When I was a teenager, and in my early 20s, I used to love playing video games.
They were nowhere near as immersive as they are today, but were still a lot of fun nonetheless.
I’ve noticed as I’ve gotten older, and now that I have a small family, I make a point
of not playing video games — at least, not very often.
But just occasionally, once every month or two, I get an unrelenting urge to install
a game and spend half a day playing it.
The urge is hard to control.
I often start dreaming of the game before I actually start playing it.
I imagine all the tactics I will use and the immense fun that I will have.
I sometimes control the urge for a couple of days, but eventually, I give in.
Yesterday, was one of those days.
I woke up at about 3am, installed a game, and just played.
I was tired and I could have slept some more, but I couldn’t resist the urge.
The thoughts were just racing around my head.
Some of you are probably saying, “That’s not an addiction!
If you only play a game for a few hours once every month or so, what’s the problem?”.
And I hear you!
It’s not really such a big problem.
But every time I play a video game, I feel an immense sense of guilt at the end of it.
I don’t know why.
While I’m playing, I really enjoy the experience.
I accomplish a lot within the game.
For example, I’m able to create a hero who conquers the world in a short few hours.
But at the end of it, I think to myself, “What the hell did I achieve?
— Nothing, that’s what!”.
I feel like I’ve wasted half a day and achieved nothing.
I know, I know, I know.
Some of you are probably saying that it was only a few hours.
No harm done.
But I just feel like I could have used that time do so many other things.
I could have prepared a nice dinner.
I could have made a new video.
I could have gone for a walk or done some exercise.
Three hours of exercise is actually quite a lot!
Some commenters have mentioned before that whether I waste my time playing video games,
or waste my time watching TV, or reading a book, it’s essentially the same thing.
The activity isn’t important.
It’s just a form of leisure.
But I truly think that video games are not the same as those other activities.
If I watch TV, especially a documentary, I can learn something.
I can learn about the plight of the Great Barrier Reef, or I can watch an in depth analysis
about the current political climate in America.
Reading could also be seen as a learning experience depending on what type of book you read.
But even a work of fiction still requires you to use your imagination.
Half the fun of reading is coming up with all the imagined images in your head.
Reading books and watching TV are fairly passive activities compared to video games.
You can just plop yourself down on the sofa and watch David Attenborough’s Blue Planet,
or pick up a book and start reading it.
Video games on the other hand, require you to participate in the story.
This is probably why they are so popular.
When watching a movie, you just let the story play out.
You have no choice over what the characters do.
But a video game is a fully interactive story that clearly has addictive qualities.
When I play a video game, I get a rush.
I feel a sense of joy when I reach the next level.
I feel successful when I finish a mission or complete a map.
And that’s probably the reason why so many people play them.
In a video game, after just a short amount of game play, you can increase your strength
or your dexterity, you can win a war, you can become the leader of a nation, or the
mayor of a city.
But in real life, progress takes forever.
You can’t just go down to the park, work out for half an hour, and then have an increased
strength and dexterity.
It takes time to become strong or to become fit – weeks or months of hard work.
If I want to become a scientist, I have to go to university for three years or more.
In a video game, I can literally do all of these things within hours, or even minutes.
Progress is artificially sped up in the virtual world.
And that is addictive.
Some people I know are video game players.
In the real world, they’re just normal people.
But in the virtual world, they’re somebody special.
They’re the F1 driver who’s got the fastest lap time.
They’re the Half-Orc champion who saved the Realm from the evil invaders.
They’re important in their gaming circles.
They’re somebody.
In real life, they’re just a factory worker, or a sales assistant.
Video games make them feel special.
For me, however, I like playing video games, but don’t feel good about it afterwards.
I rationalise that the in-game accomplishments are just a way to make me keep playing.
They’re just fictional.
They don’t make me a better person in real life.
The video game designers have intentionally done this.
They know that constantly rewarding people in-game make them keep playing.
It is an addiction for many people and has been formally recognised as such by the World
Health Organisation.
There is growing evidence that compulsive gaming lights up your brain with dopamine
in a similar way to drug addiction.
There is a very real physical addiction occurring in at least some players.
So I guess that’s my problem.
I do get a dopamine hit when I play video games.
But obviously, I’m strong enough not to let it take hold of my life.
I’m able to quit at any given moment.
I suppose this is true of me for many other addictive activities.
I used to enjoy drinking a lot, but I can easily refrain from that.
I used to gamble a lot, but was able to give that up.
But the feelings were the same.
I would play the pokies for an hour or so, lose 50 bucks, and then feel guilty afterwards.
I play a video game for an hour or so, and then feel guilty afterwards.
It’s exactly the same feeling, except that I’m not losing money, or hurting my health.
But unlike other addictive activities, video games have become much more prevalent and
more accepted by society.
But we should be careful.
Lots of young children are now playing video games regularly.
The games reward them by giving them more powerups, or more prize boxes, or more money
to spend the longer they spend playing.
You can read stories about primary school kids staying up all night gaming, and then
going to school in the morning exhausted.
This is not good for society.
I’m not sure what the solution is, but parents certainly need to limit their children’s
exposure.
I’m not advocating an outright ban, but certainly half an hour or an hour a day is
enough.
Instead, children should be encouraged to use their time in more meaningful ways.
Go to the park and kick the football around.
Get out in nature and stay active.
Help mum prepare dinner.
Go for a walk with dad.
There’s plenty of other interesting things to do in life that actually can benefit children.
Anyway, I can’t promise that I won’t go back to playing video games — I usually
do.
But I do know that it’s only fleeting and I have the power to know when enough is enough.
It’s unfortunate that so many other people don’t.
If you do have a problem with video games, or think that you play too much, you’re
probably right.
Luckily, there’s lots of resources out there to help you kick the habit.
But the first thing you’ll need to do is admit that it is a habit.
It’s no different from gambling.
It’s no different from smoking.
It’s just that you’re not necessarily wasting your money or your health doing it.
But certainly, you are wasting your time.
Good luck.