Yes. Computer games can be addictive, but only if the person playing it has an addictive personality. There were recent reports of a gamer in Korea called Snowy who played an online netwqork game constantly for 50 hours and died or exhaustion and complications. That would be an extreme case, however, the majority of people who play games are unlikely to be overcome by the qualities that would make someone forget to eat or sleep. Hope this answers the question.

In honesty any activity on this planet can be addictive. If something is overly gratifying to somebody than it is likely that he or she won't be able to stop it. While video games can't physically addict you, mentally a person could become addicted if the video game were to give such intense psychological pleasure to the person, such that he or she did not know how to get anywhere else. A good example would be someone who cannot cope with reality. It's likely that he or she would retreat into a video game world in order to create a haven for him/herself and leaving it to join the real world could become psychologically painful.

Playing a computer game is the same as playing a slot machine. the only difference is not placing a coin in the slot, in order to spin the reels. its called compulsive, obsessive behavior. an addiction is an addiction, is an addiction. some people will deny this, others will agree. its about being honest with yourself. if it cost $1.00 to play only one computer game at a time, the bankruptcy courts could not handle the number of applicants. its becoming a gambling world. lotteries are bountiful....worldwide. playing a computer game is addictive. computer games are free......slot machines will cost you.

Yes they can be addictive in a medical sense. For a humorous example of this watch Episodes 6 and 7 of a show on a gamer's life called Pure Pwnage. In 2 of the episodes(Ep.6-IMAPWNU OF AZEROTH, and Ep.7-MMO Girl), the main character, Jeremy becomes addicted to WoW(World of Warcraft) and forgets to eat/sleep/drink, and is found on the floor of Dave's room at the computer passed out, and is put in a hospital after being asked a bunch of questions and through his eyes and mind he beleives he is actually in the game and cant wake up from it, sort of in a kind of coma. It's pretty funny, the show is meant to be funny and based on a gamers life, you can download episodes 6 and 7 from here http://www.purepwnage.com/episodes.html The downloads are clean i've watched all the episodes thus far and scanned them they are clean.

Yes my 5 year old was starting to become bad tempered and nasty when not allowed to play computer games. She's not allowed at all now!

Addictions present themselves in many forms. I think there is but, I wasn't actually sure if there was an specific categorization for that, but after a quick search I found this: (This is a recent article) "Delegates attending the American Medical Association conference in Chicago, which starts Saturday, will discuss the proposed addition of video game addiction to a list of "formal disorders," where it would join other problem behaviors such as pathological gambling. Dr. Martin Wasserman, executive director of MedChi, the Maryland State Medical Society, helped spearhead the new proposal, which has resulted in a 10-page report submitted to the AMA by the group's Council on Science and Public Health." According to the AMA report, one soon-to-be-released British study polled 7,000 "gamers" and found that 12 percent of them met World Health Organization criteria for addictive behaviors. Source and more here: http://www.forbes.com/forbeslife/health/feeds/hscout/2007/06/22/hscout605801.html Also this from the Wiki article on the subject: Though video game addiction is not included as a diagnosis in either the DSM or the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, it is suggested that the symptoms of a video game addiction would be similar to that of other psychological addictions. Like compulsive gambling, video game addiction is said to be an impulse control disorder. While no diagnostic criteria have yet been established for video game addiction, the symptoms of impulse control disorder include regular or repetitive displays of at least five of the following: 1. Persistent thoughts of the activity or performance of the activity.(Preoccupation) 2. Use of activity to escape problems or relieve bad mood.(Preoccupation) 3. Need for increased time spent on the activity to achieve satisfaction or diminished reward for the same amount of time spent on the activity.(Tolerance) 4. Inability to control, stop or diminish the behavior.(Loss of control) 5. Restlessness or irritability when prevented from partaking in the activity.(Withdrawal) 6. Lying to friends or family about extent of involvement with activity.(Continuance despite adverse consequences) 7. Committing illegal acts to sustain activity.(Continuance despite adverse consequences) 8. Jeopardizing or losing relationships, career or educational opportunities to pursue activity.(Continuance despite adverse consequences) 9. Relying on others to finance activity.(Continuance despite adverse consequences) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_addiction#Possible_diagnosis

a compulsive behaviour maybe...i did see an article somewhere about that recently!

“The APA defines mental disorders in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Since the current edition, DSM-IV-TR, does not list “video game addiction,” the APA does not consider “video game addiction” to be a mental disorder at this time. If the science warrants it, this proposed disorder will be considered for inclusion in DSM-V, which is due to be published in 2012.” http://www.myaddiction.com/video-game-addiction.html

This should help: http://www.stat-aholics.com/addiction/video-games/video-game-addiction-stats.aspx