Game_Addiction

An addict is one that abandons oneself to something compulsively or obsessively. We've all heard of the drug addict as the one who flushes their life down the toilet but there are more things than just drugs in this world that you can get addicted to. “Evercrack” is a slang term for the popular Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG) Everquest. Evercrack refers to the addictive nature of the game by comparing it to an addiction to crack. The emotional, physical and mental lives of many have been affected by an addiction to video games. Addiction to MMORPG's is not a well known problem but one that seriously affects the individuals that get hooked. Humans have literally killed for and died from overuse of the new found drug known as MMORPG's. Gamer addicts have been found to pull themselves away from society to spend more time in their game of choice. In order to prevail in a game, a person must spend a considerable amount of time playing, and the first place that a true gameaholic withdraws time from is their social life. It starts with a small insignificant social encounter such as a lunch break with a co-worker, but the severity of the seclusion builds as time progresses. Once addicted, some people have fled their home and loved ones in order to be able to focus all their time and efforts on the game. An old friend of my uncle's actually got together with a group of his friends and killed his entire immediate family in order to prevent them from moving him out of town and separating him from his Dungeon's and Dragon's buddies. Certainly, the emotional connection that these gameaholics share with their games is indeed a very strong one. The physical aspects of being addicted to games is somewhat different from that of other addictions. As gaming is not a very outdoorsy event, the skin of a true gamer is much paler from lack of exposure to the sun. It is also very degenerative to the muscles to sit in one spot and do very little physical activity. Also snacking seems to be a favorite pastime for the avid gamer which becomes solid fat if it is not properly worked off. One man in the Hemet area who was extremely addicted to WoW, an MMORPG, gave up most of his life to the game and was living with his mother. One day she decided that he needed to be broken from his addiction. She shut off the Internet and sold the computer so that he couldn't get on his game. Just as with a drug addict without his fix, he began to have severe mood swings ranging from severe depression to uncontrollable rage, he actually threatened to kill. His mother began the process by enrolling him in college. It was a hard push to get him to go but it needed to be done. After the first year he began to attend regularly on his own and got a job that summer. In three years time, he has lost approximately 120 pounds in fat and has gained some of it back in good, healthy muscle. In addition to his health recovery, he got a steady job and a beautiful wife with a little one on the way. Though this success story gives a sense of hope, the addiction is not a healthy or happy one. The place where games really grab though is in the mind. Games give a sense of accomplishment that may be lacking in some of these addicts lives. Most games start with a massive rush of achievements and bonuses to trick the brain into thinking its actually accomplishing something. Then they pull back some on how often the gamer wins so they can challenge the mind in order to make him spend more time on the game and if they have him after that they can usually hang on for the rest of the ride. Mentally games are very rewarding and give a great sense of accomplishment and that is what is so addicting. MMORPGer's can achieve something and never even leave their home or even their chair. That kind of winning can only set people up for failure in the real life. In real life instances achievements and feelings of accomplishment aren't handed out like they are on games. When switching from the gaming mode back to the real world a gamer will lose that feeling of happiness that comes with achieving a goal unless they replace it with hard work outside the game. Its an easy cycle to break if you were raised on real world achievements but if you were raised on gaming achievements its more of an addiction than an innocent little game. The slope between a gaming addiction and gaming for fun is a slippery one. Video games can be used in good ways such as in a simulation fight in which a soldier can train in situations that might develop without putting himself in harm's way. But if misused they can become a real danger. Many people have fallen into the new found game addiction and don't even realize how serious it may be. Games have been something that our society has taken lightly and not paid very much attention to but that is no longer the case in today's society. We need to treat severe gaming as a drug addiction before any more of us catch the innocent addiction.