I don't have a problem with games. We get along just fine.

In my very first post (which coincidentally happened to be on violence) I mentioned that the issue of video game addiction actually concerns me more. In that there are documented cases of people damaging themselves over excessive play and it just seems more evidentially solid to me, whereas video games causing violence does not. This is because there is no proof that video games cause violence, in contrast, human addiction to things is a reality. Addiction to drugs, alcohol, exercise, eating... The list goes on.

I think the point made in the lecture that video games being addictive is often tauted as a positive feature of the game is interesting, because people forget that the point of games, or any sort of media for that matter, is to be immersive. If you found it impossible to be immersed, it would be boring and you wouldn't bother playing it.

For me, the term "problematic use" described by Clark and Bakker has no difference to the term "addiction" other than removing the social stigma and being a more neutral term. I would not call someone an addict if they, say, drank a lot of alcohol frequently (if I did, everyone I meet at university would need help). I would only deem them an addict if it began to negatively affect their lives and they carried on drinking despite it.

Are film buffs fans, or addicts? In my opinion this has some grounding in 'media elitism'. By this I mean that film, unlike when it first came out, nowadays is a celebrated medium. If you know a lot about films, not just the ones made in Hollywood but the international arthouse documentaries etc, this is something to be proud of. In contrast, video games are still not looked at as high art a lot of the time due to popular stereotypes.

Regarding games as producing a chemical dependency, I find it difficult to believe that playing games would produce enough dopamine to actually damage the neuroreceptors such that afterwards you would need an excessive amount of dopamine (which you get by playing more and more) to have any effect because your brain has become accustomed to way more than average. I don't know the exact amount that is released during gameplay, but I doubt it would be on par with things that are proven to cause damage to neuroreceptors by releasing too much seratonin or dopamine like heroin or ecstasy. That's a very huge leap.

I agree that excessive, problematic gaming is a reflection on people's inability to self-regulate and that it is a symptom of them as a person rather than caused by games. Whenever people ask me if I own a game console I always reply, "I'd love one. But I know that if I did own a console I would just never stop playing games". Video games are an easy way for people to escape from the increasing stress of reality, because ultimately that is it's very convenient function. But only the people themselves have the power to take responsibility and dictate when and for how long they play the game.