First US "Retreat" for "Video game addiction" opens its doors

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ashkpa

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As many of you may or may not know, many places around the world, including China, have been creating places for "Internet addicts" or "Gaming addicts" to go to "Help them with their problem."

Recently a kid in China who was in one of these "Camps" for being an internet addict was beaten to death by three supervisors, after they had promised his parents they wouldn't use physical punishment. Why was he beaten to death, you ask?... For not running fast enough.

Recently a "Resort" has opened up in the US to deal with the same problems that the camps in China try to get rid of. Now, I'm sure that the US one won't use physical punishment, but is it really appropriate to open up one of these in the US so soon after a kid got beat to death in one in China? Is it even appropriate to have have this resort at all?

What are your opinions on the matter?

Here are the links to the articles about both the kid who got beat to death, and the new "Resort" in the US.

http://g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/698038/Internet-Addict-Killed-At-Chinese-Camp.html

http://tech.yahoo.com/news/afp/20090821/tc_afp/usitinternetvideogamesaddictionrestart


I personally think that it depends on how they treat internet addiction and who they treat for it.

I would also have a problem with people being forced into one of these resorts but if they want to go on their own, I think that's just fine.
 
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wow, wtf is wrong with the world? i didnt even know places like these existed. this is fucked up

edit: i guess people are just looking to make money of these "resorts". there is no sane explanation
for this

this is also from the article

"The typical gamer is somebody who has fallen way behind in social skills and lacks confidence," Cash said.

hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
 
Well I'm not "really" sure about your "story", nor do I really "care" to post a legitimate "comment" but quit using so "many" damn "quotation" marks and I "may" have taken your "post" seriously.

Reading that makes me feel like I stepped back into 1994 with everyone doing air quotations during every sentence.
 
[quote name='mission42']Well I'm not "really" sure about your "story", nor do I really "care" to post a legitimate "comment" but quit using so "many" damn "quotation" marks and I "may" have taken your "post" seriously.

Reading that makes me feel like I stepped back into 1994 with everyone doing air quotations during every sentence.[/QUOTE]
It's more of a way to put en emphasis on the word they use. I'll probably change most to be italicized.
 
I think that there are certainly people who could benefit from something like this. But the first step to healing is admitting to yourself that a problem does exist and you want to fix it. Everything done without that mindset will either fail or lead to brainwash.
 
Were all saving our self into the poorhouse due to this site, raarar. "WHAT?!? It's only $5.00 for each game in the store if I buy this ONE $150.00 item I would never normally think of buying?!?" *Buys out store*
 
I travel to my place of employment and work there 60 hours a week. Do I have a problem? Should I seek help in brekaing the hold work has on me?
 
[quote name='Puffa469']I travel to my place of employment and work there 60 hours a week. Do I have a problem? Should I seek help in brekaing the hold work has on me?[/QUOTE]

Nope, sorry you're just a miserable working schmo like the rest of us. I doubt you leave work every evening wondering how much longer it'll be until you get your next tps report fix.

Judging by the quote-heavy op, I'm willing to assume people think it's not really an issue, but I dunno it seems to me just as serious as any other addicition. I don't know what would make it deserving of it's own special rehab facility though, what kind of special treatment would you need to treat game addicts compared to drug addicts outside of specialized psychiatrists that would require it's own institution? As far as the beating issue goes, I don't think that affects us in any way. I could be way off base on this, but from what I always understood beatings are a bit more common over in China... I once read that Jackie Chan used to get the crap kicked outta him at his school by the faculty.
 
Haha, there are much worse "addictions" in the world going on today. I am not so sure the US resort wouldn't use force as well though. There are more violent people from the US then there are in China I believe, and in the US we kill everyone, not just beatings LOL.

I wouldn't be surprised to hear about people dying from "mysterious" causes or you may even hear bluntly, *insert worker* beat *insert patient* to death for *insert reason*.

Anyway though, these are just stupid. In fact, these could be so stupid they are just money-making ideas to market to spouses and friends of hardcore gamers who think their spouse or friend has a "problem" that needs to be handled (apparently with beatings sometimes LOL).
 
Wow video game addiction camps? If there is anything America needs it's "teach parents not to fucken suck" camps. This is just a horrible attempt to abuse the gaming stereotype...fail

There's a big problem about using force in the US though and that's we sue for anything (then again if your guardians are dumb enough to send you here..)
 
Wow, imagine that a bunch of gamers think this is a bad idea.

There are people that have problems with video games. People that fail out of college because they skip class because they can't stop playing and kids that steal money from their parents wallets or shoplift to feed their game addiction. Sure, you can say it's bad parenting that is to blame and that's probably true, but that doesn't change the fact that some people do have a problem.
 
[quote name='mykevermin']Hey, look. Gamers are being delusional in denying that there is anything negative whatsoever associated with their hobby.

Again.[/QUOTE]

Alcoholics do it and so does most pot heads...

What happened with "moderation" (irony will be apparent when someone realize that the person writing this clearly needs to work out more).

I'm not going to say I'm addicted to playing video games, but I do fancy myself as a collector of sorts (or a video game impulse buyer, which is closer to realty) and a big fan of the pass time, so I'm kinda wary of any institution claiming to cure anyone of one's socially unacceptable traits and hobbies. But personally, I have met and seen gamers with a clear and distinct addiction to playing video games, or more precisely, WoW. I've seen people disappear out of the face of the earth, of their college career, and just lapse into an unhealthy daily regime, for the sake of a game...

Okay, I'm done sharing now.
 
Anything can be unhealthy in large enough doses, including gaming I guess.

But being 'addicted' to gaming is a far cry from being addicted to a serious drug like Heroin or Alcohol, where there are health detriments with continued use, mental and physical withdrawl symptoms, etc. Heroin addicts need treatments centers, videogame 'addicts' dont.

How many people who decry the evils of playing games too much sit in front of the TV for 80 hours a week rotting their brain with reality television and all the other shit on TV that makes you dumber after watching?

Do we need TV addiction centers as well? What about people that read too many books? If you need to read that paper every day on the train to work you may have a problem.

I'd rather spend my free time playing games than watching 'Who's the biggest whore?' on VH1.
 
Wow video game addiction camps? If there is anything America needs it's "teach parents not to fucken suck" camps. This is just a horrible attempt to abuse the gaming stereotype...fail
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The average gamer age is 35(edit: I just realized that there's a thead about this a couple pages down, but I read this on yahoo a couple days ago). Everyone's talking about this like it only affects kids, but what about the adults? I dunno about you, but I don't really think you can blame the lack of adult supervision on that... "Hi there son! How's the wife? Did you eat your vegetables?"

But being 'addicted' to gaming is a far cry from being addicted to a serious drug like Heroin or Alcohol, where there are health detriments with continued use, mental and physical withdrawl symptoms, etc. Heroin addicts need treatments centers, videogame 'addicts' dont.
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But I think that's exactly what we're dealing with here. This isn't "oh my little jeffy comes home from school and plays videogames all night... he must have a problem", this is where people die from exhaustion because they won't stop playing to sleep, or eat or like it's been mentioned before people that are avoiding their duties like school and work to play games. I'm, also confident that there is some withdrawl involved, just like any addiction.
 
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