It's All About the Dopamine

A former Kindler has some thoughts on
video games and addiction in response to the Everquest Daily Grind, a collection of anecdotes from the associates of Evercrack junkies where you can read stories like this:

"I've tried tricking myself into letting my own baggage about the game go, for instance by pretending to myself that he's a Ph.D. candidate, say, or a medical student who needs to study all the time and thus cannot fairly be expected to do his share of cooking, shopping, or cleaning. I find myself hoping against hope that I'm not simply being used (allowing myself to be used), and that our friendship is in fact one-sided and wonderfully convenient for him."

As I write in the GGA coments section, I recently read that video games release dopamine in the brain, inducing pleasure and concentration and also making games highly addicting. With gaming's mainstream popularity rapidly growing, we are seeing more cases like those on EDG appear without the tag "he just really likes video games" alongside. As much as those in the gaming culture want to protect the hobby, there are negative issues that may need addressing.