Review of Related Literature

These researches we study about the psychological factor, whether that is factor to the

online game addiction among students. Unlike with substance abuse, the biological

aspect of videogame addiction is uncertain. Research suggests gambling elevates

dopamine, but there’s more to addiction than brain chemistry (Rooij, Online video game

addiction: identification of addicted,2010). The addict suffers from a psychological

component to the addiction. Online gaming allows a person to escape the real world and

change the perception of self-worth (Rooij, Online video game addiction: identification of

addicted, 2010). An online gaming addiction is not that far from drug addiction. Both are

searching for a way to make they feel better. The lure of a fantasy world is especially

pertinent to online role-playing games. These are games in which a player assumes the

role of a fictional character and interacts with other players in a virtual world. An intelligent

child who is unpopular at school can feel dominant in the game. The virtual life becomes

more appealing than real life. Too much gaming may seem relatively harmless compared

with the dangers of a drug overdose, but experts say video game addiction can ruin lives.

Children who play four to five hours per day have no time for socializing, doing homework,

or playing sports leaving little time for normal social development. According to Lan Ying

Huang (2003), by playing the online game features online gamer participants may view

the games as source of providing diversion and filling time. “The biggest risk factor for

pathological video game useseems to be playing games to escape from daily life,” said

Joe Hilgard, lead author of the study and a doctoral candidate in the Department of

Psychological Sciences at Missouri. “Individuals who play games to get away from their

lives or to pretend to be other people seem to be those most at-risk for becoming part of
a vicious cycle. These gamers avoid their problems by playing games, which in turn

interferes with their lives because they’re so busy playing games (Peters 7 et al, 2007).

Internet addiction gives the gamer to the unique psychological properties which is the

users increase their use of these internet services, the utility they gain from each usage

does not diminish, leading not only to self-destructive addiction but also to social ills.

When a problem, playing video games can interfere with real-life obligations such as

work, and players can end up lying about playing video games. The study found that

“problematic” video game use can have similar effects as other addictive activities, such

as abusing alcohol (Inwon Kang,2011).

Games addiction shows the bad effect among the people nowadays. Addiction to the

internet shares some of negative aspects of substance addiction and has been shown to

lead to consequences such as failing school, family and relationship problem (Brian. D.

NG, M.S & Peter. W. H, 2005). It can make the people who has addicted will feel that the

games can provide opportunities for achievement, freedom and even a connection to the

players. Those benefits trumped a shallow sense of fun, which doesn’t keep gamers as

interested (online gamers anonymous, 2008). The role of media in advertising the games

also make more cause why the games addicted will be more interested with those games.

In 2005, advertiser spent $80 million to reach game players, this spending is expected to

top $400 by 2009 (Park Associate 2006).

Internet addiction is a relatively new phenomenon in which social workers and

psychologists are unaware of and are thus unprepared to treat at present. Mu (2006)

points out that some of the main symptoms of Internet and online game addictions,
including the decrease in friend and face-to-face interactions with others, become

infrequent while the member of friends in the virtual world exponentially increases.

Ultimately, the psychokinesis becomes weaker and weaker over time. This means that

after a long time of playing online games, the players begin to realize the dangers of

online gaming. At this point players generally try to play less as they try to orient

themselves back to the demands of society. However this is mostly unsuccessful as it

almost always ends up failing. Zhang (2007) and Zhou (2007), who also researched on

the same topic, reported different results on the online game addiction and the finding

supported the same symptoms. With regards to undergraduate students who were

addicted to the Internet or online games, Zhang (2007) indicated that most of these

students had bad grades in their universities. Moreover, Zhou (2007) stated that the

physical symptoms of Internet and online game addiction were cervical spondylitis,

neurasthenia and insomnia. Cervical spondylitis, a fairly common symptom of many

MMOG players, is essentially a spinal injury which results from keeping the same sitting

position for hours while playing games. This situation is more often than not leads to

injuries to the cervical vertebra on the spinal cord. Neurasthenia on the other hand is a

neurological disorder that results from when players engage in hours and hours of game

playing with no virtually sleep intervals in between. Even though players may end up

playing games for a long time before going to sleep, their brains still keep running and

experiencing phantom excitement from playing games even when they are asleep. This

causes sleep sensitivity and disorders which induce addicted players to wake up several

times during the night and as such this leads them suffering from insomnia which can

cause mental anxiety and eventually result in nervous breakdowns and general tiredness.
Once the nature of physical and mental symptoms that manifest in MMOG addicts had

been determined, we perused in various literatures on this topic to discover the ways

through these addiction could be evaluated. One of the useful information sources was

obtained from Young (1999), who conducted a study aimed at enabling social workers to

better understand, detect and treat Internet addiction. The research by Young focused on

the complications that precede an Internet addiction diagnosis. With regards to this

research it is relevant in determining the criterion through which to evaluate our

interviewees. It would help us to determine whether the individuals were addicted to

online games or not. To create a more holistic point of view this thesis also aims to identify

the negative consequences associated with using the Internet and the ways to assess

and identify the reasons causing the onset of pathological Internet use.

It is widely believed that game players who spend playing too many hours (above 10

hours a day) are at high risk of being addicted to video games (Anand, 2007). Previous

studies have shown that video game addiction among adolescents gamers is highly

correlated with psychosocial problems such as time spent on games (i.e., usage), life

satisfaction, loneliness, social competence , and aggression (Lemmens et al., 2009). For

example, Peters and Malesky (2008) further support the relationship between addiction

of World of Warcraft players to the game and the time they spend playing online, the

relationship that is also supported among adolescents who are addicted to online games

in general (Gentile, 2009; Xu et al., 2012). However, due to the lack of research on the

causal relationship among game addiction and these psychosocial variables, the authors

avoid making conclusions regarding the direction of the relationships. Gentile (2009),

compare pathological gamers versus non-pathological gamers among 1,178 American

adolescents (aged between 8 and 18) regarding their psychosocial behaviour. The results

show that pathological gamers are twice as likely as non-pathological gamers to have

attention problems such as attention deficit disorder. However, the author avoids making

conclusion regarding the direction of causality between pathological gameplay and

attention problems. In a study on a large sample of adolescents (13-16 years olds) in the

Netherlands, van Rooij et al. (2011) show that compared to non-addicts, video game

addicts have significantly higher levels of depressive moods, loneliness and significantly

lower levels of self-esteem. In this study, the results of this comparison for social anxiety

level is not significant.

Although playing video games is one of the most popular leisure activities in the world,

research into its effects on players, both positive and negative, is often trivialised. Some

of this research deserves to be taken seriously, not least because video game playing

has implications for health. One innovative application of video games in health care is

their use in pain management. The degree of attention needed to play such a game can

distract the player from the sensation of pain, a strategy that has been reported and

evaluated among paediatric patients. One case study reported the use of a handheld

video game to stop an 8 year old boy picking at his face. The child had neuro dermatitis

and scarring due to continual picking at his upper lip. Previous treatments had failed so

the boy was given a hand held video game to keep his hands occupied. After two weeks

the affected area had healed. Controlled studies using both randomised controlled trials

and comparison with patient’s own baseline measures show that video games can

provide cognitive distraction for children during chemotherapy for cancer and treatment

for sickle cell disease. All these studies reported that distracted patients had less nausea
and lower systolic blood pressure than controls (who were simply asked to rest) after

treatment and needed fewer analgesics. Video games have been used as a form of

physiotherapy or occupational therapy in many different groups of people. Such games

focus attention away from potential discomfort and, unlike more traditional therapeutic

activities; they do not rely on passive movements and sometimes painful manipulation of

the limbs. Video games have been used as a form of physiotherapy for arm injuries, in

training the movements of a 13 year old child with Erb’s palsy, and as a form of

occupational therapy to increase hand strength. Therapeutic benefits have also been

reported for a variety of adult populations including wheelchair users with spinal cord

injuries, people with severe burns, and people with muscular dystrophy. Video games

have also been used in comprehensive programmes to help develop social and spatial

ability skills in children and adolescents with severe learning disability or other

developmental problems, including autism; children with multiple handicaps (for example

severely limited acquisition of speech) and children with impulsive and attention deficit

disorders. However, there has been no long term follow-up and no robust randomised

controlled trials of such interventions. Whether patients eventually tire of such games is

also unclear. Furthermore, it is not known whether any distracting effect depends simply

on concentrating on an interactive task or whether the content of games is also an

important factor as there have been no controlled trials comparing video games with other

distractors. Further research should examine factors within games such as novelty, users’

preferences, and relative levels of challenge and should compare video games with other

potentially distracting activities. While playing video games have some benefits in certain

clinical settings, a growing body of evidence highlighting the more negative aspects of
play—particularly on children and adolescents. These include the risk of video game

addiction, (although the prevalence of true addiction, rather than excessive use, is very

low) and increased aggressiveness. There have been numerous case reports of other

adverse medical and psychosocial effects. For instance, the risk of epileptic seizures

while playing video games in photosensitive individuals with epilepsy is well

established. (Graf et al 1994) report that seizures are most likely to occur during rapid

scene changes and when games include patterns of highly intense repetition and

flickering. Seizures and excessive or addictive play do not seem to be linked directly,

however, as occasional players seem to be just as susceptible. Other case studies have

reported adverse effects of playing video games, including auditory

hallucinations, enuresis, encopresis, wrist pain, neck pain, elbow pain,

tenosynovitis, hand-arm vibration syndrome, repetitive strain injuries, peripheral

neuropathy, and obesity. Some of these adverse effects seem to be rare and many

resolve when the patients no longer play the games. Furthermore, case reports and case

series cannot provide firm evidence of cause and effect or rule out other confounding

factors. On balance, given that video game playing is highly prevalent among children

and adolescents in industrialised countries, there is little evidence that moderate

frequency of play has serious acute adverse effects from moderate play. Adverse effects,

when they occur, tend to be relatively minor and temporary, resolving spontaneously with

decreased frequency of play. More evidence is needed on excessive play and on defining

what constitutes excess in the first place. There should also be long term studies of the

course of video game addiction.

Computer games’ influence is growing continuingly as research shows that the age of

children playing games continue to be younger and internet usage among children

becomes more popular. Moreover, the internet access has become widespread since

1990s, which impacted people’s working, socializing and behaviors (Dindar & Akbulut,

2014). The Internet become an important media role in information age especially for

children and youth who are a group that influences by internet use (Makesrithongkum,

2009). The internet also has a great impact on marketing concepts especially in the game

sectors in terms of alerting relationship marketing activities with customers (Maklan &

Klaus, 2011).

Online games become interactive because they allow game players around the world to

interact with each other in one single platform. Eventually, online games began to

becoming the important factor of our social culture (Nuangjumnonga & Mitomo, 2012)

and (Williams et al., 2008). Online games also bring people together to form society which

players interact with each other in virtual world that are always on. These worlds, called

“massively multiplayer online games” or MMOs (Steinkuehler & Williams, 2006).

As the computers and online games market grew rapidly many people especially

teenager spend great amounts of time playing online games (Boyle, Connolly, & Hainey,

2011; González-González, Toledo-Delgado, Collazos-Ordoñez, & González-Sánchez,

2014). Challenges for marketing industry in measurement of online game players’

interaction with a game become critical since it is an important key for company

sustainability (Tony, Richard, & Paul, 2009). Moreover, there is a few knowledge about

how customer experiences on online game that would be from their consumption which
might be interpreted into customer value perception (Iyanna, Bosangit, & Mohd-Any,

2012).

In cebu, online game addiction is also becoming an issue. In one of the episode of I-

Wtiness, Kara David was able to interview youngsters namely Doc, Mark and Ice who

resort to illegal activities just to fund their addiction to online gaming. Doc, Mark and Ice

are part of a young generation spending a lot of their time on computer games. Some of

them undergo illegal activities to fund their vices and they can go on gaming for 24-hours

without any sleep. 22-year-old Doc is a scavenger and vagrant, but once he gets his

money out of collecting garbage, he goes to his favorite Internet shop to play. Mark, 20,

is an out of school youth. He lost his investment money and stole from his mother to pay

for his Internet rentals. Fourteen-year-old Ice says he gets his money from homosexuals

in exchange for sexual favors. In one of the article of PhilStar which is “Battle on Vs Kids’

online games addiction”, Samuel Pagdilao (Police Criminal Investigation and Detection

Group (CIDG) director Chief Superintendent) stressed the need for measures to protect

children from being hooked on online computer games. He said many children spend

hours in a computer shop playing online games.

According to Bachhuber and Saulnier (2012), playing online games is an effective way of

enhancing a student’s reading comprehension. Through formative testing, they found out

that online games can help a student improve his/her grammar, vocabulary and

comprehension because they can have an interactive way to learn English or any other

language.
In the research conducted by Ahn and Randall (2008), they were able to discover that

Massively-Multiplayer-Online Games or MMOG affects both the social and academic

lifestyles of students. Based on their surveyed data, students who are addicted in online

games registered more F grades as compared to non-addicted students. This statistics

corresponds with the amount of playing time of addicted students on the MMOGs. Their

surveyed data also shows that approximately 50% of MMOG addicted students were also

reported as actively engaged in a physical altercation. Addicted students are mostly

involved in arguments with their teachers and as well as their friends.

According to the research conducted by Zhang (2007) and Zhuo (2007) on online game

addiction, the physical symptoms of Internet and online game addiction were were

cervical spondylosis, neurasthenia and insomnia. Cervical spondylosis is a spinal injury

caused by having the same sitting position for hours while playing games. On the other

hand, Neurasthenia is a psychological disorder marked especially by easy fatigability and

often by lack of motivation, feelings of inadequacy, and psychosomatic symptoms. It

results from when players engage in hours and hours of game playing with no virtually

sleep intervals in between. This causes sleep sensitivity and disorders which induce

addicted players to wake up several times during the night and as such this leads them

suffering from insomnia which can cause mental anxiety and eventually result in nervous

breakdowns and general tiredness.