Could computer game addiction be the big problem in football

RedTillI'mDead

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As someone myself who understand what it is to milk out every minute of time trying to get achievements and pointlessly playing hours and hours of games I know what computer game addiction feels like.

I live for that next box to open for a reward or hitting some achievement. Eventually I get bored and move on to the next game, only reinforcing what a big waste of time it was.

But I enjoy the buzz of rewards/ achievements. I'm a driven person naturally and games give you far more regular highs than a promotion that might come round ever 2-3 years if you are lucky or maybe 1.5-2 years if you are changing jobs seeking the next thing.

Footballers have plenty of downtime and certainly will enjoy privacy among all the madness.

Everyone has seen clips of footballers playing Fifa or have heard about Fortnite sessions.

What will be less obvious is the hours and lack of sleep from computer game addiction. It could be reducing intensity in the gym or simply sapping energy.

It's easy to blame money, but footballers aren't often going to be spending money in a way that damages their focus. Computer games on the other hand certainly will.

What do you think? And do you think footballers are sleep tracked? E.g. Fitbit submissions?
 
Keeps It tidy said:
If you have a Footballer who is obsesswd with computer games be relieved it could be much worse.
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I think you underestimate the extent of what gaming addiction can do to someone, particularly in a performance setting.

It's probably on par with getting drunk, but yet not detectable.
 
It's a big problem in my house. 20 year old son is graduating 2 year college next week. Plans on moving to Florida to be with his girlfriend who lives there going to school. No job, no savings, no idea how he's going to pay for everything but it's not coming from my pocket. At least footballers have money.
 
Porn and hookers didn't make Ashley Cole all that bad. I'd imagine games aren't much worse.

Now on the other hand being told you're gods gift to football by your agent and momma, thatll do ya
 
peridigm said:
It's a big problem in my house. 20 year old son is graduating 2 year college next week. Plans on moving to Florida to be with his girlfriend who lives there going to school. No job, no savings, no idea how he's going to pay for everything but it's not coming from my pocket. At least footballers have money.
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What does this have to do with footballers or video games?
 
Maybe. I learned yesterday that the Fortnite devs employ 'Ethical UX Designers' so I imagine they know how addictive the game is. I'm not sure why footballers would be above the effects of they play it too much.

I don't think it's fair to single out games though, you're just as likely to find smartphone apps keeping people up at night. Like me, goodnight.
 
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Surely it can't be that big an issue? It wouldn't surprise me if it's affected some, but surely not a lot?

peridigm said:
It's a big problem in my house. 20 year old son is graduating 2 year college next week. Plans on moving to Florida to be with his girlfriend who lives there going to school. No job, no savings, no idea how he's going to pay for everything but it's not coming from my pocket. At least footballers have money.
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Try support it, at least in the moral way and assisting other than financially. Moving away does great things for people, broadens the mind, and can open up any number of doors (especially if it's abroad. Don't know where you live). The best times of my life have been when I've been living in a different country, and I've met a ridiculous amount of people through it, some who mean a lot to me still.
 
I remember watching an interview with Benzema a few years ago, where he said that all he would do growing up as a kid was play football. On weekends him and his friends would do nothing but play footie all day.

Kids nowadays play outside less than ever before. They would much rather play videogames.

I wonder if the next generation of footballers will be less talented than before just because kids just aren’t playing the game as much.

Not completely related to the point OP was making but it is something I’ve thought about before.
 
Infordin said:
I remember watching an interview with Benzema a few years ago, where he said that all he would do growing up as a kid was play football. On weekends him and his friends would do nothing but play footie all day.

Kids nowadays play outside less than ever before. They would much rather play videogames.

I wonder if the next generation of footballers will be less talented than before just because kids just aren’t playing the game as much.

Not completely related to the point OP was making but it is something I’ve thought about before.
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The ones who spent all of their time playing video games will simply not make it as pro Footballers. And most Footballers now were born in the 90s so they grew up with video games too.
 
The big problem? So far in the history of the sport the problem has been gambling. A lot of players have stayed up all night and gone broke. At least with the computer games they aren't going broke (cue Ultimate team money jokes).
 
My younger brother who has an intense weekly football schedule spends a lot of time on Fortnite and FIFA when he gets free time, but I would say he’s addicted to his mobile phone/social media more so than the computer game. It’s a hassle getting him off it when he’s eating, before bed and first thing in the morning before school.
 
Keeps It tidy said:
The ones who spent all of their time playing video games will simply not make it as pro Footballers. And most Footballers now were born in the 90s so they grew up with video games too.
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While this is true, the future is uncertain. In the 90s and the 00s it was still simple, you played the game and then you were done. Now you’re supposed to keep playing, play games so you can get special guns, or special power ups or whatever else. Gaming in recent years has tapped into the very thing that makes gambling a problem for some people. It’s only going to get worse as far as I can tell. Here’s a game for free, and here’s lots of little fun items to make the game more fun. Once your hooked, those little items cost money. What does that sound like?
 
Reddy Rederson said:
While this is true, the future is uncertain. In the 90s and the 00s it was still simple, you played the game and then you were done. Now you’re supposed to keep playing, play games so you can get special guns, or special power ups or whatever else. Gaming in recent years has tapped into the very thing that makes gambling a problem for some people. It’s only going to get worse as far as I can tell. Here’s a game for free, and here’s lots of little fun items to make the game more fun. Once your hooked, those little items cost money. What does that sound like?
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Eh?

A lot of the talented footballers coming up now probably grew up playing COD which was addictive especially COD4.
 
Being addicted to anything is a big problem. However, I don't think a true professional will let computer games hamper their career.
 
Bojan11 said:
Eh?

A lot of the talented footballers coming up now probably grew up playing COD which was addictive especially COD4.
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No it wasn’t, not in the same way. Some games now are employing gambling tactics to activate the reward centres of the brain. The most obvious example being fortnite with its spin the wheel to get an item. Well you get the gold level machine gun or the green level shovel? And you spin, and you spin again. You can’t earn enough in the game to feed that habit, but that’s ok. You can buy coins to spin again. What about all the free to play mobile games? 69p used to get you angry birds. You could play as much as you wanted with no adverts and no lives. Now you don’t buy the game, you get lives and you can wait x amount of time to get a new life, or you can pay.

First person shooters were popular the 90s because they were fun, and new. How many people sunk hours of theirs lives into doom? It was about the game, you shot guns and you killed things and that was it. Now you play destiny and replay the same levels over and over again so you can get the cool (but utterly pointless) loot. How many games now come out that aren’t grindy as feck? Go here, shoot this, get that, repeat. Keep going until you can get a full set of gear, or an exotic gun etc. Everybody got dooms bfg once they got a certain level. No one gets the same gun now, they have to play the same shit again and again and again. And people do it, because they have to have that gun, or gear, or badge, or whatever.
 
ship50 said:
Being addicted to anything is a big problem. However, I don't think a true professional will let computer games hamper their career.
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Which implies that addiction is a choice. It’s not. People piss their lives away all the time over the most stupid shit. Footballers are no different.
 
Reddy Rederson said:
No it wasn’t, not in the same way. Some games now are employing gambling tactics to activate the reward centres of the brain. The most obvious example being fortnite with its spin the wheel to get an item. Well you get the gold level machine gun or the green level shovel? And you spin, and you spin again. You can’t earn enough in the game to feed that habit, but that’s ok. You can buy coins to spin again. What about all the free to play mobile games? 69p used to get you angry birds. You could play as much as you wanted with no adverts and no lives. Now you don’t buy the game, you get lives and you can wait x amount of time to get a new life, or you can pay.

First person shooters were popular the 90s because they were fun, and new. How many people sunk hours of theirs lives into doom? It was about the game, you shot guns and you killed things and that was it. Now you play destiny and replay the same levels over and over again so you can get the cool (but utterly pointless) loot. How many games now come out that aren’t grindy as feck? Go here, shoot this, get that, repeat. Keep going until you can get a full set of gear, or an exotic gun etc. Everybody got dooms bfg once they got a certain level. No one gets the same gun now, they have to play the same shit again and again and again. And people do it, because they have to have that gun, or gear, or badge, or whatever.
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What do you mean it wasn’t?

It was the most addictive shooter at the time. People would waste hours to prestige. It was the only game people would play every year at the time.

Do you think this levelling up just came now?

We talking about gaming and addiction here. No idea what you going on about Doom or gambling tactics.

COD 4 a game that came out in 2007 was one of the first shooters to have that levelling up system. The more you play the better guns and perks you get. The better customisation you can do with your character. That was all there in 2007. It wasn’t like Unreal tournament where the better weapons are on the map. The difference between back then and now was they weren’t putting loot boxes or whatever to keep you playing. They were making money off people buying maps and obviously the game. The game was good enough to keep you addicted. Loot boxes weren’t really a thing in 2007. But when the remastered version came out they put loot boxes.

You mention Angry Birds which came out in 2009. Fifa UT came out in 2009. So no it’s not a recent thing. It’s just now more developers are doing it now to make games grindy to get a piece of the pie. It’s been around for ages but only now people are starting to wake up. EA have been making billions off UT which is basically a lottery for a decade now.
 
Bojan11 said:
What do you mean it wasn’t?

It was the most addictive shooter at the time. People would waste hours to prestige. It was the only game people would play every year at the time.

Do you think this levelling up just came now?

We talking about gaming and addiction here. No idea what you going on about Doom or gambling tactics.

COD 4 a game that came out in 2007 was one of the first shooters to have that levelling up system. The more you play the better guns and perks you get. The better customisation you can do with your character. That was all there in 2007. It wasn’t like Unreal tournament where the better weapons are on the map. The difference between back then and now was they weren’t putting loot boxes or whatever to keep you playing. They were making money off people buying maps and obviously the game. The game was good enough to keep you addicted. Loot boxes weren’t really a thing in 2007. But when the remastered version came out they put loot boxes.

You mention Angry Birds which came out in 2009. Fifa UT came out in 2009. So no it’s not a recent thing. It’s just now more developers are doing it now to make games grindy to get a piece of the pie. It’s been around for ages but only now people are starting to wake up. EA have been making billions off UT which is basically a lottery for a decade now.
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I love that I’m talking bait the 90s and early 00s but your naming games from 2007 and 2009. It’s also painfully clear you don’t know what I’m talking about. Being defensive of your pass time perhaps? There’s a huge difference between making an enjoyable game, and actively incorporating cheap tactics to get people to keep playing. Why do you think puggies have flashing lights? Surely the promise of winning money is enough to get you to keep playing? So why the constant flashy lights?

So if main stream gaming started incorporating these tactics to get people to keep playing, and it’s only got worse since then. What’s its going be like in another 10 years? Have you noticed that it’s bleeding into other areas of our lives? Got an app that gives you a thumbs up for doing so many steps? Saving money? What about driving? Pick up little sweets for having an app open in your car? Ever see anyone asking for a ‘like’ system in here? I wonder why?

The reward centres of our brains are being abused. It didn’t start yesterday, I didn’t say it did. It’s gotten worse and worse as the the years have gone on. What started out as little innocent box of loot, has become the driving force as to why you keep playing. There’s just as much danger of being a social media addict as there is a gaming addict. It didn’t just turn on at full pelt. It has insidiously wormed it’s way into being part of the game. Almost expect. Perhaps, now, even desired. That little rush, when you get like for your post about racists. That little rush when you spend 50 v bucks to spin the wheel for an item. That heavy rush when you’ve taken out the big bad for millionth time, but this time, that box will have that exotic that you want. Ignore if you want, but don’t tell me it’s not a thing.
 
Reddy Rederson said:
No it wasn’t, not in the same way. Some games now are employing gambling tactics to activate the reward centres of the brain. The most obvious example being fortnite with its spin the wheel to get an item. Well you get the gold level machine gun or the green level shovel? And you spin, and you spin again. You can’t earn enough in the game to feed that habit, but that’s ok. You can buy coins to spin again. What about all the free to play mobile games? 69p used to get you angry birds. You could play as much as you wanted with no adverts and no lives. Now you don’t buy the game, you get lives and you can wait x amount of time to get a new life, or you can pay.

First person shooters were popular the 90s because they were fun, and new. How many people sunk hours of theirs lives into doom? It was about the game, you shot guns and you killed things and that was it. Now you play destiny and replay the same levels over and over again so you can get the cool (but utterly pointless) loot. How many games now come out that aren’t grindy as feck? Go here, shoot this, get that, repeat. Keep going until you can get a full set of gear, or an exotic gun etc. Everybody got dooms bfg once they got a certain level. No one gets the same gun now, they have to play the same shit again and again and again. And people do it, because they have to have that gun, or gear, or badge, or whatever.
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Not that it matters much since the game is so addictive but there’s no spinning in the fortnite game. Might be thinking of another
 
Reddy Rederson said:
I love that I’m talking bait the 90s and early 00s but your naming games from 2007 and 2009. It’s also painfully clear you don’t know what I’m talking about. Being defensive of your pass time perhaps? There’s a huge difference between making an enjoyable game, and actively incorporating cheap tactics to get people to keep playing. Why do you think puggies have flashing lights? Surely the promise of winning money is enough to get you to keep playing? So why the constant flashy lights?

So if main stream gaming started incorporating these tactics to get people to keep playing, and it’s only got worse since then. What’s its going be like in another 10 years? Have you noticed that it’s bleeding into other areas of our lives? Got an app that gives you a thumbs up for doing so many steps? Saving money? What about driving? Pick up little sweets for having an app open in your car? Ever see anyone asking for a ‘like’ system in here? I wonder why?

The reward centres of our brains are being abused. It didn’t start yesterday, I didn’t say it did. It’s gotten worse and worse as the the years have gone on. What started out as little innocent box of loot, has become the driving force as to why you keep playing. There’s just as much danger of being a social media addict as there is a gaming addict. It didn’t just turn on at full pelt. It has insidiously wormed it’s way into being part of the game. Almost expect. Perhaps, now, even desired. That little rush, when you get like for your post about racists. That little rush when you spend 50 v bucks to spin the wheel for an item. That heavy rush when you’ve taken out the big bad for millionth time, but this time, that box will have that exotic that you want. Ignore if you want, but don’t tell me it’s not a thing.
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Do you just go off tangent that doesn’t make any sense every time you respond?

You responded to this originally

The ones who spent all of their time playing video games will simply not make it as pro Footballers. And most Footballers now were born in the 90s so they grew up with video games too.
Click to expand...

Let’s take Sterling for example he was a teenager when COD came out and when Fifa UT got popular.

Fifa has been popular when Rashford, Mbappe and Sancho were teenagers.

I don’t know why you keep going on about Fortnite or these other shit free to play games. You do realise these aren’t the only games people get addicted to play.

We are talking about gaming addiction. Addictive games have been around for a long time. A game doesn’t need to have a loot box to be addictive. Back in the old days people used to spend crazy hours on the final fantasy games. You making it sound like they just cropped up. David James has even said he was addicted to his PS1 playing tekken late at night which affected his performances.
 
I've read an article somewhere that states that NBA players who spent time playing video games the night before a game, would like to lose or had bad games.
By simple logic, any athletes would not be able to perform at the highest level if they lacked proper rest
 
Infordin said:
I remember watching an interview with Benzema a few years ago, where he said that all he would do growing up as a kid was play football. On weekends him and his friends would do nothing but play footie all day.

Kids nowadays play outside less than ever before. They would much rather play videogames.

I wonder if the next generation of footballers will be less talented than before just because kids just aren’t playing the game as much.

Not completely related to the point OP was making but it is something I’ve thought about before.
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I don’t think they’ll be less talented because the kids I see come through now playing Fifa etc actually pick up skills way faster even via the game and with YouTube - they’re always able to analyse games and players a lot more effectively than previous generations.

Agree with OP on the focus issue - it will affect their ability to keep discipline over 90 mins, I think the area which is affected the most is probably defence - getting defenders who can be rocks for an entire season might become harder.
 
Wow, people yet again pointing the finger at gamers. This says a lot about our society..

#gamersriseup
 
Raees said:
I don’t think they’ll be less talented because the kids I see come through now playing Fifa etc actually pick up skills way faster even via the game and with YouTube - they’re always able to analyse games and players a lot more effectively than previous generations.

Agree with OP on the focus issue - it will affect their ability to keep discipline over 90 mins, I think the area which is affected the most is probably defence - getting defenders who can be rocks for an entire season might become harder.
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I think FIFA and Youtube are huge reasons why there is good players coming from the States now.
 
Bojan11 said:
Do you just go off tangent that doesn’t make any sense every time you respond?

You responded to this originally



Let’s take Sterling for example he was a teenager when COD came out and when Fifa UT got popular.

Fifa has been popular when Rashford, Mbappe and Sancho were teenagers.

I don’t know why you keep going on about Fortnite or these other shit free to play games. You do realise these aren’t the only games people get addicted to play.

We are talking about gaming addiction. Addictive games have been around for a long time. A game doesn’t need to have a loot box to be addictive. Back in the old days people used to spend crazy hours on the final fantasy games. You making it sound like they just cropped up. David James has even said he was addicted to his PS1 playing tekken late at night which affected his performances.
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Are you being purposefully obtuse? When the feck did I say it wasn’t addictive before? I said it’s gotten worse. I gave you examples of how it’s gotten worse but cod 4 makes me wrong? No wonder the mains get slagged off to feck. cnuts will argue the toss over anything.
 
Reddy Rederson said:
Are you being purposefully obtuse? When the feck did I say it wasn’t addictive before? I said it’s gotten worse. I gave you examples of how it’s gotten worse but cod 4 makes me wrong? No wonder the mains get slagged off to feck. cnuts will argue the toss over anything.
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It is an internet forum that should be expected.
 
Keeps It tidy said:
I think FIFA and Youtube are huge reasons why there is good players coming from the States now.
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Not surprised. Compare that to my generation and I only would get glimpses of games via MOTD or major tournaments and wasn’t allowed a console until I was 10.

And video games back then were so limited in terms of skills, there was none of these 5 star skills etc or emphasis on possession/pressing.
 
Meh games these days are tailored for casuals anyway. Sure there are always hardcore players but these days, most of the popular online games are about quick matches under 40 mins (per match). Also with the help of matchmaking system, the average Joes spend less time on games, the days of inviting/waiting for people to get a match ready are long gone.

We're not talking about 2006 World of Warcraft where people stopped going to work and school to grind all day, to achieve basic stuffs because the game was very time consuming.

Conclusion : I think no because the design of games has shifted from "I spend so much of my time gaming because I'm addicted and it messes up my schedule but.. there are so much to explore!" to "I spend so much money on micro transactions in games while the games literally stay the same.. but I'm addicted".
 
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I work from home and the people who are "gamer's" don't last long in my team.

It's because if they are really into gaming, they seem to use there down time to "catch up on gaming" then before they know it 4 hours have gone and the work is still there.

Anyone that travels for work will tell you, its fecking boring at night. I just sink a couple of beers, footballers can't go out on town or sit in a kebab house eating a donna. They are normally in there room, what else is there to do...?
 
Hawks2008 said:
The title literally says gaming is the big problem in football, he and others are blaming their problems on gamers. More proof that gamers are the most oppressed group in society.
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Do gamers make games? If games are the problem, then it’s the games themselves or those that make them. And they are a problem, as I’ve already said games makers are increasing incorporating tactics that increase the risk of addiction.
 
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