JACK: They let you jump from the sky, be a superhero or a sports star
and build your own worlds.
GIRL: I love how you can connect with people
and how you can build, you can create,
you can build whatever you want
and you can just connect, have fun.
BOY: I like being able to connect with my friends
and other different people,
and the gaming community
is just a nice place to do that
after school and on weekends.
Yep, there's a lot to love about video games,
but have you ever found yourself struggling to switch off?
If you have, you're not alone.
Psychiatrist Dr Kim Le says he sees quite a few kids
who are suffering with gaming addiction.
MAN: And it's characterised by a loss of control
over your gaming time,
priority over other activities for video games,
and then you get negative consequences
because of the amount of time
that you're spending playing video games.
He says games are designed to make us want to keep playing,
sometimes longer than we should.
It's got to do with a chemical called dopamine
that our brain releases when we get something we want,
whether it's unlocking a new level, gaining a new power,
or getting a new skin.
Dopamine makes us feel good and it can be addictive,
especially when it's combined
with a technique called intermittent rewarding,
which basically means letting you win at random intervals.
OK, let me try to explain.
If I said, "I'll give you $10
"for every three times you jump up and down,"
you would probably jump up and down a lot.
And then, if I stopped paying you the $10,
you would quit pretty easily.
But if I didn't tell you when I was going to give you the $10 -
maybe sometimes after the third jump or sometimes after the tenth -
then you might just keep jumping because you don't know
when or if you're going to get your next reward.
Intermittent rewarding can keep you playing
and it can also keep you spending.
As you probably know, lots of games let you pay for advantages
or extra features, often with a made-up currency.
They're known as in-game purchases or microtransactions,
and they're a big moneymaker for the gaming industry,
but they are controversial, especially loot boxes.
They're kind of like a virtual treasure chest
that you buy without knowing exactly what you're going to get,
and they've been banned in some countries
because some say they're too much like gambling.
We do know that the psychological mechanisms
that many loot-box systems operate on
are very similar to other forms of gambling.
Some have compared loot boxes to poker machines,
which also use intermittent rewarding.
They can be really addictive and really damaging,
which is why kids aren't allowed to use them.
But some say loot boxes aren't the same thing.
MAN: As young kids, we...
..you know, we love to get a lucky dip,
you know, or Pokemon cards or Kinder Surprises,
and that mechanism is...is a similar mechanism
to what's in loot boxes.
I don't think they're similar to gambling.
You know, with a loot box,
you are investing money to get something back.
You always get something back.
Whatever you get, you can use in your game.
Ron Curry represents the gaming industry
and he says a lot of gamers love loot boxes
and in-game purchases.
He says a lot of games will warn players
if they're spending too much money,
but others reckon more needs to be done to protect players
and make sure the games we love to play aren't playing us.