Are games like porn?

topic posted Tue, May 31, 2005 - 3:23 PM by  Angel
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It's not that they turn me on, not that way, but I'm sure I have the same expression on my face as a guy scanning over the nudey mags on the top shelf. It's the 'holding the drool back' look. Why do I feel this way? I buy something and get it home, immediately start playing it and then it's frustrating and I hate it but I love it and keep playing it. Then it's 3am and I look at myself in the mirror, red eyed with my hair all lank and I think, my god that game just ate 8 hours of my life. What am I addicted to? Is it the adrenaline of getting to the next level? I'm a coder so I have a real dogged need to 'solve the problem', but still, don't I do enough of that all day? There's something very different about games and it's much more like a physical craving than it should be...
posted by:
Angel
London
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  • Re: Are games like porn?

    Tue, May 31, 2005 - 3:38 PM
    Oh its absolutely a drug. I think its the meditation that comes from complete 100% focus on a 100% solvable problem. Life is not like that, and thus it is addictive.

    Its not as dangerous as real physical drugs, but it can be. Oh yes. It can be.
  • Re: Are games like porn?

    Tue, May 31, 2005 - 10:52 PM
    Addiction is addiction.

    Certainly MMOs can cause problems for people. I've played too much Everquest at points and times in my life. It's to the point where I actively avoid playing MMO's now. Life is just easier that way.
    • Re: Are games like porn?

      Tue, May 31, 2005 - 11:32 PM
      I just saw someone auctioning a Jedi Guardian character for Star Wars Galaxies on Ebay with a Buy It Now price of 1099.00!

      oh yeah.

      its an all out addiction. Potentially as destructive as anything short of Ice or Heroin.

      But at least your lungs, liver and heart shouldn't be adversely effected. If you're feeling that bad, try just taking a break and having a smoothie or something before getting back to it (you know... when you're done with the smoothie)
      • Re: Are games like porn?

        Wed, June 1, 2005 - 12:01 AM


        games do seem to trigger some sort of mild version of the 'fight or flight mechanism,' resulting in a definite rush. the correlated 'sense of aliveness' can be compared to being stimulated by sexual voyerism.

        but when you are busy strafing left, turning right, jumping, crouching, and shooting your secondary weapon...it's kinda hard to remember to play with your primary one.
        • Unsu...
           

          Re: Are games like porn?

          Wed, June 1, 2005 - 5:22 AM
          I like porn. I like MMOs. Porn (at least for men who at the moment can give a crap about story line.) Do the do and go to whatever life we pretend to have. MMOs can easily become youe rsecond life. I can see someone gettign addiced to porn sure. buying more and more. working extra hours and all of a sudden buying trtennis equiptment to explain that elbow of his or telling her doctor she works in Data Entry to explain her sudden and unexplainable accelerated case of carpal tunnel syndrome. Fine I have been there. Look at popeye's forarm. So has he. With MNMO's there isn't rerally an ending. It's so easy to become that character People get married in these games (which I think is cute TO A POINT!) and somehow start to believe it. I read on Kotaku Someone named their firstborn after an everquest character. I smoke cigarrettes. I have been smoking since 97 off and on but in the latter (sp?) years .. I have tried the gum, patch, pill, etc. Next I will try the suppository. Point being if you know you have an addictive personality, You should stay away from them. If you don't know then ya gonna find out.

          I forsee warning labels on these games and time regulators and warnings to hosts who let people play for too long.
  • ron
    ron
    offline 5

    Re: Are games like porn?

    Wed, June 1, 2005 - 3:22 PM
    Are games like porn?
    Dunno. Is porn like reading a good book? I've certainly said "one more chapter then I have to put this down." Is it like working? "One more bug than I'm going home for sure!" Maybe it's more like TV, where over 60% of the population (US) comes home after a 9 to 5 and watches 6 hours of TV...

    So is there a componrent of addiction...maybe it soesn't seem like it is anymore addictive than anyother activity that engages.
    • Re: Are games like porn?

      Thu, June 2, 2005 - 5:34 PM
      So I guess what we're saying is games are more like drugs than porn. Porn can make you feel powerful and games can do that too in a similar way. But so can drugs. Drugs might be the best at escapism but I don't think people play games for escapism as much as for fun, rush, power... especially if you have the added bonus of an exotic world to do it in. I actually think MMOs are less like porn than sitting there by yourself with a console game.

      I like the idea of the 100% solvable problem being attractive - there's some truth to that in why I play. I think maybe what I'm addicted to is that flow when the game is going well and you're solving the problems as they come and they are just challenging enough to make you feel on top of the world.
      • Re: Are games like porn?

        Sat, June 18, 2005 - 10:55 AM
        There's a still seriously untapped market. Video game porn. We could use more video game porn.

        Actually porn can be a lot like drugs to some people. There's even a sexaholics annoymous.
        • Unsu...
           

          Re: Are games like porn?

          Sat, June 18, 2005 - 1:53 PM
          Now that I think about it...it gives a whole new meaning to the code: UP,UP,DOWN DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT, LEFT, RIGHT, B,A, SELECT START.

        • actually the Japanese have been there for a decade at least.

          they always beat us to stuff like that.

          apparently there will also be an Unrated version of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas coming out that will feature such scintilating excitment as intercourse with prosititutes. I guess you could shoot them after.

          do we really, really need these games?

          I think something like that would just make me feel A) bad & B) like a loser. but to each their own I guess....
          • Sounds like one step away from strap-on joysticks for your nether regions. What is the porn industry waiting for?
            • tapping this market

              Mon, June 20, 2005 - 12:17 PM


              this article is several years old, so what excuse do i have for not owning one of these yet?

              www.gamegirladvance.com/archiv...or.html
              • Re: tapping this market

                Mon, June 20, 2005 - 1:08 PM
                proof and vindication.


                but its actually way more tasteful than I would have thought.


                I mean. I know of the existence of hentai games. you know... raping schoolgirls with hundred foot long Cock-tentacles. so the "Tron on extascy" route is refreshing. the Japanese arn't so bad after all I guess.
                • the japanese aren't so bad? lol!

                  Mon, June 20, 2005 - 3:23 PM

                  japanese culture has an amazing way of making everyone else seem that much less sexist. this 'battle raper' title really nailed this disgusting nitch on the head, but i've read that the gameplay was quite boring...here's some random pics to get a feel for the twisted basis of the game:

                  images.google.com/images
              • Re: tapping this market

                Tue, June 21, 2005 - 3:44 PM
                except that your anatomy isn't pefectly suited for it? Though I suppose *playing together* takes on a new and much better meaning with this. I love the idea of it being more like a journey rather than a typical game too. Why don't they make boy ones? They might be a little harder to disguise tho...
                • Unsu...
                   

                  Re: tapping more than the market.

                  Tue, June 21, 2005 - 5:06 PM
                  There is this game coming out called seven dealy sins in which you must climb up the social elite and corporate world by indulging in the seven dealy sins. There is even a part in which you put rufies in your bosses wife drink. I hear alot of senator's complaining about that one.
                • toys for boys?

                  Tue, June 21, 2005 - 6:38 PM


                  mental note to selves: vibrators work on boys just as well as on girls.

                  sadly, most males have some sort of misinformed ego issues that preclude experimentation with sex toys. as in, 'real men' don't need toys. almost by definition, no toy is 'needed.' but, duh, they are FUN!
                  • This is the maximum depth. Additional responses will not be threaded.

                    Re: toys for boys?

                    Wed, June 22, 2005 - 3:57 PM
                    Exactly. At the risk of drifting hopelessly off topic, with my last boyfriend I finally decided we knew each other well enough to try out something from the toy arsenal (he was a shy boy it has to be said) but after a half-hearted sort of go he said "I can't deal with this, it makes my hand all tingly." Sigh...

                    Now if it had been joystick related perhaps he would have been game to stick with it.
                    • ggirls and their boytoys

                      Thu, June 23, 2005 - 11:27 AM


                      well, ya'know, different strokes for different folks, as it were.

                      if you and a current mate were interested in such experimentation, i could explain a couple simple techniques that i believe would win any boy over to the possibilities. however, this is probably not the forum for such details.