Sheersho Zaman
Back in the day, being an addict meant leading the rock-star life on a high by taking one’s preferred brand of hallucinogen or any other type of lethal drug before coming crashing down once the aforementioned high had passed, leading to the repetition of the same chain of events. However, nowadays, even though the vintage form of addiction still exists, hopefully on a smaller scale, a new form of addiction has popped up: gaming.
Computer games started out as simply being “icing on the cake” to the technological wonder that was the computer. It was merely meant to be a small feature of something that would be used for bigger and better things. However, as the years dragged on, people started to get into it more and more. The production companies realized this and started to improve on their games and in almost a blink of an eye in the grand scheme of things; it became one of the biggest industries of the world. However, as good as everything was at first, it came with its own set of consequences.
People started to become addicted to gaming. The games were so engaging that it kept them in front of their consoles or their PCs for hours or even days on end. People forgot to eat or shower or do any of their daily activities as they were so engrossed in doing their “quests to get that that amazing high level item” or “camping that twelve year old who kept typing profanities in chat.” Social life came to a halt for these people and “outside” became a mystical land of fantasy more forgotten than naught.
This lead to these people losing their jobs due to missed work, breaking up their relationships due to inattentiveness or even breaking off friendships due to calling each other “noob” while playing together (Non gamers take note, the term “noob” is very offensive to a gamer). All in all, it lead to the slow and steady self-destruction of the person as they sought to only improve on their gaming lives and forgot completely about the one they were living in the real world.
Now, this makes “gaming” in itself sound just as bad as drugs, in that it causes this addiction in people and then causes them to not function properly in society. That is not a fair assumption to make. The reason people fall to this state to begin with is due to their own lack of self-control. Of course, the same could be said about drugs, but one would have to understand that drugs and gaming are fundamentally different as a whole. Gaming is but a means of artistic expression and story-telling. It’s simply a form of entertainment, just as reading a book or watching a movie is, and a brilliant one at that. It allows the player to be truly engaged with the story and live it out in a way that no other creative medium does. And perhaps, this is one of the reasons for the addiction. It allows people who have it hard in their real lives to become heroes and legends in the games they play. It gives them an escape from their own demons.
The point being presented here is that the main root of the problem isn’t the games themselves.
It’s the people and their willingness to run away from their own problems. Games are a wonderful form of entertainment and if Charles Dickens’ Hard Times has taught us anything, it’s that one can’t be expected to just be all work and no play.
Gaming addiction is a serious issue that needs to be tackled, but it has to be done so by reaching out to the people themselves and making them realize that the world we live in isn’t any less beautiful in comparison to the ones they adore. Playing the blame game by pointing our fingers at games themselves will only take us two steps back. So come on, let us actually address the issue as it should be addressed!