1. AddictiveAddiction is defined as “The condition of being habitually or compulsively oc-cupied with or involved in something.”† Anyone who has really been into video games has experienced this. Kids and adults alike think about getting home and playing games. They also spend a great deal of time reading gaming magazines, participating in online gaming forums, looking for future game releases, and of course, spending countless hours playing games. When they aren’t doing any of these things, they’re wishing they were.

2. ExpensiveIt cost a lot of money to stay current with the latest video games and hardware (console and/or computer). Many gam-ers spend all of their money on gaming. For example, it’s not uncommon for a gamer to have 50-100 games that cost $40-$50 each. They also often have at least 2 different game consoles and 1 high-end PC. This can easily add up to thousands of dollars a year to maintain a typical gamer’s habits.

3. RelationshipsThere’s often a direct correlation with the amount of time spent playing video games, and the amount of time spent engaging in a quality relationship. In the most extreme example I could find, there was a couple that was so consumed with playing video games that they ended up neglecting their 3 children — to the point that they were malnourished, naked, and covered in their own feces. Although that’s an extreme case, I still think there’s something to be said about people who spend the majority of their free time play-ing video games. My guess is that they’re probably not dating or pursuing a mean-ingful relationship in their free time.

4. DistractingAvid gamers are similar to people who smoke a lot of marijuana — in that they don’t get much done. Reading a good book, taking care of bills, writing an ar-ticle, inventing something, mowing the lawn, etc... are simply not a priority when it comes to getting to the next level or fin-ishing a game. Many gamers have things they would like to do in life, but they nev-er get around to it, because they spend so much of their time playing games. Then, when they do have time to work on one of their projects, they’re too tired to do it, because they stayed up till 3am playing a game.

5. Real Life ExpensesInstead of taking a trip, mountain bik-ing, or hanging out with friends at a cafe, gamer’s spend their time in a virtual re-ality. Whereas real life experiences bear long lasting friendships and memories, videos games do not. The only pictures that come from video games are screen-shots, and the memories that are created from playing those games are ultimately meaningless. Living means interacting, growing, learning, teaching, and loving — none of which can be accomplished in the virtual wasteland of video games.

1. Addictive

Addiction is defined as “The condition of being habitually or

compulsively occupied with or involved in something.Ӡ Any-

one who has really been into video games has experienced

this. Kids and adults alike think about getting home and play-

ing games. They also spend a great deal of time reading gam-

ing magazines, participating in online gaming forums, looking

for future game releases, and of course, spending countless

hours playing games. When they aren’t doing any of these

things, they’re wishing they were.

2. ExpensiveIt cost a lot of money to stay current with the latest video

games and hardware (console and/or computer). Many gam-

ers spend all of their money on gaming. For example, it’s

not uncommon for a gamer to have 50-100 games that cost

$40-$50 each. They also often have at least 2 different game

consoles and 1 high-end PC. This can easily add up to thou-

sands of dollars a year to maintain a typical gamer’s habits.

4. DistractingAvid gamers are similar to people who smoke a lot of mari-

juana — in that they don’t get much done. Reading a good

book, taking care of bills, writing an article, inventing

something, mowing the lawn, etc... are simply not a prior-

ity when it comes to getting to the next level or finishing

a game. Many gamers have things they would like to do

in life, but they never get around to it, because they spend

so much of their time playing games. Then, when they do

have time to work on one of their projects, they’re too tired

to do it, because they stayed up till 3am playing a game.

3. Relationships

There’s often a direct correlation with the amount of time

spent playing video games, and the amount of time spent

engaging in a quality relationship. In the most extreme ex-

ample I could find, there was a couple that was so consumed

with playing video games that they ended up neglecting their

3 children — to the point that they were malnourished, naked,

and covered in their own feces. Although that’s an extreme

case, I still think there’s something to be said about people

who spend the majority of their free time playing video games.

My guess is that they’re probably not dating or pursuing a

meaningful relationship in their free time.

5. Real Life Expenses

Instead of taking a trip, mountain biking, or hanging out with

friends at a cafe, gamer’s spend their time in a virtual reality.

Whereas real life experiences bear long lasting friendships and

memories, videos games do not. The only pictures that come

from video games are screenshots, and the memories that are

created from playing those games are ultimately meaningless.

Living means interacting, growing, learning, teaching, and

loving — none of which can be accomplished in the virtual

wasteland of video games.

Keen video gamers now have one more excuse to keep on playing.

US scientists have found that regular players of shoot-em-ups, such as Half-Life and Medal of Honour, have much better visual skills than most of the popula-tion.

The researchers have shown that gamers were particularly good at spotting details in busy, confusing scenes and could cope with more distractions than average.

The two scientists also found that with a little game playing the visual skills of anyone can be improved.

Sight Skills.

Researchers Shawn Green and Daphne Bavelier pitted keen players of computer games against people who never play in a series of psychological tests that measure basic visual skills.The tests demanded that subjects match shapes appearing in a series of circles with ones dis-played at the side of the screen.Keen players were vastly better at this task, and completed it much faster, especially when the test was made more difficult by the circles being filled with distracting shapes.Gamers also showed their skill in another experiment that measured “attentional blink” which captures how easy it is to catch someone’s attention.The test asks subjects to identify a symbol flashed up very soon after the appearance of a first one.The second symbol appeared between two-tenths and half a second after the first symbol.Gamers managed to correctly identify the second symbol correctly far faster than non-players.“Video game playing enhances the capacity of visual attention and its spatial distribution,” wrote the researchers in a paper published in the journal Nature this week.

Sight skillsResearchers Shawn Green and Daphne Bavelier pitted keen players of computer games against peo-ple who never play in a series of psychological tests that measure basic visual skills.

The tests demanded that subjects match shapes appearing in a series of circles with ones displayed at the side of the screen.

Keen players were vastly better at this task, and completed it much faster, especially when the test was made more difficult by the circles being filled with distracting shapes.

Gamers also showed their skill in another experiment that measured “attentional blink” which captures how easy it is to catch someone’s attention.The test asks subjects to identify a symbol flashed up very soon after the appearance of a first one.

The second symbol appeared between two-tenths and half a second after the first symbol.

Gamers managed to correctly identify the second symbol correctly far faster than non-players.

“Video game playing enhances the capacity of visual attention and its spatial distribution,” wrote the researchers in a paper published in the journal Nature this week.

Training dayTo ensure that it was experience with computer games that was refining visual and atten-tional skills, the researchers trained subjects on a variety of games and then tested them again.

The subjects were trained on two different games. One group played the WWII shooter Medal of Honor and the second group got to play the classic puzzle game Tetris.

After training for an hour per day for 10 days, the subjects were put through the tests again.The players who had been wrestling with Medal of Honor showed a significant improve-ment in visual and attentional skills. By contrast, the Tetris veterans showed almost no change in these skills.

“By forcing players to simultaneously juggle a number of varied tasks, action video game playing pushes the limits of three rather different aspects of visual attention,” wrote the researchers.

Training dayTo ensure that it was experience with computer games that was refining visual and atten-tional skills, the researchers trained subjects on a variety of games and then tested them again.

The subjects were trained on two different games. One group played the WWII shooter Medal of Honor and the second group got to play the classic puzzle game Tetris.

After training for an hour per day for 10 days, the subjects were put through the tests again.The players who had been wrestling with Medal of Honor showed a significant improve-ment in visual and attentional skills. By contrast, the Tetris veterans showed almost no change in these skills.

“By forcing players to simultaneously juggle a number of varied tasks, action video game playing pushes the limits of three rather different aspects of visual attention,” wrote the researchers.