Dr. David Walsh on Video Game Addiction on GameCyte is an extensive
interview with Dr. David Walsh of the National Institute for Media and the
Family (NIMF), discussing their self-appointed role as media watchdog. Their
NIMF-hunting yields a conversation that covers the arguable premise that games
can promote violence, the implications of video game addiction, and plays who
watches the watchdogs in asking about their decision to accept a $50,000
donation from the Entertainment Software Association earlier this year, and the
controversy over this apparent conflict of interest. Dr. Walsh offers
interesting outlooks on these topics, here's a sample of a comment about
addiction: "What my hope is is that there’s not a backlash against anyone. What
my hope is is that there’s a recognition that for some people, this is a
problem, and we have to figure out A.) how to prevent it from happening in the
first place, or B.) for those for whom it does become a problem, figure out how
to help them effectively. I would not hope that, just as I don’t want to condemn
an alcohol industry because some people become alcoholics, just as I don’t want
to close down all the casinos because there are some people who become
compulsive gamblers, I would hope that we wouldn’t go after companies that
produce video games because for some people it becomes a problem."