Im So Confused

Gamers

Do you know someone that plays online video games? Do these people spend countless hours in front of their computers seemingly wasting their lives away? Do you want to know why? I'm a recovering gamer, 20min without a game, on my honor. I've quit tonight, but I've quit before. I'm hoping it sticks this time and that this blog will help- kind of like the patch. There's a couple reasons why gamers become addicted.
First there's the phsyiological reasons. Recent research suggests that gaming can affect the reward center of your brain just like drugs for some poeple. I don't have the desire to find this information or post it right now but I probably will in the future. In this case the person can become phsyically addicted to video games just like he/she could on drugs. But, in my opinion this will rarely happen. Its my belief that the main reason people become addicted on video games is something psychologists call an in group/out group bias. This is the psychological trick that the government uses to "brainwash" army recruits, people use to start cults, or ruthless governmets use to train torturers.
Here's a basic rundown of how you go about establishing an in group/ out group biais.The first step is to screen any applicants for the group for the correct political beliefs and social economic standing. Next you want isolate the recruits from the general population. This allows you to have greater influence on them then you normally would. You also want the recruits to see people who work with the system getting rewarded and to create a "jargon" dialect that will hinder communication with people who are not in the group.
As you may have noticed, the screeing process is somewhat eliminated. I say somewhat becuase it is actually completeled voluntarily by each individual gamer. For reasons of their own, they begin the gaming process. When gamers spend, two or three or eight or sixteen hours at a time playing their games, are they not isolating themselves for the rest of the world? And when I say "rest of the world", who is not omitted? The answer would be other games, and only other games. Now, again this is not a complete isolation from other people but I would argue that short term episodes of isolation can be just as affective over a long period of time. Gamers do see other games who become extrememly good at the game become rewarded with praise and fame. Yes, there is fame in the gaming world. A player can become famous for his/her skill much like an actor can become famous for his/her exposure on the big screen. This is acomplished by two ways. First, in most games, the game can be recorded and watched later. Then one of the players can post a good game on a popular gaming website and thousands of other gamers can download and watch that game in a matter of days. Thousands doesn't sound like a lot of people when I'm talking of a world wide population, but keep in mind that might be 50%-90% of the world wide gaming population for any particular game. A second way is by obtaing a high rating. The most popualar rating system is very similar to the chess rating system. Each player starts off with 1600 points. With each win or loss, a player can gain or lose points. The amount gained or loss depends on the difference in ratings between the two players. The bigger the difference the more points gained or lost. The gaming world is rich with it's own jargon- as well as the internet itself. A few examples from the internet would be lol, wtf, etc. wich is used in the gaming world as well as jargon such as noobie (a new person to online gaming), rushing, etc.
So, what does this all accomplish? It moves the gamer to identify with the gaming "in group" more and more. Don't believe me? Find a sports fan, any sport will do and find out what their favorite team is. Odds are they will hate or dislike someone who favors a different team for no other reason than that he/she does not like the second team. Why is that? Is either person somehow affiliated with either team? Do they know someone who plays on either team? Do they own the team? Do they get ANYTING tangible from their team either winning or losing? The answer to these questions in most cases is no. But they identify with their team, and with nobody elses by, you guessed it, in group/out group bias.
I hope this may have helped explain to someone why someone they know might be addicted to online gaming.

posted by Just a blogger @ 7:21 PM