My take on Game Addiction

We've all heard stories of "game addiction" haven't we? Somebody plays games obsessively and something bad happens as a result. I've seen stories ranging from people playing a game so long that they allegedly drop dead and parents that let their child die of hunger because of their Starcraft addiction.

 

This post here is about my take on "game addiction".

It doesn't exist, at least, not on its own.

Yep, I'm that blunt on this subject, games on their own will not cause addiction. What does cause the issues you hear about in the news? Mental issues.

It's that simple. Let's face it, when did the media last mention the mental states of the "addicts" rather than just instantly blaming videogames? I'm willing to bet that similar cases could just as easily happen with activities such as gambling.

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that games don't have addictive qualities, I'm perfectly aware of endorphins. What I'm saying is that to become "addicted" to videogames you have to be fairly weak-willed in the first place, otherwise you would know better than to fall prey to a little outburst of chemicals once in a while.

While we're here, we may as well go over what games do to make themselves addictive. That is, what do they do to incentivise further play?

Small rewards.

Naturally, the gameplay needs to be somewhat entertaining by itself but its the rewards it gives you that keeps you playing. It can be the reward of a cutscene in a very story-driven game, it can be the reward of a weapon as you level up in an FPS and hell, it can even be a small achievement in an MMO.

Every single small reward rewards you with that small burst of feel-good chemicals that your brain loves. Ever wondered why MMOs are meant to be particularly addictive? This is just that. They give you a massive amount of new loot and achievements as you progress through the game, all leading up to even better loot and achievements. Because you're constantly receiving awards you have more of an urge to get just one more before you stop playing.

E.G. You get an achievement for killing 10 critters, you could stop but you get another one after 50 kills, you proceed to kill 40 more and realize there's yet another achievement for 100 kills. This keeps you playing, this is why MMOs tend to have more rabid playerbases.

(Just to clarify, I am by no means saying that these small rewards are a bad thing, they're a great thing, I'm simply explaining how they're used to keep people playing, hence leading to some people latching onto them like drug addicts due to their weak-willed nature.)

As always, thank you for reading.