Video games addictive?

[samifan24]

Article (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20031104/ts_nm/tech_videogames_addiction_dc_5)

This article caught my eye tonight. While the article offers little more than speculation, I think we can all agree from experience that Jim's games can be very addictive, right? :D

[mtaystl03]

No way! I refuse to believe anything like that! What did I do tonight? Well I played FOF4 for three hours...then I studied for 15 mins...then I realized I had an important draft upcoming...um...then I played FOF4 for another 2 and a half...er...nevermind.

[dawgfan]

Hmm, I guess my first response to the idea that video games can be addictive is "duh".

The word "addiction" gets thrown around a lot, but it's important to remember that there are really 2 kinds of addiction - chemical addiction, where your body chemistry grows to crave a certain stimulus, and mental addiction.

Certain substances can produce a chemical addiction such as nicotine or heroin.

Anything that a person finds pleasurable can turn into a mental addiction. I'd be willing to bet that hundreds of years ago there were a few people that were "addicted" to reading (probably not so much any more...)

[cuervo72]

These damn cheese curls are addictive....

[dawgfan]

I should note that many, if not most substances that generate chemical addictions are also likely to generate mental addiction.

[Dutch]

Oh brother, I got over my FOF addiction weeks ago...and thank goodness I have all this spare time because FOF2k4 is about to be released! :D