Are videogames addictive?

Posted by Adam Hartley on Tue 25 Nov 2008

The gaming marathon debate which keeps on running

Following yet another hugely popular add-on to Blizzard’s World of Warcraft (WoW) this month, the UK’s mainstream media has been quick to jump on sensationalist stories of younger gamers passing out after mammoth sessions on the game. And, by extension, the hoary old ‘are videogames addictive?’ debate (yet again) seeps into the nation’s psyche.

This week’s news emerged from the unfortunate collapse of a 15-year-old Swedish boy following a marathon 24 hours Wrath of the Lich marathon.

"They played all day and all night. Maybe they got a few hours of sleep. They ate a little food and breakfast at their computers," the boy's father told the Kvällsposten newspaper in Sweden. Doctors put the boy's seizure down to sleep deprivation, lack of food, and a prolonged period of concentration on the game.

Meanwhile, Dr Richard Graham, a child psychiatrist at London’s Tavistock Centre, told the BBC: "The problem with World of Warcraft is the degree it can impact and create a socially withdrawn figure who may be connecting with people in the game and is largely dropping out of education, social opportunities."

While there is clearly a serious debate to be had over the matter, ‘videogame addiction’ is one of those issues that seems to divide 99% of the population into two directly opposing camps. On the one side, middle England takes the Boris Johnson/ Daily Mail line that games are clearly addictive and somehow ‘A bad thing’, while on the other, gamers casually dismiss the idea that games could, in certain cases, be a negative influence on a person’s life.

And, as is so often the case, somewhere in the middle, the real issues that need to be debated get lost in the tabloid noise and forum trolling. Academics such as Nottingham Trent University’s Professor Mark Griffiths and his team at the International Gaming Research Unit have been conducting proper research into these issues for years, though tend to produce complex results that don’t necessarily sit nicely with either the hardcore gaming brigade OR ‘disgusted of Tunbridge Wells’.

"The problem with World of Warcraft is that its developer, Blizzard, has had four years now to refine and perfect a set of game rules which promotes addiction," deputy editor of PC Zone, Steve Hogarty told TechRadar.com this week. And when we asked game designer Daniel Boutros if he thought games were addictive, he quickly replied, “the good ones are.”

A fair point, well made!

For its part, Blizzard consistently reminds gamers (and their parents) to play all of its games responsibly, taking regular rests and time away from the screen. “If my kids ask if they can play WoW, then I ask them ‘have you done your homework yet’?” one gamer told us this week. “If they haven’t, then they don’t play. Simple. It’s called ‘responsible parenting’.”

The epically funny South Park ‘Make Love Not Warcraft’ episode still colours many non-WoW-player’s perceptions of MMOs. On which note, rather hilariously, one of Blizzard’s lead designers decried the practise of 'poopsocking' this week (for the uninitiated: the act of neglecting basic hygiene in favour of remaining at your PC).

"When PC Zone confronted lead game designer Tom Chilton with the phenomenon of 'poopsocking', he was stunned, saying ‘no, no... I highly encourage players to use the restroom...’," laughs PC Zone’s Steve Hogarty.

Nottingham Trent University’s Professor Mark Griffiths has been diligently researching the psychological effects of gaming for a number of years now and has reached the conclusion that gamers get many benefits from videogames, which can be “educational, social and therapeutic.”

However, at the same time, Griffith’s and his research team recognise that, “there is evidence that when done in excess, video game playing can be addictive, especially online where the game never ends and has the potential to be a 24/7 activity.”

In T3’s opinion, paraphrasing the wise words of Happy Monday’s freaky dancer, Bez, who infamously opined (on drugs and addiction): “It boils down to two things. If you are doing it because you are enjoying it, carry on. If you are doing it because you are running away or not facing up to difficult things in your life, then stop.”

Well, don’t stop. But you get the gist…

Link: BBC

Link: Nottingham Trent University’s International Gaming Research Unit

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