According to a recent Huffington Post article, a 24 year-old gamer outside Beijing died after gaming in the same room for 86 straight hours. He had spent about $1,500 paying for games the month before, an enormous sum for a Chinese worker. In 2005 Seungseob Lee played 50 hours straight in Taegu, South Korea before collapsing with heart failure. Both poker players and gamers are susceptible to addictive elements in their games of which they need to be better aware.
1. The games create extremely immersive environments where the game morphs into their own world.
2. Social interaction intensifies addictive elements because in multiplayer games, gamers feel great responsibility for their own and their peers' success.
3. The gaming/poker world is clearer and easier to understand. You either win, you lose, with specific rewards for certain goals. Success can be instantaneous, leading to more rewards and an encroaching sense of power, unusual in a time of economic uncertainty and personal chaos.
4. Games have utilized multi-sensory impact. The games include great level shifts in noise, vertiginous angles and stunning visuals, requiring constant attention and decision making. In the game life and death whoosh by in fractions of a second.
5. Games can go on and on. There is no finality of experience, as there is generally no final measure of success that cannot later be exceeded.
6. Humans are competitive animals, and games provide instant, continual, repetitive feedback that plays to some of our cortex's deepest sensitivities and responsiveness. In games you can become an actor in a drama determining the future on a mythic or cosmic scale.
7. Lastly, there is the issue of sleep deprivation that affects all our performance and judgment.
All gamers and poker players need to be cognizant of the risks associated with the games they play. It is important to maintain interests outside of gaming to balance the intensity of the gaming experience. Real dangers can occur when adolescents and young adults become socially isolated. Take care of your body and mind so that you can make the most of your gaming or poker experience.
1. The games create extremely immersive environments where the game morphs into their own world.
2. Social interaction intensifies addictive elements because in multiplayer games, gamers feel great responsibility for their own and their peers' success.
3. The gaming/poker world is clearer and easier to understand. You either win, you lose, with specific rewards for certain goals. Success can be instantaneous, leading to more rewards and an encroaching sense of power, unusual in a time of economic uncertainty and personal chaos.
4. Games have utilized multi-sensory impact. The games include great level shifts in noise, vertiginous angles and stunning visuals, requiring constant attention and decision making. In the game life and death whoosh by in fractions of a second.
5. Games can go on and on. There is no finality of experience, as there is generally no final measure of success that cannot later be exceeded.
6. Humans are competitive animals, and games provide instant, continual, repetitive feedback that plays to some of our cortex's deepest sensitivities and responsiveness. In games you can become an actor in a drama determining the future on a mythic or cosmic scale.
7. Lastly, there is the issue of sleep deprivation that affects all our performance and judgment.
All gamers and poker players need to be cognizant of the risks associated with the games they play. It is important to maintain interests outside of gaming to balance the intensity of the gaming experience. Real dangers can occur when adolescents and young adults become socially isolated. Take care of your body and mind so that you can make the most of your gaming or poker experience.
