Pathological Gaming: Is it Really a Threat
By:Emmet Allen
Seventeen-year-old Bronx resident Rafael Saldana has been playing video games from a young age—since he was three years old. Now, 14 years later, he has realized that he may have a problem. "I play on average eight to 12 hours a day," Saldana said. "I started playing video games at age three on a Super Nintendo."
He is not alone. 17-year-old Oscar Ramirez also believes he has a problem. "I started playing video games when I was four years old. My first game was Street Fighter," said Ramirez, a student of Bronx Center for Mathematics and Science. "I play three to six hours a day, give or take."
Experts call this pathological gaming, or the commonly misused term "video game addiction." Pathological gaming is when a person plays a video game or video games to the point where it negatively affects their social behavior. The subject is now receiving attention from both the public and medical experts alike.
"Pathological gaming is similar to pathological addictions such as sex or sleep," Dr. Christopher J Ferguson, a psychologist and professor at Texas A&M International University, explained. "Pathological gaming is not an addiction to gaming but the feeling of pleasure a person receives from playing a game," Ferguson added.
According to TechAddiction.ca, in the United States alone, 72 percent of the population plays video games on a daily basis. Of the 72 percent, four percent play for more than 50 hours a week. In the age groups of eight to 12, boys play 16 hours a day—six hours more than girls. Teenage boys play more than twice as much as teenage girls, around 18 hours a week.
Video game usage has increased drastically over the years. From early groundbreaking characters and games such as Nintendo's Mario in Super Mario Brothers to present characters such as Master Chief, who kills aliens trying to protect the universe from the Halo franchise, these games have influenced many aspects of media, culture and, in some cases, laws.
Video games are becoming more popular each day. However, there have been signs of pathological gaming since the 1980s; one of the earliest incidents involved the game Berzerk. Berzerk was an arcade game that pits the player against robots controlled by the Evil Otto. The more points the player gets, the harder the robots become. "The game killed three people—one of them who played for 36 hours straight," Ferguson told me.
Are there certain factors that can affect being a pathological gamer? "My dad and my sister both play video games regularly," Saldana told me. "Everybody except my dad plays video games in my family," Ramirez added. Both, Saldana and Ramirez have family members who play video games. Are they at risk?
When asked if there are other factors to pathological gaming, Dr. Ferguson responded, "There isn't a lot of research to pathological gaming, but if there is a console (device used to play video games) inside a household, then the risk is higher than people without a console." "For some families it's a benefit because video gaming encourages family time," Ferguson said.
Pathological gaming may not be congenital as like other psychological problems. It can be linked to anxiety or depression, according to Ferguson. "I rarely go to social events but I do play online regularly," said Saldana. "I feel more comfortable playing an online video game then I do playing sports with a bunch of people I don't know."
"I would rather play online," Ramirez said. "I don't play sports a lot, and the ones I do play, such as parkour, are not offered in school or are very rare to see others do."
Ferguson said, "Video gaming or online gaming in particular is very social. A person who may not be very social could be very social when playing online games such as World of Warcraft. You could invite your friends over to play with you, or you could have your friends in different countries play along."
In this age, where video gaming has become commonplace, the risk of becoming a pathological gamer hasn't changed since the Atari was introduced, but the amount of attention on the topic receives continues to grow.
