Gamers have the brain of a junky

lkraan

Too bad this article is Dutch so most of you cannot read it...
http://www.tiscali.nl/content/article/cmult/542059.htm

Some research has been done that proves that certain specific brainactivity for gamers is the same as for (gambling) addicts. The human actions are steered by rewarding mechanisms by the "ventraal striatum" and there the similarities were found.

Hollowmind

Sounds about right to me. When I have a game I'm hooked on I sometimes think about it all day while I'm at work until I can get home and play it again. Was really bad when I was hooked on Dark Age of Camelot. All I could think about was what loot was I gonna' farm tonight or I hope DF is open to Hib so I can log out my NS there and farm lowbies later or where I was gonna' rvr that night, hehe. It wasn't pretty.

ElysiumGX

Couldn't the same actions apply to any interest one is devoted to? All addictions are fueled by some sort of reward mechanism. Researchers make me laugh. Especially ones from Harvard. Something is common sense until Harvard "discovers" it.

MacD

"All I could think about was what loot was I gonna' farm tonight or I hope DF is open to Hib so I can log out my NS there and farm lowbies later or where I was gonna' rvr that night"

Hehe...junkies have their own slang vocabulary too

Hollowmind

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Hehe...junkies have their own slang vocabulary too

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Exactly.

Richard Kain

Yeah, I can see that. Both are rewarded with intangibles. The major difference in my opinion would be the return on investment. I might be motivated by the same basic principle as gamblers, but I'm not as stupid. I get to keep the games I buy and I can go back for a fix anytime, free of additional charge. Gambling is a much more....expensive addiction. Much less cost effective in the long run.

sledgy

Games are a far cheaper way to get a fix even though gambling may be a "higher" high because of the stakes. I forget who said it originally but I agree that gambling is just a tax on people that are bad at math

Ryno

Yup. One fifty dollar game, and I'm set for the next six months.

Excuse me but I'll have to go now, I need my Call of Duty fix.

sundance

hmm, i think i was not getting my 'fix' this morning on CoD:UO, seeing as i kept getting killed trying to protect moody outside the noville chateau, or moody was getting killed. i ended up using some real NC-17 language

KDR_11k

So, what does GCC do to your brain?

Kevin Johnstone

well the junky didnt need it anyway

sundance

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So, what does GCC do to your brain?

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are you talkin' t'me? what's GCC?

KDR_11k

GNU C Compiler. Coding sure affects your brain in some way?

Thermidor

Isnt there 2 types of addiction , mental and chemical?
i would suppose its posible to become mentaly addicted to pretty much anything you enjoy.
probly even posting on these boards