Game Magazine

Are you a Video Game Addict?

Do you find yourself lounging in your comfy chair and playing your favorite video game for hours? But you think it is not really that bad, as long as your Human Paladin levels up. Then you realize you haven’t taken a bath for quite a few days and your clothes started to stink. But then again, you think that an Orc Berserker smells worse than you. Then you stole a quick glimpse around your pad and noticed how messy and littered it has been. Again you shrugged it off and think there can still be worst places like the dreaded Frozen Undead Realms. Finally, your friends dumped you for not spending time with them. With this final straw of annoyance, you proudly yell, “I don’t need friends, I have my Undead Legions!”

Surely this might be an exaggerated sign of Video Game Addiction, but sadly some video game addicts do exhibit such exaggerated reactions, to some extent that some commits suicide when something happens untoward to their game.

Video game addiction is simply defined as an excessive or compulsive use of computers and video games that interferes with daily life. Despite displaying symptoms that are characteristic of other addictions, video game addiction has not been given a diagnostic status by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). These behaviors include failure to stop playing games, difficulties in work and school, lying to loved ones, decreased attention to personal hygiene, decreased attention to family and friends, and disturbances in the sleep cycle.

But, hey, let’s be hopeful. Having a video game addiction doesn’t mean it’s the end of the world. There’s still a way out of it but it would need a large amount of work and willpower.

Steps in “Curing” Video Gaming Addiction

Since there is no formal diagnosis for video gaming addiction, there is still no approved therapy or method of curing video gaming addiction. But there are some ways a video game addict can do to help in alleviating video game addiction. Here are some of those suggested means:

Limit your GAME TIME.

Set a specific time and duration for playing on your gaming system. Limit your game time to at most 1-2 hours per day. It will be hard at first, but when your body has adapted to it, it will be easy as a normal daily activity. In other for you too easily adapt to it, try thinking about your game time as a reward for doing your other activities.

Make sure that you tell your friends, parents, or siblings about your plan to limit your gaming time. Provide them with a specific timetable of the gaming schedule you have in mind. In that way they can easily check-up on you and monitor if you are following your desired gaming time schedules.

Limiting your game time not only frees a large amount of time for you to pursue other activities besides playing games, it also corrects your biological clock (which is attuned to gaming over long period of hours) slowly. (more…)

Biltong has long been recognised in South Africa as the perfect accompaniment to arduous hunting trips, mountaineering expeditions and sitting through a rugby game. With growing numbers of ex-pat communities around the world biltong – a dry cured meat – has travelled the globe and is finding increasing popularity amongst other cultures. Probably because it’s plain delicious. In terms of a health and convenience for those with an active lifestyle biltong has some considerable advantages. Easy to store, lightweight, packed with nutrition and protein it’s perfect for long trips that require energy and stamina. In terms of being a healthy choice, biltong is an excellent low fat snack and is versatile enough to be used as a base for soups and stews. When it comes to the choice between game and beef versions of biltong this is, in many cases, one of taste. Game biltong is common in South Africa, where native species such as the Kudu, the Springbok or even the Ostrich have leant their services to create a delicious healthy meal.

Nutritionally both versions are an excellent source of protein. The levels of fat in meat is affected by the cut, although wild game is nearly always lower in fat content than beef version – whether biltong or other meat products. Typical values for protein, fat and calorie content for these competing animals is shown below.

• Beef biltong: Probably the best well known biltong outside South Africa this provides, per 25 gram portion, 60 calories, with 1.3 grams of fat and 11.5 grams protein. (more…)

Biltong has long been recognised in South Africa as the perfect accompaniment to arduous hunting trips, mountaineering expeditions and sitting through a rugby game. With growing numbers of ex-pat communities around the world biltong – a dry cured meat – has travelled the globe and is finding increasing popularity amongst other cultures. Probably because it’s plain delicious. In terms of a health and convenience for those with an active lifestyle biltong has some considerable advantages. Easy to store, lightweight, packed with nutrition and protein it’s perfect for long trips that require energy and stamina. In terms of being a healthy choice, biltong is an excellent low fat snack and is versatile enough to be used as a base for soups and stews. When it comes to the choice between game and beef versions of biltong this is, in many cases, one of taste. Game biltong is common in South Africa, where native species such as the Kudu, the Springbok or even the Ostrich have leant their services to create a delicious healthy meal.

Nutritionally both versions are an excellent source of protein. The levels of fat in meat is affected by the cut, although wild game is nearly always lower in fat content than beef version – whether biltong or other meat products. Typical values for protein, fat and calorie content for these competing animals is shown below.

• Beef biltong: Probably the best well known biltong outside South Africa this provides, per 25 gram portion, 60 calories, with 1.3 grams of fat and 11.5 grams protein.

• Game; Springbok, less well known to non-South Africans, the Springbok is an extremely successful species of antelope, successful in the sense that it has one of the largest growing populations despite being very tasty indeed. Per 25 grams this variety contains 58.5 calories, with 0.2g of fat and 13.3g or protein. (more…)