Why Quit Gaming.

You probably know somebody who plays

videogames maybe you even know somebody

who plays video games a little bit too

much maybe the guy or girl sitting right

next to you right now is secretly

playing candy crush I have a look it’s

okay it’s okay with me so I played games

for a long while and I knew a guy who

plays video games extensively his name

was stealth and it was actually my hero in

the game he had a thunder sword as you

can see he was leading groups of 40

people and he was defeating the biggest

dragons so he was doing quite well until

one day he had a little bit of a

breakdown and he told us that while we

had been building up status and

performance in the in the game

environment his life outside of the game

had actually been suffering he did not

do so well in school it did not see his

friends outside of the game anymore and

he was not participating in a sports

anymore so is he addicted that’s an

interesting question if we look at media

reports we tend to see very negative

impressions of video games and more

often than not they also attribute the

cause to a single party either the

parents should be controlling their

children better the video game industry

is simply making these massively

addictive games and they should know

better or the children themselves simply

lack willpower and it’s their own fault

you know control yourself

so that’s three perspectives on that

subject well from my background as a

gamer and a researcher myself I have

some information on the subject and well

firstly some hard data we did research

in a group of 14 year old students and

looked at their gaming behavior

basically and what you see is that first

of all not all of these kids are actually playing

games some of them don’t play and this

is less and less every year of course

but if they do play some of them don’t

play the online games that are played

with others and it’s specifically these

games with which are played with other

people which are incredibly time

consuming and most often associated with

problems so if you play these online

games you don’t have to play them for

extensive amounts of time so we look at

that as well and if you remove those

players who only play for maybe an hour

maybe two hours every night or not even

every night you end up with a group of

approximately 7% who play four or more

hours per day so that’s what they report

anyway but playing extensively if you’re

still doing quite well in school maybe

because you’re smart or otherwise doing

well doesn’t necessarily mean you have

an addiction right so we can look at are

these people actually reporting

addictive symptoms are having problems

controlling their behavior should do

they want to be playing less and are

they unsuccessful in doing so are they

experiencing problems with homework and

going to bed in the evening well you

already see it coming that’s only 1% who

actually reports stats so small problem

nothing to worry about

perhaps on the other hand if you look at

it from the perspective of the heavy

online gamers who are playing four or

more hours per day one in seven of them

is actually experiencing problems so

most of these intensive gamers will

actually know somebody in their group of

friends who is not entirely happy with

their own playing behavior so that’s

another perspective on the same numbers

now from the perspective of the parents

and very often the reaction tends to be

extremely restrictive and one thing you

hear a lot is unplug the computer switch

off the routes or hide away the console

at night just get it out of there

and actually from a psychological point

of view and based on our research data

as well

extremely controlling parenting can be

very contract productive it actually

elicits defiance behavior on the part of

the child and they end up playing more

or being generally frustrated so that’s

not a very helpful approach for the

parents and looking at the game industry

you might be tempted to think that they

crank crass addictive game after

addictive game or so it seems

well actually it’s quite hard to make a

good game and many companies fill

however obviously a small group of

companies does succeed in reaching a

large audience and if they do they gain

access to an incredible player base and

sophisticated tools to monitor players

behavior so small changes they make in

the game and they can do that might

result in millions of people playing for

example 15 minutes more on a daily basis

so that’s a very real and and hard

influence they have over people’s

behavior and well if you want

information that they’re actually

capable of this look at notification

systems or try to fill the first level

of candy crush it’s pretty much

impossible so but I think that the

lesson to take away from this is that if

you have this power over people’s

behavior there’s a certain

responsibility attached to that and

that’s the debate we’re often not having

so looking at it from the perspective of

the gamers themselves well they’re often

angry they feel misunderstood and one

person I know is a professional gamer

called sushilicious is a fairly good at

Starcraft 2 so he plays a lot and his

parents were always complaining about

his gaming behavior they referred to it

as in junking away behind the computer

until one day a taxicab showed up to

drive him away to Korea and yeah so his

parents were fairly surprised and that’s

the moment they realize that

is hobby actually extends beyond the

boundaries of the bedroom and not every

culture thinks about it in the same

manner so yeah everybody become a

pro-gamer perhaps well unfortunately it’s rather

hard to do that it’s like winning the

lottery so many people will not be able

to become a professional gamer and

that’s not something you would recommend

to people and what Leonard is now

actually after retiring as a

professional gamer is actually involved

in is promoting responsible gaming so

and enjoying the gaming behavior but

also keeping it in balance with the rest

of your life now to summarize these

three perspectives what we see for the

parents is they tend to become angry

they blow up they become larger and

larger and they start destroying things

so what does that remind of us well the

Hulk basically and that’s not an optimal

position I think maybe they could try to

be a little bit more like Iron Man who

is fairly interested in technology and

always tinkering with it so for the

parents open YouTube see what your child

is playing and dive right in there from

a position of genuine interest looking

at the position of the video game

industry I would argue that with

enormous power over human behavior comes

some responsibility

pretty much like spider-man and from the

gamers position themselves they’re often

in their cubicle gaming feeling angry

well what would really help if is is if

you would come out of the cue ball go

every once in a while and do some

advocacy explain to people what you’re

what you’re actually doing why it is

meaningful for you and also why

sometimes it’s not as much fun as you

would expect so that can be helpful

there and to some right to summarize the

overall picture there has always been

panic about new media when radios first

bird people fought well those persons

are never leaving guys any more they’ll

be listening to radio indoors all day

big concerns telophase

the same now we have gaming and in a few

years we’ll have virtual reality no

doubt but also for the gaming we do see

that some people are sensitive to

fleeing into these online worlds

spending a little bit too much time it

functions basically like a fish trap the

further you go in the more committed to

become to your online status and your

online friends the less well you

sometimes do in the surrounding

environments so that’s an issue so what

can you do well maybe you know somebody

or you will encounter somebody who plays

a little bit too much and then it’s your

job to reach out talk to that person

about your hobbies inquire in an honest

and a non-judgmental way what they’re

actually doing and most optimally get

them out of the house for some board

games or drinks and maybe just maybe you

might prevents them from swimming into

the fish trap a little bit too far.