-A video I made about my experience with a video game addiction made before I started researching.
When people think addiction they think tobacco, drugs, alcohol, gaming. These are the main forms of addiction which hit first world society hard. One form of addiction that isn't on the minds of many people is video games addiction. Video game addiction is a relatively new idea, so new that it doesn't even have an official diagnosis and researchers are just starting to address such problems as what makes a video game more addicting? and do video games cause attention problems in children?
Historically, addiction has been defined as physical and psychological dependence on psychoactive substances. A psychoactive substance being something ingested or inhaled such as marijuana, tobacco, alcohol, etc. Another definition is
"A primary, chronic disease, characterized by impaired control over the use of a psychoactive substance and/or behavior. Clinically, the manifestations occur along biological, psychological, sociological and spiritual dimensions (2)." (Schlimme 2008)
The term may also be applied to anything which may be done so often it interferes with someone's life. More precicely the important things in life such as school, work, friends, family. There is even cases when a person begins neglecting personal needs such as hygiene and food for long periods of time. Once an individuals begins denying these 'shoulds and musts' in life it can be said that they are addicted.
But why are games addicting? Why do people get addicted to them? It has been suggested that certain game types can be more addicting than others. Games such as MMORPGs where social interaction, communicating with others and playing with others, have one of the highest addiction rates. Another aspect noticeable in these games is much of it is team based where players must form up into teams, clans, or guilds for a task to be accomplished. In Guild Wars, for example, an area called the Fissure of Woe requires a team of 8 players constantly playing for 3 hours to clear and get an exceptional reward. Players are expected to sit at their computer for 3 hours to help their team finish all the quests within the area. Once the quests are done a chest appears which can be opened by each member of the team for a reward. Such is the basis for many of the MMORPG style reward systems. Spend some amount of time doing a task and be rewarded. It seems that the more time spent on a certain task, the better the reward. This means that if a player wants one of the best items in the game they must spend the time to obtain it. People who join guilds are always under pressure to participate or risk being eliminated from the group, or risk falling behind in skill and prestige as everyone else. I know this first hand from my experiences with MMOs.
This form of gaming addiction may stem from the human psyche. People enjoy the feeling they get when they are rewarded for their actions. Such is the feeling people get when they do something nice for others, like mow their neighbour's lawn for free, or volunteer. MMOs are designed such that quests are constantly being completed, levels are constantly being gained, and items are constantly being rewarded. This gives constant joyful and positive feedback to the brain which can make a person feel like they're doing something incredible, when really what they are doing is meaningless in the real world. Such is the same with drugs which trick your brain into thinking everything is alright, MMO style games do the same. They stimulate the positive receptors in the brain, controlled by dopamine (which also dishes out pleasure when being adventurous) which give a feeling of joy and accomplishment, all of which can be easily be obtained in video games (This is your Brain on Video Games). This is another reason why people get addicted; the games they play take them to a better place where they can feel good all the time. They can forget about their troubles at work, forget their bill problems, etc.
Another way people get addicted to a game is that they begin playing for some time then feel as if they need to carry on playing because their previous efforts would be a waste of time otherwise.
- Even famous psychological effects such as the sunk cost fallacy can influence the addictive cycle. This fallacy occurs when a person feels compelled to continue performing a certain behavior because he has previously invested time in the behavior and does not want to feel as though his investment was wasted. Similarly, Dr. Timothy Miller, a clinical psychologist, states that many video game players may feel that they have wasted their efforts if they do not reach the next goal in a game, which may lead to additional time spent playing the game that the person otherwise would have spent in a more constructive task.
This excerpt from Schlimme 2008 states this fact that gamers feel they must continue what they started and feel compelled to complete games which they started.
One important thing that I noticed in MMO style games is that people like to flaunt their items and skills. They like to feel important. This can be a direct result of a person who has poor social skills in real life and turns to games to fit in and be part of a group of people. In a social style game you can usually be anyone you want to be. No one knows the real person behind the avatar so when a person starts playing a video game they almost start a new life. It is much easier for social outcasts, people who have trouble making friends and socializing in the real world, to make friends and be popular in games. This is another reason why these games are so addicting. Again, the positive re-enforcement and satisfaction that a person gets from friends online outweighs the misery of being alone in the real world. Players with poor social skills can be noticed as the ones who crave attention in social games by flaunting their items (Orzack 2007) and being awkward. But these socially awkward actions are usually acceptable in these types of games.
Based on this evidence gaming addiction is something that needs to be considered and further researched. Further exploration into how to make a better MMO could be done such that a game of its style is less addicting. A game which is not very addicting from experience is Guild Wars. It has a level cap of 20, which can take 10 hour to get for an experienced player. The weapons in the game are based on common stats such that everyone may be using a similar stat based weapon. The game is heavily based on the physical skill of a player as opposed to the amount of grinding, which bis defined as playing for hours and hours in search of something. The game does this via a 8 slot skill bar. Skills can be captured throughout the worlds, earned in quests, or purchased. It is entirely up to the player which skills to equip, and in what combination. There is no perfect combination of skills to use, but it does take some time to develop a good skill bar, called a build. Most of the time players will search on the internet for a list of a decent builds to use and pick one, go buy the skills, and then play with it. A process that takes 10-15 minutes. The game doesn't have a huge grind to it, nor a stimulating satisfaction of achievement since everyone typically has the same level and same weapons. The gamer is not perfect, however as it is highly team based and does give the feeling of being required on to play and help out your guildmates, but the game is definitive improvement on the standard more addictive MMORPG.
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