1. #1
    Bitter Veteran Hell-demon's Avatar
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    Default [OT] Watch This!

    This was on Rock, Paper, Shotgun and I've been watching it. It's a documentary on MMO gaming and gamers.


    Worth a look!


    Catch is it's only free til tomorrow. I can relate to this, as a child instead of my Dad giving me bed time stories he'd be playing Quake 2 online!

    Honestly MMO gaming is something I kinda despise, especially ones like WoW which cause addiction. I got to say I do love Real Life a whole lot more than pushing buttons and leveling an orc.

    Anyway if you're bored and got nothing else to do watch this free one and a half documentary (although it does have ad breaks...)
    I知 going to become rich and famous after I invent a device that allows you to stab people in the face over the internet.

  2. #2

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    if you're interested beyond trolling wow players, try looking up escapism
    ingame names: Biglines (dissy spy), Mr Tool (low tech tank), Engineer Tool (constructor), Medical Tool (ppu/hacker/poker), Father Tool (apu)

  3. #3
    Bitter Veteran Hell-demon's Avatar
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    I know what escapism is but you can get that without playing MMO's.

    When does it get to the point when it is no longer escapism and becomes addiction?



    Can you honestly say you would waste your prime years in front of a screen pushing buttons? Sure the occassional game now and then but hours upon hours spent on a computer
    Last edited by Hell-demon; 12-08-09 at 17:29.
    I知 going to become rich and famous after I invent a device that allows you to stab people in the face over the internet.

  4. #4

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    I think it really depends on how you play it. I've had weeks where i spent more than 10 hours a day playing games (usually in holidays), and I could say that i've been addicted to quite a few games.

    But it has not been so bad that due to games I haven't eaten, slept or done my work. But saying that a real life social life is better than an online social life is like comparing apples and pears (or however u spell that). They both have very different dimensions. Real life has the benefits of sunlight, physical contact, and meeting people outside of your comfort zone (as in, non-gamers). Online gaming for a lot of folks has the benefits of lacking anxiety, being physically safer, and anonimity (meaning a lot of people can be more themselves).

    I feel I've had some "real" friends in online games, and "real" friends in the "real" world. While they are two different sorts of friends, and online friends might be more superficial, they are both just different sorts, and can be satisfying as well.

    just button bashing without social contact in games is something I agree with you is very dangerous, and if it starts influencing other important sides you probably need professional help.

    But is having a bunch of online contact with whom you spend a lot of time so much worse than having friends who only drink and don't do jack all otherwise?


    (on a side note, I'm a gaming nerd, I've never played WoW, but have been addicted to the neocrack and other online games. I have a small but tight "real life" group of friends with whom I spend good summer afternoons with a beer and a BBQ, and have lived together with my gf for 3 years now, just to put things in perspective ofc.)
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  5. #5
    Bitter Veteran Hell-demon's Avatar
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    It's pretty bad if you spend hours upon hours gaming especially teenagers. From puberty to adulthood are some pretty important years for development socially. You can't spend that time being a shut in and not getting out, otherwise you will be very introvert in your adult years.

    Not always the case but certainly can play a part in that.




    mmmm serious debate.....
    I知 going to become rich and famous after I invent a device that allows you to stab people in the face over the internet.

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    hmm, i think though that mroe than half of the addicts that play wow obsessively, wudnt have grand social lives without it... i mean, nerds have been around since before computers... back then they read comic books, or simply watch tv... it's not like without wow they all for some reason become the biggest party goers...
    ingame names: Biglines (dissy spy), Mr Tool (low tech tank), Engineer Tool (constructor), Medical Tool (ppu/hacker/poker), Father Tool (apu)

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    Sailor Moon > You Lexxuk's Avatar
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    I'm not sure a game can offer escapism, the same way that a tv show really can't, all they can offer is entertainment value with you viewing another persons "world". Escapism for me at least, only comes when you can use your own imagination to escape from reality, so the best way (other than hot cybersex with Kiera Knightly.... again) is reading a good book.

    With a book you can escape to another reality, where your imagination can run wild and draw the picture, but a book of the film you are not using your imagination, you are watching the imagination of another person, with actors giving their own impression.

    With a game, you are also taking part in someone elses' visual representation of something, be it a world full of aliens you have to kill, or a world where you have to build a road from point a to point b and have buses travel down it.

    You can get immersed in a game, and your actions on your character can define progress, but you are not escaping reality, you're just pushing away at a keyboard hoping that no big "Game Over" icon pops up. Though Wii Sports can cause pain and breathlessness, bloody Nintendo >.>

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    Bitter Veteran Hell-demon's Avatar
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    Video games, films and television all play on our instincts as humans to observe moving things. It's hardwired for all humans to track moving things and sounds, otherwise what was making it would eat us or not get caught and eaten by us.

    When I think of our technology I'm reminded of this:

    I知 going to become rich and famous after I invent a device that allows you to stab people in the face over the internet.

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    Sailor Moon > You Lexxuk's Avatar
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    If you have a look at the UK today, you'll see that Orwell was spot on. We live in a society where you can't even masturbate in public without some weirdo with CCTV watching you and some guy sneaking up behind you to clamp you. Not that I condone parking in an illegal spot whilst masturbating.

    Recent surveys suggest lots of people haven't been on the internet, although almost all internet connections in the UK *are* monitored (IWF) and have the ability to be monitored 24/7 (RIPA) and the government wants to make it so they know who you are emailing and who is emailing you (thats right, your email from boobies@welovehentai.com.net.org is monitored!).

    In the US, wherever the president visits in a 50 mile radius the secret service will monitor *every* communication for keywords, like "Kill" "president" "bomb" "Simon Cowell" and if they find them, they will abduct you, stick you on a plane and send you to somewhere that they can torture you to death with reruns of the unfunny Monty Python episodes.

    We live in a society where you cannot express free will anymore, you can only express what the government wants you to, you are not even allowed to voice your opinions outside Parliament any longer, that's against the law.

    1984 came and went, 2004 came and went, 2014 will come and the people who play WoW will *still* not have got laid.

    Anna - lexx if you dont get that out of your sig im never talking to you again, and you know i mean that

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    Bitter Veteran Hell-demon's Avatar
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    In the UK we have more CCTV cameras than China! But we're going slightly off topic and we can't talk politics or this thread gets closed and are details sent to assassins.
    I知 going to become rich and famous after I invent a device that allows you to stab people in the face over the internet.

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    Twat Magnet Nymphette79's Avatar
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    Back on topic
    I'd class an addiction as playing a game for 14+ hours a day and asking ur wife to wait till ur in a safe zone before a bit of "hows ur father" (wow how wrong is that saying?)

    I am however getting slightly worried about my 5 y/o son, he is a gaming freak, not that i've encouraged it what with his PSP, DS, XBox360, Wii and 2 WoW chars mind lol but he gets very pissy if I try to talk to him or god forbid one of his siblings walk infront the screen, he then turns into a 15 y/o with the huffing & puffing & the "NOW SEE WHAT U MADE ME DO" or "U MADE ME DIE". I would like to point out that I dont let him sit on games all day, he earns time, every sticker on his reward chart earns him 10 mins gaming and he can earn upto an hour of game time for the next day on any given platform. Do you think I should cut it down?
    xxxx
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    Genetically Enhanced Tank naimex's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Nymphette79
    I am however getting slightly worried about my 5 y/o son, he is a gaming freak, not that i've encouraged it what with his PSP, DS, XBox360, Wii and 2 WoW chars mind lol but he gets very pissy if I try to talk to him or god forbid one of his siblings walk infront the screen, he then turns into a 15 y/o with the huffing & puffing & the "NOW SEE WHAT U MADE ME DO" or "U MADE ME DIE". I would like to point out that I dont let him sit on games all day, he earns time, every sticker on his reward chart earns him 10 mins gaming and he can earn upto an hour of game time for the next day on any given platform. Do you think I should cut it down?
    xxxx
    Well, I will comment on this, because I actually have a real life experience on exactly that kind of behavior.

    My brother and I were raised similarly but with differences.

    The first 9 years of his life, he was allowed to do whatever he wanted, but was encouraged to win and raised with sports and similar, so he became very competitive, this also made him a very sore loser, after that he was allowed to do whatever he wanted.

    He is still a sore loser.


    I've been allowed to do whatever I wanted all of my life, this has turned me into a non-caring person, who has absolutely no respect for family. Which of course also means that I am very rude to my parents even though they really are trying their best and mean well.

    I never had any reason other than wanting to be best to make me competitive, so if it's a fair fight and especially if it's my own fault I fail and die, it doesn't matter, I am a very good loser and a very good winner, I don't gloat a lot and I don't whine a lot, atleast not about losing, I whine about just about everything else, but that's because I'm a spoiled brat.


    So what I think you should do, since as you say you have already setup some rules, your son is accustomed to there being rules. The next step I see is to play games with your son and win as often as you can, preferably everytime to make the point crystal clear. Simply get him to accept that it's okay to lose a game, it's not the end of the world.

    That should remove some of the competitiveness and also prevent him from becoming a more sore loser than he apparently already is becoming, since by the way you say it, he blames others for his deaths and fails.

    Hope it's of some help.

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    Twat Magnet Nymphette79's Avatar
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    Thanks for replying hun, I am very strict on what type of games he plays, I will go as high as 7+ but thats it but he is atm obssessed with Lego Indiana Jones and its that game that seems to make him the angriest so I think i'm gonna have to lose that game somewhere lol he is fine with other games like Pikmin & Viva Pinata. I understand ur point about letting him loose sometimes but thats a bit tricky when on most of the games he is actually better than me lol.
    Thanks again
    xxx
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    Bitter Veteran Hell-demon's Avatar
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    Types of games do affect your child. My dad was a teacher and would pop me in front of a computer, so we are talking early 90's games with no gimmicks but creativity and substance. Games I played were Day of the Tentacle (a point and click adventure).


    But lets see a show of hands here for this little gem. Who played and remembers this:




    Chances are you were forced to play this in primary school here in the UK. Game that helped you improve maths with puzzles. You make little Zoombinis (mine all looked like Robert Smith from The Cure) and go on a mathematical adventure. It sounds patronising and dull but it did help to some degree.

    Later in life I played different games and they helped increase my vocabulary


    Games can be good and educational but only the right ones. As it stand Nintendo are the worst offenders because they just make purile crap but hey it's got motion sensor or a stylus!

    My little half-brother has a DS and lost all his games and the DS is dirt incrusted. Also playing the wii has caused many tantrums and fights. Don't give them expensive crap they will not look after and appreciate. Otherwise you will have a spoilt bastard on your hands. Soon as the next shiny console with the next shiny gimmick comes out prepare for nagging and tears.

    Hand eye co-ordination will be spot on for kids but I garauntee that book grandma got them will collect dust. Quite sad.
    I知 going to become rich and famous after I invent a device that allows you to stab people in the face over the internet.

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    hehe, when I was young, my best friend had just moved from germany (which is like 20 km away from where i lived), so his parents and family all spoke german, but that didn't really get to me because my friend spoke perfect dutch. He did however, get a lot of games from his family, which were all in german, so while i was around 10-14, I learned my first steps into the german language by playing Day of the Tentacle and Monkey Island in german, with help from my friend if I din't get it, which has helped me be a lot better at languages than my other classmates.

    I would suggest dropping some foreign games on any kids, kids adjust to languages in weeks, where adults or even teens require months or years to achieve the same result.

    (Day of the Tentacle is still one of my all time favorite games, think I finished it at least 20 times, recently played it again on my phone (windows mobile can run ScummVM))
    ingame names: Biglines (dissy spy), Mr Tool (low tech tank), Engineer Tool (constructor), Medical Tool (ppu/hacker/poker), Father Tool (apu)

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