[acb-hsp] Video games Addicting?

[peter altschul]

Video Games Are Designed to Get You Hooked
  McCarton Ackerman December 8, 2012
  This article originally appeared on The Fix.
  Video games like Farmville and Words With Friends are 
specifically designed to get people hooked, with the industry 
even hiring psychiatric professionals to help make them more 
addictive.  And the tactic seems to be working.  Recent research 
shows that video games can be just as addictive as drugs, alcohol 
or gambling.  "It's the same exact clinical symptoms: 
preoccupation, loss of control, inability to stop," says Dr.  
Timothy Fong, who runs a UCLA clinic for behavioral addiction.  
"They keep playing the game despite harmful consequences so, in 
my mind, absolutely, I believe it is the same disease as alcohol 
or drug addiction."
  While the stereotypical video game player is a nerdy teenager, 
Fong says that plenty of adults also find themselves unable to 
put down the controller.  "The average age of our patients is 
about 40.  We've seen housewives, doctors, lawyers," he says.
  One addicted gamer, DiAnn Edwards of Pennsylvania, says she 
plays Farmville for up to eight hours a day, spending up to $200 
a month on the habit.  "It just gets addicting," she says.  "I'm 
51 and what am I doing sitting here playing a Farmville game? I 
don't get it, but it actually drives me crazy."
  Still, the American Psychological Association is unwilling to 
recognize video game addiction as an official diagnosis.  It does 
however list "video game psychologist" as a "hot career" since 
the gaming industry is increasingly hiring psychologists as 
consultants; they use their expertise of the human mind to make 
the games more enticing -- and harder to put down.  Ariella 
Lehrer, a trained psychologist who designs games for middle-aged 
women, says the psychology behind the games is "pure Las Vegas," 
using flashy graphics and sparse rewards to get players hooked 
within 20 minutes.  "We learned this with rats in a food 
pedestal," she says.  "If you only occasionally give a reward 
then you keep going.  That's what Las Vegas does.  The rewards 
don't come every time."