neils clark

I recently read the autopsy findings for that one famous Korean guy. You know, the one who died after playing 86 straight hours in an Internet cafe.

He died of a fatal pulmonary embolism, caused by deep vein thrombosis (DVT). In simple terms, sitting killed him. See, a lot of sitting caused a blood clot to form in the “deep” veins of his legs. The blood clot then got loose, creating what’s called an embolism. These clots “can lodge in the brain, lungs, heart, or other organs, causing severe damage to those organs.” (1) We’ve observed fatal embolism linked to sitting for over 60 years, but only just now have studies begun linking the condition to computer use and gaming.

The New Zealand Medical Journal recently rounded up 5 people with similar conditions. (2) All 5 were under 40, and had no other risk factors whatsoever for DVT. There’s not enough awareness among the people using computers, but shockingly enough even among medical professionals. Until we get that,

GET SOME EXERCISE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!!!

If you’ve got 6 hours to do your important business on the computer, then you’ve got 30 minutes to exercise. At the very least, you have 5 minutes to walk your legs every hour.

(1) Lee, H. A New Case of Fatal Pulmonary Thromboembolism Associated with Prolonged Sitting at Computer in Korea. See pictures from the autopsy here: http://www.eymj.org/2004/pdf/04349.pdf

(2) See both the editorial and article - find them by searching for “thromboembolism,” here: http://www.nzma.org.nz/journal/118-1212/1398/content.pdf

Neils Clark :: Apr.29.2007 :: Game Addiction, Research :: 2 Comments »

I wanted to share Dr. Jerald Block’s excellent case study vignettes which may be of particular use to therapists new to gaming problems (as well as the intrepid researchers who read 5 articles per day). These vignettes are tailored towards helping mental health professionals, though they do show some of the complexities inherent to treatment. Is it always safe to cut gaming out of the loop? Certainly every case is different.

Something that I’ve wondered for some time is whether gamers reporting problems would have experienced problems regardless (with other problems – drugs, alcohol, you name it). Dr. Block thinks that a pre-existing disorder is the “rule rather than the exception,” and in that regard joins a number of seasoned therapists whose opinions I respect (namely my co-author and good friend Shavaun Scott). That said, I’m (very respectfully) still not convinced that it’s the rule or the exception. My brain needs concrete data, although I do recognize a few problems in proving or disproving the proposition.

In fact, we probably won’t have that data within the next couple of years, if ever. If we collect data from people qualified to assess an individual as having a disorder, then (1) It’s hard to combine data from many therapists, (2) many therapists are not yet sensitized to, or even aware of even the basics of these games, and (3) not every problem gamer elects to seek therapy. I think that the last is the most important. There are a lot of gamers out there who might need to get a grip, but of those, each will have their own reasons for seeking or avoiding therapy.

I still see the problem developing as a process. It’s not just games, nor the gamers. Each brings to the table certain goods and bads, of which assessable disorders are one of many learnable and identifiable factors.

That said, read on!

Again, Dr. Block’s vignettes

Neils Clark :: Apr.25.2007 :: Game Addiction, Research :: 6 Comments »

[Note: I had made some changes to this prior to losing a large amount of data in mid Jan 2008. I'm planning an updated and expanded edition in Feb or Mar of 08]

Blah Blah Blah. I wanted to post a number of questions asked recently by a writer looking to get some background on addiction. These are questions that I get asked a lot, but I should mention that these aren’t the answers which I always give. These answers are tailored to answering the question, “Why is it that we still don’t know what’s going on?” The questions make for a fair introduction to where we’re at, but keep in mind that a few of them focus primarily on what needs to be fixed now. What I’d really like to do is regularly post good questions about “game addiction,” whether they’re good, bad, or ugly. If you have a question on gaming addiction, you can post it here, or email it to me. I always welcome emails, whether you like or hate what you see here.

What is gaming addiction?

Nobody knows, really. We’ve been listening to the same people for 10 years, people who made sketchy definitions based on gambling addiction over a decade ago. Most MMO games hadn’t even been developed yet. And still, we’ve been copying and pasting. The person who initially created it, Kimberly Young, has been criticized by one therapist, John Grohol, as having “all of the originality of a trash romance novel writer.” Originally, Young created the criteria for her “internet addiction” by almost literally copying and pasting criteria for gambling addiction, just substituting the word “gambling” for “internet addiction.” In the last few years, as online games became bigger business, she again copied the same addiction criteria from gambling to online games.

Continue Reading »

Neils Clark :: Apr.12.2007 :: Game Addiction, Games :: 14 Comments »

For the most part a safe alternative to titles like World of Warcraft or Final Fantasy, MMO games could be the long-awaited cure for gaming addiction (please note link).

Neils Clark :: Apr.12.2007 :: Game Addiction, Games :: No Comments »

This via the People’s Daily Online and Slashdot’s “Thank-God-I’m-Over-18-Dept”

The Chinese govt is requiring game houses to modify MMOG’s to restrict under 18 users to 3 hours “productive” gameplay per day. This “anti-addiction” software must be in place within 4 months, with games not compliant by July 16 liable to be shut down in China…Users will have to register with their real names and Chinese identity card numbers to be allowed access to the games.”

Neils Clark :: Apr.11.2007 :: Game Addiction :: No Comments »

I’m excited to say that I’ve given my first guest lecture inside of an online game! No complaints here. Some of the students asked some very clever questions, and the instructor set everything up very well.

This is going to become quite popular, especially as students and educators learn how it works.

Neils Clark :: Apr.09.2007 :: Games, General :: No Comments »

Not much, actually. This Harris Poll, originally linked by Game Politics and Joystiq, gave kids a quick diagnostic for ‘pathological use.’ That’s good, since addiction is such a harsh word to use. While the study claims some groundbreaking findings, that 8.5% of children qualify as pathological gamers, there are a few major reasons that the numbers aren’t saying much.

Continue Reading »

Neils Clark :: Apr.09.2007 :: Game Addiction, Research :: No Comments »

Here’s a very quick sketch of one ECI layout (click for a larger image). I couldn’t resist after my last post wondered whether these big beasts could enter virtual worlds. Studies have recently shown elephants are able to recognize themselves in mirrors (the post below has a reply of a youtube video showing a bonobo playing Miss Pacman). By projecting an image onto a large screen in front of the pachyderm, and using a transmitter controller similar to a Wii remote, you could very easily test to see whether they’d “get it.” In the illustration, a soft band goes around the end of the trunk, but this is really only to help the big feller to grip it, elephants are quite capable of gently picking up and handling objects of that size.

A Wii console would actually be a very cheap way to test the feasibility of introducing Elephants to the metaverse. Initial training could involve giving the Elephant his or her favorite treat as a reward for successful interface navigation. An alternate approach may be to hang a light weight “keyboard” from the tusks, giving the elephant a few more options. The tusk clickers were an attempt to create a soft-padded kind of mouse button. Only one will be clickable at a time, so there would be some need for navigation in places beside the trunk. Ears may be another option for such a device, although given the trunk’s mobility a touch screen could be a simple work-around to creating push buttons capable of sustaining 1-2 tonnes of force. Sound is another option. If elephants ever are to more deeply enter these worlds, then different tones of sound might be able to activate certain abilities or options.

The dolphin system looked a lot less comfortable, and a lot more expensive to make. I’ll probably keep working on those sketches.

Any other being learning to use such a system would ideally be started young. It’s been shown that humans, based on brain development, have certain “cognitive windows.” (it isn’t recommended that those running cognitive windows ME try too much gaming). Ideally we’d be starting elephants, great apes, or dolphins at a very young age. If this were tried with younger dolphins, great apes and elephants, we might even attempt to visually introduce concepts of human language (like “Tree” “T R E E”). Language, let alone the English language, is yet another stretch. If interfaces do prove possible, it might be interesting to let an elephant or a dolphin try to control a robotic human arm.

The key question, of course, “Would you let the elephant win?”

Wait, back on topic, the other key question is, “What do you do with an addict elephant?”

Neils Clark :: Apr.07.2007 :: Games :: 1 Comment »

From this study [here], which I stumbled upon recently, apparently elephants are one of a few animals that can realize that they’re looking at themselves in a mirror.

Scientists have tested mirror self-recognition in a variety of animals other than humans and great apes, but invariably failed, with the exception of the bottlenose dolphin. “After the recent discovery that dolphins are capable of recognizing themselves in the mirror, elephants seemed the next logical species for testing,” said Reiss. “Humans, great apes, dolphins and elephants, well known for their superior intelligence and complex social systems, are thought to possess the highest forms of empathy and altruism in the animal kingdom.”

This made me wonder whether great apes, bottlenose dolphins and elepnants would be able to recognize their own virtual world representation. Obviously, seeing yourself in the mirror is a little bit different than owning it up in Warsong Gulch, but it made me wonder. If given the right trunk and tusk attachments, or the right fin and flipper nodules, would another kind of animal be capable of partaking in the gaming experience? We’ve already seen that primates can learn to sign, as seems to be the case with Koko the gorilla [Here], who has apparently learned American sign language (ASL), as well as created terms in Gorilla sign language (GSL[ROFL]).

Human computer interaction (HCI) is the art of creating devices that help us to navigate computers (and online games, obviously). Could bottlenose dolphin computer interaction (BnDCI) be helping our aquatic allies to roll on epic drops?

Time will tell.

Neils Clark :: Apr.05.2007 :: Media Experience :: 3 Comments »

I was looking to find a Haiku from one of Ian Fleming’s Bond books, “You only Live Twice.” I’d remembered the vocals on the theme going something like, “One life for yourself and one for your dreams,” and I was hoping to find something like a fancy-sounding and historically significant haiku (thoughtful, I know). I was a little dissapointed when I found that…

The title is often mistaken as being the work of a Japanese poet named Matsuo Bashō; however, the unique title comes from a haiku that James Bond wrote for his friend Tiger Tanaka. It is also mentioned in the novel that it isn’t a haiku at all, that in actuality it is a failed attempt by Bond after being taught the basics for creating a haiku.

In the epigraph and later explained in the novel, the haiku is listed as being “after Basho”, meaning written in the poet’s style.

“ You only live twice:
Once when you’re born
And once when you look death in the face.”

I was, however, highly excited to see that in the actual book…

Bond ultimately exacts revenge on Blofeld in a sword fighting duel

How awesome would that have been?

Anyway, I ultimately felt vindicated for my time when shortly after wikipediaing I found an MP3 of Nancy Sinatra’s 1967 “You Only Live Twice,” the theme playing at the opening and closing of the movie,

[Here]

The same site was also hosting a remake of Bjork’s cover,

[Here]

I decided to ante up and upload the beautiful instrumental version of this song, which has always been my favorite of the unique bond themes,

[Here]

After a long day of writing about ‘game addiction,’ these songs made me laugh pretty hard. They’re so pertinent, that if I ever do get back into gaming I may kick it off by leaving the Nancy Sinatra version of the song on repeat for a few hours. I’m not even joking.

Neils Clark :: Apr.05.2007 :: General, Media Experience :: No Comments »