As members of the 2old2play community, most, if not all of us, have stayed up way past our bedtimes a time or two in order to get in that last game, or get level 45. Many of us have probably listened to our family and friends complain about the time we spend playing our games, and some of us even manage to play at work. In terms of addiction, if these were drugs or alcohol associated behaviors, most would call us addicts or alcoholics. So does this mean we are online gaming addicts?
Well an article we recently read on Dev Hardware says that it might. According to the article “Psychologists and scientific researchers are beginning to recognize online gaming addiction as a growing phenomenon.” Some of the reasons the article mention are the growing number of news stories creating awareness of the problem, and various gaming industry companies facing lawsuits from affected individuals.
Dev Hardware adds in the article that people who play online games enough to be considered addicted show many familiar signs associated with drug addiction. According to the article “researchers at the Charite University Medicin Berlin, in Germany, say that those who play games excessively share important reactions with drug addicts.” One such sign is dubbed as “drug memory.” In other words an individual who is used to drinking heavily in a smoke filled bar, may be tempted to drink when they are in a room filled with smoke.
In order to test the theory, researchers conducted an experiment comparing “15 men in their 20s who admitted that their gaming had chased other activities – such as work and hanging out with friends – out of their lives, with 15 controls who also played games, but not to as great a degree.” The volunteers were shown a variety of images and asked what they felt about them. According to the article “both sets of volunteers reacted the same to neutral images (such as furniture), and even to the alcohol related images (all participants were drinkers).” The researchers added that “when the excessive computer gamers were showed screen shots of their favorite games, they reacted like drug addicts experiencing “drug memory” from one of their triggers.” Gamers were quoted as saying that “they felt an overwhelming desire to play the game, expected to feel better once they did, and fully intended to play again as soon as possible.”
The article continued on and added information about how bad the addiction could get as well as what types of people are susceptible to the gaming addiction. The full text can be found here.
Could we stop? Can you put down the controller, or push yourself away from the keyboard? We have all heard about the addict that says, “I can stop anytime I want.” Well could you? Perhaps further research into this so-called “online gaming addiction” is warranted before people start calling themselves addicts, but a hard look at our gaming habits is probably something we should all do. Every so often when logging onto WoW, a little phrase pops up onto the screen that says something like everyone is welcome in to Azeroth, but don’t forget to go outside. Good advice!
