Video Game Addiction: Life Related

Vitor Franca
Mr. Michael Copeland
IEP Writing Skills
12 March 2013
Video Game Addiction: Life Related
Video Game addiction is the action of playing video games or computer games excessively and compulsively to the extreme that can make one forget the real world and live in the virtual world. Addictive behavior is defined by six main aspects: salience, mood modification, tolerance, withdrawal, symptoms, conflict, and relapse. Video game addiction satisfies the definition of addiction. On the other hand, the effects are moderately slight, and can be resolved by reducing the hours played. At this time, video game addiction has not been proven a syndrome. Genetic factors do not influence video or computer game addiction, but studies shown this behavior is unattached to another condition such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder [ADHD] or mania. There is no evidence of a connection between video game addiction and substance abuse. Also, the American Psychiatric Association did not have enough evidence to include video or computer game addiction on the new list of disorders in 2012.
Playing video games is an activity that it is becoming more popular every year. However, playing excessively will increase personal and social problems. There are people who set their priorities by putting video games as their number one item among a list which also contains sleep, school, job, and household chores. There are disagreements about whether video games are an addiction or not, but the real question is: Why do people play video games excessively? Studies show statistics on video game users, and the information is that users are typically male, aged between 15 and 20, and play around 20 hours per week. The occurrence of this addiction is not well-understood; the media has shown that video game addiction, problem video game playing, and healthy video game playing are different psychological terms.
Given that playing video games consists of hundreds of millions of users, it is not common to see research work on it. There are many aspects involved in a video game that researchers do not know and kinds of contents that are important to users. However, they (researchers) do not know what tools to use in this particular research. This area of study is seen by Psychologists as unimportant. In addition, the lack funding to research leave professionals in the area trapped on their lowest project level.
Griffiths and Woods’s research give people comprehension to see that, despite the players’ popular areas of interest in a game such as “exploring new areas”, sophisticated artificial intelligence interactions” and “building environments” being important information to answer the initial question “Why do people play video games excessively?”, it’s not the deciding factor or sole cause for playing overmuch. According to Wood’s studies, “Other characteristics may be more or less important, over time, due to advances in the design and development of video games and technologies they utilise. It should be noted that the importance of such characteristics may vary between individuals, and may vary according to the frequency with which people play video games.” Moreover, during a session of video game playing when a player is mind tangled and adrenaline is unstable, this exactly moment cannot be considered as “the problem” of involvement in video games. The frustration mixed with relief and satisfaction give the player a motivation to continue playing, but demotivation or playing objectiveless was found by King and Delfabbro as the main function to maintain a player focus on the game. When playing a certain game, players have different level of response. Some players have their heart rate changed in a small space in time for a specific game feature, and others have their response showed in a different feature or features. A survey demonstrated male players as manipulated to believe that the achievements are rewards to fulfill real life goals, while female players are motivated by the element “relationship”, or make contacts with other players. Although, these observations do not show how different types of player can become obsessive in video games. Men are more likely to play games than women, but why does it happen? An experiment involving a group of young men and young women, half and half, they played two games at different times, one is a popular video game and the other is a simple computer game in which players have to increase space by pushing the ball away from the wall. At the same time, a M.R.I machine analyze their brains and later is discovered that men brain were more activated in the mesocorticolimbic system. In the second game they both did well, but soon as men realize the objective of the game they were more motivated than woman and they did it a better job. “Another study involving three samples did a superior analyses beginning with high school students where compared their comportment during a game session. The study involves 204 students and 85% are male and 15% female. Then, second sample was with college students and the same kind of analyses. The total of participants was 262 being 77% men and 23% women. The third group consisted of 324 being 63% men and 17% women, and their study was based on an online survey. The problem video game playing (PVP) was examined for level of distress with yes or no question. The researchers used as the main component for the analysis a use of a varimax rotation with a Kaiser normalization, and one particular element was found in large amount (The Chronback alpha), same as the other groups. The authors of the study observed other areas like academic, social, work, and physical, and there was no differences between the behavior of samples” (Hart et al. 64). “Concerns has been led, scholars, social critics, game manufacturing, and media professionals to look at the content of video games and to question their impact on aggressive behavior” (Tamborini et al. 336). Violence in games has become too influential in people’s lives. First of all, when a 5 year old child is introduced to a game they are not concerned about how the game is going to influence his life, then, he little by little starts to change his attitude beyond his parents. Data showed that a child is easier to influence, and later they show decreases in life. Parents are one way to control what kind of games is played in their house, but in case of an adolescent it can be little out of their control. Approximately 68% of the popular video games have violence included. Most adolescents who play video games are 8th graders and spent 17 hours per week of their time playing violent games, and that is why they are encourage to a life of violent acts involving people around them. Comparing video games from twenty-five years ago to video games from today, there is a portion of facts that shows what is different on each feature in a game from different years. The quality of graphics is the most different feature that places the video games in time. Showing that more than a trillion pixels are enough to reach a close reality on video players are more inclined to believe on the screen than years before. Treatments and prevention are starting to grow. Austria, Germany, Italy, United States, Canada, China, Korea, and Netherlands started with a program of abstinence for video game addiction. “There is little evidence for psychological or pharmacological treatment for video and computer game addiction. A study using methylphenidate in 62 Korean children diagnosed with ADHD and internet video game addiction was reported. After 8 weeks of treatment, measures of internet use scores and internet usage times were significantly reduced, and these measures were positively correlated with measures of attention. The authors suggest that video game playing might be a means of self-medication for children with ADHD” (Weinstein 270). All in all, analysis were not enough to place a significantly result on treatments for computer and video game addiction. There is no clinical definition to qualify video game addiction as a disorder in the Diagnostic and statistical Manual of Mental Disorders or any official diagnoses system. “People like to play video games and become addicted to it due to repetition favorable activities or emotional experiences of fulfillment, social relationship, and flexibility, while the aspects of competition and aggression have been discounted” (Weinstein 273). There are studies which show that three mechanisms lead to excessive video game play, and a few studies based on psycho-physiological investigations. In the first place, when playing games, players are seen as user of the game to coping frustrations, stress, and fears. “The excessive usage of video game is seen as a rewarding behavior which can, due to learning mechanisms, become a prominent and inadequate strategy for 11 or 14 old children to cope with negative emotions like frustrations, uneasiness, and fears” (Weinstein 274). In addition, was founded that playing more and more will decrease interpersonal relationship, and social anxiety will be increased. Furthermore, in-game aids skills that affects in ways that signs of excitement, arousal and frustration are in dangerous amount. The third mechanism is that, maintaining a game for a long time waiting for rewards and sensitization, actives part of the brain in which can be similar to when a person is substance dependent. The result in medical terms was founded by recording online excessive player’s brain, and shows an intensification of emotions in parietal brain regions more than in casual player. “Moreover, pictures and mosaics was showed to the players during a MRI machine analysis, and it showed the craving area more active including the right orbito-frontal cortex, right nucleus accumbens than other parts of the brain, bilateral anterior cingulate and medial frontal cortex, right dorso-lateral prefrontal cortex, and right caudate nucleus” (Weinstein 274). The study finish declaring that a person who plays prolonged game hours have the same neurobiological mechanism activated than a person who has substance dependence. In another study also using MRI, shows why male have greater activation and “functional connectivity compared to females in the meso-cortico-limbic system” (Weinstein 274). Later, researchers stated that male are motivated for a reward system different from females when playing video games, and based on this statement is why male are more susceptible to be immersed in the video game area.
So far, it shows that video game playing is an activity that release large amount of dopamine after played at same level as pharmacological challenge, and as an example, people who are chronic user of ecstasy releases very little dopamine after performance a video game session. As researches do not invest great quantitates of resources to increase the answers for this problem, the question still remains. Why do people play video games excessively?

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