Video Game Addiction
Updated: Apr 1, 2020
Videogame addiction has been the topic of conversation as early as videogames have existed. The fear and misunderstanding when it comes to videogames makes laymen nervous, and often results in misinformation. It's important to get the true issues brought to light, as well as the exaggerations put under control. To start, videogame addiction falls under the category of impulse
control disorder. The obvious source of videogame addiction is the dopamine release from victory in a game, and as any good developer will tell you, those dopamine hits are what keep their business afloat. It is a very real intention to give these dopamine hits, yet how they are received vary from person to person. According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, videogame addiction is not officially recognized as an addictive disorder. So, if it is recognized as a few disorders, yet not a few others, what is videogame addiction? According to the World Health Organization, videogame addiction is only evident when gaming is so severe that it becomes a detriment to the familial, social, educational, or occupational livelihood of the individual. Behavior such as ignoring daily responsibilities, excessive spending, and loss of interest in other activities can be symptoms of videogame addiction. Therefore, is videogame addiction serious? I believe saying videogame addiction is dangerous is much as the same thing as saying that videogames cause children to be violent. Because impulse control disorder is a disorder that can affect anyone regardless of their outlet for it, specifying videogames as the problem just turns them into an unnecessary strawman. Studies have already shown that videogames do not cause violence, it is just that violent people happened to have played videogames. Much in that vein, a videogame addict is no more than an addict who plays videogames. However, the responsibility is not completely on the addicts. Former World Snooker Champion, Niel Robertson, claims that he spent so much time on videogames such as League of Legends and FIFA, that he forgot to spend it on his career and family. He went on to explain that it was starting to impact his sleep schedule and mood, causing fights with his family. As a result, his family banned these games from the household. A decision, Niel agreed, was the best for everyone. Despite this, Niel had an interesting thing to say on the matter. He pointed out that “when I do something, I really go at it 100% and try to become the best that I can be at it” (GameQuitters, 2018). This would seem to confirm that had it not been videogames he would have been addicted to something else. More than that I think it is important to watch out for videogames, I think it is important to watch out for addiction as a whole. In order to help spot addiction in ourselves and others, a few basic questions need to be asked. The first, is if the habit is becoming a detriment to the individual’s life. I, myself, have over 22,000 hours in World of Warcraft, yet I still take time for the gym, having a job, and getting my work completed. Is 22,000 a magic number that now means I am no longer allowed to play World of Warcraft? I don’t believe so. This is because another rule should be that you do not start to treat others differently. Being antisocial is something a person develops long before they are into videogames. However, if a normally outgoing person is no longer interested in friends or going out, it may be important to point that out to them. In the end, addiction is a problem regardless of how it is let out. Once anything in a person’s life starts to hinder them, taking a look at the issue is the key to solving it. If videogames are causing an individual’s current addiction, rather than taking games away from the person altogether, leaving them looking for their next fix, give them steps in order to maintain a healthy gaming-life balance. This is, perhaps, the only real way to “cure” videogame addiction.
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