Big game fan here, still I think she has a point, ok so maybe 40% is a lot, still. I'm goin in my second year of my study psychology, but I am also a big game fan as I said. There are people with a predisposition to become addicted to something, anything, this can be drugs, alcohol, gambling, and well apparently she believes games can become addictive too. Doesn't mean it's the fault of the game (or it's developpers), with alcoholics we don't blame the existence of beer as 'the' problem, it's the combo of receptive people and well addictive stuff. Doesn't mean beer should be forbidden, neither does it mean it's a bad thing when you drink (non-problematic). Point here is gaming is not the problem the problem is problematic gaming. Like drinking beer is not a problem, only problem drinkers have a problem, because it consumes too much of their lives.
And your not an addict when you can't stop watching a movie or something, usually the problematic behavior needs to be present during a certain period (not meaning hours, more like weeks or longer) to become a problem, and it needs to disrupt your normal daily life.
And as for the scary 'mental disorder' label, well it's just that, a label. Nothing more and nothing less. It's just a name for something that exists, that didn't exist. Compare it with a gambling addiction. No physical addiction, but there is a psychological addiction. I'm sure it'll be the talk of the town, but it'll blow over and eventually we will accept it just as a gambling addiction exists. Doesn't mean you can't have fun at the casino does it
And then about the warning on the box. Why should it be a bad thing? There are warnings on the cigarettes I buy, warning on the alcohol I buy, but that doesn't stop me from using them. Cause drinking aint a problem for me. (ok I won't deny I can't stop smoking
, but that's my choice) But what if i just recovered from my alcohol addiction and someone invited me to go to the casino, I might just not go, because that's an addictive game, and in this case I would know to watch out for that. But I might just run in to a MMORPG and slip into it. Wouldn't it be nice if I was warned? The label isn't targeted at healty consumers. They just ignore it anyway.
And there IS a difference between a hobby that consumes time and an addiction that consumes time. A hobby doesn't cause problematic behavior, an addiction does just that. I think it's everyone's own responsibility to decide when you think something is getting out of hand.
Oh, and about that chemical thing, it aint endorphines that make you feel happy and repeat behavior, that would be dopamine. Specifically in the nucleus accumbens in the brain, for your reference;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nucleus_accumbens That's the chemical released after diner, after sex. It's also the chemical almost all drugs work on; pleasure on the tap. It's also the chemical released during gaming. And therefore the reason sex after gaming aint that interesting. It's a substance that makes us repeat behavior that made us feel good, so normally we would repeat looking for food and having sex, so we live on and reproduce. But as the world has changed other things also elicit this chemical to be released, hence again our responsibility to enjoy but not get lost in it.
Well I'll be getting back into Oblivion now, just for a while, really!!