University Professor: Candy Crush Is Turning Children Into Obsessive Gamblers
from the think-of-the-royal-flushes! dept
Here is a brief list of all the definitive information we have about the effects of video games on children. Violent video games make children more violent. Violent video games do not make children more violent. Video games make children less sympathetic to their fellow humans. Video games make children more sympathetic to their fellow humans. Video games cause severe health problems in children. Video games have health benefits for children. And, above all else, we know that parents in the United States are so certain that video games are a problem for their children that they brilliantly ignore the tools at their disposal to help them act like, you know, parents.
Whoo. Sort of takes your breath away, doesn't it? Well, we aren't done yet, apparently, now that another study supposedly shows that (sigh) video games are turning our precious youth into wannabe Doyle Brunsons and the only remedy is attentive parents the ever-effective school systems to educate kids about gambling games.
Prof Mark Griffiths, director of the International Gaming Research Unit, based at Nottingham Trent University, said large numbers of under-16s were becoming hooked on games often accessed through social media websites. Many sites provide opportunities to play online poker with virtual money or give users a free introductory session to cash-gambling games with no age restrictions.Free versions of poker and gambling sites are turning children into gambling addicts. Got it. How are they doing this, professor?
Speaking to the Times Educational Supplement, he said these games introduced young people to the excitement and rewards of gambling even when they are not playing for real money, adding: “It’s a bit like the old drug-dealing analogy of giving a bit for free and hooking them in.”Ah, it's so simple! If you offer something for free and reward the user, they'll become hopelessly hooked and think they can earn real rewards in real life! Like drug dealers do! And play-money gambling sites! And the way Farmville has spawned a bunch of kids now hopelessly trying to grow plants out of their concrete sidewalks! Or how that free NFL game where you run back kickoffs has somehow magically convinced zillions of kids that they're Devin Hester.
Sorry, not buying it. Kids, by and large, are far more intelligent than we give them credit for. But, hey, it's not like the professor is only picking on poker sites.
Prof Griffiths identified games such as Candy Crush Saga which has been downloaded more than 500m times and gives players the option of paying money to access higher levels. He said that these games had a “moreishness quality, a bit like chocolate”.So...the game being fun and costing something is the problem? Look, I dislike micropayments as much as the next person, but deciding that Candy Crush has caused a need for gambling education in every school in the UK is a bit like saying that because kids read comic books they should have to take a lesson on some of the unfortunate squeeze-effects of wearing superhero tights. It's just a little overboard.
“You say you’ll just have one chunk and you end up having the whole lot,” he said. “So you say, ‘I’ll just play for 15 minutes’, and you end up still there four or five hours later.”
And, I ask, knowing that this will be laughed off by my children-having peers, why is there no mention of parenting anywhere in these recommendations? I played cards with my friends as a child. I played free online poker when I was in high school. All the education I needed to know that I wasn't Phil Helmuth was my father pulling up a picture of the Las Vegas strip and saying, "They didn't build those enormous buildings by letting people win." That, along with some attentive parenting, ought to be enough.
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Filed Under: candy crush, children, gambling, games, think of the children
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Really.
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Isn't this how defense contractors work?
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No - defense contractors do mostly supply something useful. You are thinking of security equipment suppliers.
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In other news
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There is no justice or logic in the world.
(Actually can't be strictly true - or this piece of logic wouldn't exist!)
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It is laudable that many people wish to protect others from things that have a negative effect on them. However that protection should never infringe on those people who are not effected in a detrimental way.
In simple terms, almost everything that humanity does can have a negative impact on a section of the population. If we follow the pattern of protection to the extreme then we won't be allowed to do anything.
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Or to people who are affected in a detrimental way, but know it and don't want to change.
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Pretty please, point me to those mountains. All I've seen are anecdata.
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Right. Therefore, we should protect children who aren’t fully fledged adults, and do not have the life experience to contextualise, the resilience to process or the self control to act appropriately.
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Ban reading too!
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Re: Ban reading too!
All too often I think I'll have a 15 minute lie in, and all of a sudden it's 1 hour later and I'm going to be in trouble at work ...
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BUT THINK OF THE CHILDREN!
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And Another Thing...
Exactly. In fact, they're actually more intelligent than adults, as proven by the professor here. It doesn't matter what kids watch or what games they play, so long as their parents just tell them not to actually do those things in real life. Which brings me to my next point.
Porn. Why is it that we seem to think that porn is bad for children? Can't parents just tell children that it's OK to watch those things, just don't do them? I mean, "Kids, by and large, are far more intelligent than we give them credit for", aren't they?
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And they're not freaks if they have love handles or stretch marks. That's what regular women have.
Oh, and haven't you forgotten that porn stars tend to have a short shelf life? When your looks go and that's all you've got, it's over. Do you really want your daughter to grow up to do that, then be cast aside when she starts to look like the sofa?
So no, I don't think using porn as sex ed is a good or healthy idea.
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Regarding porn, the only reason porn is "harmful" to children is because of how society deals with porn. To paraphrase Dark Helmet in a comment above, the harm is a symptom of our society, not of the porn itself.
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My poor mother.
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Wow, it is almost as if the science community is composed of individuals with different viewpoints and different ways of doing studies that may only focus on a section of the activity. /s
As for the rest of the article.
Yes there are specific activities that could be argued to be built into some games to reinforce addictive behaviour and form habits. Just because people get offended by the suggestion that videogames, or whatever, could be made with negative qualities does *not* mean it shouldn't be studied to see if there is any truth in it.
These sensational articles on techdirt are really bringing down the overall quality of the site.
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While I don't, I could gamble to my hearts content with one arm bandits or whatever and never spend a dime. I have never in my life ever sit foot in a casino and have no plans to.
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I looked away for a sec and thought it read
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Candy Crush has been tuned perfectly to maximize micro-transactions. The game has an insidious way of leaving the player only one or two turns away from completing a level, then dangles opportunities to spend money or spam friends to continue.
I consider the practice of dangling the carrot of level completion over children to be predatory. I would love to see pay-to-win micro-transactions reigned in on games marketed toward children.
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I know several children (well, highschoolers) who play Candy Crush -- but none of them feel compelled to pay. The payment dangle is a cooldown period every so often, and you can pay to avoid waiting for the cooldown. Some of the kids just wait it out. The ones who don't wait it out just set the time on their phone ahead and keep playing.
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Dear ed.
Well, "video games have health benefits for children", "benefits" links to an article citing only "video games can improve your health". Improve your health links to another trivial article citing only "video games that are supposed to improve your mental and physical health". Now, not only have we gone from an assertion of fact "do have benefits" and "can improve your health", we've fallen down to a mere "supposition." I suppose you know what they say about suppositions. Finally, "Mental and physical" links to http://www.beyond.com.au/. where the most meaningful science is found in the "Mythbusters 10-Year Anniversary" advertisement.
Please don't restate and overstatement of a supposition from a presumed source that is no longer linked. All tedium and no source makes Joey want to start cutting himself.
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There is a problem, but...
We have a number of different activities that are currently being labelled and considered as being the same, especially when using computers.
Unfortunately, the differences between such activities are so fundamental, that not recognising and understanding them - (or being able to do so) - IS causing problems. And since those whose responsibility it is to inform and teach people about such differences don't even know any better, either, it should be no surprise that the problems, and symptoms, are getting worse.
All this professor is doing is recognising the possibility of some symptoms of this very problem, but without relating it to such a problem in the first place it has no true context in which to exist, (and therefore be studied).
So, the problem is with what we use the word game to represent, and how and why it differs, but is related, to what we can (and should) use other words to represent, such as art, puzzle, competition, work and play.
So how can the differences between them so fundamental?
Because we're talking about differences such as:
Things a person DOES, and things that happen TO that (same) person.
We're talking about differences between things that can and should never be able to be considered and recognised as being the SAME THING.
That people (of any age) can be taken advantage of when getting confused between such different things should be no surprise to anyone.
The main questions, however, that truly need to be asked, are how we managed to get into such a situation in the first place, and what we can do about it...
Which is what I'm working on - (Part 1: On the Functionality And Identity Of Language).
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I knew it...
"I don't understand it, therefore it's evil."
How the hell those people have managed to survive this long is beyond me...
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Something I noticed in ALL theses studies
.......did you guess what is is yet.............
.......Still don't know???............
it's US!!! We are the Flaw.. Ban us, problem solved........
(yes OOTB this IS sarcasm)
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My mom says it's because my dad is a Jew but my dad says it's because my mom is a 90 year old man.
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I have this argument with my family
Why does it matter as long as the things that are supposed to be taken care of are being done?
I mean, I did try to crochet for a while, and the first thing that happened is the blanket I spent at least 2 months of my free time on got used as a dog blanket, I decided F it....and went back to gaming.
I work full time, pay my own bills, been on my own for 24 years. If I want to play WoW for 16 hours straight, by golly I will. Stop harassing me about it.
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Sure, that seems logical...
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