![\"blog-addiction-03\"](\"https:\/\/chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/02\/blogaddiction03.jpg\" "\\"blog-addiction-03\\"")
Every couple of months the faculty organizes a Parents\u2019 Seminar for students across all the programs offered. The Seminars are actually pretty fun events. The food\u2019s always good, the students get involved as ushers, and there\u2019s always a sort of mini-festival feel to each event.<\/p>\n
Now, one would think that parents are typically more interested to attend when their sons \/ daughters are in their first year, but in reality, there isn\u2019t any sort of actual trend. I\u2019ve got my own \u2018group\u2019 of 18 students in the Gaming program that I\u2019m counselor to, though I haven\u2019t actually taught them for more than a year now. They\u2019re progressing onto their third and final year now soon, but their parents are still attending.<\/p>\n
My role in each Seminar of late though isn\u2019t just about giving parents the low down on how their sons \/ daughters are doing in the program. For the last year now in each seminar I\u2019ve been also asked to give special talks on one aspect of gaming or another: e.g. on gaming addiction<\/a>, and recently on Learning Opportunities in Games.<\/p>\n By far though the one I\u2019m most often asked to give is on gaming addiction, and I\u2019ve done the presentation also for special groups, e.g. visiting secondary school students. There\u2019s a lot of stuff in it: what\u2019s addiction, why do people get addicted to, the game design elements that draw people in and get them to keep playing, measures that deal with addiction at either the national or more localized levels.<\/p>\n Either way it goes though, addiction is a serious thing. There\u2019ve been incidents where gamers keep playing to the point where they disregard bodily needs and functions, even to the point of death like this guy here<\/a> and here<\/a>. Or suicides<\/a> from emotional disorders from gaming. Or murder committed<\/a> because of game denial privileges. There\u2019s the parental neglect, like this couple<\/a> who spent so much time playing EverQuest<\/a> they lost their baby girl. And there\u2019s also spousal neglect, like those self-help groups<\/a> formed when their husbands and boyfriends spend too much WoWing<\/a>.<\/p>\n More in the next post.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Every couple of months the faculty organizes a Parents\u2019 Seminar for students across all the programs offered. The Seminars are actually pretty fun events. The food\u2019s always good, the students get involved as ushers, and there\u2019s always a sort of<\/p>\n