Video Game Addiction
Overall, I think that the danger in gaming these days is not necessarily the violence portrayed, but the addictive qualities within them. It’s very easy to just place yourself into another virtual universe, in much the same way that some claim drugs can transport the mind to another place. To those with troubled home lives, or who feel they have little value in life, I think it’s easy to see how massive RPG’s like World of Warcraft could be addictive. They go to these places to become beautiful, to have a social life, or for a million other reasons. In reality, though, they are forsaking their real existences for a virtual one. On a personal note, I was at least somewhat addicted to games like the Elder Scrolls series and The Sims for a while. I don’t consider myself addicted, necessarily, but I used to be a very frequent user. Even though I play these games less now than I used to, I still get an occasional craving to play them. The rewarding aspects are so appealing, and disenchantment with life for one reason or another makes it easy to crave an escape route. If you bomb a test or your girlfriend breaks up with you, etc. you can always escape to the land of Morrowind, where you’re Thrugg, the Level 41 Nord Battlemage, and you can kill a Golden Saint with a single swipe of your enchanted axe. I finally decided to take it out in a more constructive form – writing. I found that by writing fiction, I was even freer to explore my own path than in gaming worlds. I was the director, the producer – I could play God, if you will. Plus, I was creating something that if I kept with it might be able to get me some money. I currently am about halfway through a novel of my own, working on it when I have the time.
This, I think, is the direction that we as a society need to take. When kids devote all their spare time to video games when they should be out hanging out with friends, they miss lessons they won’t get in the classroom. In some areas, I still have the social skills of a fourteen year old. It is a bit of a losing battle in a sense, though, since the game designers are trying to produce a hit product, and with increasing technology, the final products will only continue to be more impressive. My main concern, though, is that we will become so focused and dependant on electronics for our entertainment, that we will miss out on the fundamental parts of being humans. Of course, they said the same thing about comic books in the 1950’s, and kids still turned out all right. So maybe I’m right, and maybe I’m wrong, but what I do know is that there are way too many kids who need to get off the couch and do something constructive in this country.
