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Addictions generally cost money. If he has the money to waste, its still beats other addictions that can kill you. I used to work with someone whose brother-in-

Addictions generally cost money. If he has the money to waste, its still beats other addictions that can kill you. I used to work with someone whose brother-in-law bet and often lost $10,000 a day in Macau on baccarat when on vacation.

stronglikedan 9y ago
> If he has the money to waste Money isn't wasted if spent on something that makes the spender happy.
- grecy 9y ago
  In fact I would argue that's the entire purpose of earning money in the first place!
  - narrator 9y ago
    Ahahahaha... I believe many a burnt out trust fund kid in rehab would agree with you here. Sometimes I wonder how many people would end up dead or in rehab if they didn't have to go to work everyday. Not everyone, but a fair number I'm sure.
    - grecy 9y ago
      I think you're right that too much money that one didn't earn can be a problem. But certainly money a person earned themselves is theirs to enjoy. I'm spending mine driving around Africa, it's great not to go to work for 2+ years !
- hashkb 9y ago
  These games don't make you happy, they addict you to short term dopamine dumps. The games are engineered to reward spending money. After quitting WoW, I realized it was a waste of time. During my addiction, I would have used this argument.
  - charlesdm 9y ago
    I actually found my WoW time to be highly productive: it made me realise you can generally achieve the things you want in life if you focus on them (I went from a total noob to playing competitively in a guild that achieved a few world first kills in about 2 years). It also gave me an iPhone app idea that made me a few hundred grand and took me about two months to develop. Mind, this was about 10 years ago, during Burning Crusade. If I had to start over, I'd do it all again -- had great fun.
    - thefounder 9y ago
      Some if not most remain stuck in the game with no iphone app project. Depends how addicted you get. If you know you can't manage addiction you better avoid it(i.e don't play games that never end)
      - charlesdm 9y ago
        I played a lot (there were definitely 15+ hour days), but I don't think I was ever really addicted. Just plotting the course and working towards the goal. Once I achieved that, I only played competitively for about 9 months and then quit. To be honest, as ridiculous as it sounds, I really needed that to boost my self esteem. It has a lot of the same social constructs the real world has from which you can learn. That experience definitely helped me grow from being a socially awkward person to being more sociable and approachable, and having more belief in my own ability (.. even though it was just a game!). I don't think school would've ever been able to do that.
      - deleted 9y ago
        [deleted]
      - JangoSteve 9y ago
        To build on that a bit, I think one of the main issues with comparing one's own experiences with others' is that each person's brain is wired differently, so how one perceives, internalizes, and reacts to an experience is not necessarily how someone else does. I think it's the same kind of thing that makes one person like a food that another person hates, or that causes one person to like thriller movies while another doesn't. In the same way, I think one person can spend a lot of time and money on an activity responsibly and positively, while another person has a higher chance of succumbing to deleterious interactions that become habit or addiction. However, the fact that some people can enjoy a game responsibly doesn't really excuse the game maker from taking advantage of those who can't.
- bitumen 9y ago
  Feeding an addiction doesn’t lead to happiness, it staves off withdrawel. Happiness is a positive thing, not the absence of a negative thing. Addictions also tend to lead to other addictions, since the underlying “circuitry” is the same, in the same way that strong belief in one conspiracy theory is the biggest risk factor for believing in others.
  - DoTheNeedful 9y ago
    > Feeding an addiction doesn’t lead to happiness. That's a matter of opinion. You are not an arbiter of the human condition.
    - ABCLAW 9y ago
      One of my friends runs a game shop. He told me a wealthy surgeon would come in weekly and buy $5,000 worth of baseball cards - either as singles, boxes of unopened packs, or whatnot. I remarked that the surgeon must really enjoy the hobby. He replied that the surgeon looked exceptionally distraught every time he made a purchase, but did so regardless. It's just anecdata, but being able to support an addiction doesn't mean you have control over it, nor that you're happy about having it. Speaking of which, it's time for me to get off HN and do some real work.
  - DelightOne 9y ago
    So the medicine became an additional anchor trying to sink you?
- jaclaz 9y ago
  The traditional quote being by W.C. Fields: “I spent half my money on gambling, alcohol and wild women. The other half I wasted.”
take4 9y ago
He says he plays every waking hour of the day unless he's "sleeping, driving, or taking a bath". I think he's wasting a bit more than just money.
- tytytytytytytyt 9y ago
  Yeah, wasting his bath time, since he could be playing then, too.
trappist 9y ago
I had a mobile game I spent nearly this much on before my wife persuaded me, with some help from my experience with addiction, that it was exactly this. A year or so later I still get a little adrenaline rush if I happen to look at the clock and it's exactly 2pm which means I'm running late for an important event in the game. Sucks.
- crescentfresh 9y ago
  > with some help from my experience with addiction Is there a spectrum to addiction? A dopamine response is a dopamine response, at what point would an activity be classified as an addiction outside the hyperbole of "affects your job/relationship/eating/etc"
  - DanBC 9y ago
    The old definition of addiction required physical dependency. Alcohol and opioids give this. Other stuff not so much. Stopping alcohol if you have a physical dependence cannbe fatal, so that's one big way it's different to a gambling addiction. The new definition (preoccupation; seeking; increased "dose"; continuing when you know it's casing harm) is useful because it allows earlier intervention and covers a wider range of things that damage people.
jrs95 9y ago
Honestly I think I'd rather OD than have people find out I was spending this much money on a mobile game

stronglikedan 9y ago

> If he has the money to waste Money isn't wasted if spent on something that makes the spender happy.

grecy 9y ago
In fact I would argue that's the entire purpose of earning money in the first place!
- narrator 9y ago
  Ahahahaha... I believe many a burnt out trust fund kid in rehab would agree with you here. Sometimes I wonder how many people would end up dead or in rehab if they didn't have to go to work everyday. Not everyone, but a fair number I'm sure.
  - grecy 9y ago
    I think you're right that too much money that one didn't earn can be a problem. But certainly money a person earned themselves is theirs to enjoy. I'm spending mine driving around Africa, it's great not to go to work for 2+ years !
hashkb 9y ago
These games don't make you happy, they addict you to short term dopamine dumps. The games are engineered to reward spending money. After quitting WoW, I realized it was a waste of time. During my addiction, I would have used this argument.
- charlesdm 9y ago
  I actually found my WoW time to be highly productive: it made me realise you can generally achieve the things you want in life if you focus on them (I went from a total noob to playing competitively in a guild that achieved a few world first kills in about 2 years). It also gave me an iPhone app idea that made me a few hundred grand and took me about two months to develop. Mind, this was about 10 years ago, during Burning Crusade. If I had to start over, I'd do it all again -- had great fun.
  - thefounder 9y ago
    Some if not most remain stuck in the game with no iphone app project. Depends how addicted you get. If you know you can't manage addiction you better avoid it(i.e don't play games that never end)
    - charlesdm 9y ago
      I played a lot (there were definitely 15+ hour days), but I don't think I was ever really addicted. Just plotting the course and working towards the goal. Once I achieved that, I only played competitively for about 9 months and then quit. To be honest, as ridiculous as it sounds, I really needed that to boost my self esteem. It has a lot of the same social constructs the real world has from which you can learn. That experience definitely helped me grow from being a socially awkward person to being more sociable and approachable, and having more belief in my own ability (.. even though it was just a game!). I don't think school would've ever been able to do that.
    - deleted 9y ago
      [deleted]
    - JangoSteve 9y ago
      To build on that a bit, I think one of the main issues with comparing one's own experiences with others' is that each person's brain is wired differently, so how one perceives, internalizes, and reacts to an experience is not necessarily how someone else does. I think it's the same kind of thing that makes one person like a food that another person hates, or that causes one person to like thriller movies while another doesn't. In the same way, I think one person can spend a lot of time and money on an activity responsibly and positively, while another person has a higher chance of succumbing to deleterious interactions that become habit or addiction. However, the fact that some people can enjoy a game responsibly doesn't really excuse the game maker from taking advantage of those who can't.
bitumen 9y ago
Feeding an addiction doesn’t lead to happiness, it staves off withdrawel. Happiness is a positive thing, not the absence of a negative thing. Addictions also tend to lead to other addictions, since the underlying “circuitry” is the same, in the same way that strong belief in one conspiracy theory is the biggest risk factor for believing in others.
- DoTheNeedful 9y ago
  > Feeding an addiction doesn’t lead to happiness. That's a matter of opinion. You are not an arbiter of the human condition.
  - ABCLAW 9y ago
    One of my friends runs a game shop. He told me a wealthy surgeon would come in weekly and buy $5,000 worth of baseball cards - either as singles, boxes of unopened packs, or whatnot. I remarked that the surgeon must really enjoy the hobby. He replied that the surgeon looked exceptionally distraught every time he made a purchase, but did so regardless. It's just anecdata, but being able to support an addiction doesn't mean you have control over it, nor that you're happy about having it. Speaking of which, it's time for me to get off HN and do some real work.
- DelightOne 9y ago
  So the medicine became an additional anchor trying to sink you?
jaclaz 9y ago
The traditional quote being by W.C. Fields: “I spent half my money on gambling, alcohol and wild women. The other half I wasted.”

take4 9y ago

He says he plays every waking hour of the day unless he's "sleeping, driving, or taking a bath". I think he's wasting a bit more than just money.

tytytytytytytyt 9y ago
Yeah, wasting his bath time, since he could be playing then, too.

trappist 9y ago

I had a mobile game I spent nearly this much on before my wife persuaded me, with some help from my experience with addiction, that it was exactly this. A year or so later I still get a little adrenaline rush if I happen to look at the clock and it's exactly 2pm which means I'm running late for an important event in the game. Sucks.

crescentfresh 9y ago
> with some help from my experience with addiction Is there a spectrum to addiction? A dopamine response is a dopamine response, at what point would an activity be classified as an addiction outside the hyperbole of "affects your job/relationship/eating/etc"
- DanBC 9y ago
  The old definition of addiction required physical dependency. Alcohol and opioids give this. Other stuff not so much. Stopping alcohol if you have a physical dependence cannbe fatal, so that's one big way it's different to a gambling addiction. The new definition (preoccupation; seeking; increased "dose"; continuing when you know it's casing harm) is useful because it allows earlier intervention and covers a wider range of things that damage people.

jrs95 9y ago

Honestly I think I'd rather OD than have people find out I was spending this much money on a mobile game