In my previous post
“What is Game,” I indicated that game is the honest method to provide people happiness while it also has its own pros and cons.
Among many pros about games, games can basically make the users excited and happy while playing the games. In addition, a number of
academic games are recently developed; as a result, games have begun to be used for students to joyfully study. The fact that games, such as Starcraft, can create communities from different regions for the users supports the merits of the games. As I mentioned above, there are various types of advantages; however, I will specifically discuss about the cons of the games in this blog.
In reality, games are not considered as “good factors” in this society. Since then, game users are misunderstood by many people that they are lazy and incompetent. Are games really harmful to play? Why do people think that games are unproductive and bad?
First of all, the seriousness of game addiction, which is constantly introduced by the media, has caused the bad realization of games. Game addiction has become one of the significant problems among game users since ten years ago when online games became available to the public. The online games enabled those people who spent most times for playing games by themselves at home to communicate with other people from different areas. It eventually made them too much excited; as a result, the game players became addicted to games. According to a number of data on game addicted people, most of game addiction problems were related to online games. As more games are being available for online systems, the game addiction problem is expected to be more serious.
According to Computer and Video Game Addiction, game addiction is applicable “when time spent on the computer, playing video games or cruising the internet reaches a point that it harms a child’s or adult’s family and social relationships, or disrupts school or work life, that person may be caught in a cycle of addiction.” Therefore, game addiction makes the users to spend most of their times playing games, and they begin to put more importance on imaginary game life than the reality. As a result, the game addicted people began to be unable to live normal life.
Then, what are the reasons for game addiction?
One of the main reasons is an escape from the reality. Most game addicted people are jobless. Therefore, they try to be respected in the imaginary world by spending much time on playing games. By doing so, the game addicted people want to have some confidence in themselves since the reality is too harsh for them to be confident human beings. Of course, there are also many game addicted people with jobs and respects from others; however, game addiction disables people to efficiently work. As a result, their lives eventually become unproductive.
As I mentioned above, game addiction problems are being more serious each time. Then, who is to be blamed for this situation? I believe both game developers and game users are responsible for game addiction.
Game developers are too much focused on profits; since then, they intentionally added possibilities of addiction to the games. For example, Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPG) do not have the end. It makes the users to spend more time to develop their characters stronger; therefore, more playing time usually corresponds to better game characters. This type of system has been available since thirteen years ago, and it has indirectly forced the game users to be addicted to the game. Therefore, the game developers’ desire for more profits created game addiction.
I argue that good games are those that can provide joyful times without a danger of game addiction. In addition, good games should keep publishing sequels instead of servicing same games for years. For example, Mario series by Nintendo must be perfect games. I have not heard any case of game addiction regarding Mario series. Game addiction is not required to make much profit; however, too many game developers are more concerned about profits than great ideas.
It does not mean that the game users are not responsible for game addiction. They should be able to control themselves enough to avoid being negatively affected by playing games. However, game addicted users cannot get away from what the game developers created for profits, game addiction. No one is born to play games for his or her whole life because games are meant to help people be relaxed and unstressed. However, game addicted people usually spend most of their times on playing games, and they even become more stressful by playing games. According to Chinese man dies of gaming addiction, there is a Chinese man who died from playing games for too long period time. It indicates that game addiction can even draw people into the death. Therefore, every single person must be aware of the seriousness of game addiction and learn how to control themselves.
Then, can we cure game addiction?
Benjamin actually posted several solutions to take care of game addiction in his writings. Most of them indicate methods to get away from game addiction; however, I argue that each individual must change. Others’ concerns for the game addicted people must be helpful, but they must be aware of their serious situations and have fixed purpose to get away from game addiction in order to be perfectly free from game addiction. It is very important to understand that cyber world is just an imaginary world, which should never affect the reality. Meanwhile, it is also very significant to realize how to control their behaviors and thoughts to spend their time wisely.
Most people who could be cure game addiction always regret their mistakes in past. There are still a number of game addicted people at this moment. I definitely hope that they can cure game addiction before it is too late to regret their harmful mistakes.
