2006年 11月 7日 火曜日 16:55

After months of very serious studies, the medical staff came to several conclusions about that group. Our investigations consisted in interviewing patients, living among them in total immersion and being present in the clinic at least 12 hours a day.
The Last.fm Detox Group, aka Last.fm Detox Centre, is not only an ordinary group. If you have ever had a look at the “users” section of the site, you surely saw that our “clinic” is often in the “active groups” section. That means that both doctors and patients really work hard to fight their addiction.

1) The Crew

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Kotsa200, behind that mysterious name, there is a distinguished Belgian doctor. He created the clinic on August 11th 2006 and since then, he has made many efforts to promote his group and save as many patients as he could. With the growing popularity of the Detox Centre, our beloved director realised he needed other doctors to help him.
Attic, that world-famous French doctor joined the clinic as soon as Kotsa called her. When she realised he was overwhelmed with work, she did her best to help him. She experimented with a brand new therapy to help her patients with an endless devotion. Her technique of total immersion has made its proof since then. But two doctors weren’t enough to manage such a centre.
Spherickal, an erudite English doctor, joined the staff very soon too. Often seen as a visiting consultant, his presence is essential for the good working of the centre. Also well-known for his mysterious healing methods, he has been acclaimed by the whole profession. Among his latest (famous) patients he treated, we may mention a French actress, famous for her various addictions to illicit substances.
All those three doctors combine their efforts every day for the good of the mental health of their patients.

2) A Detox Centre, what for?

When we questioned the patients during our investigations, the most common interrogations were: “why are we here?”, “can that clinic help us?”, “what’s your secret?”, etc… A little time before the creation of the Detox Centre, a polish doctor, Bhaart, created the “Addicted to last.fm Group”. It started with his awareness of a general and growing illness. Bhaart’s first concern was to create a group where people with an addiction could gather and talk about their disease. Of course, he soon realised that wasn’t enough and joined the clinic too, “the Detox Centre should be recommended to all the members of my group”, he told us.
Kotsa’s first concern was to heal as many persons as he could. But how to convince people to enter the clinic? He decided to create games to attract people. Little by little, the number of patients has grown. Kotsa’s creativity has no end, no limits. He creates some new ones regularly to keep the patients’ attention. Of course, the two other doctors, Attic & Spherickal, test ALL the new games to be sure it’s healthy enough for their patients. Their playing all the games is also an evidence of their seriousness and their ability to be a doctor in that clinic.

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3) Why becoming an addict of a detox group?

Well, being addicted to healthy stuff such as Kotsa”s extraordinary games is not bad. There is a total difference between an alcohol addiction and, let’s say a fruit addiction. One is healthy, the other not. The Detox Centre is like an apple you always want to bite.
It is interesting to see who play to which games. We have a maximum capacity of 100 patients (an extra aisle is being built currently), including the three doctors… ehm… and 41 of them have ever posted something on the forum. It is quite surprising to see that more than half of our patients don’t even try to be saved. How can we interpret this? We must admit we still haven’t found any answer! Some may not have enough time to visit us as much as they should, some may have gone back to their old ways. But let’s have a look to the games addictions:

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1. Introduce yourself
2. The “Person below game”
3. The Music scrabble
4. The “Ask Stupid questions game”
5. The “Last to Post game”
6. Numbers game #2
7. The “Dedicate game”
8. The “Better Than game”

Only 29% of the patients introduced themselves. The other 71% may be too shy, or not enough involved in their salvation. The participation to the 6 games is quite unequal as you can see on the graph above. The favourite one remains the “Person Below game”, with 28 players (68.3% of the players). And the “Dedicate game” and the “Better Than game” are the ones which attract the smallest number of people (19.5% of the players). We must precise that those two games are the most recent ones.
The differences between the games are hard to explain. In spite of the very serious participation of the three doctors, some patients still don’t want to make efforts in order to be healed, or at least, to improve their situation.
This lack of seriousness from some patients led the medical staff to an important meeting. They finally took the decision to refuse patients once they reached the 100th one. “We must keep the family spirit”, explained Kotsa. Plus, it has been proved that too many patients would prevent the doctors from spending enough time with each patient and they don’t want that at all, “all our efforts would have been in vain”, said Spherickal. A controlled number of patients would also avoid a situation of overcrowded rooms and corridors.

4)What about the efficiency of the Detox Centre?

Do these games have a real impact on our mental health? Are patients saved after all? We spent a lot of time hanging around in the corridors of the centre. Actually, some patients are really on the right way. I can name Mat35 and Bhaart (who respectively play to 6 and 5 games out of 6). They both admitted that “the Detox Centre is lifeline”. To Mat35, playing to all these games “has a deep impact on sanity, sleeps better at night”. Quite new patients, RobotGUY, Adriaan90 as well as Logangal23 (who play to 5 games) have declared that their lives have “radically changed” after their joining the clinic. Tezzmeister (who plays to 4 games) confided to us that her “life is much better since has started to play that games therapy. We have to encourage a couple of patients, who make efforts, we are sure their perseverance will pay at the end. We must warn them though, that playing to only 3 games is not enough, they’ll be healed faster if they play more. So all our thoughts go to Soadize, LilKill, Kateinkowloon and Spacefish. Keep the faith guys!

5) Conclusion

This study shows that the Detox Centre is really efficient (re-read it if you don’t believe us). Its aim is not to force people to play more, it is just to show the patients that they all play a role in the clinic, by visiting the centre, they improve their mental health and little by little get rid of their dependence. The patients of the Detox Centre must not forget that because they are special, they deserve the best services, treatment and drugs.

Take Care, The Medical Staff.