MTV planning game-addict reality show

  • By philonious_matt, GameSpot
  • Posted Jun 18, 2009 9:23 am AEST

In 1998, MTV began its documentary series True Life with a pilot featuring the story of a heroin addict. After 10 seasons, the show hopes to document another kind of addict---the kind that's basement-dwelling, caffeine-addled, and disc-dependent. In other words, the show is on the lookout for game...

In 1998, MTV began its documentary series True Life with a pilot featuring the story of a heroin addict. After 10 seasons, the show hopes to document another kind of addict---the kind that's basement-dwelling, caffeine-addled, and disc-dependent. In other words, the show is on the lookout for game addicts. According to an online casting call posted by MTV, the show is looking for gamers in the US aged 18 to 29 whose habits have taken a turn for the worse, affecting personal relationships, family life, marriage, household responsibilities, and careers. The deadline to apply is November 10.

As detailed in a GameSpot feature this year, the American Medical Association's Council on Science and Public Health was commissioned for a comprehensive report on video game addiction in 2006. Following the report, the organization recommended to the American Psychiatric Association to name video game addiction as a formally diagnosed disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).

According to the feature, the most infamous cases of video game addiction include a South Korean man who collapsed in an Internet cafe after playing 50 hours of Starcraft; a 13 year-old Vietnamese boy who strangled an elderly lady with a piece of rope so he could buy games; and a Chinese man who died after playing online games for 15 consecutive days. In 2006, the world's first clinic for video game addiction opened in Amsterdam.

This is not the first time True Life has taken an interest in gaming. In 2003, the show aired an episode featuring two professional gamers who raked in over $270,000 combined in gaming tournaments.

41 Comments

  • Gogfreak21

    Posted Jun 27, 2009 10:56 pm PT

    I'm getting sick of this basement-dwelling stereotype that everyone's been slinging around for years now. I'm ATTIC-dwelling, caffeine-addled, and disc-dependent!

  • wahyudil

    Posted Jun 19, 2009 4:31 pm PT

    I think I want to watch this ...

  • madSomnambulist

    Posted Jun 19, 2009 3:09 pm PT

    This isn't actually a reality show, it's just an extended advertisement for MTV game products. Can say I blame them, might as well try to cash in on something with a high profit margin when the network has turned ... questionable.

  • necronaux

    Posted Jun 19, 2009 11:27 am PT

    Do we really need another reality show? And on MTV?

    This would play (pun intended) much better if it was done as a documentary (showing that we're all not crazy, lazy, immature kids wasting our time).

  • punkpunker

    Posted Jun 19, 2009 4:04 am PT

    good. let them show to the public that they are psychos and not addicts

  • zeroking420_666

    Posted Jun 18, 2009 2:11 pm PT

    now tell me again why we should care about a True Life video game.

  • BrunoBRS

    Posted Jun 18, 2009 2:03 pm PT

    "hey, games can get you addicted! i'm one of them! i want to ruin games' reputation while showing my face to the whole world while shouting 'im addicted to games'! and i'm not lying to get some cash!!! not at all!!!" >_>

  • hannify

    Posted Jun 18, 2009 1:37 pm PT

    great make us look even worse..

  • mastodonfatguy

    Posted Jun 18, 2009 9:15 am PT

    why. why why. this is just gunna make US look bad. next ull see them reporting that basketball is gunna make u a loser and that baseball is too dangerous and should be banned. lmao WHY!

  • darklight4

    Posted Jun 18, 2009 8:48 am PT

    i bet they try to get the rejects from the gene pool to make us all look like the crack addicts of the gaming community.
    i can play games for a long time but i am human i have to eat take a leak occasionally and sleep. but the tiny minority of total addicts end up reperesenting all of us thanks to crap shows like this. MTV = trash tv

  • Rottenwood

    Posted Jun 18, 2009 7:41 am PT

    They should put me on this show. I taped a DS to the back of my wife's head so I could keep playing during marital relations.

  • Lexxurious

    Posted Jun 18, 2009 6:01 am PT

    Lol...people dying from playing video games too much is soo funny and stupid!!

  • Melty123

    Posted Jun 18, 2009 4:43 am PT

    This is just stupid, when I last checked MTV was a music channel but now it seems like music doesn't earn so much money so they are going to games and they will probably do the same to games as to music - ruin them.

  • DevilMario54

    Posted Jun 18, 2009 1:45 am PT

    I have to admit, I am addicted to kicking a$$ on street fighter...some one help me...haha

  • Francision69

    Posted Jun 17, 2009 10:14 pm PT

    I miss the old MTV when it was really MTV and not Reality TV (scripted in many cases).

  • UnknownPerson55

    Posted Jun 17, 2009 9:40 pm PT

    i know the perfect guy for this...can anyone say world of warcraft...lolz hahaha

  • slycooper21

    Posted Jun 17, 2009 9:35 pm PT

    Say, does anyone remember back in the day when Music Television (MTV) used to show music? That was nice.

  • hawaiiinsomniac

    Posted Jun 17, 2009 6:03 pm PT

    Wow, if I didn't have to pay rent and pay bills and make money to buy these games; I'd probably be playing a lot more too.

  • Zero9698

    Posted Jun 17, 2009 6:02 pm PT

    im not wasting my time on this i have no ISSUE like this I KNOW LIMITS

  • Kcoshiob

    Posted Jun 17, 2009 5:34 pm PT

    oh, I thought this was an entire series devoted to gaming addiction. Thank goodness it's only one episode.
    I don't think I could watch even one full episode of that kind of stuff.
    Youtube has some funny mockumentary type gaming addiction stuff.
    Personally I can't stand these attention hungry people hamming it up for the camera, and pretending that it's real life.
    Sad.

  • 2bitSmOkEy

    Posted Jun 17, 2009 5:11 pm PT

    ROFL. Ahhh good old mtv. I thought people stopped watching that tv station like 10 or 15 years ago. Anyways it would be nice to have a non-joke media outlet take a look at gaming addiction rather than this pure garbage.

  • squarejp

    Posted Jun 17, 2009 5:08 pm PT

    We can get addiction on anything. Just like a scientist is addicted to his research habit, body builder addicted to his workout, book worm addicted to read books and obtain knowledge, sex addicts addicted to sex, alcoholic addicted to drinking, serial killers addicted the adrenaline when killing, teacher addicted to talk, people get addicted to drugs, kids addicted to bullying, the list keeps on going.

  • junglist101

    Posted Jun 17, 2009 4:59 pm PT

    Anybody can get addicted to anything. The sad thing about this is it makes gamers look bad when these addicts actually represent about 0.0001% of all gamers

  • onyxdragon7

    Posted Jun 17, 2009 4:56 pm PT

    Normal, casual, or frequent gamers should not be looked at badly...it's the people that become obsessed and let these games control their lives.

  • twistedmalice

    Posted Jun 17, 2009 4:48 pm PT

    For most of us gamers and the end of the night or morning we can controll are ourselves but we still live lives and though this may happen over seas this is almost the norm her but we still know that we still have lives to live. For the 13 yr old his parents didn't realize that there son was playing a little to much, they are just as much at fault then there son. As for MTV they are trying to give congress a reason to shut down gaming and they are hoping it gets them great ratings. I bet they make each story worse then what it is. And for the Korean man and Chinese man they are men they made there choice and u can blame games but they are old enough to make that choice to go crazy over a game or let it kill them. The majority of us gamers now how to control ourselves. So f*$% MTV

  • xert420

    Posted Jun 17, 2009 4:39 pm PT

    There they go screwing gamers again........

  • zintarr

    Posted Jun 17, 2009 4:39 pm PT

    **SMACKS FACE**


    Anyone want to bet that none of them will have ever played video games and that the "real" people are actor wannabes?

  • acemasta21

    Posted Jun 17, 2009 4:35 pm PT

    theyre gonna make gamers look bad trust me

  • lovea218

    Posted Jun 17, 2009 4:34 pm PT

    I swear they already have a true life....it was called True Life I'm a Gamer...it had counterstrike and this black dude who was sick at smash brothers...I guess an addict though is different...oh MTV

  • ldonyo

    Posted Jun 17, 2009 4:21 pm PT

    The only reason the AMA wants a disorder for "game addiction" is because their sugar daddies in the pharmaceutical industry have some new pills they want to peddle to the masses of clueless and ignorant parents.

  • ff7cloudking

    Posted Jun 17, 2009 4:20 pm PT

    MTV sucks (except for Rock Band). But, nonetheless I am kind of interested in seeing this episode of true life. I would not be surprised to see it paint video games in a negative light, especially since this is a show which has documented Heroine addicts before, but thats not to say that "video game addiction" isnt real.

  • Mike_Labeckio

    Posted Jun 17, 2009 4:20 pm PT

    Another reason to never watch MTV.

  • ldonyo

    Posted Jun 17, 2009 4:19 pm PT

    Gee, I wonder how many attention-starved "game addicts" are going to try and get on this made-for-TV disaster?

  • zeldafan1234

    Posted Jun 17, 2009 4:17 pm PT

    so mtv stands for music television am I right?? Sigh I dont watch this failed station they are just like G4tv they go way...way off what they are supposed to have on their channel. All mtv is now a days is garbage reality shows. If they want to do that crap why dont they make a new channel for that or just give up on music and rename the station it just doesnt make sense to call you station music television and not have anything to do with music except maybe a few hours. Same for G4. YOU dont see ESPN doing that they are strictly sports they never get away from something non related.

  • wwonka666

    Posted Jun 17, 2009 4:16 pm PT

    Ace77765 what are you saying? Videogame addiction doesn't exist? It really does, just read an earlier story about the "halo" killer. He definitely was addicted and apparently videogames are to blame for him killing his parents. Or perhaps you are right MTV is responsible for killing his parents. Or maybe it was Santa Claus addiction or the Easter Bunny. It was probably his parents parenting skills that caused it though. But believe me now and hear me later, videogame addiction HAS to be real because they are so bad for us to spend our freetime enjoying that the government wasted taxpayer money to find out if videogame addiction was real. Our government is the most honest government ever and would never waste taxpayer dollars if the "halo" killer didn't truly kill one of his parents and then have the other one defend his addiction (or was he defending his bad parenting?). Score another one for MTV, lobotomizing youths one television show at a time.

  • Ace77765

    Posted Jun 17, 2009 4:07 pm PT

    Yes...yes don't play video games take our legal drugs instead which cause psychotic breakdowns and causes you to hallucinate...possibly even change your brain patterns and kill a person over time. MTV completely fails on this one and anyone who thinks different about this...with all of the other addictions out there and mix that into what people do during their free time to just relax for a change...to get called mental it's an insult combined with a failing TV network that needs to make money somehow and a failed medical association that is just bored with diagnosing real diseases and disorders so they need to get on people who just wanna chill.

  • valuum

    Posted Jun 17, 2009 3:51 pm PT

    MTV is one of the most obnoxious networks out there. This doesn't interest me in the least.

  • wwonka666

    Posted Jun 17, 2009 3:51 pm PT

    Maybe the "Halo" killer can be a special guest on it direct from his cell. Now that would make some good reality television.

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