What is Game Addiction and how to Control it?

Game addiction is conceptualised in Western countries as a compulsion or set of aberrant behaviours that occur when a user is focused on playing games via computers, consoles, wearable computers, or mobile devices. The games may vary as much as the hardware, with popular genres including First Person Shooters, App-oriented Social Games (such as those produced by companies like Zynga), MMOGs and MMORPGs (Massive Multiplayer Online Games/Role Playing Games), Strategy Games and Transmedia/Alternate Reality Games.

In an article in The American Journal of Psychiatry, author Jerald Block outlines the following set of criteria to help define game addiction:

1. excessive use, often associated with a loss of sense of time or a neglect of basic drives
2. withdrawal, including feelings of anger, tension, and/or depression when the computer is inaccessible
3. tolerance, including the need for better computer equipment, more software, or more hours of use
4. negative repercussions, including arguments, lying, poor achievement, social isolation, and fatigue.

How to Control it?

There is no simple, single way of ‘controlling’ or ‘treating’ 21st century problems such as internet addiction or video game addiction. Only a full, open and informed discussion by all stakeholders (parents, schools, opinion leaders, games & tech companies, teenagers) will have a lasting impact on this challenging problem. A purely ‘mental health’ perspective is insufficient; also taking account of social, evolutionary, technological, educational and increasingly political and philosophical factors will be imperative.

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