Sometimes the BBC's Panorama acts as a positive force - exposing the murky world of fearful spin in the "church" of Scientology, for example - but often it could be suggested that the programme scaremongers Middle England, the places that are lampooned by Little Britain's opening narrative.
Tonight will see the BBC give a prime time slot to an expose, if you can call it that, on the addictive nature of video games. Many addictions that don't cause physical withdrawal can be partially explained away by underlying problems and a videogaming addiction is no different. Heck you can get addicted to anything if you try hard enough - Alan Partridge managed Toblerones.
The trailer looks at a Stoke-on-Trent geek called Chris Dando. "We didn't worry about computer games at first," says mum Alice, "there was nothing that particularly alarmed us."
But Chris had been "playing World of Warcraft through the night" reads a stern narrator with that typical level of curious worry that only Panorama and Dispatches voiceovers can pin down to a tee. "You could be what you wanted to be," said Chris - or more likely, where you want to be, probably a natural reaction to going to school in Barlaston.
He reveals that when his mum cut off access to the internet, he went berserk. The producers cheekily slip in a shot of a raging Warcraft orc, but the reality is more disturbing according to Panorama. When Chris realised he couldn't play WoW anymore, he reacted "violently," put on a boot, just one boot, and kicked a hole in his sister's bedroom door. He was sweating because he couldn't get his fix.
We have absolutely no doubt that there are people across the country and indeed across the world who are addicted to gaming. Japan even has a special word for sufferers: Not the innocent Otaku, but Hikikomori, who shut themselves away from real life, locked in their rooms and rarely seeing daylight. But a quick Google search will tell you that there's more than videogames behind it. Social phobia, avoidant personality disorder, extreme shyness and agoraphobia. Games don't cause it, they're a happenstance result. Causation and correlation are not the same.
Every now and then the UK needs a good gaming scare. For example, the release of Manhunt all those years ago kick-started tabloid sensationalism about copycat murders. Again, the tragedy was the result of an ill individual, not a fictionalised world with tedious stealth segments.
It's the same as those video nasties scares. Upsetting, grotesque and gratuitous though they were, it could be argued it's easier for the human psyche to pin unnerving crimes on a scapegoat rather than accept that people can be so affected or different that they carry out crimes in the real world.
It doesn't seem that's the angle this Panorama documentary is taking. But when Tetris was launched with Nintendo's Gameboy there was something called the "Tetris Effect," described by Wikipedia as something that happens when "people devote sufficient time and attention to an activity that it begins to overshadow their thoughts, mental images, and dreams". That means playing a lot of Tetris.
Whether Panorama will dedicate a segment to that remains to be seen but it's not as sexed up, and certainly doesn't make good television, as suggesting a wave of addicted, violent cyber junkies who rely on Blizzard servers to get through the day.
Can this really be responsible broadcasting?
.jpg){kind=icon}
.jpg){kind=icon}
.jpg){kind=icon}
.jpg){kind=icon}
If the person lacks the self control to move away from the screen the problem is obviously them; not the game itself. The fact that there are millions of gamers and not millions of "addicts" depicts this.
Sure, games draw people in faster and some even become mesmerised by them, but the average person can put the controller down and walk away.
I posted this on Reddit:
I watched this last night desperately hoping some ground was placed between the BBC and sensationalism, sadly I was wrong. Hypocrisy too. At a fair few points in this program, it was suggested that people should be "having a drink" instead of indulging their "video game addictions". At one point a so-called addict basically said, do anything but play videogames. Go out and get smashed. Whatever.
Errrrr. I'm not some anti alcohol jerk but having a pop at videogames based on a few unhappy chappies (one whose mum admitted beating the crap out of him all the time - seeking escapism, who'da thunk it?), the extreme end of the spectrum, was like going to The Dead Dog and Gutter, finding the most jaundiced alcoholic in the joint at 10AM and talking to him or her about the physical and psychological merits of Mojitos. I'm half looking forward to writing this up tomorrow.
There was also the one lad who found himself addicted to World of Warcraft. When he was trying to cut down on his gaming, he eventually went back to the game and continued to play it for 6 hours per day. As he's playing the game, his tone and behaviour clearly seem anti-social - not a symptom of playing games, but what appears to be a part of his character. (Do you blank people out? No, you either pause the game or quit the thing.)
The truth throughout the programme is twisted by the presenters with their gloomy voice overs. It's only at the last minute aren't they beating a dead horse and say they won't stop their children playing games. However, the rest of the programme doesn't reflect that whatsoever in my belief.
I'm now awaiting where I hear people talking about how their son/daughter is addicted to games.
Ready for another fear fad?
The fact that there are some who will vouch their absoluteness about others, oka knowledging about others, to own others through mere knowledge without even realising the state of their own absoluteness says it all. Lunacy is always others whereas sanity is always oneself. The same goes for pessimism and optimism. Others are always the loser whereas one is always optimistic about winning the lottery - someday.
In the absence of absoluteness, pessimism’s only duty is for countering optimism or vice-versa, and nothing else. To buy time such that true progress may manifests. “Gaming” is damaging because it promotes, amongst other complications, Type 2 diabetes - stopped laughing, good - and the day this connection is confirmed, will “game makers” and their tag-alongs be taken to task whilst remembering that should one be stupid or dumb, any attempt at injecting further stupidity or dumbness, oka Fame, Fortune & Immortality, will have little effect on one’s reality. On the other hand, perhaps the injection of sheer Intelligence, oka truth through absoluteness, just might help.