Video game addiction Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Video game addiction - Research Paper Example They end up devaluing other activities like swimming, football, dancing, reading novels among other hobbies one can do during free time. Research has proved that compulsive use of computer and video games is a present-day psychological disorder that medical experts are treating patients on daily basis. This paper analyzes the characteristics and consequences of video game addiction to a person and the society at large. Most teenagers usually like spending most of their siesta playing computer games, which form their number one hobby. Others end up becoming game addicts just out of innocent recreation. Gaming often starts from boredom and the latter pleasure ends up being the reward. Playing provides an alternate reality in which problems are solved and success and reward is possible. (Lemmens,Valkenburg and Peter 56).A good example of an addictive game that is very popular is The Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG) .The gamers of MMORPG forms the group of people that is most susceptible to game addiction. The game is very addictive because it has no ending. Addicts form 9.1% of video game players that play these addictive video games on the internet (Kent 18). The level of addiction varies from one person to another. For instance, kids who easily get bored often develop poor relationships with family members and friend. They also feel out of place while at school, (King and Griffiths 201).201).This is because a void is filled and satisfaction of needs not met elsewhere is achieved. In situations where life becomes stressful gaming actually provides a good avenue of evading from responsibilities and life realities. Video gaming is normally a multi-faceted issue and that is what actually causes the addiction. Especially to the game beginners, the games are usually designed in away to make them addictive. These games are very interesting and this increases the amount of hours people spend playing. Most of them are designed to be very difficult and truly challenging while letting the players to attain minor accomplishments that forces them to continue playing. This design is very similar to that of gambling casinos which permits players to get small ‘wins’ so that they keep playing. Video games have several ‘hooks’ that are in built with the intention to make them more and more addictive. To begin with, The High score is the most recognizable hooks that are found in many games. Struggling to reach the highest mark can have a game player gaming for hours so as to score many points enhancing addiction. Beating the game is a hook that is not found in virtual role-playing games though it is almost all vide games. The drive to win the game is fed as a player moves to the next level or unravels the next hidden clue (Kent 221).This causes the player to make as many trials as possible causing addiction. Role-playing is another hook that allows players to actually craft characters within the game and get on on an exploration that is sole to that particular character. Consequently, there will be a serious emotional attachment to that character, and the whole story, further making it difficult to halt play ing. In addition, discovery tactic is a hook that is often found in the role-playing games. A good example is the World of War craft where a good part of this video game is dedicated towards exploring imaginary worlds (Van Rooij et al. 143).The thrill of innovation of even places that