Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

Should Games Recognize Addictive Behavior?

posted by mattie_p on Tuesday February 25 2014, @02:11PM   Printer-friendly
from the games-watch-you! dept.

siliconwafer writes: "An article in The Economist raises some interesting points about addiction to video games, drawing from psychology and sociology to describe why certain people prefer certain types of games, and why they might become addicted to them. It is suggested that to discourage addiction, game designers could have their games recognize addictive behavior and respond to it by encouraging gamers to take breaks. Do game designers have any responsibility to recognize addictive behavior, or does this responsibility fall solely on the gamer (or the gamer's parents in the case of a minor)?"

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Should Games Recognize Addictive Behavior? | Log In/Create an Account | Top | 62 comments | Search Discussion
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.

  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by bart9h on Tuesday February 25 2014, @02:45PM

    by bart9h (767) on Tuesday February 25 2014, @02:45PM (#6625)

    Don't remember which, but there was a game which just displayed the time you spent playing.

    It's subtle, but has a nice effect on remembering how you could be wasting your time with it.

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +3  
       Interesting=3, Total=3
    Extra 'Interesting' Modifier   0  
    Total Score:   4  

  • (Score: 3, Funny) by dotdotdot on Tuesday February 25 2014, @02:51PM

    by dotdotdot (858) on Tuesday February 25 2014, @02:51PM (#6633)

    I thought that was the score. I kept playing to see how high I could get it.

    • (Score: 4, Interesting) by Koen on Tuesday February 25 2014, @03:20PM

      by Koen (427) on Tuesday February 25 2014, @03:20PM (#6654)

      My son goes about it this way: Steam shows how long he has been playing his games. When he is looking for team mates, he tries to get players who spent a lot of time on the game. It is just a measure of experience to him.

      --
      /. refugees on Usenet: comp.misc [comp.misc]

  • (Score: 1) by etherscythe on Tuesday February 25 2014, @05:53PM

    by etherscythe (937) on Tuesday February 25 2014, @05:53PM (#6776) Journal

    Steam does this with most games as well

    --
    "Fake News: anything reported outside of my own personally chosen echo chamber"