European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - February 01, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 12 the and stripes computers i tuesday february 1,1994 when you can t Stop playing it s not All Good when it s All fun and games by Patrick a. Mcguire the Baltimore Sun Welcome to the a burbs that computer driven gamelan on the outskirts of reality just off the information Highway where More of us Are stopping these Days to avoid getting a life. Apparently we re succeeding. For while we May Cluck publicly about our kids wasting time and mind with to video games like mortal combat it turns out that we their parents Are privately firing up the pc and going Bug eyed till Dawn playing "falcon3," the next Best thing to a government warplane simulator. Or links 386 pro which simulates a round of Golf at Hilton head Island. Or by trayal at Kronor or the 7th guest or the Castle of or. Brain or or you name it. Highly sophisticated computer games both the boxed variety available in software stores and those available Only through on line network services have gotten their Hooks into More grown ups than would like to admit " computer games have the potential for real addictive Ness says Johnny Wil son editor of computer gaming world where gamers who go overboard Are jokingly referred to As a burbs. But or. Michelle m. Weil of Orange calif., a recognized authority on the effects of computer use on the psyche in t joking when she says computer games Are extremely and not just the boxed variety of games available in software stores. I think that playing on line network games has a much higher addictive potential than regular computer games says or. Weil. With a boxed computer game you re always aware it is a game. With on line types of services people can spend lots of time talking in the Protection of their own Home or office with no face to face interaction. The underlying danger the More time you spend facing the screen the less time you spend doing other endless anecdotes scroll Forth from gaming groups about people spending $800 or More a year on boxed computer games or those spending so much time playing multiplayer on line games with unseen opponents at $3 an hour that they run up annual Bills As High As $15,000. Some networks recognizing the Poten tial for problems encourage subscribers to set limits on the amount of time they spend. Says one network representative they Are so engrossing that players have no perception of time. People have to slap you on the head or set an alarm to Tell you when to it s not unlike alcohol consumption adds gamer Steve Ames a free Lance photographer in Alexandria va., by Day and devotee of "falcon3" in his off hours. Some people savor the flavor. Some just like to take the Edge off. And then there Are those that Binge. Some make the joke i should have a life there s More than a Little bit of nervous laughter about and there should be says or. Valerie Lorenz a Baltimore psychologist who Heads the National Center for pathological gambling inc. We know that Many people become totally mesmerized by computer games says Lorenz who sees Many similar behaviour patterns Between avid computer gamers and compulsive ers. Unfortunately nothing is Ever done about it. There is no visible negative Impact other than the Tremenda gifts amount of time spent. There is no con Crete problem such As loss of Money so people tend not to see it As a problem where it really when Genie a Rockville company that offers games and a variety of information services agreed to a Jange an on line question and answer session for the Baltimore Sun about 40 players from across the United states and Canada weighed in with their com ments during a two hour period. Most said the Cost of gaming was t a Issue foe. Them but they were divided o whether heavy game playing kept them from real life friendships. If you spend too much time on line the real world can suffer to the Point that the Only people you Are left with is the Oil line types offered Bruce Gessleman from Texas. Another player identified Only As Jay from Sun Valley calpf., added sure you can play games and have relation ships on line but it just in t the same As a face to face and it s time not Money that is at Issue. With my Job and army reserves and gaming the family does resent the time i spend said an attorney from Annan Dale va., commenting via the Genie net work. But at least i m Home most v that s similar to what another fal con3" Buff from Virginia said earlier. I Tell my wife it could be much worse. I could have bought a Bass boat and still have nothing to show and be gone on but such arguments sound a lot like rationalizing to Lorenz. It s classic denial she says. Any thing done to excess one would have to evaluate the real reason for it not the stated reason. Compulsive gamblers say they Gamble for Money but they Gamble because they can t tolerate the pain or the difficulty they Are having in relating to their family or Job try your hand at setting health policy by Peter Passell the new York times november 1995. National health cure has been Law for a year and Universal coverage is almost a fact. But costs arc Al ready running above projections and Bob Dole is making wisecracks about voodoo Democrat economics. A a value added tax or Oregon style rationing would solve the budget problem but would be suicide to introduce before the elections. A Page from Hillary Rodham Clinton s future perhaps. But with a Little help from Silicon Valley the future is now and open to anyone with Access to a Zippy ism compatible personal computer. Sim health a $29.95 computer game produced by Maxis business simulations with a Grant from the Markle foundation gives Back seat ambulance Drivers the Chance to design their own health care system from scratch and to observe the consequences including the possibility of being voted out of office. With its Slick graphics and randomly introduced news bulletins the game May prove As entertaining As Maxis popular simulations of genetic mutation Sim life Urban planning Sim City and in sect colonies Sim ant. But this time the idea is to sugarcoat a maximum strength civics lesson. Lloyd Morrisett president of the Markle foun Dation Hopes Sim health will be the Model for making Complex Public policy understandable to a generation time is ised to absorbing the news in video bites Vlf people think the game is fun and interesting we will try it elsewhere he. Said perhaps with budget policy Wel fare Reform or the the White House has already installed preview version of Sim health in a dozen of its computers. And Jeff Eller a spokesman for the president s task Force on National health care Reform thinks simulation games could serve policy professionals As Well As amateurs by forcing those with different views to examine their assumptions. You can t dismiss this As another Pac Man or Tetras he allows. Computer simulation has been a Stan Dard Industrial design technique for two decades allowing engineers to test testability of a new aircraft Wing or the adequacy of a factory s Quality control sys tem without investing a Penny in the real thing. By the same Token scientists have used simulations to solve problems that resist straightforward mathematical solutions. Forecasts of global warming for exam ple depend heavily on the technique. Simulations that Are both timely and Worth the Effort have generally had the drawback of requiring immense number. Crunching Power multimillion Dollar supercomputers Are still the tools of Choice for simulating the explosion of nuclear . Indeed John Miles the general Man Ager of Maxis business simulations notes that Only in the last few years have personal computers become fast enough and cheap enough to serve As vehicles for mass Market simulation games. But even the most realistic simulations of Jet fighter duels and. Sports leagues have obvious limitations being no better than the fixed assumptions that drive them. In Sim City Maxis Urban planning game Hiles Points out that the the nuclear Power Plant always melts the Markle foundation which is Al ways Hunting for ways to Bridge the communications Gap Between complicated is sues and a Public that has Nei Trier the time nor the inclination to spend hours absorbing the often dreary stuff of policy had something very different in mind. Since the whole Point of Sim health is to create a relatively painless Way of exploring the practical problems of provid ing health care players Are always free to alter either the priorities of the plan or the assumptions about How the moving parts interact. I think Sim health is an intriguing alternative Eller the presidential panel s spokesman said. V i
