Dev.SN

Should Games Recognize Addictive Behavior?

posted by mattie_p on Tuesday February 25 2014, @10:11AM   
from the games-watch-you! dept.

siliconwafer writes: "An article in The Economist raises some interesting points about addiction to video games, drawing from psychology and sociology to describe why certain people prefer certain types of games, and why they might become addicted to them. It is suggested that to discourage addiction, game designers could have their games recognize addictive behavior and respond to it by encouraging gamers to take breaks. Do game designers have any responsibility to recognize addictive behavior, or does this responsibility fall solely on the gamer (or the gamer's parents in the case of a minor)?"

• Re:Games want to be addictive (Score: 2, Insightful) by Koen on Tuesday February 25 2014, @12:36PM

  by Koen (427) on Tuesday February 25 2014, @12:36PM (#6719)

  >I guess most game designers will not be willing to do something like that, and there is no way to force them to do this.

  You're right. Since we don't have a society built on laws there's no possible way we could impose arbitrary requirements on any group of people.
  

  The laws of your country or the laws of my country?

  If it is your country, the game makers will set up shop in my country - all it takes is a colo server.

  --
  /. refugees on Usenet: comp.misc [comp.misc]

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