BBC 'Game Addiction' Bias Rears its Head

Do you know an addict

Posted by Staff
Says it all really.
Says it all really.
Last week the Internet was full of righteous disgust at a request from a 'national newspaper' for tales of how playing computer games leads to a lives of crime. Today it's the BBC's turn to plead for anti-gaming input from its viewers and listeners. More accurately it wants consumers of its BBC Xtra English service for Arabic speaking folks to send it information regarding anybody they think might be addicted to video games.

For some reason the show is asking, "Do you know anyone who you think is addicted to playing computer games? Write to us in English."

By the gods, if the Beeb hasn't already discovered such an addict, "We hear from one gamer who played a new computer game for over 39 hours in two days. He said that it was a wake-up call for him."

The show has taken its lead from the report by Dr John Charlton of the University of Bolton and Ian Danforth of Whitman College, USA which we reported last week and which we followed up today.

The follow-up revealed that, in Dr John Charlton's words, "our study showed that 3% of our sample showed signs of addiction (this is lower than some other studies because we used a more stringent index of addiction than some other studies; the main focus of our work is to distinguish addiction from non-problematic high engagement, a distinction that some previous researchers have not made)."

Bearing in mind that, "All the participants were players of Asheron's Call. We realise that this game is not as popular as it once was: we collected the data in 2003 but have only just got around to working on the personality part of the data set that we collected."

Still, it's good to see the good old BBC providing even-handed coverage. Remember, if you know of a computer game ADDICT, make sure to tell a national broadcaster all about them as soon as possible.



Comments

deleted 7 Apr 2008 18:51
1/3
Im an Addict!!

but i get bored and forget so i dont know if that counts?
headcasephil 7 Apr 2008 21:33
2/3
i think i should right to the bbc and tell em that i am a addict of video games? who cares if people are. we live we die we all have addition and hay mine is legal i don't hurt people i don't hurt my self
p 7 Apr 2008 23:29
3/3
phil cort wrote:
i think i should right to the bbc and tell em that i am a addict of video games? who cares if people are. we live we die we all have addition and hay mine is legal i don't hurt people i don't hurt my self


If you don't hurt people or don't hurt yourself then it's just a pastime and nothing to do with maths (sorry, cheap typo gag).
However maybe the sub text is Auntie doesn’t like competition or there just looking for something that Nicky Campbell can get self righteous about on Watch Dog.
Posting of new comments is now locked for this page.