unpacking addiction

This discussion of addiction really has my interest piqued considering how it relates to my own personal experience with gaming, and so for everyone else I figure. By extension, I’m also glad to say that the course, in its entirety, despite the heavy theoretical framework it was discussed within, asked a myriad of introspective questions of gaming culture, the implications of which allowed for revision of what was once a bewilderingly superficial understanding of what my association with games meant. It also deepened my cynicism of stereotypical representations, or misrepresentations shall I say. It’s not to say I’m right, you’re wrong, now I can exact my own ‘othering’ revenge. Rather it’s to help address misconceptions that were based on previously unexplained intuitions. With regards to addiction, it was a force-fed notion that I was sure I was afflicted with- ‘nothing’s working, let’s try hypnotherapy’ was a consideration at one point. As Rob Cover notes, it “relates to self-attitudes to gameplay” (1), and primarily it was no one else’s fault but my own but there is something to be said for how ubiquitous this narrative is. It amounts to fear mongering and drives these feelings of guilt; more harmful than the supposed ready-addiction that comes with a game package. Sure, I’ve got problematic gaming issues, with one game at a time, but addiction, I’m inclined to disagree now.

I’d even claim that there is a subtle difference in meaning between an ‘addictive’ game and being ‘addicted’ to games, depending on the context and especially considering the derisive, pejorative connotations associated with addiction and all that it entails. In other words, considering the stereotyping and mass media representations, there seems to be a need for quick caption labelling (unsurprisingly), and absolute terms of definition, so that whether a game can be discussed in terms of having potential addictive properties, which might convey uncertainty to an audience averse to conducive discussion, is never really considered or posited as a possibility. If you step beyond the 21 hour mark- cue Beethoven’s 5^th- you or, as is often more palatable to fragile minds, your child is now an addict.

The essence of it is the relation between personality and what the game has to offer in terms of immersion. Again, certain terms have made that halo of understanding apparate, ‘context’ especially. As an example, I have a mate who loves Konami’s Pro Evolution Soccer. He’s an obsessive fellow, but his world of concern is not with the game alone but more so with the modification of kits, teams, stadiums and players. Ultimately, they are to be played with, but he enjoys ‘modding’ because it provides a creative outlet for the fulfilment of his artistic inclinations which overlaps with his interest in football and its history. The amount of times he’s said ‘this is my last team design’ is innumerable, and I’m pretty sure there are only so many teams and players out there, but his fascination is ever so slightly overboard especially since my ‘addiction’ with football can be just as irrational- I stay up into the morning hours watching Premier League football, often! My point is that it is by no means harmful nor is it something that needs treatment and he’d scoff if I suggested that it did. Similarly, I spent the last week playing an SNES game, Earthbound and it was by no means an addictive game, though it had the evident feedback loop function, the grind of repeated battles and no end to the levelling up, that made immersion understandable. But I was only playing the game to escape from writing the essay; definitely problematic use but by no means the games fault or a break-down inducing addiction. It all depends on the multitude of contextual imperatives, from difficulties and challenges that you can’t shy away from, to financial investment such as with MMO’s, amongst others. There’s no hard and fast formula, quick answers or quick fixes, and if studies can’t even attain a measure of perfection, as Kevin mentioned, how can we. Now my conscience can rest easy; playing video games is no more an addiction than watching movies.