6 hours gaming online = "serious problem"

jayteecork

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15503391

Jeeeez 6 hours?

phill106

is 6hrs a day considered a serious problem?
Woops!

jayteecork

phill106 wrote: »

is 6hrs a day considered a serious problem?
Woops!

Better quit and go out fixing cars and playing American football!

FortuneChip

Guilty, and that was just yesterday, don't get me started on a Day Off!

Grumpypants

If I cut down by 50% then ill still have a serious problem lol

MadYaker

I would consider 6 hours a day to be a lot. How the hell do you people have that much free time? Im full time in college and I have a job at weekends I'm lucky if I get about 3-4 hours a week. Im waiting until xmas holidays to buy skyrim.

Meesared

6 hours a day is a hell of a lot! I couldn't do that

Doctor DooM

I'm fully capable of playing 6 hours a day, although I rarely do now a days due to, you know, life.

I always hate pieces like this though: Video gaming is not automatically a negative influence on life. I've travelled to Cannes twice to compete intenrnationally and have made friends from all over the world through gaming. I regularly get out to tournaments and meet gaming friends in the real world. Some of my friends have even gone to Vegas together and had the time of their lives.

This stereotype of gaming being a lonely solitary experience is so very outdated.

Duke Leonal Felmet

I used to play Eve a lot, around six hours a day. My social life vanished. Thankfully I admitted this (after a few months of playing) to myself and stopped. I don't know how people do this for years on end. A waste of life.

MadYaker

Doctor DooM wrote: »

This stereotype of gaming being a lonely solitary experience is so very outdated.

This is so true. When I lived at home my parents used to give me so much **** for playing Counter Strike Source and Team Fortress 2 for hours at the weekends, they thought I was just wasting loads of time with this pointless anti social activity when in reality its the exact opposite. Its just a different form of socialising.

jayteecork

There's a grim message under this about diagnosing another "condition" that "experts" that spring up and charge crazy money to "cure" this problem.

This was alluded to in the Sopranos when Tony sent his kid to some expensive shrink and the shrink told him the kid had a "fidgiting" problem.

Tony goes "what's a 'fidgit'?" and took off without paying!

Kids used be "brats" now they're ADD.

People are people, can't see how how looking into car bonnets all day is better but that's me.

Sabre0001

Could do six hours - however, I break it up (or at least justify it to myself) with game reviews, web series with friends (recording that could last six hours in itself ), and getting together with friends for a social night...

Worse things I could be doing!

Duke Leonal Felmet

MadYaker wrote: »

Doctor DooM wrote: »

This stereotype of gaming being a lonely solitary experience is so very outdated.

This is so true. When I lived at home my parents used to give me so much **** for playing Counter Strike Source and Team Fortress 2 for hours at the weekends, they thought I was just wasting loads of time with this pointless anti social activity when in reality its the exact opposite. Its just a different form of socialising.

It is a different form of socialising. But that doesn't mean that it is an perfect substitute. Typing LOL or speaking through a microphone (same with a phone conversation or texting) doesn't match being with a group of friends, in my opinion. Nothing wrong with a healthy mix of both, but if you play CS for 6+ hours a day (thus not allowing free time to socialise in person), then surely you can understand the articles point...

krudler

Duke Leonal Felmet wrote: »

It is a different form of socialising. But that doesn't mean that it is an perfect substitute. Typing LOL or speaking through a microphone (same with a phone conversation or texting) doesn't match being with a group of friends, in my opinion. Nothing wrong with a healthy mix of both, but if you play CS for 6+ hours a day (thus not allowing free time to socialise in person), then surely you can understand the articles point...

wht about if the people you play with are your friends? I'd rather play gmes for a few hours over the weekend than spend my sundays dying of a hangover after a night of acceptable "socialising" consisting of queueing for overpriced drinks in clubs and bellowing into peoples ears over deafening dance music.

do what you enjoy doing

shanered

:eek:Next thing ya know being on boards for over an hour is hazzardous!:eek:

Its been done many of a time, six is intense, but shows extreme concentration, it has its benifits, and its down falls...

eco2live

Yea and 6 hours of the x factor, the xtra factor and adds for washing powder is much better for you then spending time chatting and competing with friends online. I don't get that sort of time to play games but if I did then I would sometimes. Ja know whats worse I might drink a pile of cans while playing also.

Men love competition and another outlet for competition is now in the virtual world. Old farts moaning about what they don't understand. I would be more worried about the miserable, repressed perverts and religious nuts that are out there then a gamer.

Duke Leonal Felmet

krudler wrote: »

Duke Leonal Felmet wrote: »

It is a different form of socialising. But that doesn't mean that it is an perfect substitute. Typing LOL or speaking through a microphone (same with a phone conversation or texting) doesn't match being with a group of friends, in my opinion. Nothing wrong with a healthy mix of both, but if you play CS for 6+ hours a day (thus not allowing free time to socialise in person), then surely you can understand the articles point...

wht about if the people you play with are your friends? I'd rather play gmes for a few hours over the weekend than spend my sundays dying of a hangover after a night of acceptable "socialising" consisting of queueing for overpriced drinks in clubs and bellowing into peoples ears over deafening dance music.

do what you enjoy doing

I made a reference to the phone for that very reason. Talking to friends on the phone is not a perfect substitute for being with friends. Same with texting. Same with online gaming.

By the way, you present a false dichotomy in using a nightclub as an example of an alternative. Taking mountaineering for example, one of my favourite pursuits. No alcohol, no loud music, no queueing. Just you and your mates scaling a hill/mountain (depending on your thing), enjoying the challenge, the views, the outdoors. More exhilirating than climbing any peak in Warcraft. Another example is acting and drama, a social activity, and a roleplaying activity, to boot. Paintballing, if you really must shoot at each other. Karting, etc, etc, etc. Some cost money, some don't. Plenty out there.

As I said, nothing wrong with gaming either. I love games, been playing them since I got a C64 as a kid. But it is possible to lose sight of reality a bit. Get a bit too caught up in the game (i have done it!). To me, these online games drag people in too much, and after Eve, I just avoid them now. It required too much involvement. They set it up so you can't be away for too long. A lot of these games are like that.

Six hours a day is quite a lot, especially if you work full time. Like I said, it's a waste of life.

Meesared

krudler wrote: »

wht about if the people you play with are your friends? I'd rather play gmes for a few hours over the weekend than spend my sundays dying of a hangover after a night of acceptable "socialising" consisting of queueing for overpriced drinks in clubs and bellowing into peoples ears over deafening dance music.



do what you enjoy doing

You could maybe go somewhere else that isn't like that? Not everywhere is like that you know.

Like I game myself, but i have a decent social life outside of games too!

Hercule

Baseless and Vacuous crap like this appears every time a new call of duty or grand theft auto game is launched - I scan read it to confirm my suspicions that its nothing more then the annual "let us (the media) demonize something we don't full understand, for the sake of a slow news day"

If someone spent 6 hours of their day on very solitary pastimes/hobbies like reading books, painting or :eek: watching TV, would people shun them as a sort of "anorak/nerd" or social pariah? Its debatable whether doing 6 hours of anything a day is unhealthy or wrong.

Gaming online is a lot more social then reports like these are claiming it to be - Its not on par with the like of going out or playing team sports but its a hell of a lot more accessible and cheap.

Shiminay

tbh, 6 hours of your day, every day is quite a lot of time to devote to anything (including work ) and so I don't think I'd completely dismiss the notion out of hand. I'm not suggesting that there's anything actually wrong with someone who's spending 6+ hours a day on games (I've done it plenty of times myself, so I'm very much including myself in the group), but that's crossing, I think, the line from enthusiast into serious. There's nothing wrong with being serious about it either, some people get serious about the gym, some about learning an instrument, etc. However, I think the major reason we see such horrifyingly over-reactive pieces demonising is because you either understand the appeal of gaming or you don't and for those that don't, it seems like a hugely exclusionary world that they will never be able to be a part of and so they're afraid of it because they can't understand it. Oldest story in the world - man fears and thus attempts to destroy that which he cannot understand or control.

Doctor DooM

Duke Leonal Felmet wrote: »

It is a different form of socialising. But that doesn't mean that it is an perfect substitute. Typing LOL or speaking through a microphone (same with a phone conversation or texting) doesn't match being with a group of friends, in my opinion. Nothing wrong with a healthy mix of both, but if you play CS for 6+ hours a day (thus not allowing free time to socialise in person), then surely you can understand the articles point...

Perhaps, but that's not my- or I guess the vast majority of peoples- experience of gaming. Seeing as I'd regularly meet people who I first encountered through gaming in pubs I would say gaming is not a substitute for a social life, it is PART of my social life.

I bet there's people who exercise to the expense of their life, or read. These stories are as old as media itself, perhaps we should look at why people feel the need to shy away rather than blame whatever is the flavour of the month.

Penn

I could do 6+ hours in a day, but only on a weekend, probably a new game I get sucked into, and definitely wouldn't be in one sitting. Probably 2 hour max each time. I don't think there's anything wrong with doing it, but I reserve it only for great games.

(tries to hide fact he has next week booked off work purely because Assassin's Creed is coming out)

Krusader

You could do 6 hrs a day playing Civ V but think it was only 2 hrs past, that game warps you into the future

Ass. Creed is one of the only games where I'd have a marathon session, maybe Skyrim when it comes out

Grimebox

At 55 seconds the real problem comes to the surface, only 80% of americans have an internet connection :eek:

EdenHazard

that would be nothing i mean i wouldnt do it normally but id have the time to. ive played football manager for longer

Temptamperu

Its funny how none of these BBC reports complain about the lenght of time people watch TV or listen to the radio :rolleyes:

penev10

If you find time to work, eat, sleep and still do something else for 6 hours a day fair play to you! In all seriousness though 6 hours a day, everyday doing anything is excessive. Having the odd 6 hour session I'm sure is no harm but anything that consumes you everyday like that can't be healthy.

Helix

6 hours gaming is a quarter of a day. anyone spending that much time playing games regularly DOES have a bit of a problem imo

GavRedKing

6hrs? Seems crazy, I, like most, can probably think of games when you'd put in a good 12 hours over a weekend or during the summer when you we're younger, but dont think I could do it now, I just dont have the time.

My most was about 20 hours over Saturday evening / Sunday morning and taking little breaks in between when playing FF7. Granted I was about 13 but if I had time off and a good game I'd put in a hefty shift.

Saying that im getting Skyrim Friday after work and I'm off until Wednesday. :pac:

calex71

6 hours a day seems a lot but if you are playing something that engages your brain and involves co-op etc online then is that not better than coming home from work and sitting watching tv all night?

Andy!!

6 hours per day is CRAZY, and I love games. Maybe when I was a teenager that was ok, I probably used to do that with Final Fantasy.

LOL at people that are so defensive about this in this thread.