Kids like to play games. Some kids like to play computer games. Some play computer games obsessively, night and day. Maybe some discover too, that taking a bit of ‘speed’ will help them stay awake. Some kids will progress to online gambling. As the urge for greater excitement drives them on, some will embrace spread betting or crypto-currency trading. Losses may happen, triggering anger, desperation and depression – and alcohol and drugs can seem a solution to this – for some. And some kids will progress through their teens and twenties, addicted to massive worldwide computer games. Welcome to the world of addiction, kid!
Thirty years ago, before everyone had computers, the above paragraph would not have made sense,, apart from the first sentence. Back then, kids liked to play games but very, very few played obsessively. What has caused the change? Computers. Obviously.
Of course, computers are a fact of life now, but kids can still have a lot of fun with them, maybe play some video games, even have a few small (but still illegal) bets, laugh about it and go out to play football. Childhood and the teen years are always full of ups and downs – a game of Snakes and Ladders, you might say. But today that game seems sinister and perilous.
Making sense of the tangled web that constitutes addiction is not easy, but we can identify certain strands – addiction can begin when certain behaviours are found to be palliative to emotional pain – either by numbing or distorting the emotions, as many substances do, or by taking a person out of reality into an alternative, virtual world, as computer games do. Again, we are easily addicted to excitement, and computer games provide that too.
Most people today realise that computers play a big part in behavioural addictions – shopping, porn, gambling, gaming or just simply using the computer. But do we realise how manipulative computers, or rather the programmes they run, have become? Most of the vast industry behind the internet is based on the black art of hidden persuasion, of a very sinister kind, and we are only now waking up to this.
Mankind has progressed through history from the Age of Discovery, the Age of Enlightenment, the Age of Industry, the Age of Ideas. We are now in the age of Manipulation.
Why are computer games addictive? Here are ten reasons:, and there will indeed be others. The creators of these games are constantly working to make us keep playing:
- Escape from reality is a powerful attraction. Players can create a new life and become and do the things they always wanted. This ‘feel-good factor’ contributes to the addiction.
- They feed people’s need for social interaction, albeit sometimes virtual. Some games require real interaction between players and this encourages continuity. Earlier video games were usually solitary affairs. The excitement of connecting with players all over the world is heady and addictive.
- Most large video games have no defined or stated end. There is no ‘game over’ moment and instead the player is constantly encouraged to continue through new contacts and new challenges.
- A lot of video games have a rewards system that encourages players to keep playing, thereby enhancing the rewards.
- Video games have a ‘harmless’ image because the consequences of addiction are not as readily evident as with say, alcohol or drugs. Of course, eventually the addicted gamer experiences serious consequences of loss – time, health, friends, physical fitness etc, but these can take time to be realised.
- Most video games are running and evolving on a daily basis, so if a person does not play, they risk losing continuity or slipping back in rankings. Fear of missing out ‘FOMO’ is a recognised factor in many behavioural addictions.
- Many games encourage team play and this leads to a requirement for players to commit to longer periods of time playing, so as not to ‘let the team down’.
- Modern video games are not designed to reward play that is for a short time, they tend to require long-term immersion.
- In some big worldwide games, top players achieve rankings in a hierarchy that they are reluctant to relinquish by reducing time playing.
- Some large games involve rewards in ‘currencies’ that can be exchanged for real world currencies, encouraging some people to see gaming as a way of making regular income.
A lot of countries are taking addiction to computer games very seriously. In the UK the attitude of parents is often ‘my kids don’t spend any more time on gaming than we spent watching TV when we were kids’. The inference is that there is no harm in it.
John is seventeen and an engineering apprentice. After work on Friday he buys a dozen cans of lager and some amphetamines before sitting down at his pc. He will play a worldwide team computer game continuously until Monday morning when he might, perhaps, stop to go back to his apprenticeship.
