The immortal words of Jenna Marbles sum up my feelings about casual gaming and apps. I do my best to avoid apps and games of any kind. This is because, like a drug addict, I eventually become an obsessed, bushy-tailed and bright-eyed Smeagol who cannot pull away from Angry Birds or Pokemon Silver emulator. Marbles describes her taste for game apps as an "addiction" and "a real problem" because they occupy too much of her time.
I realize 'addiction' will be properly covered later in this course. In any case, I find this interesting in relation to the hardcore vs. casual gamer binary. As a casual gamer, who also had a very real addiction to AB and Pokemon, I've always considered hardcore gamers to be more apt to addiction. Or even, that being a gamer type automatically insinuated addiction. This was, admittedly, an unfounded assumption and part of the gamer stereotype held in my mind. And wouldn't you know it, I didn't confront this double standard until starting this course.
I'm not alone, either. I've found that this assumption is held by many others in my social circles; none of them are gamers. Alas, there's a trend. Casual gamers can become addicted, but they recognize their problem when it starts to take over their lives. Avid gamers are ipso facto addicted to their games. NB: I realize it's not that simple, just boiling it down to the essence of this double standard.
What do you guys, hardcores and casuals alike, think of this? Am I off base? Anyone else share these thoughts?
Man this is interesting, I hadn't thought about game addiction before as distinct between "casual" and "hardcore" gamers. I'm sure at a certain point you can objectively call someone addicted to games, but maybe in this case an important factor is the importance that indidivudals place on games as part of their life?
ReplyDeleteA lot of "hardcore" gamers probably view gaming as a kind of hobby. If someone loves bird watching, and it's their hobby, they could spend hours doing it each day and not call it an addiction. It's just an important hobby. Maybe it's the same with gamers, they see gaming as a worthwhile, enjoyable and important part of their life. And maybe that's why they don't "recognise their problem when it starts to take over their lives". They are happy with it being a large part of their lives.
Jenna Marbles, and other casual gamers, probably don't see games as important. They maybe see them as an "other" or "extra" in their life that, when assessed, they decide to be of little value to them. So perhaps that's why they see themselves as addicted, even though they're actually playing way less that "hardcore" gamers.
But once again, even for hardcore gamers there reaches a point where they are addicted!
Hi Lois, thanks for your comment. Bingo, you hit it on the head. I wasn't sure if this would be read/taken the wrong way! What I think I was getting at is that people don't look at addiction objectively, but more or less automatically label gamers as addicted just because it is their hobby. The bird watching example is perfect.
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