Symptom or Cause or Neither?

De4th_M0nKee

I am interested to see what people think about the isolation that can go with playing MMOs for long periods of time. I am speaking mainly about those people that have nearly no social interaction outside of an online game.

 

I have been around gaming and gamers many years. I have seen family relationships torn apart from massive time spent in game. I have been present at screaming fights between husbands and wives over online games. I knew a person that committed suicide. Talking to their parents afterwards the fact that the person had no friends was a factor. The person was an avid DAoC player. The only interaction I had with this person was about gaming.

I guess what I am asking is. Are MMOs helping cause this? Are the people just dysfunctional and would end up alone anyhow?

 

 

Gahh can't edit the poll and I flubbed it, so ignore it. (I only put 2 choices! Looks like 3 don't it?)

nomadian

its the same general symptoms of addiction.

ianubisi

People gravitate to the activity that suits them best.

Gishgeron

Just a symptom, not a cause.

 People with self-control, responsibility, and no addictive personality tend not to have such issues.  Personally, I think all these wives and mothers should be thanking MMO's for being the safest medium to DISCOVER their loved ones have those issues....rather than waiting for it to be crack, cocain, or a deep seeded alcoholism instead.  The fact is, you treat all of those in much the same way....by addressing the core three issues I addressed above. 

Even better is the fact its easier to address those issues when a chemical dependency isn't coupled with it too.  A whole HELL of a lot easier.  If anything, MMO's are doing the world a favor right now...and these "loved" one of the players are just not acting with ANY intelligence on the matter at all.  They have an easy opportunity to get to these issues earlier and better.  I'm sick of this gaming slander just because some half-wits failed to understand that loving someone means actually being there for them and taking the steps to get them help when they won't help themselves.

deviliscious

I don't think these behaviors have anything at all to do with mmos. These people have problems in real life and the reason it is so obvious when speaking to these people is that they most likely do not talk to anyone outside of the games and are reaching out for attention or help or both. Depression exists in the general population of people that have never played a video game at all , so this cannot be considered a mmo problem.  I too have seen people that are really depressed and have known of people who committed suicide in real life and people I had met online.

resonate6

Originally posted by De4th_M0nKee


I am interested to see what people think about the isolation that can go with playing MMOs for long periods of time. I am speaking mainly about those people that have nearly no social interaction outside of an online game.
 
I have been around gaming and gamers many years. I have seen family relationships torn apart from massive time spent in game. I have been present at screaming fights between husbands and wives over online games. I knew a person that committed suicide. Talking to their parents afterwards the fact that the person had no friends was a factor. The person was an avid DAoC player. The only interaction I had with this person was about gaming.
I guess what I am asking is. Are MMOs helping cause this? Are the people just dysfunctional and would end up alone anyhow?
 
 
Gahh can't edit the poll and I flubbed it, so ignore it. (I only put 2 choices! Looks like 3 don't it?)

MMO addiction?   I like the real world much better than MMO's