Scott Posilkin Capstone Paper The Psychology of Video Game ...

The Psychology of Video Game addiction
Scott Posilkin
Capstone Paper
People often are a bit taken aback when I tell them that I am majoring in Psychology and
minoring in Technology, Arts & Media. They often claim that it is an odd combination, and
always tell me that the two do not go well together. People are often more shocked when I tell
them that I work in the technology industry, and use my Psych degree every day (granted not as
much as I use my TAM minor). Knowing how to use Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Illustrator and
the like are all valuable skills, but knowing how to use them to relate to people’s way of thinking
makes them even more valuable. In fact, one of the biggest uses of Psychology is in the
entertainment industry. They are now measuring peoples brain activity while doing things
activities such as watching TV ads, or playing video games in order to see where they can
improve their products, and which parts people are, and are not, enjoying. Unfortunately,
Psychology is often used to point out and explain problems with society, and such is the case
with video games.
Video game addiction has become a large problem within the United States, and many
other developed countries such as the UK, and China. It is hard to explain the scope of the issue,
and even harder to define it. At what point does a hobby such as playing video games become an
addiction? Where do we draw that line? Can something such as a video game even be classified
as addicting, since it does not even technically exist, and has no chemical component

whatsoever? And if video games can be classified as addicting, can it be labeled a drug? Modern
Psychology is being used to attempt the answers to these, and many other related questions.
Video games have been around in society in one form or another for over thirty years. It
was not until the past decade that they really became more mainstream and reached a level of
realism capable of pulling people in for large and potentially unhealthy amounts of time. Two
games were especially important in establishing and raising awareness of the idea of video game
addiction. Everquest, and Counter-Strike, released in 1999 and 2000 respectively, drew players
in on a whole new level (Decker 2012).
Let’s start with Everquest, which was released in 1999 was has been labeled the “mother
of all MMO games”. MMO stands for Massively Multiplayer Online, and it is arguably the most
addictive genre of gaming that currently exists. MMOs are a very complicated type of video
game for several reasons. First, of all, they never end. You can keep playing an MMO to gain
new powers, gear, and levels pretty much forever. People still play the original Everquest,
despite the fact that it came out 13 years ago. Another reason that MMOs are so addictive is that
they are extremely social games. MMO servers consist of thousands of players playing together
in the same virtual space, so people make friends, and often join groups of players called
“guilds” with whom they play, fight other players, and socialize with. For many people who have
issues making friends in real life, having a ton of digital friends is just as addicting if not more
addicting than the game itself (Dauriat 2012),. The game itself however keeps expanding, making it
addicting by itself. MMOs are unique in that most of them require players to keep paying a
monthly access fee. This fee is used to develop more content, so that players never get bored or
run of out things to do. Combine a game that is fun, never ends, has a huge social aspect to it,
and is always changing and you have a recipe for addiction.

For many players, the fun and stimulation they gain from MMOs like Everquest are
simply more than they gain from real life, and thus they naturally transition into a state in which
they spend more time in the virtual world than they do the real one (Decker 2012). Take for
instance the example of Shawn Woolley. Before Shawn started playing Everquest he was a
normal boy who never had any trouble with addiction of any kind. Shortly after playing
Everquest his personality changed, and he lost almost all contact with his family. He was soon
seeing a Psychiatrist, a therapist, and a doctor regularly. It wasn’t long before Shawn had quit his
job to play Everquest full time in his apartment, which he had rented alone specifically so he
could play all the time. A few weeks later Shawn’s mother went to bring him home for
thanksgiving since she did not want him spending the holiday alone, only to discover that he had
shot himself while playing the game. Of Everquest, she had this to say “I think the way the game
is written is that when you first start playing it, it is fun, and you make great accomplishments.
And then the further you get into it, the higher level you get, the longer you have to stay on it to
move onward, and then it isn't fun anymore. But by then you're addicted, and you can't leave it.
(Dauriat 2012),”
The kind of addiction that Shawn felt is so widespread and so engrained within the
community that most players refer to Everquest is either “EverCrack”, or “NeverRest”. Sadly,
this issue has not declined or gone away over the years, but gotten worse. In 2004 Blizzard
entertainment released an MMO called World of Warcraft, which is bigger, better, more
addicting, and more popular than Everquest ever was. At its peak, World of Warcraft had over 11
million active subscribers. Finally, after the release of World of Warcraft, and several video
game addiction related incidents, video game addiction began to be recognized as a real issue.

Several incidents lead to video game addiction being talked about and studied. One of
which we already mentioned was Shawn Woolley. Another includes a young boy shooting his
parents in Ohio for now allowing him to play Halo 3. In 2009 two children died in the bathtub
while their father played a Gameboy game. In China a boy set his classmate on fire, claiming he
was a Mage like his Warcraft avatar. A man died in South Korea after playing another blizzard
game called Star Craft for 50 hours with no break. These incidents, and many other, prompted
Psychologist and others to take action (Hagedorn 2012).
In 2002 Shawn Woolley’s mother created Online Gamers Anonymous, a 12 step program
designed to help those with video game addiction master their issue. It has several active
chapters and is growing. In China, the government declared in 2008 that video game addiction
had become an issue and implemented a limitation on how much time gamers would spend
playing World of Warcraft. In 2007 the American Psychology Association (the APA) declared
that more research was needed in order to declare video game addiction a disorder (Duven 2012).
That is why today, tons of research is being done to investigate just how bad video game
addiction is.
The studies have pulled in all kinds of interesting and obscure facts. Two articles that I
came across discovered that Peppermint increased ones skill while playing video games, and that
those who played video games regularly had significantly better twitch reaction times than those
who don’t (McCombs 2012). And this is the issue with video game research so far in Psychology; it
is highly inconclusive. One study that I read through found that people who play World of
Warcraft regularly had no increase in alcohol abuse, depression, weight, or indeed any negative
impacts save that their grammar was slightly skewed to include Warcraft Jargon. That is to say
that the only thing affected by (Duven 2012)Warcraft was the players English. Yet the study I read

that found pretty much the opposite was true. It claimed that people who play Warcraft had
higher rates of obesity, anxiety, impulsivity and a variety of other issues. Nowhere did it mention
any positives or any effect of the game on players English.
I think that part of the issue here is that video games are by nature hard to study. Earlier I
mentioned Counter-Strike, a game that was released in 2000 that is also known to be highly
addictive. Counter-Strike is a FPS, which stands for First Person Shooter. It plays almost nothing
like World of Warcraft. It’s like comparing an apple to a string bean and trying to study both at
the same time. What I found interesting is how games such as MMOs were studied in terms of
addiction, and yet games like Counter-Strike were studied in the basis that they make people
more violent (which also has very mixed results in terms of studies done). Yet Counter-Strike
has players that play it all day, who are most likely a totally different kind of person and play for
totally different reasons than those of a Warcraft player. And those are only two genres, video
games span many many different genres, and almost all have hard core players who are addicted.
Another thing to consider is what we define as an addiction. If I am wheelchair bound,
and or have social disorder, or both, and playing World of Warcraft enables me to socialize, use
my brain, and be happy than who is to say that my addiction is unhealthy? What if many of those
who are addicted to video games are simply those who have always been on the fringe of society
but now have a way to socialize and interact with other that was simply never available before?
Or perhaps some of us are simply wired to be video game addicts, as many of us are
wired to be alcoholics. A few different studies concluded that those who are at risk to develop
drug addictions are also at risk becoming addicted to video games (Hagedorn 2012). These studies

say that the same brain pathways are activated in a video game addict than those who are
addicted to pain killers.
Yet some studies ignore the physiological side altogether, arguing that video games are
simply used to fill a void left when one does poorly in school or has trouble making friends.
These studies argue that video game addiction is used as a crutch of sorts, and that it is nothing
similar to other kinds of addictions that people have. It is because there are so many
discrepancies in these studies that the American Psychology Association was unable to make
video game addiction an actual disorder (Mentzoni 2012),. This is bad because without the formal
classification many with this issue are left without help and resources. For instance, insurance
won’t help pay for treatment if this is not officially a disorder, and there is a ton less money to do
research into helping solve this issue if insurance companies won’t pay for anything.
This is why it is extremely important that more research is done by psychologist into
video game addiction. Once more studies are done, patterns will become obvious that indicate
how big a problem video game addiction truly is, what problems it actually causes, and what it’s
caused by. Once we have this information we can begin to figure out ways to help those who are
dealing with the issue.
We must also be careful when incorporating Psychology research into video games,
because anything, if designed with the specific purpose of being addicting, can be dangerous. If
companies like Blizzard, Microsoft, and the like use Psychology to make sure that their games
play directly into the human mind, than video game addiction will become a much worse
problem. It is like a pharmaceutical company creating a drug with the idea that the consumers
will need more. This is exactly what cigarettes are. Research should only be used to understand

and treat those who are addicted to video games, not to make the problem worse. Companies that
make video games should focus them on being works of art that are meant to be played, finished,
and thought about after, not engineered to make people play to the point that they care about
nothing else.
We must also be careful not to rush to any conclusions. The video game addiction
is an extremely strong market in a time when many markets in the US are weak. The video game
industry brings millions into the US economy, and it is responsible for the employment of
thousands of Americans. If we make false claims about how bad videogame addiction is we run
the risk of seriously harming many peoples livelihood and hurting a very strong industry within
the economy. But to the reverse of this, we must not let the fact that the industry has money
minimize how big a problem videogame addiction is. Like all industries, I am sure that the video
game industry has lobbyist, and I am sure they would lobby against research and laws that would
bring attention to video game addiction.
What we need to do is let the research decide, not our feelings or money. We must simply
use psychology to figure out how big the problem is and how we can treat it. Only after this
research is completed in a unbiased and conclusive manor can effectively come up with a
solution.
In conclusion, there needs to be more research into the Psychology behind video game
addiction. Video game addiction is a very real problem that needs to be addressed by the
American Psychological Association. The only way that this can happen is if enough research
happens that strong conclusions are drawn about just how bad video game addiction is, and how
it can be treated. It is also important to take into account that video games may be ok for some

people to consume in larger amounts, if they are unable to get social interaction in another way
for whatever reason. Finally, we must be careful with how this research is done, so that it is not
used to make video games more addicting.
Decker, Seamus A., and Jessica N. Gay. 2011. "Cognitive-bias toward gaming-related
words and disinhibition in World of Warcraft gamers." Computers In Human
Behavior 27, no. 2: 798-810. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed
April 28, 2012).
Duven, E., K.W. Müller, and K. Wölfling. "P01-413 - Internet and computer game
addiction - a review of current neuroscientific research." European Psychiatry 26,
(March 3, 2011): 416. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed April 28,
2012).
Hagedorn, W. Bryce, and Tabitha Young. "Identifying and Intervening with Students
Exhibiting Signs of Gaming Addiction and other Addictive Behaviors: Implications
for Professional School Counselors." Professional School Counseling 14, no. 4
(April 2011): 250-260. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed April 28,
2012)
Dauriat, Francesca Zanetta, Ariane Zermatten, Joël Billieux, Gabriel Thorens, Guido
Bondolfi, Daniele Zullino, and Yasser Khazaal. 2011. "Motivations to Play
Specifically Predict Excessive Involvement in Massively Multiplayer Online Role-
Playing Games: Evidence from an Online Survey." European Addiction
Research 17, no. 4: 185-189. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed
April 28, 2012)
Mentzoni, Rune Aune, Geir Scott Brunborg, Helge Molde, Helga Myrseth, Knut Joachim
Mår Skouverøe, Jørn Hetland, and Ståle Pallesen. 2011. "Problematic Video Game

Use: Estimated Prevalence and Associations with Mental and Physical
Health." Cyberpsychology, Behavior & Social Networking 14, no. 10: 591-
596. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed April 28, 2012).
McCombs, Kristin, Bryan Raudenbush, Andrea Bova, and Mark Sappington.
2011. "Effects of Peppermint Scent Administration on Cognitive Video
Game Performance." North American Journal Of Psychology 13, no. 3:
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2012).