The use of drugs in gaming has evolved from simple marijuana use in the early days of Atari to the current assortment of illegal narcotics and over-prescribed medications. Welcome to gaming\'s new drug culture.

I guess it's good to bring it up every now and then, but this is news?

People have been doing this for at least about a decade.

This is my first posting on TG Forumz, and I just had to make it when I saw that they were talking about the drug culture that surrounds gaming.

The facts are that drugs and alcohol are a part of MANY people's lives, not just in the gaming circles, and that is not going to EVER change.

People are just going to have to accept that some people are going to use drugs in order to get a high, and simply treat it when that casual use turns to addiction, if it even ever does.

I have MANY friends who do drugs, ranging from PCP to meth, and most of them have steady jobs, good family lives, and wonderful children. Much of what is blamed on 'drug use' comes from poverty and the over-arching drive of managers and management to get rid of anyone who even 'looks' like they are taking drugs.
Facts are, most people who use drugs are less violent than the population in general, have less confrontations, and have very good lives. It's only when they start using the drugs not for a momentary pleasure, but to blot out disappointments in their lives that you start having problems.

Much of the 'violence' that stems from drugs also comes not from them, but from the prohibitory laws, the same way that alcohol prohibition lead to escalating violence.

There she is again.

"I have not had anyone come in to me that has used them yet, but I am sure they will".

Um...k.


People who use the drugs to enhance play ability ARE ADDICTED. Maybe not to the game itself, but to competition. They will win at all costs. They are doing the same thing for the game that adults later do in the buisness world. How is it no comparable to a wall street guy snorting coke or taking amphetamines to stay "on his game"?

I think it is something that you have to keep an eye on, and it is a problem, but I think this signals more that video games are becoming more of a common factor in peopels lives rather than drugs becoming common in video games.

I took Ritalin from the ages of 7-14 and it is a very evil drug. also poeple that use this drug for gaming and such are supid.Ritalin should be banned from anybody using it. i have Adhd and is made me a zombie it is a very evil drug and the goverment should ban it because it does nto help it only makes the kids that use it wrose and the people that use Ritalin it will mess them up for life. i know this for a fact i was on it. my family doctor give it to me and i will never take or use this drug again.

I took Ritalin from the ages of 7-14 and it is a very evil drug. also poeple that use this drug for gaming and such are supid.Ritalin should be banned from anybody using it. i have Adhd and is made me a zombie it is a very evil drug and the goverment should ban it because it does nto help it only makes the kids that use it wrose and the people that use Ritalin it will mess them up for life. i know this for a fact i was on it. my family doctor give it to me and i will never take or use this drug again.

"All things are permissible, but not all things are beneficial...I will not be mastered by any one thing!"

Paul had enough to say on this subject. How does imbibing in a particular drug (any drug, whether it is legal or illegal) make you a better person? Drugs have particular purposes (medical or otherwise) that can be used to the benefit of people and society in general. Recreational use is where the gray line exists, as to whether it is of benefit or it becomes a problem. Even legal drugs like alcohol have this problem.

I think anyone will agree that when the drug (or addiction) becomes the master is when bad things happen.

IMHO, it is your right to mess up your life any way you want to. I just hope to God you don't end up taking anyone else with you when you go, and I most fervently hope you don't take the life of someone else accidentally and have to live with the consequences afterwards.

This is a pointless article. For someone with a Doctorate she would have to be pretty naive to think that this just happening. Drugs are everywhere, they are not going anywhere and the scariest part is that most of the most DANGEROUS ones are Over The Counter. Most drugs released by the FDA contain more side effects than the one cause they were used for in the first place. What the hell is that?! Ritalin, Oxycontin and what not are terrible for you, yet the FDA allows them to be released freely, mainly due to profits and for their shareholders. I'm not pitching a conspiracy theory here but if the pieces fit...

Is that a girl or a guy? lol

Really, this is embarrasing.

I honestly thought better of you than this Rob. The first page or two of this sounds like nothing more than your standard fearmongering that the antivideo game groups have been pushing for years only with the added spin of throwing drugs into the mix.

Yes the following several pages seem to make the point that this is merely the shared cross section of two subcultures spawning a third, but if that is the case, then this is a nonissue.

The quack from the game clinic seems to be postulating a new problem getting worse based on nothing more than pure conjecture seemingly supported by some isolated incidents and the annecdotal evidence provided in the last two thirds of the article.

On a final note, Ritalin is not evil any more than a rock that was used to bludgeon somone's head open is evil. It is a chemical. The lazy corporate shill psychiatrists/psychologists who go with the pill popping method of behavioral correction and the unethical corporation behind them are the evil ones. They are effectively prescribing cocaine (same family of drugs and roughly as powerful as Ritalin) to children and college students.

I had a previous post on the second half of this article, but something went screwey with the site and did not allow me to post through, lets see if this gets through.

I think it is complete rubbish. I have no idea what friends this guy had that got him in with a bunch of sniffers that like Tub diving, but this was beyond a bunch of techies getting wired on Bawlz or Red bull and playing until the wee hours.

I do not know why he stayed after seeing people sniff coke and pop pills. My ass, and laptop would have been out of there as soon as I saw the little baggies. These guys do NOT represent the mainstream here, or even teh majority of tweaked LANers, they are a bunch of f'd up kids that would rather buzz themselves up in front of a game than find anything else to do.

Putting this almost-fiction right after another "armageddon is coming for our youth" article was a poor play. Guys, split these stories up.

Pointless and quite naive article decribing a drug party disguising as a LAN party. The author should have checked out a few LAN parties first and taken some drugs so he knew what he was writing about. Pathetic article, about the quality of something I'd expect to see in the "Sun", "Bild", "Weekly World News" or the like.

Edit: "she"'s a he..

for one the author is a guy. it was aaron mckenna who went. also what was wrong with the article. they are just exploring the issue of drugs and gaming and how it might spread into the major competitions of pro gaming.

i personally cannot understand it and think they all need to have a reality check.

still, i think it would be quite funny to have to take a drugs test before being allowed into a professional lan match.

I personally thought the article was just one of those that make you say, "...whats the point?" Because, of course, someone somewhere is going to use drugs and play videogames in conjunction. And, likewise, somewhere, someone is going to play videogames and NOT use drugs. That, of course, doesn't mean that drugs are commonplace at LAN parties. I just hope that people who have never been to any LAN parties and are not experienced on the subject don't get the wrong idea and try to go out and ruin other people's fun. I could see a parent or someone out of the know reading that and going bananas. Yeah, i believe that these people were doping up at a LAN party. But that definately doesn't mean that everyone at every LAN party does it. And that, to me, was a point that the article seemed to be missing.

If this gets the conversation off topic, i will gladly delete it. But i was just wondering, why is there such opposition to the videogaming culture? WHY? i find people blaming the most random things on videogames. My mom for instance, and this may not be a good example, totally flips out whenever i don't hear her call or am a little late responding or something. I know for a fact, that if i were doing ANYTHING other than gaming, for instance, eating broccoli, or doing push-ups or cutting myself; she wouldn't have a problem. and i've noticed similar happenings outside of my own house. why? why are gamers still not accepted?

Well, I cant say that I havent smoked some wacky tobaccy and played quake III, but taking meth or coke at a lan party seems a little extreme to me.

Im all for experience enhancing drugs, they are cheeper than a new graphics card after all. But performance enhancing drugs, thats going too far. Especially in the realm of professional gaming.

Am i alone here in my suport for weed and games?