Letters from Neo-Tokyo

Letters from Neo-Tokyo (thoughts on various sub-culture subjects such as gaming, anime, movies, and generally nerdy things I like).

I recently came across a couple of articles that really struck me on this topic and I thought I would share what I think…

Addiction: a strong emotional or psychological dependence on a substance such as “…”

Normally this sentence would end with “a drug” or “alcohol” or “gambling” but in recent years a number of therapists and psychiatrists have begun adding “video games” to the list. Sure, video games get the shaft for a number of things, no different than other forms of media that are usually part of some kind of sub-culture, the most prevalent probably being the holy trinity of comics, movies and music.

The most damning articles you’ll see in print are usually about the violent content included in videogames, not so much for the possibility that games may also (inadvertently or arguably for some games directly) prove to have addictive qualities. From what I can tell, this trend was minimal in the days of yore when games were essentially linear: you plugged it in, you played it, you beat it, you stopped playing it. Not altogether different from books or movies, games were an entertainment device aimed of creating a particular experience until the gamer beat the game.

Not so, today. One could make an argument that the prevalence of addiction and video games has come with the birth of MMORPG’s or other online-functional games. What’s the difference? These games are essentially unbeatable, especially today. In the beginning, the lack of sophistication in these games meant that players could in relativist terms beat a game by leveling up to a point where the usefulness of playing was rendered null. With new iterations of MMORPG’s such as World of Warcraft (WOW), this isn’t the case as often. I’ll give respect to Blizzard for one thing and it’s that they know how to make a quality product – and with that – they have learned how to refine continual content and story upgrades to keep gamers playing. From a business perspective it makes sense. The company retrieves subscriptions fees from its players. The company’s best interest is to deliver a constantly dynamic experience so that players continue playing the game.

The problem is, there may be adverse effects from creating such a seamless online world, especially in regard to a tendency for some players to become psychologically dependent on playing. Further, some researchers are starting to point out that the playing of the games may also inadvertently be creating physical changes in the human body that enhance the addictive behaviour.

The psychological findings are pretty straight-forward for anyone who plays any kind of role playing game – it’s called sunk-cost fallacy. When a person commits so much time toward something (as you would need to do in any role-playing game), it’s hard to stop a certain behaviour because so much time has already been committed.

The other psychological motivations behind gaming are kind of obvious as well; games are an escape. The problem is, with increased sophistication the games become a better, more fulfilled escape. One research paper I came across noted that like any behaviour that is rewarded, there is an initial rush. After time, a person will continue sinking time to reach a “higher” high. Of course the other issue that comes out of providing players with an escape, an other world is that there is a tendency for some to choose that virtual world, over the needs of the present one. In the same said research paper, a clinical psychologist noted it as the “Peter Pan” complex. Some gamers become addicted to these games because they feel a strong emotional link between themselves and the characters they spend so much time developing.

What compounds this issue is that although many MMORPG’s create an online community for social interaction; they also bridge a stronger need for some gamers to stay in them, continuing to work for better levels and rewards as a way of proving worth to others. The psychologist noted that this issue was especially prevalent in people with prior issues with social interaction, depression or just plain boredom. A player can possibility become addicted because the world they inhabit online allows them to work hard and see success; unfortunately, real life doesn’t always work that way.

So, what’s the impact?

There’s a wealth of “gaming widow” sites and although it sounds sort of far-fetched and plenty or jokes are made between gamers, one look at site like this one (http://www.gamerwidow.com/) and you come to understand the very real impacts that an online world can have. In all honesty, after reading a few testimonies from gaming widows, I begun to wonder whether the addiction was truly the “exception” and not the “rule.”

The testimonies are real examples of people and how their behaviour changed due to excessive gaming; plenty of the descriptions are symptomatic of addiction such as withdrawal from society, lying to family/friends, changing life patterns such as missing classes/work etc., apathy, depression and hygiene issues. I always think of these as the extremes, but when reading people’s comments, is happens more than I’d like to think.

I found other articles in the press from ex-addicts (particularly Everquest) such as: http://news.com.com/2100-1040-881673.html. Similar to the widow’s descriptions, gamers themselves describe the issues that arose when gaming took over.

Arguably, the true science is still out there – one clinical test noted that excessive dopamine is produced when gaming – still, the real effects of this test and its validation have not been done.

Like doing anything too much, games can be bad. As someone who likes videogames, I do think there are a number of positives and that they are a legitimate entertainment vehicle.

That said, I think that as a society we haven’t fully gauged the impact that videogames will have – particularly so – with the new rise in online gaming and continuous gaming. As the Internet before transformed nearly everything about daily life, I don’t doubt that we haven’t fully understood how online gaming will impact how we are entertained and what that truly means to psychologically and socially.