UKTerrorist

Article: Screen Slaves

Posted by NoToRiOuS at 12:39 8/5/2002.

Everyday thousands of gamers go about life, but what is the first thing you do when you come home from work/school? Are we screen slaves? Well the Sydney Morning Herald have printed a very interesting article and discusses aspects of the net and internet gaming.

Two main cases are highlighted. The recent tragedy in Germany where Robert Steinhaeuser, the 19 year old German student who shot 16 people at his school (also talked about in this column by our very own alpha) and the EverQuest player who commited suicide whose mother is now suing Sony Online Entertainment.

And while Durkin will not deny that it's possible to get addicted, he says that the proportion of people who do is small, "much lower than the proportion of people who become addicted to drugs, alcohol or tobacco".

"In general ... if you or I started playing tomorrow it's not as if we would suddenly find we're hooked ... certainly the idea that people can be hooked by a particular game and be trapped there for the rest of their lives is pretty implausible, unless the person is seriously mentally ill to begin with."

Part of the difficulty, he explains, is in defining addiction. Nobody, for instance, suffers the agony of withdrawal symptoms if he/she can't get to a screen: "They might be unhappy but it's not quite as severe a reaction as not being able to get a drug once you're addicted to it.

Be sure to read the full article here.