What kind of Gamer are you?

A gamer in Taiwan passed away at an Internet cafe last week, and no one noticed for a full 9 hours. Check out the story HERE. Another dies from playing Diablo III for 40 hours straight!  Fuck me Dead, thats obesession, Plonkers

I'm not saying video games are like shooting heroin into your forearm. I totally get that the victims had other shite going on in their lives. But, half of you reading this know a World of Warcraft addict and experts say video game addiction is a thing. So here's the big question: Are some games intentionally designed to keep you compulsively playing, even when you're not enjoying it?


Oh, hell yes. And their methods are downright fuckin sneaky.  Remember Skinner and his rats?

Imagine a rat in a cage. This is a special cage that has a bar or pedal on one wall that, when pressed, causes a little mechanism to release a food pellet into the cage. The rat is bouncing around the cage, doing whatever it is rats do, when he accidentally presses the bar and hey, fucking presto!  a food pellet falls into the cage!

The operant is the behavior just prior to the reinforcer, which is the food pellet, of course.  In no time at all, the rat is furiously peddling away at the bar, hoarding his pile of pellets in the corner of the cage.


Sound familiar gamers?  Many of your games have "levers" you need to pull or press to get your reward.  Many of the games involve collecting things and needing some sort sustinance.  Many of the games keep you coming back to press that lever.

A behavior followed by a reinforcing stimulus results in an increased probability of that behavior occurring in the future.

 

The danger lies in the fact that these games have become so incredibly efficient at delivering the sense of accomplishment that people used to get from their education, partner or career. We're not saying gaming will ruin the world, or that gaming addiction will be a scourge on youth the way crack ruined the inner cities in the 90s. But we may wind up with a generation of Plonkers working at the local supermarket when they had the brains and talent for so much more. They're dissatisfied with their lives because they wasted their 20s playing video games, and will escape their dissatisfaction by playing more video games. Rinse, repeat.


Do you think video game addiction is a serious problem to the point of being life threatening?

My Game....Its Your Move

If you have a wee person in your home between the ages of 2 and 17, you will be familiar with the video games they play and how much time they spend behind the controller.

Nintendo, Wii, online gaming, iPhone, WoW, Kinect, Playstation, PSP - as parents, we are all familiar with these terms but your kids will be able to tell you even more about them.

Oh, I can hear you saying "Yeah, but I limit them to the amount of time they spend gaming".  As parents we are immediately on the defensive as there seems to be a negative stigma attached to kids and gaming.

Did you know that 91% of kids between the ages of 2 and 17 (that's about 64 million people) are regularly playing video games? 

Video games are often used as a scapegoat for many of the issues affecting today’s youngins. Supporters for outdoor play often bitch that kids spend too much time indoors playing games. Health experts preach that kids need to get their fat arses up off the couch, put down the video game controller and start moving around.

Politicians and parenting groups flap their lips about games desensitise children to violence, expose them to questionable content, profanity and promote addiction.  Fuck that shite

While blaming video games seems like a fucking cop-out, it’s important not simply to dismiss the concerns that so many parents have raised about video games today.  Many of these issues are perfectly valid and legit and only through understanding what causes such suspicions to arise, can parents sniff out ways to deal properly with them.

BUT

Jane McGonigal PhD is a world-renowned game designer of alternate reality games that are designed to improve real lives and solve real problems.  She believes in using current research from the positive psychology movement, and argues that games contribute powerfully to human happiness and motivation, a sense of meaning, and the development of community. She say sgames can provide an environment where:

• difficult things are possible, encouraging optimism
• things are naturally interesting, provoking curiosity
• players have a sense of urgency, providing motivation
• actions are immediately meaningful, inspiring awe and wonder

In her other works, Jane describes how games are in fact developing important skills within societies that will be critical to overcoming global challenges facing humanity.

So mum's, fret not if your precious little peeps are bashing the controllers for a couple of hours a day, they are, afterall improving their lives!

Interesting theory.

Check out this video.

Fright Club

Most of you know that our family is a pretty damn silly.  They don't call me A Daft Scots Lass for nothing.

We're always playing jokes on each other and inventing silly games to tickle our funny bones.

Our new game at home, at the moment, is to catch another family member unawares and give them the biggest fright.  The aim is for the fright to be big enough to cause them to literally jump, or scream or generally freak the fuck out. 

I know its silly, but we get such a kick out of it and it causes everyone to convulse into giggling fits and try to "get the other one back".  You have to stay on your toes in our house...

What exactly is it that we find so damn funny, I hear you ask?  

Did you know (here's  Discovery Chanell lesson, folks - listen up!)  that when your body gets a fright your heart rate increases rapidly, your pupils instantly dilate, you immediately start sweating and produce adrenaline.  This is your body's way of getting ready to fight off any potential threats.

Why would you want to cause your family members to wear the goggle-eyed look of fear and nearly pee their knickers?  Cause its hysterical - that's why.   Well, at least we think so.  The look on their face is priceless and comical.  Sometimes you'd wish you had a camera at that precise moment.

Isn't it weird how different people react when they get a fright?  Some people scream, some gasp, some run, some drop on the spot but becareful of those aggressives that throw punches when they get startled.  Be sure you're ready to duck or run!

I'm the Queen of Fright at the moment so I hold The Crown.  The girls are trying their best to get vengence and settle the score and remove me of my crown.  *evil chuckle* .  So, I went and googled it (as everyone does) and I came up with these ideas.

Is that Pickles?

Is your family just as silly as we are?  What do you do you guys do amuse each other?

Knickers in the Fan

One of our favourite game sto play when we're getting undressed to go and bath every night is "Knickers in the Fan".

We take our knickers off and stand on the bed and swing our knickers around our index finger, make a wish and see who can flip their knickers into the ceiling fan jumping on the bed at the same time. If we get it on one of the fins we get our wish! Its truck loads of fun and causes many giggles every night when it shoots our knickers all around the bedroom.

We are that nutty family that everyone warned you about....

(Pix cropped from "below the belt" so that no one can see my wee button's nakedness)

The Big Jump when launching yer knickers....