Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Addiction & Games

There had been reports of people being addicted to online gaming. In Asia, this is especially a problem. In Beijing, a 30 year old man died after playing an online game for 3 straight days.

This is but the most recent case as reports had surfaced before in South Korea. In Vietnam, the folks have had enough. The Ministry of Information and Communication in Vietnam has called for a nightly ban on online gaming across the country between 10pm to 8am. According to reports from Vietnam, there will be a block on access to online games each day from 10pm to 8am.

Frankly, I don’t agree with this ban. Despite agreeing with the reason behind the move, I can’t see the ban working. The ban doesn’t stop people from playing from 8am to 10 pm and even then, people can play off-line game between 10pm to 8am (the ban period). Basically I don’t see the ban working because I see addiction as the problem, not games.

Games by themselves, no matter how fun, are not addictive! Online games do not kill people and anyone who thinks otherwise is confusing gaming with addiction. It’s two different things.

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