Review of Related Literature

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.
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. 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. 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).
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). 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 trivialized. 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 pediatric patients. 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 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.