"You're a game junky". That, and other expressions are what I've been hearing for over two decades, as videogames became popular over other kinds of entertainments. Sometimes, in an admiring tone (like when it comes from another "junky"), other times, in a concerned tone (yes, grandma... whatever).
"Addicted" to videogames, is a diagnostic many delivered for several years, with no real science backing up that fact:
By many people that lacks of any doctorate able to dispense it.
The topic, as it always happens whenever we explore the human mind, is way more complex and has several variables that infer in the final result. Yet if us, gamers, tend to take the topic lightly... Then, we've a problem!
How many parents or tutors were concerned over a diagnostic given by a random opinionlogist that had no frikkin' idea of what he was talking about?
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What are we talking about when we say "addiction"?
It is complicated, to the point that if you start reading papers about the topic you'll notice that there's not a clear consensus by experts at many points in it.
Some focus that videogame addiction should be treated just like any other "offline" addiction. While others claim that the addiction is closer to a subspecies of "internet addiction".
3% of the online gamers can be really considered "addicted".
Some studies claim more, some... even less! Whom is right? Whom is wrong? Who knows? The lack of concurrency in the samples points out only one thing: It is a highly subjective sampling. Where for some 3 hours a day of gaming is "too much",
for others it is "ok" (Consider that non-gamers can spend HOURS watching soap-operas and reality shows in front of the dumbbox TV.
As a matter of fact, "hours played" is just one of the variables measured by specialists to deliver a diagnostic, There's six, to be precise:
• Prominence (This is, as a game gains priority against other things in life).
• Mood change (Strong emotions during the gaming sessions).
• Tolerance (The amount of gaming required by a subject to feel that he has "player enough").
• Reclusive symptoms (Discomfort that can manifest in physical symptoms as an "abstinence from playing" is experienced).
• Conflict (With people that surrounds the player, or other life activities; because of the game).
• Relapse (The repetition of previously experienced patterns after a period of control and stability in relation to the gamer behavior).
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Playing for many hours is not a synonymous of addiction.
It is clear that is more complex than what a generic grandmother may diagnose. Yes, there's a relation between gamed time and addiction, but it is a consequence of several other factors. There's a broad spectrum of motivations that lay the foundations of this problem.
The difference between a healthy enthusiasm and an addiction is that the first one gives something it return to life instead of taking away from it."
As you may know, today, being a professional gamer is a more than well paid profession (We can even throw into that category all those users that upload gameplay videos into several online platforms for revenue). Yes, they do spend a lot of time playing, they do enjoy it: But they add something to their lives.
For them, it is more than mere entertainment, it is how they put bread in the table.
The main difference that one can measure is when the gaming behavior affect the life of the subject and his/her relatives in a negative way. Reaching the point where interpersonal and professional links are affected by "that 200% exp event".
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Stimuli, rewards and self-control.
Online gaming, independently of the chosen genre, has a much higher level of stimulus than the average offline gaming, this has a "because". Foremost, there's the social aspects that add up to the challenge and gratification of victory, being better than others at something is simply irresistible!
This objective is the fuel for the engine online games represent: competition.
A call to responsibility.
Online game addiction exists, as many other addictions that punish humankind on a daily basis. Seeking to supply for a need that is unsatisfied at other areas. That is precisely why, it should be a priority to not minimize it as a "minor concern": Considering it as a potential threat to our lives.