Video Game Addiction

                In chapter 10 of Nielson’s Understanding Video Games: The Essential Introduction, he explores the risks involved in playing video games and their harmful effects.  More specifically, he delves deeper into the issue of video game addiction.  It is not a surprise to realize that video game addiction is increasingly becoming a problem around the world.  I found it interesting that Nielson states that video games do not have the same repercussions as other addictive forms.  “The secondary consequences that are normally associated with addiction, such as crime and debt, are not part of the pathology of video game addiction.”  He discusses how labeling one a video game addict is a highly subjective matter.  There is no metric that clearly defines one as an addict.  I believe that one could be considered an addict only if it begins affecting your real-life responsibilities such as work or a relationship.  There is a difference between a high school student playing games for 35 hours a week during summer vacation versus a 40-year-old, single parent that does the same.  There are some games that often require the player to play for long amounts of time to beat the game such as Mass Effect or Elder Scrolls: Oblivion.  Thus, it is normally reasonable to play these games for a long time.  In the past, I have personally played video games for extended periods of time, often nearly 40 hours a week.  However, I could have survived without them.  Nowadays, I find myself playing 1-2 hours a week because of other responsibilities.  Accordingly, I wouldn’t call myself an addict.  But as Nielson suggests, video game addiction among the public is growing.  Threatening to take a game away from an addicted gamer could often result in high levels of aggression.

                Since Nielson does not provide an answer, what kind of metric do you find appropriate to determine whether a gamer is an addict?