HOME & LIVING
B2 — THE OBSERVER & BAKER CITY HERALD
TUESDAY, MARCH 1, 2022
Video game addiction seeks a treatment
By SARAH McBRIDE
Bloomberg News
Arcadia Kim devoted
her career to video games,
until one hit her in the face.
The incident happened sev-
eral years ago when Kim,
a former studio operating
chief at Electronic Arts Inc.,
was trying to peel away
her then 10-year-old son
from a game of Minecraft.
He threw the iPad at her in
frustration.
Kim, 48, said the expe-
rience inspired her to start
a business in 2019 advising
parents on forming healthy
relationships between their
kids and their screens.
The work took on greater
urgency this year when the
World Health Organization
began formally recognizing
video game addiction as an
illness for the fi rst time.
Among gamers and par-
ents and even within the
medical community, there’s
disagreement about whether
gaming addiction is real.
Either way, the WHO’s des-
ignation could provide a
boon to Kim and other busi-
nesses like hers. Dozens of
consultants operate in the
U.S. alone, as well as an
assortment of apps, camps,
self-help books and treat-
ment centers.
A diagnosis of addic-
tion is based on a series of
symptoms, according to the
WHO. They include a lack
of control over the impulse
to play video games, a ten-
dency to prioritize it at the
expense of other interests or
obligations and continued
or escalated involvement
despite experiencing nega-
tive consequences.
Studies off er varying
conclusions, in part due to
disagreements over how to
defi ne addiction, but they
typically show the illness
in 2% to 3% of people who
play games. A similar con-
Dreamstime-TNS
Arcadia Kim, 48, was inspired to start a business in 2019 advising parents on forming healthy relation-
ships between their kids and their screens after her 10-year-old son threw an iPad at her when asked to
stop playing a game. The work took on greater urgency this year when the World Health Organization
began formally recognizing video game addiction as an illness for the fi rst time.
dition called gaming dis-
order is more prevalent in
the population than compul-
sive gambling but less than
compulsive shopping, esti-
mated Matthew Stevens of
the University of Adelaide
in Australia.
Achieving recognition
was a years-long process.
WHO member states voted
in 2018 to add it to the orga-
nization’s disease classifi ca-
tion list, which helps stan-
dardize health reporting
and tracking worldwide.
The change didn’t go into
eff ect until last month, a
lag designed to give the
health care industry time to
prepare.
Yet, the debate rages on
among behavioral scientists.
At the American Psycho-
logical Association, some
members are lobbying the
group to follow the WHO
and acknowledge gaming
addiction. The eff ort is
facing resistance. The last
time the association classi-
fi ed a new addiction was in
2013, when it added gam-
bling, said Paul Appelbaum,
chair of the APA committee
in charge of making such
designations. Changes come
slowly and “really need
to be backed up by data if
they’re going to be widely
accepted,” he said.
A broad recognition of
the disorder would have
legal ramifi cations. “It
would make it more diffi -
cult for courts to exclude
experts who testify on
video gaming addiction,”
said Matt Bergman, an
Oregon lawyer who has
fi led lawsuits against social
media companies on behalf
of teenagers.
In Kim’s line of work,
she often deals with people
who overindulge in games,
but she’s reluctant to use the
word addiction. “It has a
very specifi c meaning,” said
Kim, who advises parents
through her consultancy
Infi nite Screentime. “Let’s
not turn it into something
it’s not.”
Before her son hit her in
the face with an iPad, Kim
spent almost a decade at
Electronic Arts, the pub-
lisher of Apex Legends,
FIFA and Madden. She was
COO of the Los Angeles
studio, where she helped
publish a Lord of the Rings
game, oversaw development
of the war games Medal of
Honor Airborne and Com-
mand and Conquer 3 and
worked on the Sims 2. She’s
proud of her time there.
But there are aspects of
Kim’s work that she still
contemplates to this day.
She compares part of her
job to a novelist crafting a
suspenseful plot or a televi-
sion writer creating a cliff -
hanger for the end of an
episode. The goal was to
ensure the games were hard
to put down. “The more I
was able to hook people,
bring them into the world,
bring something people
could escape to—the better
I was at that, the more suc-
cessful I was at my job,”
she said.
EA said it off ers various
parental control options to
facilitate healthy habits for
kids and ran an ad cam-
paign in the U.K. to raise
awareness of these tools.
“Game play must be bal-
anced with responsible play,
and we take seriously our
role in ensuring parents are
empowered and aware of
all the resources available
to help them make the right
decisions for their fami-
lies,” Chris Bruzzo, the
company’s chief experience
offi cer, said in an emailed
statement.
Developers at EA
also spent considerable
amounts of time strength-
ening what’s known as
the compulsion loop, Kim
said. Fine-tuning certain
techniques can help draw
players back, using such
tools as a point system,
character upgrades, extra
lives and ample surprises.
Many of the principles were
laid out in a 2001 essay,
Behavioral Game Design,
by one of the industry’s
most renowned researchers,
John Hopson, whose credits
include Microsoft Corp.’s
Halo 3.
Kim left Los Angeles in
2006 for South Korea and
consulted for an EA studio
there for two years. She
now lives in Hong Kong.
The iPad incident took
place on a trip back to LA
in 2017. The family was
staying with Kim’s brother,
Bernard Kim, the president
of Zynga Inc., itself the cre-
ator of many enthralling
games such as FarmVille.
(He said he supports his
sister’s work.) Kim had
rounded up her two young
daughters for an outing but
couldn’t fi nd her son. She
suspected he was in active
violation of the family rule
limiting daily screen time
to 20 minutes. Then she
discovered him in a guest
bedroom, a screen’s glow
gently illuminating the
covers he was hiding under.
The ensuing outburst left
her in tears, face stinging,
slumped on the fl oor of a
nearby bathroom.
Kim concluded that
her limits were unreason-
ably tight, borne out of a
sense of guilt about her
prior professional work on
games and fear over their
power. She was uninten-
tionally creating an associa-
tion of shame with her son’s
interest in the medium.
Now Kim tries to embrace
her children’s hobby. “My
son gets so excited when he
talks about his Minecraft
world,” she said.
For clients of Infi nite
Screentime, Kim advises
parents to play video games
with their children and
encourages kids to decide
how long a game session
should last before it starts
and plan for intermissions.
Kim also tells clients about
the compulsion loop and
how to recognize the hooks.
People dislike being manip-
ulated, she said, and simple
awareness of the strategy
helps control the impulse to
overdo it.
Dealing with bullies at backyard bird feeders
By JOAN MORRIS
The Mercury News
DEAR JOAN: We have
one bully of a robin who
lives to dominate all bird
feeders. He won’t allow
any bird, except blue jays,
to approach any feeder, let
alone eat.
I have many new
feeding areas front and
back, but this doesn’t help
much at all. It’s very frus-
trating, and I wonder if this
behavior is unusual, and
what else I might try.
— Sharon Bender, West
Yarmouth, Massachusetts
DEAR SHARON:
Robins aren’t included on
the list of common bully
birds, but perhaps this one
was a bad egg. Fortunately,
advice for dealing with one
bully bird is the same for
all bully birds.
In the Bay Area, we
often have issues with
crows, California scrub-
jays and mockingbirds.
What these birds have in
common with your robin
is their size. They are all
larger than the fi nches and
other small tweeters that
visit our backyard feeders,
and because of that, they
can be intimidating,
whether they try or not.
To reduce their pres-
ence around your feeders,
there are several things
you can do. The fi rst is to
take a look at what kind of
bird feeders you’re using.
Any that allow the larger
birds easy access to the
seed or suet should be
removed. Replace them
with caged feeders — seed
feeders that are surrounded
by a cage that allows the
smaller birds in, but keeps
the larger ones out.
If you don’t want to
replace feeders, which
could be a costly change,
try shortening the perches.
Larger birds need a longer
perch to accommodate
their larger bodies. If you
shorten them, the bigger
birds can eat at the feeder.
You should also elimi-
nate or reduce the number
of platform and ground
feeders. These often attract
larger birds because they
are easy to access.
Once their food supply
is limited, the bully birds
should look elsewhere and
leave your smaller, more
well-behaved birds to
dine in peace. If you don’t
When your computer is in despair
OUTSTANDING
COMPUTER REPAIR
Fast and Reliable
MOBILE COMPUTER SUPPORT
DALE BOGARDUS 541-297-5831
Aching Feet?
Step right into our office.
We specialize in quality medical
and surgical care for all types of
foot and ankle problems.
541-963-0265
888-843-9090
www.GVfoot.com
want to exclude the robins
from your yard, do those
other things, but then set
up a ground feeding sta-
tion with their favorite
food where they can eat
but leave the other feeders
alone.
DEAR JOAN: I have a
wall fountain in my back-
yard. I have hung a chain
from the tap-like spout to
diminish splashing into
the basin. Hummingbirds
have learned to alight on
the chain and wash them-
selves by poking their
head through the link and
allowing the water to wash
over them as they fl utter
their wings.
When I am sitting out-
side they often come to
within a foot of my face
and hover, as they examine
me for a few moments.
— Robert Thomas,
Castro Valley, California
DEAR ROBERT: They
are probably checking out
the genius who invented
La Grande
1408 N Hall Street
Same Great Team.
Same Exceptional
Service.
Travis T. Hampton, D.P.M.
Foot and Ankle Surgeon
Enterprise
601 Medical Parkway
Baker
3175 Pocahontas Rd.
and installed such a nice
shower for them.
Hummingbirds prefer
showers over baths, maybe
because most birdbaths are
much too deep for them
— birds, even the perpetu-
ally moving hummer, like
Come Check Out
Our New Location
& New Menu!
to have their feet on the
bottom of the tub. So hum-
mers take advantage of
gently fl owing water, drips
and mists.
For those wanting to
attract hummers to your
yard, putting out a small,
shallow bowl of water
and adding some rocks
for extra stability and
perching, will do the trick.
So will having a mister or
other device that turns a
birdbath into a humming-
bird spa.
New Family Friendly Location!
New Menu!
Bar Bites, Wood Stone Pizza
and More!
MON-TUES CLOSED
WED-SAT 11-9 • SUN 11-7
1106 Adams Avenue Suite 100 • 541 663-9010 • tapthatgrowlers.com