Should Video Games Be Addictive?

“Video games are bad for you, that’s what they said about rock-n-roll” (Shigeru Miyamoto). Video gaming is regarded as a ubiquitous part of children and adolescents’ life. Children who are daily involved in this activity in the US account for 97% of their total. Additionally, for those at an average of 8-13 years old, approximately, 8.5% of them are addicted to playing video games. Moreover, children at the age of 13-18 spend 16 hours per week playing. Video games are so prominent in this current world that we cannot prevent them from being involved entirely. While others believe that video games should not be made available to

The videogame addiction may seem funny or ridiculous, but in reality it is a dangerous obsession that truly exposes several needs that have yet to be addressed within the afflicted. Addiction is a damaging problem, and the impact of varying sorts of addictions, such as illegal and

He believes that in order for games to yield fruitful benefits and their “delayed gratification” a player has to engage “a few hours trying to complete a game” (487). However, such an engagement can lead to hours of catastrophic addiction that shift the player’s focus from his daily activities to the game plot. It can make him forget studying for an exam or even sleep without eating dinner! In fact, Johnson’s use of Troy Stolle story to demonstrate the engaging nature of games ironically proves that engagement can lead to addiction. Why would a man who “was coming from a full day of bone-jarringly repetitive work with hammer and nails” (487) spend his entire free time on a game? Shouldn’t he spend his precious free time with his family or resting his tired body to avoid health problems? Personally, I shall say that this doesn’t only apply to the heavy gamer but even to a light gamer like me. Every time I sit on a PS3 game I find myself so immersed into it that I forget about my daily tasks and spend hours playing it than I initially planned. Therefore, it can be concluded that gaming addictive effects aren’t even predictive in their nature and thus, posses a huge threat to our daily

In Iran, there are few and limited studies on the effects of addiction to computer games on players. Considering the increasing rate of addiction to computer games among Iranian adolescents and youth, the present study was conducted to

In the article, “What adolescents miss when we let them grow up in Cyberspace” by Brent Staples, it tells about what are the results of playing games and being part of the internet. Technology leads to depression and loneliness when it is mishandled. Creating fake personalities and names is commonly known on the Internet, which is actually illegal in most places. When you are engulfed in the cyber world, you are addicted. Craving

International studies have shown that between seven and eleven per cent of gamers show some symptoms associated with addiction. Some teens are heavy users of online role-playing games (RPGs) such as World of Warcraft and multiplayer games such as Call of Duty in which they interact with other players in real time. These teens will often neglect schoolwork and other aspects of their daily lives when they become immersed in these games. The American Medical Association has identified “video game overuse” as ‘behaviour’.

The average adolescent spends a major part of the normal week watching or interacting with some form of the media’s products. Video games are one of these media based mediums and have become increasingly popular since the 1980’s. According to a report in Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, "Female gamers spent an average of 44 minutes playing on the weekdays and one hour and four minutes playing on the weekends, and male gamers spent an average of 58 minutes playing on the weekdays and one hour and 37 minutes playing on the weekends" ("Video Game Play Among Adolescents"). What can we understand from this evidence? The fact is that adolescents, male or female, are spending tremendous amounts of time each day sitting in front of

“Electronic games are now an everyday part of childhood and adolescence” (Olsen, 2010). Considering children and adolescence are our future, parents need to consider and monitor how these electronic games are affecting their child. There are more studies afloat that report the negative affects of video games over the positive effects until recently. Children and adolescents become addicted to video games easily so it is important to monitor what they are playing and how it is affecting them and their character. A recent study on many boys and girls reported why they are

CNN, Samantha Bresnahan and Will Worley in their article, “When Video Games Become an Addiction”, argue about how and why video games become an addiction. They support their claim by first talking about video game addiction in the US, then about who mostly get addicted and in what age it is more popular, and finally why video games are addictive. Bresnahan’s purpose is to explain video game addiction in order to find a solution for it. They establish a hopeful tone for the readers.

Research started in 1983 aimed to discover how this addiction starts, the prevalence, as well as the risk factors associated with this behavior. “The studies on Internet gaming addiction in the new millennium reported prevalence estimates which vary significantly and range from 0.2% in Germany25,26 to 50% of Korean teenagers.” (Kuss, D. J.) In fact, South Korea views this addiction as a public health concern. So much so, that up to 24% of children diagnosed with internet addiction are hospitalized. As a growing number of studies appear, the psychological consequences are becoming better defined. These consequences include, “Sacrificing real-life relationships, other pastime activities, sleep, work, education, socializing, and relationships, obsession with gaming and a lack of real-life relationships, lack of attention, aggression and hostility, stress, dysfunctional coping, worse academic achievement, problems with verbal memory, and low well-being and high loneliness.” (Kuss, D.

Gaming has a special place in the hearts of many because the games use can vary from user to user, it could be a be a form entertainment, to stress relief or even becoming a professional gamer. Today the gaming world has hit an astronomical at 1.8 billion players worldwide and is continually growing. Many have argued that gaming has influenced negative behavior, however, through the abundant amount benefits gaming provides and the constant stream of fresh innovations gaming has proven to have a positive impact on society.

They argue that there exists a possibility that a gamer will be addict to MMO. MMO will no longer be a beneficial tool to gamers if gamers were addicted. Addicted gamers will quit their real lives and only “live” in the virtual world. “I had a good relationship, but I crushed that. I have 4 closed on my house.

Internet gaming is one of the most common problem of which many people around the globe are facing in their daily lives. Addiction, one of the serious problems with internet gaming have caused severe changes to their behavior and attitude to life. Majority of teenagers and

Video games are addictive. It makes its users forget themselves and their surroundings, including their loved ones. What makes people addicted to video games is the fact that video games are constantly rewarding people for every little in-game act they do when playing the game. For instance, one gains virtual currency or skill points for every point, rebounds, blocks, and steals one records in the game NBA 2K. Another example, one gains money and reputation points every time one finish a mission in the game Grand Theft Auto. The constant rewards are a type of positive reinforcement that people do not easily receive in real life and this makes people want to keep playing the games over and over again: “The addition of a stimulus [will] increase the probability that a behavior will be repeated” (Grison 212). In this instance, the addition of a stimulus is the rewards (virtual currency or reputation points) that video games give to its users and the behavior that is expected to be repeated is the act of playing that video games. In an article for the video-game-addiction.org, Meghan Vivo, the Content & Media Relations Director at Elements Behavioral Health,

Research conducted by Griffiths and Meredith (2009) discussed how many individuals do not consider video game addiction to be valid. Often this is because people tend to link addiction with the abuse of