Update: Dude admitted flaws in his study. Yeah, like we didn’t already know that was the case…

I don’t know about you but when I see a headline like “Almost 1 in 10 Young Video Game Users ‘Addicted’,” I feel like punching a wall. It seems like two steps forward, one step back for gamers – whenever this for of entertainment is somewhat legitimized with a great game that’s seen as a piece of art, some bullshit scientist or mom or whathaveyou comes out with some kind of anti-gaming study. It’s getting really old. Enough already.

The title I’ve mentioned above is actually one I saw earlier this week from HealthDay News. You’ve likely read about it alread, since a number of gaming sites posted the story, but here’s the gist:

A new study found that 8.5% of young gamers (which is more like 1 in 12, not 1 in 10) show signs that they’re addicted to gaming. These gamers aren’t just playing a lot – the study says that their video games interfere with school work, social life, and health. Study leader Douglas A. Gentile, a psychologist and professor at Iowa State University, likens video game addiction to alcoholism and says that it needs to be recognized as a disease. To be fair, the entire science community doesn’t agree with Gentile and believes that while compulsion can happen, “addiction” is too strong of a word. In fact, a number of people, including Grand Theft Childhood’s Dr. Cheryl Olson, psychiatrist and video game addition expert Dr. Jerald Block, and ABC News polling director Gary Langer have called shenanigans.

Now I could sit here and talk about how much I disagree with this Gentile bloke too or how much the media blows studies like this way out of proportion to blame violent crimes and other things of video games. And really, don’t we have enough studies about this crap? Shouldn’t we be focusing money on like, curing cancer? Seriously, it seems like all these “video game experts” are just waggling their weiners right now, showing that THEY can come up with the most ridiculous study that criticized video games.

But really, what I want to talk about is how I find the question “Are video games addictive?” an interesting one, and it’s something worth really considering before you start rolling your eyes…too much.

Point in case: The other day, I was in a bad mood. I had a ton of work to do, but instead, I opted to play a few levels of Mario. It made me feel better, even though I was running a little behind when I finally got back to work. According to the study, playing a game to escape problems and putting games before work are two signs that I’m addicted.

Who among us hasn’t done something similar? In fact, most gamers have had a marathon of some kind when a great new title comes out, meaning that you stayed up waaaay past your bedtime and were tired at work the next day and I’m sure you’ve mildly pissed of your mother girlfriend/wife because you were playing games for 15 minutes after she yelled that dinner was ready. Dude, she’s going to get mad about something. It might as well be something you love doing.

Have you ever been pissed of that you had to turn off the game while you were in the middle of trying to beat a boss?

Have you ever lied to a non-gamer about just how much time you spent playing, since you knew they wouldn’t understand?

Have you ever got a little carried away with a game you love and skipped studying for a test or working on a project because you wanted to play a little longer?

Yes, you are addicted to video games.

Take that with a grain of salt, though…because I think that being “addicted” to a hobby is actually a good thing. It’s what makes us human. How is staying up later than usual to play a video game any different from staying up later than usual to watch the end of a football game? How is using video games to relax and forget your problems after a bad day any different from going for a walk to cool off? How is being disgruntled at having to stop playing in the middle of a level any different from being disgruntled if someone takes a book you were in the middle of reading back to the library?

Yet no one is doing studies on how watching football, taking walks, or reading can be addictive. Maybe we should be?

Own up to your “addition” to video games. Embrace it. Love it. It makes you human. If there is NO activity in your life that you love enough to be classified as addictive using the above method, than you are a sad human being. PLEASE be “addicted” to something. If you let your kids light themselves on fire because you were too busy playing WoW or forgot to take a medication because you were immersed in The Sims, maybe you have issues. Otherwords, addiction – at least in this sense – proves that you are a passionate, interesting, dedicated human being, not just a vegeatable who doesn’t care about anything in his/her life.

The bottom line? As long is it isn’t threatening the health or safety or you or of those around you, if playing video games makes you happy, do it. Be addicted and be proud you are.

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