'Addicting' - is it the right word?

[Buffoon]

'Addicting' seems to have almost entirely replaced 'addictive' in the gaming world. I'm no great expert on the English language, but this seems wrong to me. Am I wrong to think it's wrong? 'Addicting' is a verb, isn't it? As in:

'This game is addicting me with its many opportunities to decapitate small furry animals.'

And 'addictive' is an adjective, as in:

'I find this bunny-strangling game utterly addictive.'

So something like this would be wrong:

'The mini-game where you stomp on puppies is really addicting.'

Again, I'm not claiming to be an expert. Just wondering if anyone else has noticed this trend, and if it sounds kind of awkward to anyone else.

 

[martin's a madman]

I'm not bothered by much, but when I hear 'addicting' in the place of addictive I get really irritated.

 

[Buffoon]

I believe 'stomp' in that sentence is the verb

Sure, it's a verb, but not the verb. A sentence can have more than one verb.

To go back to my original post and complicate matters, it occurs to me that there are plenty of verbs that are similar to 'addicting' that can function perfectly well as adjectives. 'Demanding', for instance, and 'fulfilling'. But then there's a word like 'restricting', which isn't normally used as an adjective; instead we'd say 'restrictive'. Why is this? Is it to do with the 'ict' ending? Is there a rule?

I'm genuinely interested to find out. Is there an English teacher in the room?

 

[LobsterFeng]

I'm not an expert either, but couldn't "addicting" be used as an adjective given the context?

 

[Dirty Apple]

There is addictive and only addictive. "Addicting" is an abberation.

 

[crudus]

Yes, but this is the internet so you aren't 100% guaranteed to have correct grammar. If you want to nit-pick, "addicting" is the wrong word anyway. The word "addiction" requires some form of physiologically or psychologically dependency on the games. Chances are slim that people have a dependency on games. There might be people out there who have a psychological dependency on games but not as many as would be implied by the high usage of the word.

 

[thylasos]

Addictive. That's the word. 'Addicting' is an ugly mistake.

 

[Jaloopa]

Apparently "addicting" is valid. Still irks me whenever I see it though

 

[2xDouble]

The correct word, according to Extra Credits [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00SvIIualUw] (after they left The Escapist), is "compulsive" (or compelling).

 

[Ickorus]

It's most likely due to the website 'addictinggames', a very popular website among bored school children.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

I've never heard the word "addicting" in my life until now. So I'm going to go with this:

There is addictive and only addictive. "Addicting" is an abberation.

and

Addictive. That's the word. 'Addicting' is an ugly mistake.

 

[SovietPanda]

I believe 'stomp' in that sentence is the verb

Sure, it's a verb, but not the verb. A sentence can have more than one verb.

To go back to my original post and complicate matters, it occurs to me that there are plenty of verbs that are similar to 'addicting' that can function perfectly well as adjectives. 'Demanding', for instance, and 'fulfilling'. But then there's a word like 'restricting', which isn't normally used as an adjective; instead we'd say 'restrictive'. Why is this? Is it to do with the 'ict' ending? Is there a rule?

I'm genuinely interested to find out. Is there an English teacher in the room?

Now while i can't explain the specifics, as I don't remember properly and its late. I can still give a basic answer. The rules for how a word is altered to verb/plural/adjective form depends on its origin. When the plural for Goose is Geese you'd expect the same to apply to Moose but it doesn't.

 

[zfactor]

'Addicting' seems to have almost entirely replaced 'addictive' in the gaming world. I'm no great expert on the English language, but this seems wrong to me. Am I wrong to think it's wrong? 'Addicting' is a verb, isn't it? As in:

'This game is addicting me with its many opportunities to decapitate small furry animals.'

And 'addictive' is an adjective, as in:

'I find this bunny-strangling game utterly addictive.'

So something like this would be wrong:

'The mini-game where you stomp on puppies is really addicting.'

Again, I'm not claiming to be an expert. Just wondering if anyone else has noticed this trend, and if it sounds kind of awkward to anyone else.

Well technically...

"Addictive" is an adjective, you use it to describe a noun, as in "an addictive game."

"Addicting" (in the sense that you are using it) is a gerund, which functions as a noun. "This game is addicting" is technically incorrect to say, but most people interpret it as "This game is addictive."

So technically, "addictive" is correct, as far as perts of speech go. It really implies some sort of massive dependancy, so addictive probably is not the correct word to use anyway...

 

[esperandote]

The correct word, according to Extra Credits [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00SvIIualUw] (after they left The Escapist), is "compulsive" (or compelling).

I never got why they wanted to convince us of that. People can get very addicted to games, just like James described his addiction. Compulsion is characteristic of an addiction. Maybe they wanted to tone down the negative conotation of the word used in videogames, but why?

 

[Kingpopadopalus]

The correct word, according to Extra Credits [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00SvIIualUw] (after they left The Escapist), is "compulsive" (or compelling).

I never got why they wanted to convince us of that. People can get very addicted to games, just like James described his addiction. Compulsion is characteristic of an addiction. Maybe they wanted to tone down the negative conotation of the word used in videogames, but why?

I think its because, how they said, there are no chemicals directly interacting with the brain, thus making it impossible to make an addiction seeing as its just our want to play rather then a need to satisfy a pain or itch. Have you ever seen a smoker go a day with out a cigarette? They go fucking nuts cause they don't have their calming dose of nicotine.

 

[Gunner 51]

It's always going to be addictive to me. I'll admit seeing the word "addicting" is slightly irritating to me.

Capcha: Oh, really?

 

[esperandote]

The correct word, according to Extra Credits [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00SvIIualUw] (after they left The Escapist), is "compulsive" (or compelling).

I never got why they wanted to convince us of that. People can get very addicted to games, just like James described his addiction. Compulsion is characteristic of an addiction. Maybe they wanted to tone down the negative conotation of the word used in videogames, but why?

I think its because, how they said, there are no chemicals directly interacting with the brain, thus making it impossible to make an addiction seeing as its just our want to play rather then a need to satisfy a pain or itch. Have you ever seen a smoker go a day with out a cigarette? They go fucking nuts cause they don't have their calming dose of nicotine.

People can get addicted to non-chemical stuff like sex, gambling, risk or buying stuff. Besides, for what i understand, that isn't much, there are chemicals released in our bodies when we do these stuff.

 

[Stall]

Addicting can be used as an adjective. You can use -ing words as an adjective and be grammatically correct. There's a technical term for it, but I cannot seem to remember it.

I think its because, how they said, there are no chemicals directly interacting with the brain, thus making it impossible to make an addiction seeing as its just our want to play rather then a need to satisfy a pain or itch. Have you ever seen a smoker go a day with out a cigarette? They go fucking nuts cause they don't have their calming dose of nicotine.

It was a really fucking cheap shot used by EC to mitigate the seriousness of the condition. "Compulsion" sounds a lot friendlier and nicer than "addiction," so they used it as a really cheap way to further their argument. Addictions do not necessarily have to be chemical in nature.

 

[Queen Michael]

I always use "addictive".