neils clark

This post on gamerwidow.com was fantastic, because it really struck a recurring theme in game addiction rhetoric. It seems like everywhere you see a sufficiently large enough game addiction blog post, you see that it attracts a few distinct opinions on, “addiction.” Some people note that all they had to do was uninstall one problem game, and that they want “whiners,” to “stop bitching about their gaming problems.” Others try cutting back, or going “cold turkey,”  yet consistently go back to games despite negative consequences. Can you actually teach yourself to balance games with a healthy lifestyle? That depends on how your brain works. The fundamental difference is a functional versus chemical dependency. “What the hell does that mean?” you may be asking. Fair question.

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Neils Clark :: Feb.24.2007 :: Games :: 5 Comments »

When I originally wrote this post, “What parents absolutely need to know about game addiction right now,” I was primarily representing my thoughts on other people’s professional opinions. My professional opinion has always been that parents need to have the autonomy to make decisions that work for their family. Parents get to choose what’s right for their kids. Some kids get to play 5 hours a day, some get to play for 30 minutes. Some can only watch PG-rated movies, others can watch the R-rated stuff with the big kids. The parents decide. That’s cool. I get it, and it’s what I support.

Recently I realized that there’s a prerequisite to making the decisions that work for you: understanding what and how much your kids are actually watching or playing. There are obvious limits to what a parent can do, and a very wide variety of constraints can pop up. That’s fine. Some kids are going to get away with more than others. Pretty standard. In this update, I talk about an experience that I had where some younger kids were watching really violent movies and playing really violent game content. The kids in the situation didn’t really bother me, because their parents knew what the kids were consuming, and the parents were setting the limits.

Do you know what your kids are consuming? Now might be a good time to check.

Check out the edit.

Neils Clark :: Feb.16.2007 :: Games :: No Comments »

Are you going to this year’s Game Developer’s Conference, in March? Well I am. If you want to talk about games, game addiction, or just trade pwning tips for 29 twinks, then post here or get in touch with me beforehand.

I’ll be spending a good amount of my time helping the staff of the upcoming game documentary Evanor, but I’m definitely planning on being all over the place. I might also promote my upcoming semi-secret game addiction project! Hit me up!

Neils Clark :: Feb.14.2007 :: Games :: 3 Comments »

Thanks Shavaun for linking me this awesome flash game, Mouse Party. It’s probably the best explanation of the neuroscience behind different addictions, because it’s designed to be digestible. It’s also the best because it’s been basted in awesome. My favorite mouse, as you might have guessed by now, was Ecstasy mouse.

There’s no mention of what’s happening in gamer brains, but that’s a good thing. We don’t yet have much, if any verified data showing anything abnormal happening in gamer brains.

Neils Clark :: Feb.08.2007 :: Game Addiction :: 1 Comment »

This post is going to speak primarily to researchers who work with games.

Before research is ever conducted, there’s a lot of planning. If the chosen plan calls for the use of human beings, then university research generally has to get the approval of an institutional review board (IRB), or human subjects committee. These guys are trained to make sure that researchers don’t cause harm.

In a nutshell, very few people really understand games, be they these IRB committees, regular folks, professors or researchers. That’s why, in my experience of games research, the researcher is the one responsible for the safety of the people involved. Researchers are also accountable for the research that they publish. I’ll admit that I’ve made mistakes in my research. What’s important with a new area, like games, is that we take a critical eye, and separate the wheat (the useful and representative data) from the chaff (the unrepresentative and potentially harmful data). I want to talk about wheat and chaff in published research as well as the process of conducting research.

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Neils Clark :: Feb.07.2007 :: Game Addiction, Research :: No Comments »