The debate over violence, addiction and isolation in video gaming
In September 2011, a middle-aged British man burst into the home of a fellow online computer gamer, aged 13 years, and “throttled” him, according to news reports. The shocked teenager’s mother intervened and saved her gaming son.
The story doesn’t surprise Nanaimo resident and avid gamer Ronin Broad, who says that threats and arguments among competing online players are common. Whether online death threats are real or virtual might be the big question. The British incident occurred after the teenager “killed” the middle-aged man in the online game and then taunted him. The Daily Mail reported that the man who throttled the youth “had mental health issues.”
A 28-year-old South Korean man died in 2005 after a marathon session playing an online computer game in an Internet café. BBC News reported that he had not slept and had eaten very little. His Starcraft marathon lasted 50 hours – and police officials assumed that the cause of his death was heart failure from exhaustion. Experts pointed the finger at addiction; the man had recently been fired from his job because he was missing work to play computer games.
These two cases are among a growing number of incidents related to computer or online gaming – and they illustrate two areas of concern and debate. Do computer games incite violence? Do computer games invite addiction?
Ronin Broad was in the midnight lineup to buy the most recent copy of Arkham City, a game based on the Batman stories. He admits that it’s “not a happy game”, and that it’s “gruesome”. But Arkham City is a single-player game, unlike online gaming with multiple players, which Ronin says is “more addictive.”
Ronin can’t remember when he started playing computer games. Like others of his generation, his gaming days date back to early childhood and coincided with his first use of a computer. Years later, when he became involved in World of Warcraft, Ronin experienced what he describes as gaming addiction.
“It was very addictive. I’d spend every day playing it and never go outside. It was a game you couldn’t finish. There was always a next step.”
Ronin didn’t want to admit that he was addicted to World of Warcraft, but the game had to be paid for in monthly installments. “It drained your wallet as well,” he says. After his computer crashed and he was prevented from playing for several months, Ronin was able to extricate himself from the game.
The debate about violence
Psychologists have been studying the connections between violent content (of movies, television, and now video games) since the 1920s, when the “Payne Fund Studies” claimed that a link existed between films (e.g. the gangster and “fallen woman” films of the 1930s) and delinquent behaviour in young people. By the 1950s, concern was focused on comic books. Video games emerged in the 1970s and by the mid-1990s classification systems were in place to control access to violent games.
A 2010 meta-analysis by “a large number of causationist researchers”, reportedly the most wide-ranging and comprehensive study of studies ever conducted, concluded that violent video game play is a causal risk for aggressive behaviour. The analysis of 130 research reports on more than 130,000 subjects worldwide, “proved conclusively that exposure to violent video games makes more aggressive, less caring kids – regardless of their age, sex or culture,” according to Iowa State University psychology professor Craig Anderson, who was involved in the research.
“From a public policy standpoint, it’s time to get off the question of, ‘Are there real and serious effects?’ That’s been answered and answered repeatedly,” Anderson said. “It’s now time to move on to a more constructive question like, ‘How do we make it easier for parents – within the limits of culture, society and law – to provide a healthier childhood for their kids?’”
Anderson says the new study may be his last meta-analysis on violent video games because of its definitive findings.
The debate about addiction
7 to 11 percent of gamers seem to be having real problems to the point that they’re considered pathological gamers, according to a recent study
A Wikipedia entry traces media reports about online gaming ‘addiction’ back to at least 1994, when Wired Magazine mentioned a college student who was playing an online game for twelve hours a day instead of attending classes.
In June 2007 the American Medical Association considered a report about “Emotional and Behavioral Effects, Including Addictive Potential, of Video Games” at its annual meeting. The report reviewed and summarized research data on the emotional and behavioral effects, including addiction potential, of video games, and directed the AMA in the development of recommendations for physicians, parents, and legislators based on its findings.
The AMA report concluded that “although there are some indications of a connection between the content of video games and aggressive and addictive behaviors, more research is needed in this area.” But it also recommended that “AMA strongly encourage the consideration and inclusion of ‘Internet/video game addiction’ as a formal diagnostic disorder in the upcoming revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-IV.”
According to the American Psychiatric Association’s medical director, the recommendation will be seriously considered. The current DSM manual was published in 1994 and the revised edition will be completed in 2012.
In the meantime, Britain’s first rehabilitation clinic to treat people addicted to computer games opened in 2009. Broadway Lodge chief executive Brian Dudley told The Telegraph,“Obviously this is the very early stages of researching how many youngsters are affected. But I would stick my neck out and say between five and ten per cent of parents or partners would say they know of someone addicted to an online game.”
Broadway Lodge has adapted for gamers, its traditional Minnesota Method Twelve-Step program, which slowly weans addicts off a particular substance or behaviour.
Ongoing debate
It seems that while researchers have begun to conclude that the causal links between video and online gaming and violence have largely been proven, the debate (and research) about video and online gaming addiction will continue for some time.
A January 2011 study of more than 3,000 school children found that nearly one in ten were video game addicts. But the kids were also found to “have behavioural problems to begin with,” according to Reuters news, and the excessive gaming appeared to cause additional mental problems — including depression, anxiety, social phobias and lower school performance.
Douglas Gentile, an associate professor of psychology at Iowa State University, was one of five researchers who collaborated on the study. He said, “We’re starting to see a number of studies from different cultures…and they’re all showing that somewhere around 7 to 11 percent of gamers seem to be having real problems to the point that they’re considered pathological gamers.”
Pathological gaming is defined as involving “damage to actual functioning — their school, social, family, occupational, psychological functioning, etcetera.”
A critic of the study argued that the research might be measuring preoccupation instead of addiction.Mark Griffiths, director of the International Gaming Research Unit at Nottingham Trent University in the U.K., told Reuters that “If nine percent of children were genuinely addicted to video games there would be video game addiction clinics in every major city!”
Jason Krell is a student at the University of Arizona and writes for The Arizona Daily Wildcat, the student newspaper. He recently wrote that he’s reluctant to admit that video game addiction is a problem worth noting.
“Yes, some people take video games to a whole other level. I myself spent far too much time playing World of Warcraft in high school and skipped out on spending time with friends and didn’t do homework that I probably should have. Would I call that an addiction though? Absolutely not.”
Columbian Centre Society executive director Tom Grauman says that one of the concerns about video and online gaming is the increase in isolation that can come with it. “It’s been shown that isolation is an all-too-frequently compounding experience for people with mental illness or people at risk of developing mental illness.” The Telegraph’s report about the Broadway Lodge treatment facility describes gamers spending days at a time glued to their computer screens -going without food, sleep, or any non-virtual social interaction. They can end up suffering from relationship breakdowns, malnutrition, and postural problems.
Nanaimo’s Ronin Broad says there is a sense of achievement in the video game experience. “People look up to others at a certain level (of accomplishment). It’s a sense of worth.”
He has also observed some of the feelings associated with wanting to play video games. “When I feel anxious I play video games. It gives me something to focus on besides real life stuff. It’s an escape.” But he also admits, “I don’t know if that’s healthy or not.”
There is, however, one thing Ronin is certain of: “I wouldn’t play World of Warcraft again.”
Ronin Broad is a resident of Gateway House. Article by Kevin Midbo.
The images used in this post are stock photos.
References
American Medical Association, December 2007. Emotional and Behavioral Effects, Including Addictive Potential, of Video Games. Available at: www.ama-assn.org/ama1/pub/upload/mm/467/csaph12a07.doc
Arizona Daily Wildcat, October 21, 2011. Video game addiction a misnomer, more a matter of choice, by Jason Krell. Available at:
http://www.wildcat.arizona.edu/index.php/article/2011/10/video_game_addiction_a_misnomer_more_a_matter_of_choice
Australian Government Attorney-General’s Department, September 2010. Literature review on the impact of playing violent video games on aggression. Available at: http://afr.com/rw/2009-2014/AFR/2010/12/01/Photos/e0ddc5b2-fd12-11df-a8cc-e31df0216e94_Literature%20review%20on%20the%20impact%20of%20playing%20violent%20video%20games%20on%20aggression.pdf
BBC News, August 10, 2005. S Korean dies after games session. Available at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4137782.stm
Daily Mail, September 30, 2011. When PlayStation turns nasty: Father, 46, tracks down and throttles schoolboy, 13, in revenge attack for ‘killing’ him on Call Of Duty. Available at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2043589/PlayStation-gamer-Mark-Bradford-46-throttles-schoolboy-Call-Of-Duty-revenge-attack.html
Iowa State University, January 16, 2011. ISU’s Gentile contributes to study identifying risks, consequences of video game addiction. Available at: http://www.news.iastate.edu/news/2011/jan/addiction
Iowa State University, March 1, 2010. ISU study proves conclusively that violent video game play makes more aggressive kids. Available at: http://www.news.iastate.edu/news/2010/mar/vvgeffects
MSNBC, June 22, 2007. Is video-game addiction a mental disorder? Available at: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19354827/ns/technology_and_science-games/t/video-game-addiction-mental-disorder/#.TqV1mXJqyQM
Reuters, January 17, 2011. Do video games fuel mental health problems? Available at:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/01/17/us-videogames-idUSTRE70G15J20110117
Science Daily, October 24, 2011. American Psychiatric Association Considers ‘Video Game Addiction’. Available at: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/06/070625133354.htm
The Telegraph, November 3, 2009. Britain’s first computer rehab clinic opens. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/video-games/6485888/Britains-first-computer-rehab-clinic-opens.html
