CONTENT RESEARCH- VIDEO GAME ADDICTION

HISTORY- VIDEO GAME ADDICTION• Gaming addiction has become a topic of increasing research interest and over the last decade

there has been a significant increase in the number of studies examining the various aspects of video game addiction compared to preceding decades.

• However their has been a lack of consensus as to whether video game addiction exists and if it should be referred as ‘addiction’, some researchers have instead used terminology such as ‘excessive’ or ‘problematic’ to denote the harmful use of video games.

HISTORY- VIDEO GAME ADDICTION• Gaming Addiction in the 1980s: Following the release if the first commercial video games in

the early 1970s, it took until the 1980s for the first reports of video game addiction to appear in the psychological and psychiatric literature. Researchers reported 3 cases of ‘space invaders obsessions’ and other researchers described a similar phenomenon and called it ‘computer catatonia’. The first reference to ‘video game addiction’ was in 1983 by Soper and Miller, who, based on their observations as school counsellors, claimed the disorder was like any other behavioural addiction, consisting of; compulsive behavioural involvement, a lack of interest in other activities, association and friendship circles mainly with other video game addicts, and physical and metal symptoms when attempting to stop the behaviour.

• In 1989, Shotten published the first study specifically on video game addiction on a small sample of 127 people who described themselves as ‘hooked’ on video games for the past 5 years.

HISTORY- VIDEO GAME ADDICTION

• Gaming Addiction in the 1990s: in the 1990s there was a small but significant increase of research into video game addiction with all these studies being carried out in the UK and mainly on young people in school settings. In contrast to research in the 1980s studies, studies now assessed both video game players and non gamers. However, research was criticised for many reasons such as ; small sample size, unrealistic settings, and one of the main problems was that all of the researchers assed video game addiction using adapted versions of the DSM-III-R or DSM-IV criteria for pathological gambling.

• Gaming Addiction in the 2000s: The 2000s saw a substantial growth in the number of studies on video game addiction particularly as gaming expanded into the new online medium where games could be played as part of a gaming community (i.e., massively multiplayer online role playing games [MMORPGs] such as World of Warcraft and Everquest). Approximately sixty studies were published on gaming addiction between 2000 and 2010 [7] and a vast majority of these examined

• MMORPG addiction and was not limited to the study of young males. Furthermore, many of these studies collected their data online and a significant minority of studies examined various other aspects of video game addiction using non-self-report methodologies. These include studies using polysomnographic measures and visual and verbal memory tests medical examinations including the patient’s history.

• Gaming Addiction- The present; Due to the increased number of research studies of the past years, researchers have now been able to identify the negative consequences of excessive video game use, factors associated with video game addiction and the treatments of video game addiction.

PROFESSIONAL COMPANIES/ORGANISATIONS• Company Name: United Kingdom Interactive Entertainment (Ukie)• Who are they? Ukie is a trade body that aims to support, grow and promote the whole of the

UK’s games and interactive entertainment industry. Founded in 2010 (although formerly known as ELSPA), Ukie’s membership includes all the major UK and global games publishers and the best of UK development talent.

• What do they do? Ukie represent all parts of the gaming industry on major government groups and cross-sector debates and ensure that the games industry is heard on issues such as tax breaks and the positive side of games. They run campaigns and initiatives that benefits the wider UK games sector. They also represent the wider games industry and arrange 1 to 1 meetings between game businesses.

• How do they do it/ people involved? They have 13 departments with a manager in each department, who is in charge of that particular department and communicates to other departments when necessary.

PROFESSIONAL COMPANIES/ORGANISATIONS• Organisation Name: Mothers against videogame addiction and violence (MAVAV)• Who are they? MAVAV is an organisation that was launched in December 2002 with high

hopes of raising awareness of the hidden dangers associated with video games. Their goal is to document the harmful effects of video games.

• What do they do? This organisation publish almost blog like articles where they display their opinions on recent video games that have been published and how it violent and inappropriate for children to be playing. They have very strong opinions on video games and this is portrayed in their articles, for example they refer to it frequently as an ‘epidemic’.

ARTICLE 1• http://irep.ntu.ac.uk/5976/• Title: Video game addiction: past, present and future • Author: Griffiths, M.D., Kuss, D.J. and King, D.L (psychologists)• Year Published: 2012 Last Modified: 23/8/16• Summary: This is a highly credible article on the history of video game addiction, which was written by

psychologists from Nottingham Trent University. It explores how video game addiction research has progressed from the 1980s to the future of video game addiction. For example, video game addiction first became apparent in the 1980s following the release of the first commercial video game in the early 1970s. It became referred to as ‘addiction’ as researchers claimed the disorder was like any other behavioural addiction. The article also shows how research on video game addiction has improved as before self-report techniques were used, which are unreliable compared to now where video game addicts are compared to control groups and research follows a more scientific method. The article also references the future of video game addiction. They predict that gaming addiction will soon be on the psychiatric disorder classification (DSM, ICD).

• Impact: I found this article useful because it clearly showed me the development of video game addiction and how it has progressed and become much more significant over the past years. It has given me background knowledge on the issue which I had not known; such information which I could somehow incorporate in my documentary.

ARTICLE 2• http://www.techaddiction.ca/gaming-addiction-statistics.html• Title: Gaming addiction statistics, facts, articles and research• Author: By Dr. Brent Conrad (Clinical Psychologist for TechAddiction)• Date Published: N/A Date modified: 27/10/16• Summary: This article has a series of statistics on video game addictions, Which have

been collated from the findings of research studies. The research findings give a variety of facts on Addiction from correlations between video game addiction and academics to the best form treatments for video game addiction cognitive behavioural therapy. The information presented is rather credible as it gives the researchers name and year the study was conducted, when you press this detailed information about the aims, procedures and conclusions of the study are found.

• Impact: I found this article useful because it has very clear statistics and facts on video game addiction, which are not just someone’s opinions but they are actual findings which have been concluded from research studies, therefore making they reliable.

ARTICLE 3• http://ukie.org.uk/research/#Who plays• Title: Who plays• Author: Ukie• Date: N/A• Summary: This is a short article summarising ‘who plays’ video games. The article presents a

variety of statistics which are also presented through graphs. The findings are from a company called ‘GameTrack’ and they estimate that there are 18.8 million people aged between 6-64 playing games in the UK, this correlates to 40% of the population. This article also states that 58% players in the UK are male and 42% female, with the largest single age/ demographic being 15-24 year-old makes, making up 16% of all players (GameTrack 2016)

• Impact: I found this article useful because it provides many statistics on who plays video games, and the information is also rather current with findings from2016. As well as this, as my documentary will be aimed at parents, the article reinforces the idea that the documentary is relevant for parents to know as young people have found to be the majority who play video games. Therefore, the article is useful for me.

ARTICLE 4• http://thenextweb.com/insider/2013/01/12/what-makes-games-so-addictive/• Title: quiet killer: Why video games are so addictive• Author: Mez Breeze• Date: 12/01/13 • Summary: This article first provides 2 of many cases where individuals who have passed away due to playing

video games excessively. For example, one of the individual died due to playing 40 hours of video games believed to be due to significant physical and mental strains associated with gaming that restricts physical movement for long periods of time. The article also attempts to define what video game addiction is, but highlights that the term ‘addiction’ is not used by everyone and people disagree about what it should be called. The article also attempts to explain why video games are so addictive. One explanation being positive reinforcement which suggests that video games are constantly played due to the positive rewards associated with games. For example, If you win a certain reward for shooting someone, you are more likely to repeat this behaviour to gain this reward. Such conclusions have been drawn from Skinners research. Other explanations are similar to gambling addiction which suggests that games are continuously due to the ‘near-miss’ hypothesis. For example, if the player nearly won, they believe that if they try again than they will win very soon.

• Impact: I found this article useful because it did not just inform me about facts and information about video game addiction but provided me with explanations as to why people become addicted. Such information I may incorporate into my documentary as it is information that people ay not know and so they may be intrigued by it.

ARTICLE 5• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R83287N6kFg • Author: BBC Panorama• Date: 6/12/10• Summary: This documentary explores the issue of video game addiction and why

people become so addicted to it. It talks about how the video game industry has become huge and how it has become apart of youth culture. The documentary also explores the life of someone who is addicted and someone who was addicted and now is trying to reduce the number of hours he plays.

• Impact: This documentary has influence my idea as it has provided me with facts which I can use in my documentary, it has also given me an understanding from individual’s perspectives who are addicted.

ARTICLE 6• Article link: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/mar/11/i-was-games-addict• Author: Tom Meltzer• Date: 11/3/11• Summary: This is a news article from The Guardian, where the reporter talks about his

video game addiction when he was a teenager. The article explores how his addiction affected his life; from school and his poor attendance to his relationship with his family and friends. Not only does this article talk about his addiction when he was young, the reporter explores the issue of video game addiction and includes facts and statistics. For example, he highlights how a man has previously died from playing video games for 3 days non-stop.

• Impact: I found this article very helpful as it gave me an insight into what it feels like to be addicted to video games. As the centre of my documentary will explore the life of someone who is addicted to video games, I found this research to be very important as it gave me a better understanding on what it is like.

ARTICLE 7• http://www.addictionrecov.org/Addictions/?AID=45• Author: Illinois Institute for Addiction Recovery• Summary: This article is about what video game addiction is and the effects it can

have on the individual. For example, it states that video game addiction ‘is an impulsive control disorder’. The article also describes many effects it has on Individuals such as; impairment of real life relationships, impact on general life as well as financial consequences as videogames and consoles are expensive. The article also describes medical issues that arise from video game addiction such as; backaches, headaches, carpel tunnel syndrome, dry eyes and more.

• Impact: This article has given me a better understanding into what video game addiction is as well as the effects it can have. Therefore, I can include these findings into my documentary as I could emphasise the effects in the documentary so the audience are aware.

FACTS & FIGURES- RESEARCH STUDIES FINDINGS

• Chiu (2004) found that students addicted to video games have lower academic grades than their non-addicted peers.

• Hussain (2009) found that 41% of people who play online video games admitted that they played computer games as an escape from the real world. The researchers classified seven percent of these gamers as “dependent”. The authors claim that the addicted gamers used video games to modify their moods, demonstrated tolerance, and showed signs of relapse.

• Griffiths (2008) found that males are more prone to video game addiction than females. Boys tend to enjoy violent or aggressive games and girls generally prefer puzzle games and platformers.

• King (2010) found that the most recommended and most common treatment orientation for video game addiction is cognitive behavioural therapy.

• Ko (2009) found that the same regions of the brain that are activated when craving occur in alcohol and drug addicts are also activated in video game addicts when they see images of computer games.

• Peukert (2010) found that in a German sample, 1.5 – 3.5% of teens who use the internet were found to demonstrate symptoms of video game addiction. Video game addiction was also found to be correlated with a higher probability of depression, anxiety, and poorer school grades.

• Mehroof (2010) found that people who have higher levels of trait anxiety, aggressive behavior, and neuroticism are at a higher risk for video game addiction.

FACTS & FIGURES• The average length of time spent playing video games was 20 hours per week• An estimated 72 percent of American households play video games• An estimated nine percent of the 3,034 participants in a study showed signs of video

game addiction• Four percent of percent of study participants were categorized as extreme users who

played video games 50 hours per week on average• The online world of video games has opened up a whole new realm for video game

addiction statistics. As of 2013, “internet-use disorder” exists as a full-fledged diagnosis within the DSM-IV, or Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

FACTS & FIGURES- SYMPTOMS•Sedentary lifestyle: weight gain, poor posture, and an increased risk of type 2 diabetes in children and teens.

•Lack of social engagement: Video games don’t prepare children for the realities of socializing with their peers. Learning how to interact with others in a real-world setting is an important social skill that may be neglected by individuals who spend too much time gaming.

•Problems with concentration and attention: There is some concern that the rapid movements and fast-paced action of video games promote a loss of concentration in players.

•Increased aggression or violence: Children and teens who devote a lot of time to playing video games that focus on combat, fighting, or violence may display more signs of aggression than those who don’t play these games. Parents must be aware of the content of video games, which are subject to a rating system similar to the one applied to films.

FACTS & FIGURES- WHO PLAYS?•GameTrack estimate there are 18.8m people aged between 6 and 64 playing games in the UK, or 40% of the population.

•On average, 11 to 64 year-olds spend 8.8 hours per week playing games

•24% (11.4m) play on consoles, 24% (11.2m) on computers, 21% (9.8m) on smartphones, 16% (7.8m) on tablets and 11% on handhelds (5m)