Filling Free Minutes with Video Games
August 25th, 2010Has it really come to this? I have to ask:
Loading ...Via: New York Times:
“People think they’re refreshing themselves, but they’re fatiguing themselves,” said Marc Berman, a University of Michigan neuroscientist.
Regardless, there is now a whole industry of mobile software developers competing to help people scratch the entertainment itch. Flurry, a company that tracks the use of apps, has found that mobile games are typically played for 6.3 minutes, but that many are played for much shorter intervals. One popular game that involves stacking blocks gets played for 2.2 minutes on average.
Today’s game makers are trying to fill small bits of free time, said Sebastien de Halleux, a co-founder of PlayFish, a game company owned by the industry giant Electronic Arts.
“Instead of having long relaxing breaks, like taking two hours for lunch, we have a lot of these micro-moments,” he said. Game makers like Electronic Arts, he added, “have reinvented the game experience to fit into micro-moments.”
Related: Teens & Text Addiction
This seems like more of a self-control problem than a technology is evil problem. If I’m on an hour long subway ride and forgot to bring a book, yes, I’ll play a game on my phone for a bit. I check email when in line at the supermarket, and I read RSS feeds in the elevator sometimes.
I also ride my bike to work almost every day without listening to music and I never wear headphones when I run in the park. Modern urban living means I spend all day at the computer and the two hour leisurely lunch is pure fantasy, but every other weekend I’m off hiking and technology free.
I’m sure constant internet use is screwing up my attention span and having god knows what other troubling effects, but it’s also wear I read Cryptogon, plan camping trips, and order 40 lb buckets of quinoa.
And for anyone who thinks games have no redeeming value, play Every Day the Same Dream (free online) long enough to figure out what it’s trying to say and you might change your mind.
Kevin, I seem to recall you posting something a while ago about the deliberate design of addictive elements in games…
http://www.cracked.com/article_18461_5-creepy-ways-video-games-are-trying-to-get-you-addicted.html
The “Skinner Cage” – humans treated like rats by the game designers. It’s even more pronounced in Vegas – the world’s biggest Skinner Cage.
I used to play a lot – at a time when my life was turning to shit. It was an avoidance mechanism, which pushed difficult decisions into the future, which of course made them even harder to deal with when you finally are forced to. I gave up all game playing 5 years ago, and will never go back. I fear game addiction even more than alcohol or drugs … at least they’ll give you a hangover or other adverse physical reactions as a warning.
Though I have an addictive personality, I’m blessed with a very powerful circuit breaker, which allows me to go “cold turkey”. Once flipped, there’s very little desire to go back.
Freedom is nice.