Old Video Game Addiction Qs and Wikipedia

Video game addiction is an insidious and an exponentially growing problem throughout society. Online communities are thriving, and many people are immersing themselves entirely into these virtual worlds, ignoring their real-world communities, including their own family and friends. Attributing to this addiction is the fact that video games fulfill important psychological needs such as a sense of control, power, and elevated social status for those who suffer from their lack of social intelligence in day to day life. This has devastating mental and physical affects on addicts and it is time video game addiction be accounted by the professional medical world.

Most gamers will agree they play video games because they are a fun form of entertainment. However, there is more of an allure to video games than just a good time. Video games are more realistic and complex, encouraging abuse from certain groups of people. HSS or high sensory seeking individuals pursue sensory rewards for their satisfaction. The flashy explosions and vivid fantasy worlds of video games are particularly dangerous for susceptible HSS people. Males are also susceptible to the psychological appeals of domination and competition. (Chiu et al). One gaming addict, Tim, states, ”When I’m playing and I’m playing good then get an adrenalin kick from it because I am fast on the game. I can take high scores. I want to go on the first place on the ranking list on the game. Everything you want the best in it” (Reid). Video games are an interactive medium and when you combine elements of fantasy and escape with game play that fulfills real psychological needs, virtual reality can disrupt and even takeover lives.

Escaping from the pressures of the world does everyone good at some point, and gaming can be a good way to lift some weight off your shoulders. However, when gamers aren’t careful, it just as easily lifts them out of reality, with some devastating effects. Deteriorating physical health such as eye sight and weight loss is a start. Confusion of reality, illusions, and immature human relationships are some of the serious social consequences (Chiu et al).The video game addict isn’t just losing time. He is losing control of his life. One mother admits, "Today our son was five days old. The sad truth is my husband spent 11 hours today playing his Warcraft game. He did not interact with our sweet tiny baby because there were important quests waiting online." (Waters). About 10% of gamers play in excess, there are lots of addicts out there and cases such as this warrant therapy and medical care (Fritz).

With attention finally being brought to this growing video game addict epidemic, the American Medical Association finally acknowledged its existence. In June 2007 they reviewed video game addiction and voted against adding it in the DSM-IV, suggesting further research is needed about video games’ addictive potential. Dr. Louis Krus of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry warns, “Kids can make up the academic deficits but they can’t make up the social ones” (Fritz). As many as 5 million American kids may be addicted, the AMA needs make video game addiction research one of their top priorities and investigate the psychological dependency involved (Tanner).

There are people losing their lives to video game addiction and it is time for it to be recognized as a serious illness. Many gamers have a psychological dependency on their games that cannot be cured without therapy and treatment from professional physicians. Video game addicts are damaging their own lives and the lives of those who love them.

When testing the boundaries of Wikipedia, I decided to create false information and see how the Wikipedia staff would respond. On the video game addiction page I made up the following fictitious death, “Ronald McDonald died after playing Disney’s Pirate of the Caribbean for fourteen days straight without eating. He played the game dreaming of becoming a pirate, escaping from his miserable life as a clown. Hamburgler tried to feed Ronald happy meals but he resisted with great tenacity saying, “I don’t need your food anymore. I’m done with that life. I’m a pirate now.” Seeing this blatant lie, the Wikipedia staff deleted my entry within three hours.

Initially I felt a little guilty making up a death as a joke considering there were real people who were listed as dying from video game addiction. My roommate placated my nerves by saying something like, ”Dude. It’s Wikipedia; no one takes it seriously.” I realized this was the truth and finished making my story with no apprehension. I feel as though most of the information on Wikipedia is reasonably credible because of how fast they edit pages with erroneous information. However, I think for a future exercise, editing a page, making it believable and then providing a link would really test Wikipedia’s boundaries.