Video Game Addiction

I am at the airport waiting for a delayed flight and talking with one of the regulars on this Thursday evening flight. He is killing time by playing a casual game on his iPhone. It is one of those games with progressively harder levels. He has been playing it so long that he is up to something like level 2000 and having a bit of difficulty getting to the next one. I asked him if he has given up work to play the game and he responded that he has not. If he had, he might have a video game addiction problem.

Last week I ended up staying up until 2am playing my current video game (I will review in a future post). My oldest son suggested that I had a video game addiction. If I had given up sleep to play a game, then I would have agreed with him. Fortunately my schedule the next day allowed me to play the game well into the early morning hours without any negative consequences and so I took advantage of the opportunity. Usually I would not have done that. This week I continued playing the game and didn't have any issues with going to bed late, otherwise I might have a video game addiction problem.

I am not someone who is an expert on any type of addiction recovery. About my only qualifications for talking about video game addiction is that I work for a video game company. That makes me the least qualified person you should listen to. My job is to help create an experience so powerful that you give up sleep, food, and friends for it. In short, I am supposed to get you addicted video games.

Recognizing I am trying to get you addicted to video games, here are some signs that you may have a problem:

• If you constantly miss work to play a video game, you could have a problem.
• If you constantly give up sleep to play a video game, you could have a problem.
• If you would rather interact with non-player (or playable) characters than real people, you could have a problem.
• If you think visiting an online world is better than visiting a tropical paradise like Hawaii or Tahiti, then you could have a problem.
• If you eat more than one meal in the day while playing a video game, you may have a problem.
• If you would rather do a fun and wholesome activity online than in real life, then you may have a problem. I had to add "wholesome" as I would rather die in a video game than in real life.

I'm sure this list can be longer but it is almost time to board my flight. One thing I can add though is that if you only play video games for an hour a day, you do not have a problem. If that hour turns into more time than that, you may want to reconsider if you have a problem or not.