A great article by Nick Yee explores the foundations of “Internet Addiction Disorder” (IAD) and whether it actually applies to habitual online gaming. His conclusion is that it does not, and in fact attempts to disassemble the criteria established by Kimberly Young in a 1996 study to diagnose “internet addiction” in general. I really like how he compared gaming to what our society deems as acceptable timesinks: watching TV (annoyingly passive for a gamer), playing golf every weekend or working long hours. While he makes his own share of generalizations, the crux of his argument is that this “disorder” is not new, and actually stems from underlying problems the person usually possesses like low self esteem or depression – the same approach taken to address addiction to drugs, alcohol and gambling.

By calling it “online gaming addiction”, the media encourages us to think that we’re dealing with a very new problem…If people can develop behavioral dependencies on any activity, then why are we surprised that some people develop dependencies on online games? Why is it news? I contend it is mostly because we’ve always used the word “addiction” to mark out deviant social activities in a way that treats them as unique predators, as emergent problems which we’ve never seen before. But once we shift our framework to one of general behavioral dependencies, then we have to abandon this view. What we’re seeing is actually a very old problem.

After enjoying World of Warcraft for just under a year, I contend that I drifted dangerously close to the point of what may be considered “addiction”, where I actually questioned my level of involvement with the game. I never played for more than 4 hours at a time, but it was the routine of it all – nothing else seemed to matter. I needed to log in every day to check my mail to see if I won auctions, or to journey to a new area so I can get some quests off of my list. In-game social activity was minimal, which was even more disturbing. On days where there was server maintenance or I couldn’t log in, I occasionally felt listless and didn’t want to do anything else – not even play other games.

I can appreciate the allure of MMORPGs, because they are dynamic in the sense that there is real-time interaction between actual humans. Whether it’s trading goods or joining a pickup group, even if no actual words are exchanged, it’s easy to get the feeling that maybe there is more to the game than originally thought. Sadly, there isn’t, and it’s no replacement for real life. One of my favorite mental checks for any game is to think about what was actually accomplished after each session. What did I really have to show for the past two hours? Though don’t be alarmed – this is no different than sitting in front of the TV for hours on end. I would much rather engage in a series of inconsequential quests than passively subject myself to someone else’s idea of what is entertaining or exciting.

All of this also makes me wonder about the term “addiction”: should we really be using it as a favorable descriptor for games? Many reviewers like to fall back on calling a game “addictive” because there really is no other way to describe an immediately absorbing brand of gameplay. But we have to be reminded that society at large views this term in a wholly negative light, and as Yee points out in his article, is associated with “deviant social activities”. With gaming enthusiasts eager to have their passion recognized as an art form, perhaps it’s time to start viewing the games on their individual merits instead of wedging interchangeable words into a game’s qualities, which only serve to perpetuate the negative reputation of the medium in the long run.

no sinister plague will poison us

A lot of whining about Penny Arcade’s Child’s Play permeated the blogosphere a few weeks ago, the most prominent being that of someone who’s curiously risen to the throne of geekdom, Wil Wheaton (discussion). Finally they got recognition, though, by the same person that insisted that video games train kids to kill only a few weeks prior. A motion like this means more than we know, however, since it has caused a man to look beyond the hyperbole and see that video games are actually played by humans.

I think a large part of the problem was that news media at the forefront of the discussion seemed a little preoccupied with the shitstorm surrounding Vice City. But also, anyone who isn’t into games has not heard of or could care less about Penny Arcade. I love those guys, but let’s be realistic – it’s a niche website. Trying to get the common man to invest valuable brainspace to actually consider the enormity of their donation would be hard, because PA aren’t well known figures. I’m not making excuses, because frankly I think it’s disgusting that it has taken this long for them to get noticed formally. I’ve seen the pictures, and there are a lot of gamers out there that did a completley selfless act by donating to this cause, which is more than I can say for myself. The reason I mention any of this is because it’s futile to get bent out of shape after a 10 second mention on the local TV news and no word whatsoever in mainstream news media. Did you really expect them to play fair? Know that what you have done is a truly noble and great thing, and leave it at that. The debate around violent video games and kids that use them as an excuse will continue regardless.

learning to love geoURL

Beyond learning about where your blogging peers are physically located, the geoURL concept has been transformed into a different application: Redtail Canyon. This site is basically just a giant web application that uses the GeoURL database to associate a location with a weblog post. Membership is free, as the site is essentially contentless until users provide it. After browsing a few of the entries, I came across a series of posts located in Southern Quèbec that are part of The Degree Confluence Project.

The Confluence Project is a worldwide effort to visit and take pictures of the geographical locations of intersections in the Lat/Long grid (i.e. integers like 44°N, 80°W). The project has been around for a few years, and apparently it made it into the Toronto Star last summer. After the article ran I’m sure a rash of people decided to flock up north and grab a bunch of the points for themselves. You might notice that a lot of the posters take photos of their GPS devices as proof; I find that extremely cool (in a geeky sort of way). There’s nothing like a community building excercise like this to make the Internet more human, to make it appear that there still is a world out there as opposed to just a bunch of quietly humming machines. Personally, I’d love to hit one of the points in Northern Ontario if only to say that I’ve done it. I’ll have to keep an eye out for any cool new GPS toys.

google’s powerful API

I had the TouchGraph Google Browser sent to me a couple days ago and it has proven to be an excellent little app (you may need the Java plugin for your browser). After entering a URL, the application maps out nodes and links pointing to it. The cool part is that the visual representation is like some organic being, as it is constantly reforming and reshaping to fit the screen as new links are added. It’s a great way to find out who’s linking where (or to whom), and lot more fun to look at than a standard listing from technorati.

Or, Andrew Is Your Single Source For Complete Antenna

In a discussion I had a while back with a friend about our respective presences on the web, I have learned that google doesn’t know anything about Andrew Smale yet. I tried Andrew just to make sure, but I wasn’t a fan of seeing “Andrew is a fag” a mere three lines down. Independent of that gimmicky little site, google does actually find a site made by Andrew Smale – except he’s from Calgary. And a gamer, apparently. Cue crappy Disneyland theme song. It’s not an especially great site as there isn’t much there, but it’s still kind of amusing – if only because he has the exact same name as me. Don’t waste your time on the videos, they’re fucking stupid. Moving along.

I also decided to check out geoURL, as it was featured in an article at WebMonkey on the resurgence of META tags in developing web pages. Plus all the cool bloggers seem to be doing it. An interesting read if you’re into that sort of thing. Obviously I wanted to see what this was all about, so I signed myself up and am now listed in their database. In a nutshell, geoURL associates your site with a geographic location, based on Lat/Long coordinates you supply in a META tag. It’s a cool concept, and a neat way to find fellow bloggers that happen to live in your geographical area, once again bringing the weblogging phenomenon into everyday life.

Back of the Envelope: If you ever wondered why this site is toase.net as opposed to toase.com, you can take a look if you like. They’re a civil law firm based out of Texas. Their website sucks.

I love LAN parties, and consider myself a pretty hardcore gamer. I’ve played Diablo II Ironman styles, without bathroom breaks and consuming can after can of Pepsi. But after seeing this I’m not so sure anymore. You think you’re hardcore? Check it out, fool. I just feel sorry for the guys below if he has to take a piss. I mean, how would that work? Maybe they kept him away from any liquid refreshment to prevent such disasters. Thanks to dave for sending this my way.

Out of a horrible hyperlink possessed by the devil I came across this photo. It was taken at Mr. Bowie’s birthday bash sometime last year, and as much as I like Billy Corgan, it is one scary fucking lineup. I was disturbed to see Robert Smith without all his white Cure-era makeup. Lou Reed looks terrible (had it, lost it) and David Bowie is like some twisted sideshow clown.

Can you hear me, Major Tom?