Question of the week: Are you an Elite addict or just un-happy?

Bran Tse Mallory

Bran Tse Mallory
Welcome CMDR’s,
Today I would like to have a serious talk about so called Internet Gaming Addiction that has been published and get your take on it.

I ask these questions as I know many of us play until late at night and spend so many hour of our lives playing games, not just Elite of course but it does eat away at our time well mine certainly.

The paper which can be found here: http://orca.cf.ac.uk/104563/ (Cardiff University) suggests that rather then it be a true addiction that it is in fact a symptom of leading an un-happy life.

I would appreciate it you could look over the report and then think about why you game?

The criteria for being classed as an addict are:

· PREOCCUPATION WITH THE INTERNET and or VIDEO GAMES
· WITHDRAWAL as INDICATED by symptoms of irritability, anxiety, or sadness
· TOLERANCE as evidenced by increasing amount, level, type of use to achieve satisfaction
· UNSUCCESSFUL ATTEMPTS TO CONTROL, stop or change the behavior
· LOSS OF INTEREST, previous hobbies, entertainment as a direct result of, and with the exception of, Internet use
· CONTINUED USE despite psycho-social/physical problems likely to have been caused or exacerbated by use
· DECEIVING or LYING TO OTHERS regarding the amount of time engaged in Internet or Video gaming
· USES THE INTERNET TO ESCAPE or relieve a negative or dysphoric mood (e.g. feelings of helplessness, guilt, anxiety, stress, worries)
· LOSING or JEOPARDIZING A SIGNIFICANT RELATIONSHIP/job/educational opportunity

If 5 of the above sound like you then you would be classed as an addict

Do these sound like you?

If so how do you feel about being classed as an addict?


As always keep it clean and have fun!
 

zarking

Z
Yup my name is Zarking and I am a addict.

And happy to be so (despite my odd moans), if I'm not playing then I'm reading here or reddit or one of the discords, or watching it on twitch or YouTube :)
I have phases where I'll cool off for a while, but I keep coming back :)
 

Shiro Akai

Shiro Akai
· PREOCCUPATION WITH THE INTERNET and or VIDEO GAMES: hmm... maybe. With limited time for relax at disposal internet/games provide the fastest and quickest way to wind off. So when I have free time I play/browse the internet and from that POV it may be seen as I'm preoccupied with those two.
· WITHDRAWAL as INDICATED by symptoms of irritability, anxiety, or sadness: I'm generally socially withdrawn, had it long before the internet era. So no.
· TOLERANCE as evidenced by increasing amount, level, type of use to achieve satisfaction: nope
· UNSUCCESSFUL ATTEMPTS TO CONTROL, stop or change the behavior: nope
· LOSS OF INTEREST, previous hobbies, entertainment as a direct result of, and with the exception of, Internet use: false and exactly opposite. I love reading books and continue to do so since 2nd grade primary school. Also, thanks to internet I re-discovered RC hobby. Overall my hobbies developed more thanks to internet.
· CONTINUED USE despite psycho-social/physical problems likely to have been caused or exacerbated by use: this used to be an issue like... 12 years ago.
· DECEIVING or LYING TO OTHERS regarding the amount of time engaged in Internet or Video gaming: I don't need to confess to anyone about my time engagement involving internet/gaming. N/A.
· USES THE INTERNET TO ESCAPE or relieve a negative or dysphoric mood (e.g. feelings of helplessness, guilt, anxiety, stress, worries): yes
· LOSING or JEOPARDIZING A SIGNIFICANT RELATIONSHIP/job/educational opportunity: never. I may had problems with games addiction but that impacted my free time. Education/job was a completely different thing and I don't mix job, education and entertainment with each other.
 

DRPlatus

DRPlatus
USES THE INTERNET TO ESCAPE or relieve a negative or dysphoric mood (e.g. feelings of helplessness, guilt, anxiety, stress, worries)
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The same can be said here of movies or visiting prostitutes.

On weekends I am in the black, during the week wishing I was. Then I trawl the forums and otherwise research something I want to learn about ED. So yeah, guess I am addicted. Don't think I have an uhappy life though...
 

Jonny Shiloh

Jonny Shiloh
Nope, definitely not an Elite addict - I do loads of other things. I'll tell you all about them once I finish scanning this planetary system - 49 astronomical bodies, 13 landables, and an Earth-like!

OK... well, maybe I'll tell you about all the many other things I do once I've jumped to the next system and scanned that.
 

Theodrid

Theodrid
Hey Bran,

Due to a fairly busy lifestyle, (job, kids, wife, hobbies, etc), I, fortunately, do not fall into the addict category, though to be honest, if I allowed it and had time I possibly could do. I've shown a few addictive personality traits in my past - mostly my misspent youth! - but have managed to keep myself busy enough for a good while that it isn't an issue.

On the one hand I kind of envy those that can sit at home all day playing games like Elite D but at the same time I recognise how destructive and unproductive that can be. I sometimes wonder about the folk, (sometimes the same folk), that are up in arms and posting instantly the second the servers go down for a few minutes, are those guys and gals addicts?

Anyway, this is a very serious issue, my missus and I face a constant battle with the kids over screen time, be it the PS4, XBox, laptop or mobile phones. The kids sometimes don't seem to know what to do with themselves if we have taken away their screen time. It is a major concern for many parents as well as friends and families of adults and children that exhibit these signs, and to be honest, with all the new tech available and things that just didn't exist when I was growing up the problem seems worse at the moment than ever before.
 
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bootsam

bootsam
Now winter has returned, I am returning too. Once I finish my book. But if that damned ranking issue doesnt get resolved it may be short lived. Although I may try ED support as its obviously knackered somewhere in my instance. Thanks to Dirk Braben for the suggestion. TBH, I'd never considered contacting support. Doh!

I'm a winter ED player. Spring/Summer/Autumn is for outside activities. My garage is too cold any other time.

Not an addict per se, but I enjoy the game none the less as long as the game plays ball and doesnt faff me around.
 

Aashenfox

Aashenfox
I've always known that I play video games (and am OCD about excelling at them) because I have failed to excel in real life and am deeply unhappy about it (wasting a high IQ and a privileged life). Games are a way for me to lead another, more successful life and avoid thinking about what I could have been.

I could have explained this to them without a study. lol.
 

Alec Turner

Alec Turner
Bran Tse Mallory said:
Welcome CMDR’s,
Today I would like to have a serious talk about so called Internet Gaming Addiction that has been published and get your take on it.

I ask these questions as I know many of us play until late at night and spend so many hour of our lives playing games, not just Elite of course but it does eat away at our time well mine certainly.

The paper which can be found here: http://orca.cf.ac.uk/104563/ (Cardiff University) suggests that rather then it be a true addiction that it is in fact a symptom of leading an un-happy life.
Click to expand...
This is a subject I'm very interested in and I wrote a piece on it many many years ago as coursework for my computer science degree. I'll read that article later, in the meantime ... first of all I'll say that I'm fortunate enough to have lead an excedingly happy life so any addiction I do have is definitely not a symptom of that. And so on to the criteria.

· PREOCCUPATION WITH THE INTERNET and or VIDEO GAMES
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Definitely. I think this one goes without saying.

· WITHDRAWAL as INDICATED by symptoms of irritability, anxiety, or sadness
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Yup, I think so ... if RL prevents me from getting my usual daily dose of ED I'm definitely irritable ... I go as far as to say downright peeved.

· TOLERANCE as evidenced by increasing amount, level, type of use to achieve satisfaction
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Hmmm, no I don't think so. I increased my dosage of ED up to around 1.5 hrs per day a year or so back and have been pretty happy with that ever since.

· UNSUCCESSFUL ATTEMPTS TO CONTROL, stop or change the behavior
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Err, yup, I think I can hold my hand up there. On occassion my better half has suggested I play too much and I've attempted to reduce my hours ... it only lasts a day or two before I'm back up to my usual level again.

· LOSS OF INTEREST, previous hobbies, entertainment as a direct result of, and with the exception of, Internet use
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Definitely. I put my guitar in the attic a month or so back after finally admitting to myself that it was merely gathering dust and taking up valuable space in the back of the cockpit. If I'm truly honest with myself, ED is my only hobby now.

· CONTINUED USE despite psycho-social/physical problems likely to have been caused or exacerbated by use
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Yup, I think that one's fair to say as well. In order to try and minimise the impact that my ED playing has on my family life I've adopted a pattern of playing in the morning before work when everyone else is asleep. In building up my hours this means I now get up at around 5:15am every morning. As a consequence I'm often very tired and regularly fall asleep in the evening.

· DECEIVING or LYING TO OTHERS regarding the amount of time engaged in Internet or Video gaming
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Yup, I suppose so. I generally tell my wife that I get up at 6am because I'm slightly ashamed to admit that it's closer to 5am.

· USES THE INTERNET TO ESCAPE or relieve a negative or dysphoric mood (e.g. feelings of helplessness, guilt, anxiety, stress, worries)
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I'm not sure about this one. I spend far more time at work on this forum than I should. I justify this to myself by saying that it's keeping my brain active and my mood excited/invigorated when in fact I do feel guilty about it quite often.

· LOSING or JEOPARDIZING A SIGNIFICANT RELATIONSHIP/job/educational opportunity
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I think/hope/believe that my wife is OK with me playing this game. I know she's happy that I'm happy but I also suspect she would rather I didn't play it quite so much. The amount of time I spend on the forum at work has also been mentioned in the past. I can get away with it because I'm a senior and valued member of the team but it definitely borderlines on being a problem.

If 5 of the above sound like you then you would be classed as an addict

Do these sound like you?

If so how do you feel about being classed as an addict?
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Well, it's a definite 6 out of 9 for me (maybe even 7 or 8). I feel conflicted (as I'm sure many addicts do). I'm happy, it's not especially damaging my health, I reckon I have a handle on how it affects my family and my work (as I'm sure many addicts do). I certainly don't want to stop ... that would make me very sad because I adore playing this game.

Interesting. Thanks Bran ... your threads always cheer me up ... this one (and the self examination it's caused) not so much.

Harrumph.
 
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