Mmorpg/Video Game Addiction Research Paper

Computer MMORPG/Video Game Addiction: Should It Be Considered a Real Addiction

Cody Lee Bennett

April 21, 2011

DeVry University Online

Computer MMORPG/Video Game Addiction: Should It Be Considered a Real Addiction

The succubus of this new era of technology is video games and computer mass multiplayer online role-playing games. The luring abilities of games are so incitingly seductive to certain individuals that they become addicted. After becoming addicted, the person starts showing physical and mental symptoms which are comparable to that of someone addicted to gambling. People with these symptoms then realize their real life situation is in dire need of help after they look at their future outcome. From the vast addictions known to psychiatrists, video game/computer addiction, which seems to be unrecognized as a real addiction, is one that poses a tremendous threat to humanity.

The amount of money spent by companies that produce games are tremendous. Trailers about a particular game, which is done through advertising, tease the public in such a luring way that people will buy this game. The advertisements of these games show up everywhere, which can be seen from the television to just walking by a poster. People can even turn on the computer and look on the internet with ease to find games. People buy these games in hopes to temporarily make certain feelings, such as depression and loneliness, disappear (Saisan, Smith, Robinson, & Segal 2010).

Studies have shown that almost any age is affected by this type of addiction. “According to a 2007 Pew Internet & American Life Project Survey, more than half (53 %) of American adults play video games, and about one in five adults (21 %) play every day or almost every day” (Video Game, 2009). The findings from this study were further studied to show that 75 percent of video game players are 18 of age or older, where the average player is around 35 years old. These adults, whom most likely tend to have...