1)