More comparisons between gaming and smack: this time led by Dr Byron

I’ve never taken heroin. Even so, I’m pretty sure that gaming and class A drug abuse are very different things. Therefore it’s pretty odd that the two, err, ‘practises’ should come into close comparison on a TV show featuring Dr. Tanya Byron who so recently presented a very open and balanced review of the video games industry. It's not the first time such comparisons have been drawn, but at least last time it was just by a narrow minded old hack we could just take the piss out of.

Let’s not get over excited too quickly though: Byron does not DIRECTLY compare video game addiction with heroin addiction, but it was during the same program, ‘Am I Normal?’ which aired last night on BBC 2 (check it out here on iPlayer), that issues over heroin addiction along with video game addiction were discussed.

Arguably there’s not really a problem with that; there have been several reported cases of ‘addicted’ gamers causing harm to themselves by simply refusing to put down the mouse and keyboard and MMOs are normally to blame. I’ve personally met a few people online whose obsessions have seemed unhealthy – one guy I met playing World of Warcraft when it first launched who claimed to have taken psychological leave from his job just so he could play more. Can’t be sure he wasn’t fibbing, but he certainly played more than anyone with a job could possibly have done.

But on the other hand, as gaming gains a foothold in popular culture, is it really fair or wise, reasonable or responsible to use a prime time TV documentary to mix together graphic images of drug taking paraphernalia and video gaming? Not really.

Dr Byron’s experts weren’t up to much either. One was counsellor Stephen Noel-Hill, a recovering gambling addict who now runs a clinic in Amsterdam for video games ‘addicts’. Funnily enough, he “believed computer gaming has become an addiction every bit as pernicious as more conventional drugs”. How odd that he should think that when he charges two and a half grand a week to help these ‘addicts’ recover.

The MMO addict wheeled out for the cameras was one Michelle Hart, 39, who spends most of life – when not working – playing World of Warcraft. But is Ms Hart really endangering herself with her ‘addiction’? Is it ever going to drive her to theft or render her homeless or affect her job? Clearly not if it has not done so in the past two years she has been playing.  In fact her greatest crime it seemed was to struggle to decide between going to the pub with her mates or carrying on the game.

“People have said to me come out for drink or something and there’s always that questions: do I want to go out and drink or stay in and play?"

Fine, so her online ‘addiction’ is interfering with her normal social interaction. But let’s look at this another way. Imagine she wasn’t talking about video gaming – a scary new entertainment medium that is met each day with terrifying new sensationalist headlines. Imagine that she just watched a lot of telly.

“People have said to me come out for drink or something and there’s always that questions: do I want to go out and drink or stay in and [watch TV]?"

Kind of sounds like a pretty normal decision to me (and assuming there was ever anything but shite soap operas and daft documentaries on, it might even warrant some serious thought).

I don’t want to argue that there is no such thing as a video games addiction – I’ve seen enough to know that obsession can result in harm to a player’s social and probably even mental welfare. I just think it’s utterly unfair to muddy this discussion with other far more serious addictions like heroin and gambling, whose existence is clearly documented and has considerably more readily available sufferers who genuinely SUFFER and experts who don’t have a vested financial interested in blowing their own trumpet.

Games addiction <i>should</i> be given greater study to determine whether it is a true phenomena or merely the visible manifestation of an inner psychological problem. It would seem more responsible to consider it in its own right though without tarring it under the same brush as intravenous drug use. I thought Dr Tanya Byron would be the first person to understand that. Apparently not.

Source
MCV

Related posts
“Huge digital generational divide” prompts Byron to propose a mandatory age rating system for UK games