Exactly what is addiction?
Some non-profit self-help fellowships feel that addiction is a disease. Either spiritual, mental or in the form of a physical allergy. It comes down to the simple explanation of lack of control of oneself. One example I’ve read: “Addiction”, when a single behavior starts to transform from business-as-usual to out-of-order. – (clark,scott 2009)
The medical nuts and bolts of addiction can be summed up as: the ability to impact neurochemical changes in brain chemistry. The chief neurotransmitters responsible for this brain “high” are most likely dopamine and norepinephrine. – (Greenfield, 1999)
It’s at that point when a simple action or process starts to become a habit and create certain unmanageability in your life. Unmanageable to me is not taking care of life’s responsibilities in order to continue said action or process and feeling unpleasant repurcussions. In this case we will choose video games as our medium of choice. It doesn’t matter what game, genre or brand name; simply a software game run by either a computer or video game console.
I choose ambivalence because I don’t want to waste my time on defending this game or that, just take the whole ball of wax at face value. Just keep it simple.
Recently the movie ‘Second Skin‘ a documentary about players of mmorpgs from different walks of life. You are shown gamers out of game and how they run their lives while playing their video games. There was a scene where a trusty band of four brothers, who lkive and game together are waiting on a long line in order to buy the latest expansion for the “game of choice”. After they buy their games you see them discussing “how long will it take until I pass out”. That sends off bells and whistles in my head where there might be some type of unmanageability in their lives due to their gaming “hobby”. I fail to see where doing ANYTHING until I pass out is healthy, it takes me back to certain memories of “who can drink the most until we pass out”. It is that type of Fraternity-esque behavior that has made plenty of headlines of death by alcohol poisoning.
Don’t get me wrong, I do believe that gaming is a hobby and a healthy one as well. Andrew, writer for Of teeth and claws recently posted asking if gaming was either a hobby or entertainment. For me and many other players it starts out simply as entertainment, more interactive than television and more longevity than movies. Slowly developing into a hobby, where you make it part of your gaming hobby to write about it, forge long lasting friendships and possibly make it into a career. “Games can even help us stay emotionally healthy but gamers need to understand how to balance their play.” – (Allison, 2006)
Where does a healthy hobby turn the corner and turn nice people into “raging nerds and meth-heads” as some were depicted in ‘Second Skin’? Let’s take a look at Ivan Petrivich Pavlov and his wonderful dogs. Through his experiments on dogs to test the digestive systems of mammals he discovered how his dogs were “conditioned” by certain stimulus. Very simple, the dogs were conditioned to associate being fed inadvertently by lab coats, then by a bell. When the bell rang, the dogs responded as salivating and became please that they were being fed. It was a reflexive function to the stimulus upon conditioning. Just like we are conditioned by the games we play.
Tobold wrote a stellar series recently on “Why we play”, covering aspects as rewards, gameplay, challenge and character development. These four factors really have no bearing on one another in forms of addiction; they all are derived from the same type of conditioning. How many times in your gaming career did you say ,” Ding!” or “____ boss is down!” or “We won!”, only to be rewarded by congratulations from fellow gamers or teammates that ensued to a feel good feeling. Accomplishments in gaming is what fires off all those pesky neurotransmitters and chemicals in your brain to keep you focused on “getting the next one” and “keeping you there”. Liz Liz Woolley who runs On-Line Gamers Anonymous said in Second Skin, “You are part of their corporate strategy.”
Tobold from what I read is a brilliant writer and very intelligent; I am sure that every time his posts get a good comment, “kudos Tobold!” a certain chemical in his brain goes off and he feels good. He should, because he puts forth the effort to research and actually sit down and write his columns. Just like gamers do put forth the effort to achieve and strive for the next accomplishment. Whatever it may be, the new sword of “holysmackdownness” or the blinky new spaceship (that is my guilty pleasure right now) we all have one driving force to play these games, it makes us happy.
In ‘Second Skin’ we see some extreme cases, such as Dan Bustard. A gamer who ruined his life in order to play his “game of choice” he lost his business, girlfriend and his friendships in order to play one game. He was stuck in the cycle of that feel good feeling that we all get as we play games. On the right is a flowchart I have found from psychcentral.com which serves as a model for internet addiction. Dr. Grohol who created this chart says “Some people simply get caught in Stage I and never move beyond it. They may need some help to get to Stage III.”
Stage I is where a lot of gamers get stuck, and I say the word a lot with confidence. Studies have shown that 4 out of every 10 online gamers think are addicted to the video games they play. But separate studies have discerned that really 1 in 10 or 10% really show definite signs of a compulsive disorder. And that is what the medical community calls internet addiction: a compulsive disorder.
So we have millions of players worldwide and of every 100 million, 10 million play video games compulsively. Now in sociological terms that breaches the difference from the term of “private trouble” to “public issue”, which shows signs of a much larger problem. Now those gamers depicted aren’t as unique and uncommon as you would like them to be, am I right?
Dan Bustard, who was profiled in “Second Skin” is one that just let every responsibility fall to the wayside in order to play a game. He sought out that “Dr. Feelgood von Feeling” that most addicts pursue while chasing theirdrugs of choice. At one point in his gaming, whether it was his first boss, his first level or when he hit max level.
He transcended the point of what I call “healthy play” to the realm of “unhealthy play”; it was there he pierced the veil of gaming addiction and let his addiction (compulsion) run his life. Dan Bustard was no longer in control of his life, and many gamers fall in the same dilemma. But at the end of the movie, we see him rebelling and rebuilding his life without video games; there is hope. One is not completely hopeless and dismal. Once we pierce that veil, there a way back to the land of healthy play.
Play safe,
Frank
Hmmm… A “Healthy Play” and an “Unhealthy Play”… I never thought of that one. Playing healthily or not seem to have a thin line within the context. There’s a certain period where you just are playing too much that you neglect other responsibilities around you. You can’t blame the gamers since for some, they indirectly feel like they’re valued within the video game.
I think this thought is needed in business. You need to value your employees for them to value spending time with you. Video games give a sense of value unlike other things in life (not including your dog that loves the hell out of you.) To hook people, video games give a sense of love to the player. If you apply it to the office, you may develop one of the best company around.
Stage 1 is BIRG and stage 2 is CORF which are completely unhealthy irrationality of an intangible and non-empirical sense.