neils clark

Most of the people who know me well know that I love the Weekly World News, harbingers of pivotal cultural phrases, like “Experts say.” E.g., “Experts discover radioactive alleycats inhabiting Martian dumpsters.”

It’s a cool magazine and I just had to get that out of the way.

While I’ll assault those around me with the latest and greatest from the WWN, I’ve kind of been out of sight this last month while I pre-tested and collected data for a long exploratory study. Many of the factors tested were based off of literature review conducted after the M.A. thesis, in the process of writing a book on gaming addictions. The survey covered videogame immersion, socialization, game structures and factors which could influence addiction. Or so-called addiction. In some ways that remains to be seen. The respondents were either current or former World of Warcraft players.

Though most players know that gaming can be a major problem with some people, the link between their problems and addiction is still, in many ways, tenuous. My website has always used the word addiction, but my reasons for that are probably as complicated as the word itself. I overthink things to a degree that would probably give most people the illusion of being trapped in the ball pit.

So the factors being analyzed dealt less with the way we’ve been looking at excess gaming and more about factors like going “between worlds” or encouragement to play gotten by other players. Some of these were potentially pathologic, though most were not.

But before I talk more about it, the free open-source survey app I used: limesurvey, must be hailed as easy to use, dependable and, of course, amazing. I would recommend it without hesitation and nobody’s paying me to say it.

Back on topic, there is a lot of data. Enough to warrant writing “there is a lot of data” rather than using the contraction “there’s a lot of data.” You’d still have the italics, but it would be a completely different feel.

I is drowning in data.

So far it’s been relatively easy to eyeball the statistics. Key factors appear to be (for starters, anyway) the meaning that players attach to in-game relationships, raiding and raid-related communication and the applicability of Internet Addiction Disorder criteria. The most fulfilling and vexing, so far, have been the relationships that seemingly came out of nowhere. So right now I’m working on regressions for some blog bullet-points, the first set of those will be what this data says about our current way of measuring addiction. The plan is to fully analyze those before moving on to a game’s structure and culture, then finally “addiction factors.”

Finally, one last time I’d like to say that no online survey can diagnose addiction. The person who built mine (that would be me) isn’t qualified to diagnose addiction either. Addiction is complicated. The people who diagnose it in individuals pull that insight from more than just quick and quippy questions. If you took the survey and have questions, then emailing through this blog is a great way to get a hold of me. That said, my sincere thanks to any and all who participated. And anyone whose been interested enough to keep reading.

Neils Clark :: Jun.30.2008 :: Game Addiction, Games, General, Media Experience, Neils' Gaming Journal, Real Men Write Poetry. True Story., Research :: No Comments »

Sampling is the time-honored art of getting the right people to talk to you. If you can ask questions of a group of people that accurately represent the group you’re looking to understand, then their answers are said to be representative of the whole. Let’s just say that if you had twenty people who, by some act of magic, accurately represented all of America, then you could make a lot of money.

But it usually doesn’t work like that.

I represent all puppies everywhere. Trust me.

One of the biggest stumbling blocks to studies of “game addiction” has been sampling. The investigators ask groups of college freshmen what they think about videogames, and not every gamer is a college freshman. The ESA believes that the average and mean ages for gamers are wandering around 25 and 30. While it’d be interesting to see how they sampled for that, and the questions that they asked, not every gamer is going to college. It’s also not always ethical to ask every gamer, since there are strict rules for polling minors.

Nick Yee (now with the snazzy Ph.D., gratz) has been getting a lot of impressive data over the years, most especially during the times of EverQuest, DAoC, SWG and the like, and has polled tens of thousands of gamers. The data that he got was crucial to painting our first picture of who plays, and because Dr. Yee’s Daedalus project is still our best connection to changing populations, should probably be explicitly funded so as to keep going. His project has gone on for many years, and again, it nearly single-handedly painted the statistical pictures that we do have. The gamers who frequent his surveys really ought to be lauded, and encouraged to keep visiting.

At the same time, some types of gamers don’t seek out websites on player motivations. Ted Castronova has been calling on game companies to open up statistical data for research use. While his focus is Economics, and I’m guessing that he’s probably most interested in seeing how some of the economical systems work, this would be an integral slice to the understanding pie. The PARC Play On Center, in a project also headed by Yee, actually used World of Warcraft’s UI to gather data, like how players name their characters. There’s no doubt that we can use this kind of data, and use it to paint some pictures of how much people play, but there are some limitations.

This data is server-side, and it only tells us so much about what happens on the other side of the screen. In going through some of my old neuroscience notes (and sorry I haven’t been posting lately, it’s been crazy insane writing time), I stumbled across some of my notes from sampling inside of games. See, when I did my Master’s thesis I actually wanted to test a method for going into games and getting a representative sample. Rather than rely on people finding websites, or only server-side data, I wanted to create a method whereby you could create generalizeable results. That is, get numbers which actually represented all gamers, everywhere.

It’s hard. Especially when you’re doing it on your own with no budget and an overloaded schedule of graduate courses. There were serious technical, but also ethical constraints. And those could fill a few volumes. I discuss it a little bit in my thesis, though it’s something I’m planning on developing better during or before I head back to school for a Ph.D. This is all really just a long introduction for some fun quotes that illustrate two points that I’m getting at:

I have a lot of notes on scientific sampling inside of MMO games. I also ran into a lot of basic stumbling blocks, and not all of them are in my thesis. But I’ve got to get back to my real work, so without further adieu, just a few of the quotes that I got permission to reproduce. These come from a range of MMO games, from DAoC and WoW, to SWG and EQ2.

Some people were very interested in addiction and player motivations, even had informed opinions on why academics needed a better understanding of gamer psychology, but they had no desire to participate.

“sorry I play so much and am so in the game that never do something else and dont have time with this survey”

“I am aware of my fixation on videogames and wish you luck in your survey but am uninterested in participating in your study. Thank you for asking and good luck.”

“Videogame research?” Yeah, I’ll bet.

There’s an inherent fear of viruses, defamation and effort:

“if its a virus or something ill bonk you ! not in the british way tho”

“kk” then “nvm (nevermind) I thought u were just going to ask me in game” then “dont go to websites idk (I don’t know)”

Some people frequent outside sites heavily, even (or especially) when not playing.

“I couldn’t stay away even if I wasn’t playing…checked the forums a couple of times each week”

One player was initially infuriated, and very intent on having my account permanently banned. After earnestly apologizing, he opened up.

“you know soe (Sony Online Entertainment, publishers of the MMO games EverQuest and Star Wars Galaxies) thinks of this as spam and you should be reported” then “you did not offend me but what dose this have to do with star wars” then “to make this short I no longer work and I play this game almost all day every day for over a year now” then “I would be playing table top star wars rp if I did not have this” then “I used to table top 30 hours a week”

Neils Clark :: Oct.07.2007 :: Game Addiction, Research :: 3 Comments »

Monday night I proposed a lecture for the 2008 Game Developer’s Conference. I just wanted to make a note that I’ve given some short lectures (even some inside of MMO Games/Virtual Worlds), and that I’d be happy to talk to students about what I’ve learned in the last year of writing a book on game effects, or more specifically this thing that we’re calling game addiction.

Here’s the 100 word description of the lecture proposed:

Some gamers just can’t control how much they play. While the phenomenon is becoming more pronounced, is it really an addiction?

This lecture delivers a balanced and comprehensive crash course on how games can be uniquely suited for pulling people in, how these traits can be contrasted with addiction, and what it means to play healthy.

This lecture also examines anti-addiction tools and legislation with respect to the information presented, and then briefly focuses on simple things which could empower parents of underage gamers and adult gamers.

Neils Clark :: Oct.03.2007 :: Game Addiction :: No Comments »

This is the news that I don’t like covering. Yesterday, the AP reported that a 30-year-old Guangzhou man “fainted” after three straight days of gaming [Article Here]. It may have been more, however, as his parents reported that he spent nearly all of the 7-day Chinese Lunar festival gaming.

What keeps astonishing me is that these gamers die in rooms full of people. You mean to say that nobody got a little bit concerned? They all got out of dodge pretty fast, once the guy dropped. This seems to beg the question: at what point do you walk up, tap the guy on the shoulder, and ask, “yo, Qui, when was the last time you slept?”

Not many people look out for gamers, and to me that means we’ve got to start looking out for ourselves. I drew up some fun guidelines for gamers, or especially café operators. Being a hero inside of a videogame is only so impressive. It’s about time we had the courage to stand up to our friends (or the kid who smells like rotten fish). It seems well enough established that three days straight can kill you, so tell me if the following seems too far off:

Guidelines for gamers:

The most important thing that we can do, besides pray that there’s not over-reaching legislation in China and internationally, is:

Find the COD (Cause of Death)

Preliminary COD from [Yahoo News]:

“According to preliminary findings, the length of time this man spent online might have triggered heart problems,” the paper quoted a local hospital emergency medic in the city of Zhongshan as saying.

Another thing that we can do, especially people who work at reporting these incidents to news organizations, federal offices and other agencies, is:

Gather as much information as possible.

I’m just throwing this stuff out there. Tell me if you think it’s on track.

Neils Clark :: Sep.18.2007 :: Game Addiction, Games :: 5 Comments »

This Monday I met with game effects researchers from two key Singaporean universities, Angie Khoo of Nanyang Technological University, and Timothy Sim of the National University of Singapore. From my take on our conversations, it sounds like their team is on the absolute right track. Rather than jump to conclusions, or use some of the faulty reasoning that’s been the backdrop of game studies in the hard sciences, this team is coming to some of the conclusions essential to building a real foundation for good research. It’s a very, very good thing.

But I might have been biased. It was pretty nifty to see a copy of my addiction thesis that I didn’t print out myself. Some kind of weird cross between gratification and surprise, though we did cover a bit of its content.

Overall, it’s kind of exciting to be having, like, power lunches and stuff.

Neils Clark :: Sep.12.2007 :: Game Addiction, Research :: 4 Comments »

Sure, sure, by now we all know that Lindsay Lohan was busted for driving under the influence (with a suspended license, but that’s fashionable right now) and for felony cocaine possession, all less than two weeks after completing her second trip to rehab. What really caught my eye wasn’t the scandalousiness of it all, it was how the morning news people all seemed supremely accepting and understanding of Lohan’s heartbreaking tribulations. They even got on Leno for cracking jokes about the thing (though to be fair they were coming from another network).

Ultimately, I think it all comes down to the ankle bracelet. Lohan was wearing an ankle bracelet which detected through her skin whether or not she had been drinking. And she had been drinking. We see that and think, “ok, well maybe she does have a serious problem.” I feel so bad for her awe!

We’re accepting of it because it seems obvious that she’s drinking against her will, and there’s at least some science to back that up. Game addiction research isn’t about “discovering the science,” or understanding a game. Most people don’t want to understand. The researchers just take games, and compare them against a simple scale for addiction. The results: 8.5% of your children are addicted! That doesn’t tell us how we can help.

This can be incredibly illuminating for people who want to look at (what we call) game addictions. There are no ankle bracelets. There are no researchers or research quite so deeply identifying the chemicals or processes at work with game addiction. Most of the researchers don’t care to. They don’t have to. The public wants to know how afraid they should be (rather than what might actually help), and so certain researchers fill a demand. There’s little to no sympathy, and rarely any respect. In the absence of ankle-bracelet-level-understanding (or at least some consensus that it can be beyond one’s control), most of the people are using grossly reductionist criteria for “game addiction,” which doesn’t reflect what’s happening with people whom we call game addicts. Continually using that criteria, rather than understand what’s going on, just means that detailed understanding is getting further out of reach.

What’s really frightening is what might happen if big pharm suggests using anti-addiction treatments — when there’s obviously more than just addiction here.

To end on a silly note, I don’t think that there’d be any shortage of “game addict” volunteers for longitudinal experiments…

But good luck convincing grantors that it’s serious data collection…

I have a lot of thoughts on Lohan’s loutishness. I’ll just say that I’ve been “off the sauce” about as long as her (prior to her most recent heartbreaking incident anyway), and that the book has been wrapping itself up very nicely. We’re on schedule to start shopping for publishers by mid-August.

Neils Clark :: Jul.25.2007 :: Game Addiction, General :: 2 Comments »

Because games are no longer addictive in any way. At least, that’s the message people will get after reading this Reuters story. Thanks to Russell for linking me today’s juicy article:

Addiction experts say video games not an addiction

The AMA’s committee on gaming effects “backed away from its position” that “video game addiction be listed as a mental disorder in the American Diagnostic and Statistic Manual of Mental Disorders,” something that we covered recently on this blog (Follow this link if you want to check out that article). What I really dislike about this coverage, especially from the headline and Dr. Stuart Gitlow’s quotations in the article, is that 95% of the readers are going to walk away from this saying “Games are in no way addictive,” and that assumption is going to cause major harm to thousands of people. People are going to take Gitlow’s quotes, and figure that there is no problem. The other 5% are going to see that he’s trying to make an ideological point, and to me this is beyond unacceptable.

Basically, I take from this quote (and he may have been misquoted), that he ascribes firmly to the disease model of addiction, considered by many (myself included) to be outdated and harmful when used too broadly.

The ‘regular folks’ out there have already gotten used to calling our gaming problems “game addiction,” and very few people are going to understand vague references to ideologies or stigmas. They’re going to see that an “expert” has said that “gaming isn’t an addiction.” Period. Never you mind that (and I’m going to say this in the addictologists native tongue of obscure) people can develop dependencies on behaviors and display compulsivity that affects neuro-hormones. Even on a basic level, an inability to stop gaming is causing major problems that Shavaun and myself have seen personally. Something serious is happening. Certainly, not all of it is addiction, and that’s a key point that I have been making for months, but part of it absolutely has deep ties with addiction.

But on a lighter note, it’s good to see that the experts still love their alcoholism analogies:

“Working with this problem is no different than working with alcoholic patients. The same denial, the same rationalization, the same inability to give it up,” Dr. Thomas Allen of the Osler Medical Center in Towson, Maryland.

Ok, so I’m guilty of the occasional alcoholism analogy. Some of what we’re seeing looks like alcoholism, but we must keep in mind that gaming is not only substance-free (for most gamers, most of the time =P), but it’s pulling people in with completely unique hooks. Can, for instance, a kitten become addicted to Battlefield 2?

No, but he sure does love his Irish beer!

While I am happy, overall, with the direction of this medical debate, I am deeply, deeply disappointed with this media coverage. I am also deeply disappointed in addiction workers who are putting treatment ideology before public health and awareness.

But to end this post on a high note, the following quote will show why I’m happy with the debate. The committee took a second look at “Internet Addiction” criteria, found it lacking, but are still open to the probability that some type of exposure is necessary.

The psychiatrist group has said if the science warrants, [game addiction] could be considered for inclusion in the next diagnostic manual, which will be published in 2012.

Neils Clark :: Jun.25.2007 :: Game Addiction, Games :: 4 Comments »

The American Medical Association recently finished its survey of game violence and addiction material, and they have suggestions for the DSM 5, scheduled for release sometime around 2012, the year in which the Mayan calendar ends. Arts Technica gives very excellent coverage of the AMA’s report here. Being rancorous in nature, I of course have some negative comments on the AMA’s conclusions.

And thanks to Mike of Modern Dragons for linking this article to me.

From Arts Technica’s review:

In terms of “gaming addiction,” the report suggests that it is likely to be a subset of internet addiction, as it most frequently occurs in players of MMORPGs (footnote 1). In both of these addictions, the current definition is currently informal—the described symptoms actually most closely resemble pathological gambling, rather than an addiction. In either case, the report notes, “there is currently insufficient research to definitively conclude that video game overuse is an addiction.”

…the AMA is called upon to include Internet/video game addiction as a formally described disorder in its upcoming revision to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. This description would include diagnostic criteria, which should improve not only the ability of physicians to treat it, but also the ability of researchers study it in a formalized manner…

This cannot happen. The AMA cannot formally include game addiction criteria in the next DSM. That should seem surprising to hear from me, since this blog is about raising awareness, but there are very good reasons. It’s not that I’m in gamer denial. You know, “Games aren’t addictive! They just aren’t! They’re just fun! Waaahhhh…” It’s also not that I don’t think it’s a good idea, in theory, to give therapists criteria for game addiction. The DSM has a very far reach. Many, many therapists and medical professionals get their hands on it, and in theory, I would like them all to know what to do, and how to help somebody who has a gaming problem.

Why shouldn’t criteria make it into the DSM, then? Because this report focuses on “Internet Addiction” criteria that, 1) does not actually reflect “game addictions” (let alone probably Internet addictions) 2) could cause individual and societal harm and suffering if used in relation to game players. Giving “Internet Addiction” criteria to tens, perhaps hundreds of thousands of therapists and medical professionals will intensify this problem severely.

As was suggested earlier on this blog by Dr. Jerald Block (see our discussion in the comments section), the Columbine shooters only began planning to siege their school after the game was removed by parents on the advice of a therapist. Medical professionals need to understand the underlying reasons for excessive or strange gaming on the part of their patients or clients, rather than seeing all heavy gameplay as a malignancy that should be removed when found. The problem is that this requires not only a deep knowledge of gaming (and technology in general, a topic that some, especially older medical professionals are loathe to examine), but it also requires that medical professionals understand their clients and patients more deeply, looking at how their interactions with a game serve negative, but also positive (and even theraputic) ends. The popular “internet addiction” criteria confirms societal fears and misgivings about technology, and it’s almost definitely the one we’ll use if criteria make it into the DSM-V.

All that said, implementing “internet addiction” style criteria would reflect badly on the AMA for a three more key reasons:

1 The criteria were, and generally still are, copied nearly verbatim from Gambling addiction.
2 These criteria were created over 10 years ago, before current MMO games even existed. Moreover, “Internet Addiction” criteria were copied almost word-for-word from gambling addiction criteria which were made, what, 20 or 30 years ago?
3 These criteria largely only reflect elements of “behavioral addiction,” but these “games” are actually fully functional worlds. These worlds very accurately reflect human experience, and present a number of other sophisticated non-addiction reasons to play excessively.

(footnote 1) rofl, go play some games Dr. AMA. Gaming and teh internets are separate entities.

Neils Clark :: Jun.14.2007 :: Game Addiction, Games :: 2 Comments »

That’s right, the most important book of the 20th Century (lol) is only about two months off! This last week I met with my co-author, Shavaun Scott, and we expect all of the major content to be finished in under a month. The following month will probably involve intense editing for humor. The running title is Game Addiction: The Book.

Watch for a press release probably in the next few weeks.

Neils Clark :: Jun.11.2007 :: Game Addiction, Games :: No Comments »

I’d start this post with ‘hello loyal readers!’ But seriously, I’ve seen the statistics. You’re probably my only visitor today. And since nobody’s looking, why not bear the intimate details of your life?!

There’s no shame in asking…

To be honest, I actually do get quite a few emails from people asking about their gaming problems, a friend’s problems, or game addiction generally. So here’s the deal: If you have a question about game addiction that you want answered, then ask. Send me an email with “Q&A something something” in the subject line. I’m not a mental health professional or anything, but I’ve read the research, done some of the research, and been addicted myself (in a number of tantalizingly hysterical ways). And like, you know, I’ve also answered gaming questions for people like PC Gamer and the Associated Press, but come on. It’s not like that drove traffic to my blog or anything. I guess maybe I could wait until the articles get published before I… er, regret telling them about my ‘Evercrack’ back tattoo. This post is seriously random.

So, anyway, ask your question my treasured reader. It might just help tomorrow’s audience.

Neils Clark :: May.28.2007 :: Game Addiction :: No Comments »