Matt Luppino

Period 8
5/29/14
Senior Project

Just Five More Minutes: The Growing Culture of Video Game Addiction

The common notions of addiction revolve around drug use. One immediately imagines a
drunkard slouched over a bar for hours at end, or a shady cocaine user selling whatever he has
for their next high. The symptoms of withdrawal are striking, with jitters, anger, high blood
pressure, and lethargy compiling to make life miserable without the drug of choice. Yes, drug
addiction exists in the world and is a major problem that many are combatting. However, as
parents and teachers berate their children about the dangers of marijuana and alcohol, they
splurge for hundreds of dollars of video games to entertain them; little do they realize they might
be putting their children in just as much danger. Video game addiction is a legitimate medical
epidemic affecting our society, and video game designers are purposely exploiting the condition
to maximize their products.
Physically and psychologically, video game addiction has many similar features to
typical drug addiction. When someone is playing a video game and succeeding, the brains
reward center is activated, causing the release of a neurotransmitter called dopamine (Castillo).
This is the cause of the feeling of pleasure. Once someone experiences the feeling, they want to
prolong the pleasure, so they continue to perform the activity, whether taking a drug or playing a
game. Eventually, the brain becomes tolerant to dopamine, and the number of receptors that can
receive the neurotransmitter diminishes (Castillo). Now, in order for the brain to function at full
capacity, it needs dopamine; this is the basis of addiction. Once video game addiction settles
into its victim, the condition leads to many physical consequences, such as carpal tunnel,
migraines, sleep disturbances, backaches, eating irregularities, and poor personal hygiene
(Negative Aspects). Furthermore, the addiction can lend itself to substance abuse, attention
disorders, depression, bipolar disorder, and anxiety disorder (Negative Aspects).
However, one of the most telling and dangerous aspects of video game addiction is social
phobia. While sometimes those with social phobias in the first place turn to video games, it is
also known to create this awkwardness. Playing in certain video game worlds, such as World of
Warcraft, have their own dictionaries and customs, and communicating in the game is very
different from the real world (Negative Aspects). By constantly playing the game, addicts fail
to practice their social skills in the real world. When they try to return to the real world, they
fail. Of a survey of married video game players, about 50% reported strain in their marriage
(Negative Aspects). They cannot focus at work, with their friends, or anywhere else in public;
they are anxiously awaiting their next chance to play. By doing so, relationships, jobs, and
families are put at risk because the addict cannot control his/her compulsions to play (Castillo).
Most unfortunately, in one of the worst cases in video game addiction, a Korean couple
suffering from depression played Prius, a game in which you raise a child, until their real baby
daughter died from starvation (Flanagan). However, this inability to interact socially further
amplifies their addiction. Many addicts claim that they play video games as a means of
escapism: they find refuge in another world where they have control and are well liked, even if
by fictional characters. With constantly improving graphics, video games are becoming more
and more lifelike (Wolf 173, 277). Furthermore, it allows for a more exciting and less
destructive reality to live in, as opposed to the gamers dull and neglected personal life
(Flanagan). The social consequences of video game addiction can destroy the lives of both the
people trapped in the vortex and those caught in its wake.
Children are affected by video game addiction as well, in a plethora of different ways.
Marny Hauge and Douglas Gentile of Iowa State University performed a study on the effects of
video game addiction in 607 8th and 9th graders [who were] given a self-examination test.
From it, 85 were classified as addicted, and 265 as not addicted (Hauge). The results of the
study were staggering. Of the boys who fell under one of the classifications, over 80% were
classified as addicted, whereas only about 40% of girls were addicted, demonstrating a clear
gender divide in who is becoming addicted. The addicted children also self-reported to argue
more with friends and to engage in physical violence. Teachers also reported that addicted
students fought far more often with them in the classroom than their non-addicted counterparts.
However, most alarming were the results of academic inquiry. About 45% of non-addicted
students averaged a 90 or higher in all of their classes, and less than 5% were below a 70. For
addicted students, only 20% could receive an A, and more than 15% had a D or below. This
study from Hauge and Gentile gives clear and decisive evident that video game addiction exists
in our children, and is making them argumentative, violent, and poorer in school (Hauge).
Addiction does not manifest on its own; there are certain facets of video games that lend
themselves to causing addiction. Some of these traits are random occurrences originally
unforeseen by the designers. Remember, video games were the first of their kind: the first
medium to combine moving imagery, sound, and real-time user interaction in one machine, and
so it made possible the first widespread appearance of interactive, on-screen worlds in which a
game or story took place (Wolf 21). In this case, many causes of addiction were unknown
when creating video games, such as the idea of social obligation in video gaming. The gaming
population in the world is colossal: World of Warcraft is the largest, with over 9 million
subscribers as of summer 2007, with 2 million of them in North America, 1.5 million in Europe,
and 3.5 million in China (Wolf 259). In World of Warcraft (WoW), as in most video games,
certain missions must be accomplished in order to gain prizes, increase strength, and unlock
more difficult levels. Often, in order to complete the higher dungeons, players band together to
form task forces called guilds (Flanagan). Together, a guild can complete a level seemingly
impossible if acting alone. However, once entering a guild, the idea of social responsibility
comes into play. Often, you need to play every day and often it means several hours per day. If
you don't play, there are people (granted, somewhere else in the world) who will think badly of
you. They'll slander you on the forums and blacklist you from future raids (Flanagan).
Farmville has similar characteristics. In order to maintain the players farm, he/she must
receive resources from other players; this requires daily loyalty to each other in the game, since
one missed day can ruin the entire game for someone else (N.L.). Thus, in order to be successful
in the game, players are forced to play for hours on end, feeding their addiction.
Several other factors add to video game addiction, but they are particularly put in place
by the design team. Surprisingly, mind-numbing simplicity is a major cause of addiction (N.L.).
Mobile games such as Flappy Bird, 2048, and Dont Step on the Black Tile are very
simple games, and therefore seem to be easy. However, once the player loses, they cannot
believe that they failed such a simple task, and therefore start over until a cycle, and thus an
addiction, is formed. Contributing to this as well is something that psychologists call the near-
miss complex. In games where the player comes close to achieving a goal, brain scans showed
that the near-misses activated overlapping areas of the brain that are turned on when you win,
meaning people didn't really see themselves as losing as much as almost winning (Castillo).
This idea of being extremely close to satisfaction drives certain people to continue playing until
the goal is achieved. Additionally, these games do not have finite end points. The game can
seemingly continue forever, and thus there is no final level of satisfaction; the player can always
play for a higher score. Another commonly used design practice is giving the player rewards for
their actions, but not at fixed intervals. This is called the partial reinforcement effect. Since
players never know for sure when they are going to find a new weapon, stumble upon an
important item, or receive a surprisingly large lump of money, they are driven to keep playing
(Flanagan, N.L.). All of these facets of video games are design choices, made by those making
the game in order to ensure the games success; however, as a result of the focused greed of the
designers, many people suffer from the ensuing addiction.
Game designers are conscious of the fact that people can get addicted to video games.
They purposely design their games with the intention of getting players hooked. They have
made a lot of money from it, as well. Some major video game franchises, like Pokmon and
Pac-Man, have easily topped the billion dollar profit threshold (Wolf 259). While it is sad to
admit that businesses are exploiting peoples witnesses to make large profits, it would not be the
first time. There was a reason why Coca-Cola put small amounts of cocaine in their soda back in
the early 20
th
century: to make customers come back for more. Video games target the
psychological makeup of their consumers in order to gain their success. Through social
obligation, escapism, near-misses, and partial reinforcement, it almost appears that video game
players are hopeless when it comes to fighting addiction. One day, however, these people will
find a way to cope with their conditions; but not today, there is a guild raid in five minutes to
slay the black dragon.