Quote:
Originally Posted by Mason Malmuth
Hi Synchronic:
I think you're describing someone who gets addicted because of his occasional big wins. But what about someone who's a more consistent winner and has good overall results?
Best wishes,
Mason
It always comes down to what role the game has in the player's consciousness as to whether it is addiction. When one of the primary motives is escape (of wider life) or transporting oneself out of an otherwise dysphoric experience ... that's the voice of addiction.
Big wins by casual gamblers can give birth to a "gambling addiction." Separate topic from "playing addiction."
The edge player who is addicted to playing as an escape from wider reality (both external and internal realities) is a common phenomenon. Because it is common in human nature. No news flash there.
There's a book title out there called "Addict Nation." I haven't read it, so don't recommend either way, but I love that title. If you grow up in this culture, you are being seriously influenced toward addiction. Of course there are levels of addiction and at the mild end of the spectrum it isn't all bad at all. Nature of the beast: man. If you aren't Buddha-like, you are gonna be on the spectrum. So clinical addiction can be further defined as crossing a certain threshold of this escape/mood-alteration/alienation spectrum, where the entire strategy is to elude what is actually happening in the self. That's alienation, bro. If knowing oneself is rational, that is irrational.
Last edited by Synchronic; 08-06-2016 at 01:19 PM.