Games and School: A Life Long Struggle

It seems like a pretty simple fact that if you spend the majority of your time playing videogames, you are bound to miss out on some schoolwork, which can set you back in life. A common trend is that addiction of often begins at a young age. I interviewed my brother, currently a senior at Bard College, about the issue of gaming addiction. I asked him if he had ever been addicted to videogames himself, he admitted, “I was pretty hooked on them all throughout grade school. They offer an instant gratification that is hard to resist.” He began playing at a young age, and he claims that the activity of playing the games interfered with his studies, “All throughout middle and high school. There is simply more challenge and gratification from a level in a video game than from one’s math homework.” The lasting effect of addiction can be scarring, especially if not corrected. Thankfully, my brother only plays about 5-10 hours a week, and only when he is home from college. Some people play three or four hours a day. My brother concludes that “[He] generally [avoids] adventure games because of the massive amount of time they consume” These are games like “World of Warcraft”, which you hear so much buzz about lately, and how people can play for hours on end. Many people can develop life long issues as a result of videogames, which means that, in some cases, gaming addiction can be just as damaging as that of drugs and alcohol.

End or Triumph of Nintendo in the Hands of Addiction

            Nintendo has been one of the king game companies since 1889, but it seems that an age of Doodle Jump and Temple Run is bringing the age of console videogames to a close. To start off, for the people who don’t know, a console videogame is a videogame that is run on a system such as the Wii or Xbox 360 that needs to be connected to a television set to function. Hopefully, most people know what smart phone games are. An article in the New York Times entitled “Nintendo Confronts a Changed Video Game World” by Nick Wingfield talks about the decline of Nintendo because many people play more smart phone games. Some of the reasons for this include that smart phone games are cheaper and portable, but another factor that must be considered is the role of gamers’ addiction. Mitch Lasky, who was once an industry executive “says he walked into his living room, which is brimming withal the major consoles, a library of new titles and a 60- inch plasma TV, only to find his children crowding around an iPhone playing Temple Run.”(5) Even Doodle Jump jokingly states in the App store, “BE WARNED: insanely addictive!” The portability of these games extends the venues in which you can game, which makes these games extremely desirable for those who are hooked, and need to be locked on to a screen 24/7.

            These same addicts, however, are the gamers that Nintendo needs to kick start it’s new era. The latest console sold by Nintendo is the Wii U. “GameStop, the video game retailer, opened 3,000 stores at midnight on Thursday for Black Friday”(Wingfield 5) selling Wii U’s. This console needs great reception if Nintendo is to make it through this dark tunnel, and gamers are their target audience. Basically, gamers could make or break the Nintendo Empire.

Gamers In Denial

  

          Many gamers out there will tell you to your face that gaming addiction is a myth. Denial is one of the strongest symptoms of video game addiction, along with other symptoms that can damage everyday life. According to an article entitled “Experts: Video Game Addiction is Real; Players Scoff” by Phil Vallarreal, studies show that anti-social tendencies and depression can spawn from excessive video game usage. Most addicts themselves will strongly argue that it is just a hobby, claiming that they can stop, even when they know they would blow a paycheck to buy Call of Duty: Black-Ops 2. Some of the signs of video game addiction include: using money meant for groceries and other amenities for purchasing games, arguing over things that have to do with the games, becoming violent and aggressive, having dreams or visions related to the games, spending over 120 minutes of play time a day. Although these seem like drastic and obvious signs to most people, repudiation clouds the minds of the addicts themselves. They do not realize that they play 3 hours a day anyway. The reality is that, according to a study within the last ten years by the Entertainment Software Association, 70% of adults with families play video games. In 2005, a worker was fired for gaming on the job, so he sued and was re-hired. In addition, he was allowed a certain amount of playtime a day at work. Such actions of excessive video gamers are unthinkable, but that man sued for a reason. He believed that he had a right to be playing World of Warcraft at work, which is clearly not a stable frame of mind for gamers.