Could you introduce yourself and explain your role in the project?
My name is Sébastien Puel. I am the Producer on Assassin’s Creed 2. My role is to manage the production team and to ship the best game. On which platforms will Assassin’s Creed 2 be available? Assassin’s Creed 2 will be available on PS3, X360, PC and also on PSP. I am in charge of the PC, X360 and PS3 versions. Assassin’s Creed 2 will be released during Holiday 2009.
Who is in charge of the development?
The game is mainly developed by Ubisoft Montreal on PS3, X360 and PC and more than 300 people are currently working on the project.
How is Assassin’s Creed 1 linked with Assassin’s Creed 2?
Assassin’s Creed 2 is the direct sequel of Assassin’s Creed so of course, there are a lot of similarities, but the team is working very hard on increasing the overall scope of the game structure and on adding more depth and variety to the core Assassin’s Creed game play. Apart from that, there are many other links with Assassin’s Creed. We are using the Scimitar/Anvil development engine that was conceived for the first Assassin’s Creed and used for other games such as Prince of Persia and Shaun White Snowboarding. Also, we have a technical team working hard on upgrading and adding new features to Anvil. Through the years of working with this engine, we have gained a great deal of knowledge and experience. The game features a huge interactive world but this time set in another era, the Italian Renaissance. You play not only as an assassin but as a young Italian noble seeking to uncover the truth. There is also a great deal of elements that we are improving that are the fundaments of the Assassin’s Creed brand: Freedom, crowd behavior, fluid animations, intense combat, free-running, blending, memorable assassinations, detailed realistic settings…
What new things can we expect in Assassin’s Creed 2 that distinguishes the experience from the one we enjoyed in Assassin’s Creed 1? What are your ambitions behind one of the biggest and still young franchise in the video game industry?
What we do in Assassin’s Creed 2 is quite simple: take the best of Assassin’s Creed and bring it to the next level! Assassin’s Creed was an astonishing experience; I believe it brought entirely new elements to the industry: allowing players to fluidly navigate an urban environment while enjoying visual perfection and quality of control; it immersed players in a believable and mature experience inspired by historical events, while recreating a rich and believable crowd that was only possible on this generation of consoles. Of course we will keep and improve on all those elements: even more gorgeous city landscapes, more animations, a captivating and epic story, more ways to interact with the crowd … But our main focus is diversity in each aspect of the game: more variety in missions and objectives, more variety in gameplay, more weapons, more diverse assassinations and deep character progressions, etc. These will all help to make the experience evolve through the game. We really want Assassin’s Creed 2 to be unpredictable and have the player wonder after each main assassination: ‘and now, what’s next!?’
What is the storyline of the game?
To help the assassins in their quest, Desmond will be exploring his DNA to find another ancestor’s memory: Ezio Auditore Di Firenze; a nobleman who lived at the end of the 15th Century in Italy. Betrayed by the ruling families of Italy, Ezio embarks upon an epic quest for vengeance. To his allies, he will become a force for change - fighting for freedom and justice. To his enemies, he will become a boogey man – dedicated to the destruction of the tyrants abusing the people of Italy. On his quest for vengeance, Ezio – and Desmond through Ezio’s story – will uncover a much bigger plot: A conspiracy rooted in Assassin’s Creed and that still impact the world of Desmond – our very world.
Why did you choose the Italian Renaissance as the next setting for Assassin’s Creed?
When we defined the Assassin’s Creed franchise, we knew we wanted to talk about pivotal periods in history: the moments where everything changes, that define the world in which we are living today. That was exactly the case with the first Crusade: this period defined the balance of power between Civilization and Religion for the centuries to come. So when we started Assassin’s Creed 2, we asked ourselves the same question. What is the next defining moment in History? The answer was pretty easy to find: in a few years and in a very small place, a handful of men of genius radically changed EVERYTHING; they invented a modern vision of the world, where men were at the center rather than God. They invented a new way of representing the world (the invention of perspective), they changed politics, architecture, the art of modern war and diplomacy – they invented the banking system as we know it and even advertising! One man even invented planes, helicopter and tanks! Those men were Botticelli, Machiavelli, Leonardo Da Vinci and the Medici. The place is Italy. The time was the end of the 15th century and it is called Renaissance, literally a Rebirth. This is the History as we learnt it. But those were also cruel times, ruled by war, treason and murder! Of course we found very interesting to picture this in an Assassin’s Creed game and cast a new light on those astonishing events.
What can you tell us of the art style of the game and the general visual experience the game will offer in bringing the 15th century Italian Renaissance to life?
Visual quality and its accuracy to the look and feel of the period is a big part of the franchise. From a strict technical point of view, we have the chance to work with great tools – and the best thing is that we also improved on this side since Assassin’s Creed 1. Assassin’s Creed 2 will feature better lighting and even more detailed environments than Assassin’s Creed. But certainly, the most important thing is that we are now playing with some of the world’s most beautiful urban environments: Venice, Florence, Tuscany are all a real treat for the eyes in 3D just as in real life. Our art team managed to perfectly render not only the streets, houses, water canals and beautiful palaces of those cities, but also the unique mood and light of Italian cities of the 15th century. Walking at night alone in the maze of streets that defines Venice is a real fantasy come true… Now, exploring Venice will be possible directly from your living room.
Assassin’s Creed 2 presents us with a new protagonist. We see that Ezio has a new appearance and probably a much different personality since he is not from the same era. What have been your inspirations behind the design of Ezio?
The Assassin’s brotherhood lives on, its creed remain timeless although its members change over time. Ezio is at first glance a young Renaissance nobleman but Assassin’s blood flows through his veins. Like Altair, he is mysterious and has extraordinary natural talents; he is master of his emotions and is very efficient in the art of killing. But at the same time, Ezio is made of his own past: he is well mannered, and able to interact with all different classes of society. As he is Italian, we also wanted to give him a special … inclination for women: he is a seducer. But most importantly: Ezio is someone marked by fate: the decadence of his powerful family certainly plays a great role in the man he becomes. Ezio’s quest will first be driven by vengeance, a strong will to retaliate against the ones who were responsible for the fate of his once prosperous family. This honorable will to avenge his loved ones will lead him to unknown territory and something much bigger than his own quest for vengeance and justice…
Can you describe some of the new skills and movements that will make Ezio a masterful assassin?
Ezio will have a whole new set of aptitudes in different fields – to navigate the world, to stay out of sight, to fight and to assassinate. In terms of navigations, we, of course, wanted to adapt the main character to the new environments in the second game. Since a good part of the action takes place in Venice, Ezio is able to dive and swim. Expect to be able to strategically use those new skills to your advantage for various missions. Ezio will also have the possibility to blend into any kind of group of citizens in the crowd, making the navigation all the more fun and believable. Also, he won’t have to be static in a group; players will be able to move in a group while blended and really roam around the city from one group of people to another. The crowd is a central element in Assassin’s Creed and for the second game; we really want the players to feel that every NPC is an opportunity. The free-running in the cities is more fun and fluid than ever. We have developed new abilities and cool moves that will feel fresh when running in Venice and keep the player on the spot while climbing a building. The new “climb leap” move gives the player the opportunity to launch himself a couple of meters high in the air while climbing a vertical building to reach a higher ledge that would be inaccessible without this move. Many new skills concern the fighting system – without naming all the new possible moves, Ezio can master a great amount of weapons: long pikes, axes and warhammers to name just a few. As those are heavy weapons, Ezio won’t have to carry them all the time: he will now be able to disarm his enemies and leave his weapons behind. Since Ezio will not be carrying a weapon at all times apart from his hidden blade and throwing knives, he needs to be able to use his hands more efficiently when fighting. Therefore, Ezio will be able to fight using his bare hands against enemies any time in the game and perform various punches, kicks, grab movements, headbutts... One hidden blade is fun but two is better. This time, Ezio will have one hidden blade on each arm. The main hidden blade will be on his left arm and the secondary hidden blade on his right arm. Imagine all the possibilities in new assassination moves, counters and upgrades using two hidden blades. Finally, we added a lot of new assassination moves – Ezio is able to assassinate, with a specific move, from virtually anywhere in the city: from roofs, hiding spots, water, ledges etc … These are just but a few of the new skills Ezio brings to the table; he has many more tricks up his sleeve…
The Renaissance is famous for having been the crucible for some of the most talented and renowned figures of history. Will we be able to meet some of those historical figures?
This was one of the main reasons why we chose Renaissance and Italy. When you decide to go there, you’ve got a hell of a cast and lots of information on them! Leonardo Da Vinci for instance is one of the main secondary characters. For Ezio he is at the same time a mentor and … a weapon crafter. Expect some surprises from this genius mind, one example being the double hidden blade. The player will also be able to meet some of the Legends of this time: the Medici, Machiavelli... When doing our research on these historical characters, we were fascinated by all the cool stories we could tell about them and how we could use recorded facts and tweak them so that it suits our story very well. We want the players to learn about these characters and specific sides of them, both factual and fictional. We are proud to say that the Assassin’s Creed franchise is one of the rare games that can serve as an excellent source of information and knowledge for an historical period. The Renaissance is much richer in terms of archived information over the Middle Ages and we could really push our research to make the best story possible with many historical characters.
The entire game play/mission structure in Assassin’s Creed 1 was semi-linear and kept the same structure through the 9 assassinations. Will Assassin’s Creed 2 feature more missions and a wider variety in the structure and how the story unfolds?
The game structure and the mission system was the most central element for us to improve. We are redefining the mission game play structure to give gamers a more enjoyable & rewarding experience. Here are the three major points we will modify:1) The variety/number of available missions 2) The number of mission givers3) How the story and the missions unfold to the player We are now telling a story in a way that is intended to be very unpredictable. There is no more ‘X assassinations’ to perform but a story that develops through a great amount of mission givers. Some will give you an assassination mission, others an intimidation or information-gathering mission etc… There is no limit now to the types of challenges we can give to players. We are very careful on creating a lot of variation in the types of gameplay and pace we are proposing. But we also want the player to have a real freedom and opportunity to explore and ‘use’ the world we have created, at his own pace. Cities are now filled with a great amount of missions that the player can do if he chooses so: for instance, you can now decide to get rid of witnesses if you feel you are getting too famous after a not-so-stealthy assassination, or help thieves pursued by guards. Each of these tasks are optional, but will bring you interesting rewards if you accept to fulfill them.
Crowd interaction was one the big promises of Assassin’s Creed 1. How will you improve the crowd interaction for the second game and the role of the NPCs for blending/stealth/attack…?
In Assassin’s Creed 2, you have been betrayed by the ruling Italian Families – you will have to learn how to interact and use the ‘common people’ or, like we call them in the game, “the underworld”, to get your revenge. So you can generally consider that the crowd is on your side (except of course if you behave too badly!). First, any crowd NPC can help you to hide – just go into a group and press the blend button to enter a crowd and lower your chances of being noticed by guards. The crowd can help you to stealth through the city but aren’t 100% stealth proof as guards have various awareness levels depending of their class. We have also added a new “notoriety system” where your actions in the city will impact your notoriety and how you are “wanted” in the city. You will get more updates of the “notoriety system” soon. There are many other features in the game related to the use of crowd and we will definitely reveal more in the coming months.
Have you implemented any new forms of less traditional gameplay?
For Assassin’s Creed 2, there will be various new types of gameplay to break and vary the flow of the game and add intense “WOW” moments, one of them involving a certain flying machine that Leonardo Da Vinci conceptualized and developed. Ezio will be able to launch himself from a high point in the air flying around the city to reach specific location quickly and with the effect of surprise. Travelling with the flying machine will require precision and timing.
Monday, April 20, 2009
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Assassin's Creed Awesome Video And Assassin's Creed 2 detail (more)
Assassin's Creed Awesome Video
here's the link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Di9tORLFbwU&feature=related
Here is the detail about Assassin's Creed 2
It from other people blogger
http://lifelessly-yours.blogspot.com/2009/04/assassins-creed-2-facts-theories-and.html
here's the link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Di9tORLFbwU&feature=related
Here is the detail about Assassin's Creed 2
It from other people blogger
http://lifelessly-yours.blogspot.com/2009/04/assassins-creed-2-facts-theories-and.html
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Assassin's Creed 2 details leaked?
Source: The GameFAQs forums, relating information from a since-deleted Ubisoft message board post.
What we heard: On Monday, Ubisoft set the gears of the Assassin's Creed 2 hype machine in motion, launching a teaser site for the sequel to 2007's well-received multiplatform action adventure. Visitors to the site are greeted with a brief Flash clip panning through the journal of famed Italian inventor Leonardo da Vinci. The short teaser ends with word that a full review of Assassin's Creed 2 is expected to arrive with the upcoming issue of Game Informer magazine, which is owned by retailer GameStop.
On its Web site today, Game Informer confirmed that Assassin's Creed 2 will indeed be the cover story of its upcoming issue. The site also noted in a brief blurb that the title will be set in "Renaissance-era Venice" and will follow the travails of new protagonist Ezio, a young Italian noble. For more on its "world exclusive," the blurb teases, gamers will have to spring for the May issue of the mag...
...or wait until the Internet gets its collective hands on it a week early. Yesterday, a poster on Ubisoft's official forums offered a detailed accounting of purported Assassin's Creed 2 information that will be included in the May issue of Game Informer. (Before the post was deleted by a Ubisoft forums administrator, a GameFAQs user secured a copy of the original message.)
The post offers a litany of alleged details on Assassin's Creed 2. According to the original message, the game will offer a number of famous Venetian locales, including da Vinci's workshop, Saint Mark's Basilica, The Grand Canal, The Little Canal, and the Rialto Bridge. Players will also supposedly be afforded trips through the Tuscan countryside, circa 1476. A number of historical figures will also reportedly be present, including Niccolo Machiavelli, Caterina Sofrza, and Lorenzo de Medici, the latter of which is said to be the subject of an assassination attempt.
Ezio--full name Ezio Auditore de Firenze--will apparently have a number of weapons to choose from, including "an axe, a hammer, a mace, a spear, two different sword types, a [halberd], and two smaller blades." Each weapon is said to have a special move associated with it, and Ezio will be able to disarm opponents and use their fumbled weaponry against them.
Continuing with the Venice theme, swimming will reportedly be an option in the game. And, as speculated following Ubisoft's official teaser, the leaked details claim that Ezio will be able to take to the skies using da Vinci's flying machine. The report also states that a day-and-night cycle has been added to the game.
Moving on to specific gameplay details, the Game Informer reveal will also reportedly say that Assassin's Creed will sport 16 mission types, a dramatic increase over the original's four. Two mission types supposedly not included, however, will be eavesdropping and pickpocketing. A number of new enemy types are said to have been added, including archers, "as well as elite enemies, dagger wielders, 'Brutish' armored troops with heavy armor and two-handed swords and axes, and an intelligent halberd enemy will probe hiding places with their weapons if they think you're nearby."
The post goes on to state that Assassin's Creed 2 will also include a number of holdover mechanics from the original, including tower climbing and horseback riding, and assassinations can now reportedly be performed while Ezio is concealed in a stack of hay. Hidden objects will also return, though the report indicates that players will gain in-game benefits by hunting them down this time around.
The official story: "I can confirm that the information in the upcoming Game Informer magazine is factually correct," a word-mincing Ubisoft representative told GameSpot.
Bogus or not bogus?: Looking not bogus. However, it's impossible to say with certainty whether the forum poster was accurate in his details until Game Informer hits newsstands next week.
What we heard: On Monday, Ubisoft set the gears of the Assassin's Creed 2 hype machine in motion, launching a teaser site for the sequel to 2007's well-received multiplatform action adventure. Visitors to the site are greeted with a brief Flash clip panning through the journal of famed Italian inventor Leonardo da Vinci. The short teaser ends with word that a full review of Assassin's Creed 2 is expected to arrive with the upcoming issue of Game Informer magazine, which is owned by retailer GameStop.
On its Web site today, Game Informer confirmed that Assassin's Creed 2 will indeed be the cover story of its upcoming issue. The site also noted in a brief blurb that the title will be set in "Renaissance-era Venice" and will follow the travails of new protagonist Ezio, a young Italian noble. For more on its "world exclusive," the blurb teases, gamers will have to spring for the May issue of the mag...
...or wait until the Internet gets its collective hands on it a week early. Yesterday, a poster on Ubisoft's official forums offered a detailed accounting of purported Assassin's Creed 2 information that will be included in the May issue of Game Informer. (Before the post was deleted by a Ubisoft forums administrator, a GameFAQs user secured a copy of the original message.)
The post offers a litany of alleged details on Assassin's Creed 2. According to the original message, the game will offer a number of famous Venetian locales, including da Vinci's workshop, Saint Mark's Basilica, The Grand Canal, The Little Canal, and the Rialto Bridge. Players will also supposedly be afforded trips through the Tuscan countryside, circa 1476. A number of historical figures will also reportedly be present, including Niccolo Machiavelli, Caterina Sofrza, and Lorenzo de Medici, the latter of which is said to be the subject of an assassination attempt.
Ezio--full name Ezio Auditore de Firenze--will apparently have a number of weapons to choose from, including "an axe, a hammer, a mace, a spear, two different sword types, a [halberd], and two smaller blades." Each weapon is said to have a special move associated with it, and Ezio will be able to disarm opponents and use their fumbled weaponry against them.
Continuing with the Venice theme, swimming will reportedly be an option in the game. And, as speculated following Ubisoft's official teaser, the leaked details claim that Ezio will be able to take to the skies using da Vinci's flying machine. The report also states that a day-and-night cycle has been added to the game.
Moving on to specific gameplay details, the Game Informer reveal will also reportedly say that Assassin's Creed will sport 16 mission types, a dramatic increase over the original's four. Two mission types supposedly not included, however, will be eavesdropping and pickpocketing. A number of new enemy types are said to have been added, including archers, "as well as elite enemies, dagger wielders, 'Brutish' armored troops with heavy armor and two-handed swords and axes, and an intelligent halberd enemy will probe hiding places with their weapons if they think you're nearby."
The post goes on to state that Assassin's Creed 2 will also include a number of holdover mechanics from the original, including tower climbing and horseback riding, and assassinations can now reportedly be performed while Ezio is concealed in a stack of hay. Hidden objects will also return, though the report indicates that players will gain in-game benefits by hunting them down this time around.
The official story: "I can confirm that the information in the upcoming Game Informer magazine is factually correct," a word-mincing Ubisoft representative told GameSpot.
Bogus or not bogus?: Looking not bogus. However, it's impossible to say with certainty whether the forum poster was accurate in his details until Game Informer hits newsstands next week.
Monday, April 6, 2009
Game Addiction: The Real Story
What is video game addiction? What are its boundaries, its symptoms, its treatments? How wide is its scope? And is it even a medically recognised condition in the first place? In Part One of this GameSpot AU feature we speak to researchers, psychologists, medical bodies and gamers to gauge their thoughts on the cause and effects of video game addiction, the significance of it being recognised as such, and the potential for future research. In Part Two--which will launch next week--we'll look at this issue from the game makers' side, as well as explore some real-life cases of addiction.
Is a video game addict simply someone who likes to play a lot?
If asked to define ‘video game addict’, most of us would reply that a video game addict is someone who likes to play a lot of video games. But that definition is as close to the truth as ‘someone who likes to inject a lot of heroin’ is an accurate portrayal of a heroin addict. Our unfamiliarity with video game addiction stems not just from the ease with which the term ‘addiction’ is thrown around, but also from a vast misrepresentation of the issue in the mainstream press, with sensationalist headlines like ‘Video game addicts are not just shy nerds’ (June 5, 2008, Chloe Lake, NEWS.com.au) not an uncommon sight. Add to this a lack of medical and psychological research, and it’s no wonder we think video game addicts are just people who like games too much.
Defining game addiction
Before we explore whether video game addiction exists and in what form it takes, we need to know what it means to be an addict. At its core, addiction is a psychological disorder that affects the way the brain functions by impacting on chemical processes related to motivation, decision making, learning, inhibitory control and pleasure seeking. Behavioural addictions like gambling and sex are forms of psychological dependence; addictions to substances like drugs and alcohol are forms of both psychological and physical dependence.
An addict is defined by his or her psychological compulsion to carry out certain behaviours or consume certain substances that are often detrimental to his or her health or wellbeing. Although this repeated consumption often leads to other problems in areas of social and mental health, an addict cannot stop him or her self from recurrent use. The hallmarks of addiction are often an increase in time spent in the consumption of these behaviours or substances at the expense of other activities; recurrent failed attempts to stop; recurrent preoccupation and intense psychological urges or desires that are difficult to control.
Video game addiction is still a newcomer to the field of psychology, and is not yet medically recognised as a proper addiction due to the lack of research conducted into its cause and effects. So, while it’s common for clinics to specialise in the treatment of drug, alcohol, gambling, sex and other addictions, it is not common for clinics to specialise in the treatment of video game addiction. However, during the last five years countries like China, South Korea, the Netherlands, Canada, and the USA have begun to recognise the health threat posed by video game addiction and have opened clinics that deal specifically with the problem.
When gamers excel at playing a particular game, the dopamine levels in their brain rise, causing them to feel good.
The argument for excessive video game play as a real psychological addiction is that a person gains psychological reinforcement from playing, and excelling at, a game. By becoming an expert at a game, a person releases a neuro-chemical known as dopamine in their brain, whose function is to make us feel good. This is a natural response humans have to good experiences, such as eating favourite foods, listening to music, watching a good movie, etc. For it to be a psychological addiction to video games, it rests on how much dopamine is released in those who are believed to be video game addicts, in comparison to the levels released during other positive lifestyle activities.
Symptoms of video game addicts are varied--they can range from social isolation, poor social skills and erratic mood swings to neglect of responsibilities such as health, regular sleeping, hygiene, financial commitments, and work and study responsibilities.
A new addiction
Now that we know what addiction is, we need to see if it fits into a medically recognised addiction. In July 2006, the world’s first video game addiction clinic opened in Amsterdam. The event sparked the curiosity of the global press--it was the first time video game addiction was acknowledged, and the subsequent coverage pointed to the increasing popularity of video games and the people who just couldn’t stop playing them. Almost all media reports at the time and subsequent reports dealing with video game addiction, pointed to the few instances of video game-related deaths as examples of addiction, wishing to demonstrate the debilitating effect of video games. But few reports actually defined addiction or indicated that not all video game addicts eventually kill themselves, or others, through excessive playing.
The cases most often cited include a South Korean man who collapsed in an internet café after playing Starcraft for 50 hours; cases in China include a man who died after playing online games for 15 days consecutively; a 13-year-old boy from Vietnam who strangled an elderly lady with a piece of rope because he wanted money to buy games; and a number of cases in the United States involving angry teenagers murdering family members over games and consoles. The fact that the latter cases have more to do with displays of deep mental instabilities rather than addiction was not mentioned in the reports, an omission that no doubt has contributed to the public’s widespread confusion about what video game addiction really is.
A US teenager shot his parents, killing his mother, in October 2007 after they took away his copy of Halo 3.
In the research field, things are a little different. The last five years have seen a progress in the recognition of video game addiction as a real addiction, with more research dedicated to studying its scope, cause and effects. At the 2006 American Medical Association (AMA) annual meeting, a resolution was adopted commissioning the AMA’s Council on Science and Public Health (CSAPH) to prepare a report reviewing and summarising the research data on the emotional and behavioural effects of video games, including addiction potential. The report, based on information from scientific literature from 1985 to 2007, concluded that there is currently insufficient research to definitely label video game overuse as an addiction. However, the report’s authors used several case studies and surveys to find evidence of video game addiction, arguing that symptoms of time usage and social dysfunction/disruption present in video game overuse also appear in other addictive disorders, and, despite its reluctance to name video game addiction as a definitive mental disorder, the CSAPH recommended that the AMA strongly encourage the inclusion of video game addiction as a formal diagnostic disorder in the upcoming revision of the American Psychiatric Association (APA)’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).
The DSM is widely recognised as the standard manual defining mental disorders, providing diagnostic criteria for mental disorders and used by researchers, doctors, health insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies and policy makers. It has been revised five times since it was first published in 1952, updating existing disorders, and adding and removing new and redundant disorders. The CSAPH’s recommendation to encourage the inclusion of video game addiction in the upcoming DSM was followed up by the AMA in June of 2007, and, in response, the APA stated that: “…if the science warrants it, this proposed disorder will be considered for inclusion in the DSM-V, which is due to be published in 2012.”
Video game addiction could be included in the next edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
GameSpot AU contacted the APA, and received the following statement in regards to video game addiction and the 2012 edition of the DSM: “There is no way to state specifically whether or not the issue of video game addiction will or will not be included [in the DSM of 2012]. What we can say is that our workgroups are considering all issues, new science and research as they are continuing work on the DSM-V.”
A need for research
Studies into video game addiction are scarce. However, the increased recognition of the issue amongst the scientific community means more and more researchers are beginning to seriously look at video game addiction. Daniel Loton, an ethics officer and former psychology honours student from Victoria University, used his thesis to explore the relationship between social capacity and problematic video gameplay to try and determine the cause of video game addiction. Loton used the Social Skills Inventory (SSI), a broad scale that measures basic social skills, to survey 560 male and 61 female gamers with an average age of 23.4 years. His survey found a very small connection between social capacity (ie, social skills and self esteem) and video game playing. Given the past research on the topic, Loton said his study yielded surprising results.
“To use the words of the American Medical Association after they had conducted a review of the literature, problem gamers are likely to be … somewhat marginalised socially, perhaps experiencing high levels of emotional loneliness and/or difficulty with real life social interactions,” Loton said. “Considering this past research, I would have expected social skills and self esteem to drop as problematic play increased. Instead, only a tiny relationship emerged.”
The results revealed that basic social capacity is not the central cause of problematic video gameplay. Broadly speaking, no serious negative consequences of playing video games were revealed, even when playing to the extreme. Loton thinks his results may turn attention away from the assumed link between social capacity and problematic video gameplay, and direct attention to other characteristics such as behaviour moderation, depression and stress, locus of control (ie, feelings of control one has over one’s environment) and arousal (using games to get excited or to relax).
Loton’s study showed that social capacity is not the problem when it comes to excessive video game playing.
Richard M. Ryan, a psychologist and professor of psychology, psychiatry and education at the University of Rochester in New York, has been focusing on a different aspect of video game addiction--motivation. Ryan and his team are testing the idea that psychological needs for control, mastery and connection can be readily satisfied within games.
“People can feel a lot of autonomy and competence during play, and also it can be a place to relate with others, albeit in a virtual context,” Ryan said. “We think that this poor self-control, combined with a more impoverished life, leads a subset of players to sink deeply into the game world, and in time to feel an obsessive need to play. The obsessive player feels he/she has to play, does it too much, and gets less fun and satisfaction out of it. It also crowds out other satisfactions in life, compounding the problem.”
Ryan and his team found that when games were played for less than 10 hours a week, there was no evidence of negative effects on wellness; when games were played in excess of 20 hours a week, signs of ill-being emerged--negative mood, symptoms of depression, and more impoverished relationships. The team’s studies showed that those who overuse games are getting fewer of their needs satisfied in their lives outside of games.
“We also discovered players who report obsessive attitudes toward games--they are preoccupied with their games, feel compelled to play and feel tension when they cannot or are not playing. This latter set of players also shows signs of negative effects on psychological functioning.”
Ryan’s research showed that those who spent more than 20 hours a week gaming showed negative mood swings and symptoms of depression.
Ryan thinks the lack of quality research into video game overuse will be rectified with time as games become more sophisticated in the ways they satisfy people’s psychological needs.
“We have a lot of people, some in the media and some in the sciences, who are too ready to make very strong claims about video games, whether we are talking about aggression, addiction or cultural estrangement, based on very little evidence. I think that is especially how the media often sells stories. Some commentators exaggerate risks, and on the other hand there are defenders of games who deny any and all problems and attack any perceived bad news.
“Games are relatively new in our culture and such vacillation between hysteria and denial I suspect often greets any new phenomenon, from hip-hop to the internet to video games. Both sides usually have some part of the truth, but it may be a while before at least we as scientists, much less as a society, have a coherent understanding.”
Infomation From Gamspot
Is a video game addict simply someone who likes to play a lot?
If asked to define ‘video game addict’, most of us would reply that a video game addict is someone who likes to play a lot of video games. But that definition is as close to the truth as ‘someone who likes to inject a lot of heroin’ is an accurate portrayal of a heroin addict. Our unfamiliarity with video game addiction stems not just from the ease with which the term ‘addiction’ is thrown around, but also from a vast misrepresentation of the issue in the mainstream press, with sensationalist headlines like ‘Video game addicts are not just shy nerds’ (June 5, 2008, Chloe Lake, NEWS.com.au) not an uncommon sight. Add to this a lack of medical and psychological research, and it’s no wonder we think video game addicts are just people who like games too much.
Defining game addiction
Before we explore whether video game addiction exists and in what form it takes, we need to know what it means to be an addict. At its core, addiction is a psychological disorder that affects the way the brain functions by impacting on chemical processes related to motivation, decision making, learning, inhibitory control and pleasure seeking. Behavioural addictions like gambling and sex are forms of psychological dependence; addictions to substances like drugs and alcohol are forms of both psychological and physical dependence.
An addict is defined by his or her psychological compulsion to carry out certain behaviours or consume certain substances that are often detrimental to his or her health or wellbeing. Although this repeated consumption often leads to other problems in areas of social and mental health, an addict cannot stop him or her self from recurrent use. The hallmarks of addiction are often an increase in time spent in the consumption of these behaviours or substances at the expense of other activities; recurrent failed attempts to stop; recurrent preoccupation and intense psychological urges or desires that are difficult to control.
Video game addiction is still a newcomer to the field of psychology, and is not yet medically recognised as a proper addiction due to the lack of research conducted into its cause and effects. So, while it’s common for clinics to specialise in the treatment of drug, alcohol, gambling, sex and other addictions, it is not common for clinics to specialise in the treatment of video game addiction. However, during the last five years countries like China, South Korea, the Netherlands, Canada, and the USA have begun to recognise the health threat posed by video game addiction and have opened clinics that deal specifically with the problem.
When gamers excel at playing a particular game, the dopamine levels in their brain rise, causing them to feel good.
The argument for excessive video game play as a real psychological addiction is that a person gains psychological reinforcement from playing, and excelling at, a game. By becoming an expert at a game, a person releases a neuro-chemical known as dopamine in their brain, whose function is to make us feel good. This is a natural response humans have to good experiences, such as eating favourite foods, listening to music, watching a good movie, etc. For it to be a psychological addiction to video games, it rests on how much dopamine is released in those who are believed to be video game addicts, in comparison to the levels released during other positive lifestyle activities.
Symptoms of video game addicts are varied--they can range from social isolation, poor social skills and erratic mood swings to neglect of responsibilities such as health, regular sleeping, hygiene, financial commitments, and work and study responsibilities.
A new addiction
Now that we know what addiction is, we need to see if it fits into a medically recognised addiction. In July 2006, the world’s first video game addiction clinic opened in Amsterdam. The event sparked the curiosity of the global press--it was the first time video game addiction was acknowledged, and the subsequent coverage pointed to the increasing popularity of video games and the people who just couldn’t stop playing them. Almost all media reports at the time and subsequent reports dealing with video game addiction, pointed to the few instances of video game-related deaths as examples of addiction, wishing to demonstrate the debilitating effect of video games. But few reports actually defined addiction or indicated that not all video game addicts eventually kill themselves, or others, through excessive playing.
The cases most often cited include a South Korean man who collapsed in an internet café after playing Starcraft for 50 hours; cases in China include a man who died after playing online games for 15 days consecutively; a 13-year-old boy from Vietnam who strangled an elderly lady with a piece of rope because he wanted money to buy games; and a number of cases in the United States involving angry teenagers murdering family members over games and consoles. The fact that the latter cases have more to do with displays of deep mental instabilities rather than addiction was not mentioned in the reports, an omission that no doubt has contributed to the public’s widespread confusion about what video game addiction really is.
A US teenager shot his parents, killing his mother, in October 2007 after they took away his copy of Halo 3.
In the research field, things are a little different. The last five years have seen a progress in the recognition of video game addiction as a real addiction, with more research dedicated to studying its scope, cause and effects. At the 2006 American Medical Association (AMA) annual meeting, a resolution was adopted commissioning the AMA’s Council on Science and Public Health (CSAPH) to prepare a report reviewing and summarising the research data on the emotional and behavioural effects of video games, including addiction potential. The report, based on information from scientific literature from 1985 to 2007, concluded that there is currently insufficient research to definitely label video game overuse as an addiction. However, the report’s authors used several case studies and surveys to find evidence of video game addiction, arguing that symptoms of time usage and social dysfunction/disruption present in video game overuse also appear in other addictive disorders, and, despite its reluctance to name video game addiction as a definitive mental disorder, the CSAPH recommended that the AMA strongly encourage the inclusion of video game addiction as a formal diagnostic disorder in the upcoming revision of the American Psychiatric Association (APA)’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).
The DSM is widely recognised as the standard manual defining mental disorders, providing diagnostic criteria for mental disorders and used by researchers, doctors, health insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies and policy makers. It has been revised five times since it was first published in 1952, updating existing disorders, and adding and removing new and redundant disorders. The CSAPH’s recommendation to encourage the inclusion of video game addiction in the upcoming DSM was followed up by the AMA in June of 2007, and, in response, the APA stated that: “…if the science warrants it, this proposed disorder will be considered for inclusion in the DSM-V, which is due to be published in 2012.”
Video game addiction could be included in the next edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
GameSpot AU contacted the APA, and received the following statement in regards to video game addiction and the 2012 edition of the DSM: “There is no way to state specifically whether or not the issue of video game addiction will or will not be included [in the DSM of 2012]. What we can say is that our workgroups are considering all issues, new science and research as they are continuing work on the DSM-V.”
A need for research
Studies into video game addiction are scarce. However, the increased recognition of the issue amongst the scientific community means more and more researchers are beginning to seriously look at video game addiction. Daniel Loton, an ethics officer and former psychology honours student from Victoria University, used his thesis to explore the relationship between social capacity and problematic video gameplay to try and determine the cause of video game addiction. Loton used the Social Skills Inventory (SSI), a broad scale that measures basic social skills, to survey 560 male and 61 female gamers with an average age of 23.4 years. His survey found a very small connection between social capacity (ie, social skills and self esteem) and video game playing. Given the past research on the topic, Loton said his study yielded surprising results.
“To use the words of the American Medical Association after they had conducted a review of the literature, problem gamers are likely to be … somewhat marginalised socially, perhaps experiencing high levels of emotional loneliness and/or difficulty with real life social interactions,” Loton said. “Considering this past research, I would have expected social skills and self esteem to drop as problematic play increased. Instead, only a tiny relationship emerged.”
The results revealed that basic social capacity is not the central cause of problematic video gameplay. Broadly speaking, no serious negative consequences of playing video games were revealed, even when playing to the extreme. Loton thinks his results may turn attention away from the assumed link between social capacity and problematic video gameplay, and direct attention to other characteristics such as behaviour moderation, depression and stress, locus of control (ie, feelings of control one has over one’s environment) and arousal (using games to get excited or to relax).
Loton’s study showed that social capacity is not the problem when it comes to excessive video game playing.
Richard M. Ryan, a psychologist and professor of psychology, psychiatry and education at the University of Rochester in New York, has been focusing on a different aspect of video game addiction--motivation. Ryan and his team are testing the idea that psychological needs for control, mastery and connection can be readily satisfied within games.
“People can feel a lot of autonomy and competence during play, and also it can be a place to relate with others, albeit in a virtual context,” Ryan said. “We think that this poor self-control, combined with a more impoverished life, leads a subset of players to sink deeply into the game world, and in time to feel an obsessive need to play. The obsessive player feels he/she has to play, does it too much, and gets less fun and satisfaction out of it. It also crowds out other satisfactions in life, compounding the problem.”
Ryan and his team found that when games were played for less than 10 hours a week, there was no evidence of negative effects on wellness; when games were played in excess of 20 hours a week, signs of ill-being emerged--negative mood, symptoms of depression, and more impoverished relationships. The team’s studies showed that those who overuse games are getting fewer of their needs satisfied in their lives outside of games.
“We also discovered players who report obsessive attitudes toward games--they are preoccupied with their games, feel compelled to play and feel tension when they cannot or are not playing. This latter set of players also shows signs of negative effects on psychological functioning.”
Ryan’s research showed that those who spent more than 20 hours a week gaming showed negative mood swings and symptoms of depression.
Ryan thinks the lack of quality research into video game overuse will be rectified with time as games become more sophisticated in the ways they satisfy people’s psychological needs.
“We have a lot of people, some in the media and some in the sciences, who are too ready to make very strong claims about video games, whether we are talking about aggression, addiction or cultural estrangement, based on very little evidence. I think that is especially how the media often sells stories. Some commentators exaggerate risks, and on the other hand there are defenders of games who deny any and all problems and attack any perceived bad news.
“Games are relatively new in our culture and such vacillation between hysteria and denial I suspect often greets any new phenomenon, from hip-hop to the internet to video games. Both sides usually have some part of the truth, but it may be a while before at least we as scientists, much less as a society, have a coherent understanding.”
Infomation From Gamspot
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