Video Game | Gaming | Entertainment Addiction

[nelsonic]

This is a post about the perils of entertainment and distraction at the expense of traction toward a specific and meaningful goal. It's personal reflection and not meant criticism of anyone else.

Yesterday I spent 6 hours (17:00 - 23:00) playing Horizon Zero Dawn (HZD) on PS4. 🎮
If you're into games and haven't played it, see the Gameplay it's incredible.
Of the 2439 games available for PS4, HZD is the fifth most popular with good reason.
The graphics put CGI of most big budget movies from the 2000's to shame
and the level of emersion is like nothing I've ever played.

While I enjoyed the time I spent playing the game, I felt it was "wasted" time because I could have invested the time into building features for our App! I thoroughly disagree with the following quote:

“Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.” ~ Marthe Troly-Curtin

I will not be playing any more of HZD regardless of how "fun" it is/was.
Experienced gamers take around 60 - 80 hours to complete the game
and I simply don't have that kind of time to "spare".

I don't feel that I am "addicted" to playing games. I don't have any games on my Computer or Phone (the devices I use most) and can go for weeks without thinking about or touching the Nintendo Switch of PS4. But playing for 6h yesterday (and I would have continued if I didn't need to be at my desk for work this morning!) gave me a glimpse into how addictive highly immersive games can be!
I'm very glad I've resisted the temptation to play online multi-player games like League of Legends (LoL) or Fortnite which by all accounts are the virtual equivalent of crack and meth.

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tl;dr > decision required!

I think we need to make a decision about Video Games @home.
We either need to outright ban all forms of video games (phone, PC and console!)
or have a strict rule that all games must be social with other humans in the room.
i.e. No open world single player games where the player plays by themself for weeks
or online games where you play with strangers or (virtual) "friends" around the world.

The purpose of @home is to be a place where people can learn and create.
While games can be creative for the maker, they aren't for the player.

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Gaming Addiction

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has included "gaming disorder" in the 11th revision of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD-11) released in June 2018. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_addiction#World_Health_Organization

In` 2019, the world's first screening tool for Gaming Disorder as defined by the WHO was published in a journal article in the International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction. The Gaming Disorder Test (GDT) includes the instruction to answer the following four questions using the following options:

Never	Rarely	Sometimes	Often	Very Often

1. I have had difficulties controlling my gaming activity.
2. I have given increasing priority to gaming over other life interests and daily activities.
3. I have continued gaming despite the occurrence of negative consequences.
4. I have experienced significant problems in life (e.g., personal, family, social, education, occupational) due to the severity of my gaming behaviour.

Videos on the Topic

Escaping video game addiction: Cam Adair

Fast forward to 02:40 ...

"Unfortunately, the debate surrounding video games focusses on whether you should play or not.
When that's like saying should you drink or not. If you can do it in moderation, that's fine.
But what if you can't. What if right now you're stuck at home playing video games and you want to stop and don't know how. Imagine for a second how this makes you feel.
Do you feel a sense of pain? What about feelings of guilt? ..."

03:10 "It's not about the games, it's about why you play games.
If you understand why you play games, you can move on from them."

"There are four main reasons why you play games:

1. Temporary Escape - the perfect way of not having to deal with situations in your [real] life. Simply get absorbed in games and play for hours and hours.
2. They are Social - Playing with your friends online. Games offer a clean slate on the social ladder. Being bullied [IRL] does not leave people feeling confident in their social standing. Feeling unaccepted [IRL] leads people to seek new social networks online.
3. The are a Challenge - They give you a sense of purpose, a mission, a goal to work towards. This is an achievement paradigm. The opportunity to experience success.
4. Constant measurable Growth - the feedback loop, you get to see progress. Online you are able to see rewards for the efforts you put in.

Combine these four areas and you have a very addicting process.

So where do we go from here? How do we fix this problem?
Video game addiction is a habit developed over time by becoming your go-to activity whenever you are bored.

"So parents, it starts with you.
The iPad is not the new baby sitter.
They need interaction not entertainment.
Gamers play for very specific reasons.
Identify their motivations and help them find these in other activities.
Help them with their social skills.
The truth is they struggle to make friends.
Lastly, don't punish them for their desire to play these games.
Come from a place of compassion and encouragement, not judgement.
We're so caught up in asking whether this is a "real" addiction or not that we've lost sight of what truly matters. How do we help these people stop playing video games?"

"There is another way. This is about feeling trapped in something you want to move on from ...
You have permission to move on."

Comments on the video:

Seriously, take a minute to read a few of the comments, this video really resonates with a lot of people!

Gaming Disorder: What It’s Like to Be Addicted to Video Games

Does anyone else see the irony in YT serving an Ad for LoL on a video about gaming addiction?

Top comment:

YouTube addiction is a topic for another post, but it's relevant.

Gaming Addiction: When Does Video Gaming Become a Problem?

Watch Rehab for Korea's Gaming Addicts decide if this is any less addictive than alcohol or drugs.

https://youtu.be/uOm5aXXjzzM
1 in 10 (10%) of Korean teenagers are addicted to online gaming.
It might not appear to be as destructive to individuals or society as the substances traditionally associated with addiction, because the addicts aren't stealing or begging to fuel their addiction. Consider that many have completely excluded themselves from society

"It's not just hours online that determine an addiction. Diagnoses comes from how a person behaves when they are online and how they feel when they are not."

Online game addiction is a real problem.
Korea/China/Japan are "ahead" on this in that the trend was reported in 2014.
If 97% of young people aged 10 - 25 are playing games and 10% are becoming addicted to the point that they miss school/work, there is an epidemic of real-life social maladaptation coming.
From a societal perspective, maybe entertainment for the masses of unemployed people is a good thing. But are the games making the world better or simply distracting people away from doing something meaningful?

[nelsonic]

https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/6/21249497/fortnite-350-million-registered-players

3.2 billion hours.
The average person lives 27,375 days (75 years).
16 waking hours per day.
27,375 x 16 = 438,000 hours
3,200,000,000/438,000 = 7,306 life times wasted per month playing Fortnite.
This cannot be good for humanity/society.

While this is an absurd number, it pails in comparison to how much time people are wasting across Facebook's platforms ... 🙄
https://www.statista.com/statistics/346167/facebook-global-dau/
Fb has 1.73 billion daily active users spending an average of 37-minutes per day on their sites/apps.
1,730,000,000 x 37 / 60 = 1.066 Billion Hours per day.

1,730,000,000 x 37 / 60 * 365 / 12 = 32.45 Billion Hours per month.
74,086 life times per month.
The Facebook machine is draining the lives of 2,470 people per day.
Imagine what all those people could do if they had a tool to help them focus on their important goals/work instead of clicking their lives away on Fb/Insta/etc?!

[nelsonic]

Covid19 has accelerated children's addiction to their mobile devices.

The YouTube App is used by 69% of U.S. kids, 74% of kids in the U.K. and 88% of kids in Spain.

Children in the US are spending 5+ hours per day on their phones spread across YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, etc.

https://techcrunch.com/2020/06/04/kids-now-spend-nearly-as-much-time-watching-tiktok-as-youtube-in-u-s-u-k-and-spain/

[nelsonic]

Video game play is positively correlated with well-being:
https://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/news/releases/groundbreaking-new-study-says-time-spent-playing-video-games-can-be-good-for-your-wellbeing
PDF: video-games-wellbeing.pdf

Obviously the popular media have picked up this research and run with it:

But it does not compare playing games to other activities like reading, exercise or spending time with loved ones.
I would wager that physical activity, especially doing a sport with measured progress like a martial art, is considerably more beneficial - both short and long-term - than sitting on a sofa playing games. 💭

[iteles]

I'd be quite interested in reading this whole study to understand whether they also compare different types of games, external factors and relationships. Thanks for including the PDF 👍

[nelsonic]

@iteles note: “This work has not been peer reviewed and is subject to change.”