Two Hours of Gaming Equals doing Cocaine

[Demon_Skeith]

“Young addicts are skipping meals, playing truant from school and are even stealing money from their parents to buy the latest games.”

This sums up the current state of game addiction in the UK's county of Lancashire, at least according to an article on the website of the Lancashire Evening Post.

Written with a sense of urgency that was perhaps designed to cast a chilling effect on the reader (but will instead provoke laughs or a disgusted shake of the head from most), the piece centers on the trials of a 15-year old gamer named Jack, who “discarded his friends, neglected his school studies and survived on junk food as he embarked on marathon gaming sessions of up to 48 hours.”

A few quotes from “Jack”:

Playing on my games console was all I wanted to do and it was the first thing I thought of as soon as I woke up. I would play for hours on end without even realizing.

It was like it was a demon that had got inside my brain and I just couldn’t stop. If my parents tried to stop me playing, I would just flip.

An area mom recounted the tale of buying a Call of Duty game for her son and likened it to buying him his first shot of whiskey.

A local counselor (and therapist) named Steve Pope was asked, or offered, his opinions on videogame addiction. He began by stating:

Spending two hours on a game station is equivalent to taking a line of cocaine in the high it produces.

more here

People just won't stop trying to bash video games in some way.

 

[NBK*Twitch]

Well to be honest it has caused a big boom in the children obesity department.

 

[GracefulAssassin]

Yes, it has made kids fatter, but it is NOT like cocaine. That is complete BS. I have played games for over 2 hours before and have not felt high. People are really pissing me off about complaining about video games; IT IS FUN. IT IS FOR ENTERTAINMENT! STOP BEING ASSES ABOUT IT.