Experts framed early video games as addictive and comparable to substance abuse

Evidence

“What we are dealing with is a global addiction,” the novelist Martin Amis would write in his own meditation on video games in 1982. “I mean, this might all turn out to be a bit of a problem. Let me adduce my own symptoms, withdrawals, dry outs, crack-ups, benders.” Psychologists and other experts were perplexed and disturbed by the appeal of the games, especially to children. “Most of the kids who play them are too young for sex and drugs,” a Dr. Robert Millman told The New York Times in 1981. He proceeded to compare playing video games to sniffing glue. “The games present a seductive world….[Young people want] to be totally absorbed in an activity where they are out on an edge and can’t think of anything else. That’s why they try everything from gambling to glue sniffing.” Others seemed to think Space Invaders’s success had to do with the recent national experience. “It’s really Vietnam,” wrote Ted Nelson, a magazine editor. “It’s a body count war. You do it and you never ask why.” — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 680

Categorization

• XREF: Ted Nelson’s ‘body count war’ reading connects to the reader’s interest in attention capture mechanics; also parallels moral-panic literature (Cohen) seen elsewhere. — connects to: The gaming industry pioneered the addiction design model Facebook later adopted. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1433; Video game addiction rhetoric dates to the earliest arcade games — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 679
• SEED: Essay angle: the Vietnam-as-body-count interpretation of Space Invaders — how contemporary anxieties shape readings of games’ meaning.

Broader Connections

• Video game addiction rhetoric dates to the earliest arcade games #corroborates (0.95) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 679