Have you ever been so absorbed in a video game that you lose track of time? One moment its noon and the next thing you know the moonlight is shining through the windows. This is not uncommon to many, our lives are filled with all sorts of video games, from the Sims to World of Warcraft. In fact, several researchers studied the positive and negative effects video games, in particular World of Warcraft, had on gamers. Apparently getting immersed in such a visually stimulating game as WoW can have both good and bad impacts on health. Jeffrey G. Snodgrass, Michael G. Lacy, H.J. Francois Dengah II, Jesse Fagan, and David E. Most studied the dissociation or immersion of those playing WoW.
What's really going on in our brains while playing?
Snodgrass and friends identify absorption as becoming unaware of the environment around them and time perception maybe altered. According to Snodrass it is commonly accepted that being absorbed in something is healthy. Most people become absorbed in things on a daily basis, for example reading a good book.
On the other hand there is the extreme version of this absorption called dissociative identity disorder or DID. This extreme detachment from the real world combined with amnesia, depersonalization, and de-realization have caused some scholars to diagnosed DID as a mental disorder. It is common for many people to become absorbed in things that give relief from the stresses of life. Except those that have DID use absorption to avoid stress.
Snodgrass goes on to describe the ways in which researchers are reacting to the good feeling benefits of dissociation. One such approach is looking at the neurobiology involved, which in lay man’s terms means examining the brain’s lack of attention to the world around it. Then measuring the reactions of the stressors to the environment in relation to health benefits. An example of this is meditation. Another belief is that being in these “feel-good” states releases endorphins. Other researchers have focused on the effects dopamine (which is connected to the brain’s reward system) and stress have on addictions to harmful subsistences. They study the amount of stress hormones such as glucocorticoids cortisol have in short-term and long-term situations. The results showed that with short-term stress an increase in dopamine allowed people to feel focused and alert. While in a long-term situation it led to an opposite effect. Causing those under chronic stress to need more feel-good activities and becoming more susceptible to subsistences abuse.
Snodgrass's Angle
Snodgrass hypothesized that those who became absorbed in WoW could show the same mental states as other dissociates. He believes that those who become dissociative show both good and bad mental health depending on the players’ stress levels.
Research and Methods
Snodgrass and Co. used several methods for collecting data, they played the game, watched and interviewed other players. Three of the researchers hung out and played WoW excessively so as to better understand the effects of the game’s environment on their surroundings. They discovered that at some points it was a source of stress relieve while at other times it was the source of stress. They interviewed 30 gamers and split their data into three groups. One focused on the individuals’ motivations and goals, favorite and less favorite aspects of the game. Then gamers further described their positive and negative experiences when playing WoW. The third part was the cultural success in the both the game world and the real world.
In addition, Snodgrass conducted a Web Survey with three scales. The first measured individuals’ levels of absorption using the Tellegen Absorption Scale and the Dissociative Experience Scale.They were asked to describe to what extent they became absorbed into the world of WoW. The second part measured how playing WoW negatively impacted their real-world lives. The last part asked the gamers to measure the extent WoW added to their happiness.
Table 2 shows that 30% became so absorbed in the game that they blocked out the world around them. While, two-thirds said that losing track of time was also common, but that the virtual world of WoW felt real to them. In fact, many believe that the happenings in this fictional world were more memorable than events in their actual lives. Some even feel as though they truly are their characters.
Table 3 focuses on the effects WoW has on players. Half of those surveyed said that the game actually increased their happiness. Many more found that the game was relaxing and helped release stress, increasing their life satisfaction. Oddly, most of those surveyed said that WoW didn’t increase stress, but one-third did agree that to a degree it did add to stress. Half did admit to being addicted to the game.
While doing research Snodgrass observed that many players found the world to be visually pleasing, vivid, and even seemed real. Many people, including the researchers preferred to be called by their character’s name while playing. In fact, the researchers found themselves unconsciously referring to each other with these made up names outside of playing WoW. Many of the players experienced the good benefits from being absorbed in a game. The researchers interfered that these players achieved positive dissociation from moving away from their stressors. Some even reached a meditative state.
At the opposite spectrum the game was creating stress for some players.While many players started playing to avoid stress, yet found themselves being so immersed that they neglected every day responsibilities, creating more stress. Over time these players needed to spend more and more time in this fictional world to get the “good-feelings” from the game.
Conclusion
Dissociation in WoW leads to both positive and negative mental wellbeing. Some people find WoW to be therapeutic, contributing to their over-all happiness and mental health. While others become so addicted to the game and found themselves unable to leave the game. Snodgrass believes that over-all playing WoW is not necessarily a bad thing and that it can actually be a healthy thing, relieving stress for most players.
This was an interesting read seeing as how my brother dedicated a good year of his life in high school to World of Warcraft. It could have been his autobiography. Experiencing the effects of this video game second hand, I’d have to agree that it has serious potential for detrimental outcomes. My brother has always been into video games but this one seemed to take over the majority of his life. I could hear him up at four in the morning sometimes still talking (sometimes shouting) to his friends/teammates over a headset microphone that was installed into the game. His bedroom was like a cave that separated him from the real world. I only ever caught a glimpse of him when we rode to school in the mornings or when he came downstairs to scavenge a hot pocket around dinnertime. Cleaning his room, my mom would find disturbing amounts of Monster energy drink cans. I remember his sleep cycle was so messed up at one point that he started missing school to sleep all day. Then he would wake up around six and start the whole thing over again, playing WOW into wee hours of the morning. His grades started slipping and he spent all of his money on new technology to improve his gameplay. Looking back on it now, these are all textbook signs for addiction. Once his friends began getting irritated with his behavior, however, he slowly withdrew from the game and now seems pretty defensive about the whole thing. It seems like he is embarrassed by it now and would absolutely kill me if he knew I was posting all of this to a blog; in which case, I hope none of you ever run into him.
For me, this study summed up the idea that too much of anything, good or bad, can be harmful and unhealthy. The players that entered states of deep dissociation were happier and more satisfied with their life; whereas the players that dissociated too deeply basically became so invested in the game that they lost touch with reality. I firmly agree that the brains natural reward system is involved in the addictive allure of these video games just as it is in any type of addictive behavior. With mentally exhausting, unpredictable and sometimes chaotic real world stressors all around us, it makes sense why people would want to retreat to a parallel universe like Azeroth in World of Warcraft. One man interviewed in the study noticed how he found solace in the repetitive tasks of the game. These tasks require mild problem solving skills and therefore bring about mild stress. In completing each mission, his biological reward system would kick into gear, making him feel happy and content. He was able to let his mind wander and relax while experiencing a constant flow of healthy stress followed by the release of endorphins and euphoric neurotransmitters upon solving simple problems. This seems like a positive stress-relieving activity as it appears similar to the reason people find stress relief in exercising and solving soduko puzzles. But at what point is the gamer at risk for abusing these systems? And what exactly makes some people more vulnerable to do so? Is anyone at risk for dissociating too deeply in this video game? Unlike drugs and alcohol, this game is available to anyone who wants it. I’m curious about the effects it may have on young gamers’ thought processes as well as their mentalities. Their natural reward system is being constantly utilized as they perform simple tasks and solve problems of modest magnitude. In the real world, this doesn't usually occur just whenever you want it. As you grow up, your problem solving skills are in constant development, not constant attainment. You are forced to take on bigger challenges that in turn can come with more satisfying rewards, providing the incentives and motivation needed to mature and advance in life. So is it healthy to be tricking the brain into expecting a reward for every small task completed at such a young age? Just a thought..
When I read this article I was immediately reminded of the episode of South Park I watched the other night. Yes I watch South Park, my older brother rubbed off on me. It was parodying World of Warcraft and made constant jokes about gamers having no life. They lived through their characters in the game, and became so engrossed in it that they never left their computers. The plot of the episode centered on this one character in the game that became so advanced that he ran around killing everyone in the middle of their quests. He is extremely arrogant and powerful in the WOW world, but then there is a shot of him for who he truly is, an obese, unattractive, older man who has no life. Kyle, Cartman, and friends had just begun playing WOW and were outraged. They decided to gain experience in the game so that they could get revenge and save the face of WOW. There is a montage of the boys sitting in the computer lab with motivational music playing as they become their characters. It then cuts to the rest of the kids playing at recess, having fun. Cartman and all his friends soon become extremely obese and acne ridden, and do not leave the basement for months. Cartman calls his mom downstairs on a walkie talkie to bring him food when he’s hungry, and even installs a bed pan in his chair so he never has to get up.
Not meaning to offend anyone with that quick synopsis of a South Park episode, I don’t have anything against WOW, but I thought it fit well into the idea of people trying to escape their real life through a game. This example represents an extreme case, but does have some valuable commentary. I think everyone has something they do to alleviate stress and make them less self-aware. Its human nature, everyone wants to escape their problems and stress rather than handle it. My opinion is that this is healthy and very much normal, as long as it is done in moderation. Just like its normal when you have a stressful week (and are 21+) to go out and have a few drinks. However, there is a difference in having a couple of drinks every once in a while and being an alcoholic. I think that the sample of people that felt less stress while playing WOW had achieved a healthy level of dissociation. They were able to put their problems aside for a short amount of time and enjoy the game, but did not become unhealthily addicted. The small sample that experienced a decrease in mental/physical health when playing WOW, in my opinion, were being excessive in their use. Life is all about balance. I think dissociation is very healthy, but like anything, becomes dangerous in its extremities.
WoW! That was a really interesting read. This is probably one of the most interesting research topics I’ve heard of. I’ll actually be a tad disappointed if tomorrow’s activity is something other than playing video games all day! My mom always told me video games would rot my brain but I guess I should have mentioned the positive effects of game play. I’m not surprised absorption can be a great stress reliever, I mean if games didn’t make people happy I wouldn’t imagine them being half as popular as they are. It actually reminds me of Frank Underwood (House of Cards) coming home most nights and playing a few games of Battlefield on his Xbox before heading off to bed.
I could see how a game such as World of Warcraft would be the ultimate absorption game. Although I’ve never played I know many friends who love it, and I always wanted to give it a try. The world is so expansive and intricate that there is always something new to do, and playing online allows you to connect with millions of your peers so you don’t even feel out of touch with the real world. I think South Parks portrayal of WoW gamers is one of the funniest (and grotesque) things I’ve seen, but I’ve met a couple people who have said it’s not too far off how addicted to the game they managed to become. Obviously any addiction is a bad thing, and I think video game addiction is where most of the negative effects of absorption begin to come into play. Stress is generally caused by real life issues and when you begin to identify real life with a game then it makes sense that this would be the greatest source of stress in your life. Also, I definitely know the feeling of shirking responsibilities because I’m just a little too immersed in a television show. If I had a nickel for every time I’ve said “okay I’ll start my homework after one more episode” paying tuition would probably take care of itself.
I’m glad you attached a link to the DES test. I always figured I become easily absorbed in things but my score ended up being under half the possible points so I guess I may not be as bad as I thought. Although after reading the questions I guess I’m not too surprised, my attention span has always been too short to play games for extended periods of time! I’m interested to see how everyone’s scores compare, so I really hope that’s a part of lecture. I might even have some guesses for everyone. This was a fun read, thanks for getting it in so early!
I found this topic to be very intriguing, and congruent with what I already know about addiction/reward pathways in the brain. Similarly to Hannah's brother, my brother is a huge gamer. He is young enough to still balance it with school and sports, but he definitely does lose his sense of time as he gets more involved in his strategy games (I think he plays League of Legends? They're all the same to me). One night my mom woke up to use the bathroom at 4 a.m. and she found my brother still awake playing his game. When she asked him what time he thought it was, he responded, "Uh....eleven?" His sense of the passage of time had been completely removed. This happens regularly with gaming and, in my opinion, probably contributes to a lot of the stress felt by players. The sensation of losing their real lives to an imaginary life is probably not very calming.
Players' brains are not only rewarded by repetition, dissociation, and visual pleasure, but also by the illusion of accomplishment. The worlds created in these incredibly advanced video games can feel so real that winning or completing tasks gives the players a real-life sense of accomplishment. They may not experience this pride as vividly in their mundane, everyday tasks, so this becomes addicting. This also creates a reward system within the brain--when a gamer needs to feel accomplished, he just turns on the game and plays for a bit, fulfilling that desire to put a W in his column at a relatively low cost.
This reminded me of another topic that relates almost perfectly: binge eating. As a nutrition student, this and other eating disorders are something I have studied a lot. Binge eating can be viewed as an experience of dissociation because the sufferer loses a sense of self when engaging in the disordered behavior. They develop a strong pleasure/reward system in the brain by bingeing on highly palatable foods, which results in them needing more and more each time, requiring longer periods of "mind-numbing" each time. The experience gives them temporary euphoria, stress-relief, and pleasure, but long-term stress and unhappiness. So, similarly to the WoW phenomenon, binge eaters alter their mental state for immediate gratification but eventually have to return to the real world, which has significantly fewer feel-good triggers.
It seems to me that the more time an individual spends dissociating his or her brain from reality, the more likely they are to encounter negative effects in the long run. Some people, as we know, are more prone to engage in "zoning-out" practices than others, but at what point does it become a concern for their mental health? I think if there is an upper limit on healthy dissociative behavior, it is probably different for every individual, and must be practiced in balance with fully conscious experiences.
I've never personally played a game like WoW, but I've seen it played and it looks really fun. The real reason I have never played is because I'm scared that I would be one of those horror stories where a normal guy falls in love with the game, gains 40 lbs and inexplicably goes bald unfortunately early. I can't help but notice how much some of these articles remind me of south park episodes! In the show they depict cartman, kyle, stan, and kenny spiral into an inescapable vortex of addiction to the game. They become fat, pimply, and develop incredibly stereotypical nerd banter that's really amazing. They suffer from carpal tunnel and feed on hot pockets and other disgusting microwave treats. I could't help but actually LOLz at Hanna's story about her brother because it fit the episode so perfectly. This genius episode of south park nails (and may have helped create) the stereotype of WoW players, but most of the players are just normal guys who enjoy playing the game because it is challenging and interesting. However, I do think that WoW and other MMORPGs are more likely to be abused than less in depth games because the whole premise of the game is to make YOUR character the best it can be. In games like call of duty, there isn't really any distinction between one player or the next because every soldier looks basically the same. For the WoW, Starcraft, and other MMORPG gamers, their character becomes such a representative part of them that they feel physically attached to it. I believe that video games in general are a good thing because they are a fun, stimulating exercise for the brain and a way to escape. However, I recognize that there is danger in becoming too immersed and losing touch with reality. Like all things, video games are best in moderation. I'm going to go play some donkey kong country 3 for my super nintendo now.
While I’ve never played World of Warcraft, I do actually sometimes (occasionally, it’s really not all that often) play a life simulation game known as The Sims (get it?!). I really only play when I have a break from school- like Summer or Winter Break because when I play the sims, I play for hours on end. I know I’ve sat around constructing a house, designing its interior, and then creating the perfect family for that house for at least twelve hour sessions. Honestly, it is probably a bit insane how absorbed in this game I can become. But when I create a perfect sim Hillarie with her perfect sim husband (once Fred Weasley but now my actual boyfriend) and her perfect sim daughter Amelia everything just feels *ahem* perfect.
However, as much as I frequently wish to take sim Hillarie’s place in Sunset Valley where also roam the characters of Harry Potter and several David Bowies, it would really kind of suck. Early in sim Hillarie’s life I may have forced her to talk to herself in front of a mirror for hours on end upping her charisma skill. She might have peed her pants a couple of times. She also might have been forced to jog across town to her job at City Hall instead of taking the carpool. Sim Hillarie has worked a lot harder than I ever intend to.
I love to play The Sims because I have fun playing. It relaxes me (unless the house is on fire, then it is more stressful than an actual fire). I love the landscaping and interior design, I love watching my little sims swim in the ocean and frolic after butterflies in the park.
I scored reasonably high on the survey you gave us in class, so I suppose that’s why it’s so easy for me to be engulfed in the game. I wouldn’t say that The Sims feels real to me- though it is a fairly realistic game compared to World of Warcraft. I am also very capable of making sure that The Sims does not interfere with my real world life, which is why I tend to play during Summer or Winter Break. I think that because I spend so much time making sim Hillarie and her offspring perfect, I could not very well skimp on the time I spend making my own life at least somewhat acceptable in her eyes.
I’m attaching an album of perfect pictures of sim Hillarie’s perfect life. You know, just cause.
http://imgur.com/a/KtIlY
I agree that the South Park episode was a good representation of what I think a “no-life gamer” would look like. It is honestly fairly disgusting to think that people actually live like that. The bed pan thing was a bit of an exaggeration, but there has to be something based in truth to this type of stuff, and it’s certainly interesting to think what causes this much determination to not care about personal hygiene or real life in general. I consider myself a gamer, I buy a lot of new games and stay up VERY late some nights trying to get past a particularly hard objective or something, but I’ve don’t think I’ve ever had trouble with stopping if something comes up. I go into a game with the perspective of, “ok, let’s have fun,” rather than, “ok, let’s escape real life,” and I think that changes my experience with the game drastically. Talking to some of my friends, I have yet to meet someone who hasn’t played the MMORPG Runescape. It was the top game on Miniclip (by far the site I visited most in elementary school). I probably devoted more hours in that game during elementary school than I did outside (I lived in a fairly bad neighborhood and I’m exaggerating a bit). When I think about it now, all I did was click on a monster and either watch it die or watch myself die: there was almost no skill involved. There have been many studies of games with “vertical progression” versus “horizontal progression” and games like Runescape and WoW have both making it a lethal combo of not being able to quit. Games like Call of Duty or Battlefield only have vertical progression by getting new weapon unlocks or weapon attachments whereas these games have the vertical progression of getting new skills and ability to do more and when you reach the level cap, there is the horizontal progression of getting new items for their appearance and achievement points. This all sounds like bogus: “why would anyone waste that much time for pixels?” The answer is that this model of progression plays to our motivation very well. Studies of brain activity show that dopamine levels are as increased while playing video games as when playing sports. Imagine the rush of getting a touchdown or scoring a goal in soccer, and you can imagine how difficult it would be to quit. However, when this becomes your whole life, I have a hard time sympathizing with those people.
First off, I don’t play video games. I never have. I could never get into them. When I was little, I would sit and watch my older sister and younger brother play Super Mario Brothers on my dad’s old Nintendo, but I never participated but for a level or two. It was fun watching them, but I had terrible hand-eye coordination, so I never enjoyed playing myself. And then when I was about 10, I would sit and watch my brother Mike play Spyro on the Playstation; again, I never picked up a controller, but every now and then I might give suggestions as to what he should do in the game. Sometimes I would enjoy watching the game in the same terms as watching a movie, investing concern into whether the cute little dragon would succeed in his mission, and making sure Sparks, the dragonfly had enough butterflies to eat. But I still had no interest in manning the controller myself; maybe it was because I had discovered as a child that I was “bad at it,” or maybe because I lack the dissociative tendencies connected to video game consumption.
It was in high school that I decided I hated video games. My boyfriend junior year was obsessed with Left 4 Dead 2. (His older brother was also wasting his life away with raw cookie dough and World of Warcraft, so perhaps it ran in the family.) He would pick me up to hang out on Fridays after school, and we would get some Dairy Queen, drive to Millbrook and go to his house… and he would this nasty zombie video game until my curfew. To this day, video games (and zombies) are an instant turn-off, and I have to deliberately tune my wonderful boyfriend out whenever he and his roommate mention Skyrim once in a blue moon in order to preserve my well-deserved glowing opinion of him. I can’t help it. Even still, when I go home for the summer, my youngest brother will play Wii for hours and get so angry when he lost at Mario Kart, it’s absurd.
But I digress. Point is, I have never understood the dissociative appeal of video games. I do enjoy reading and listening to music, activities which the article considers to be healthy absorption. In the surveys we’ve taken in class, it’s been made evident that I have a fairly low capacity/tendency for dissociation, so it makes sense that I don’t enjoy video games, which require a level of absorption for their experience, and which, sources suggest, are enjoyable BECAUSE of the opportunity they provide for dissociation. I have always considered such activities unproductive, habit-forming, and harmful. However, in theory, the experience of dissociating from my present stresses sounds like a very welcoming prospect. Perhaps I should invest in some consciousness-altering substances and an evening of campaigning in a Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game… or maybe I’ll just try to fit in a yoga class.
Now that we’ve had the rest of the semester to talk about disassociation, I think I have officially completely bought into the idea, but it’s not like I was ever really opposed to it. I have learned the value of being able to disassociate after I scored the highest score on our stress test. Just an update on my progress (I will get to how it relates to WOW in a second, don’t worry) : I have now checked out completely, but am slowly learning how to disassociate in a healthy way. One way I do this is through a game, or app if you will, called 2048. I have to say yesterday when I was stressed at work, I broke it out, played a game, and my stress level went down. Yesterday later on, when we were under a tornado warning and I was stranded at Hungry Howie’s by myself (don’t ask) I played a game as to not lose my mind having the thought I would die in that nasty place alone.
2048 really does help me healthily disassociate and refresh my mind in order to complete the tasks I need to get done. But, I see the unhealthy side too, such as when I get fuming mad when I don’t get a high enough score or lose. This study is completely relevant to college kids’ as well as everyone on planet earth’s lives. Everyone has been guilty of playing a game like angry birds or something. It’s a fact of life.
Follow up:
So basically I’m still wishing we had the opportunity to play World of Warcraft. Or maybe I could have brought in The Sims and we could have played that instead! Either way, I enjoyed our discussion and waiting around while trying to download World of Warcraft.
After all of our discussions on immersive tendencies and other aspects of cognition, I am still wondering about those video game players which play so much that they forego responsibilities of everyday life and create more stress for themselves. Or even those players that find themselves stressed out while playing just because of the games. How does that happen? While I sometimes find myself annoyed with the Sims, be it game lag or crashing, if I am frustrated enough I’ll just quit the game and not return for quite a while. But these other players continue to use the game throughout these stressors. Perhaps it’s a bit like procrastination. Sometimes, when I know I should be studying, I peruse the internet. However, I still feel stressed out and become even more stressed by my avoidance realizing that I’ve only made things worse for myself. This makes me wish to avoid the work even more. It’s a vicious circle, really. So perhaps this is what happens to the more “addicted” game players. What started as an attempt to diminish stress only served to increase it.
All in all, I think that there probably are healthier and more mentally fulfilling ways to become immersed. But sometimes, it’s just easier to play a video game than find a new book to read.
This follow up comment comes at a tantalizingly appropriate time, when all I have left to do for the entire semester is finish this assignment, and all I want to do is zone out watching Friends eating shameful amounts of popcorn.
I think a very important facet of dissociation and people's obsession with it, is the practical benefit we get from it. As I'm sure we all know, it is metabolically, emotionally, and physically costly to function with maximum awareness at all times. It's why we sleep, and it's why we dissociate. My theory is that each person has a different, but specific, threshold at which they can no longer function with maximum awareness, and that is the point at which they might choose to zone out or engage in dissociative behavior. It's a release, a momentary (or extended, for some super-gamers) escape from the demands of the environment around them. It is practical to zone out when you are overwhelmed. This creates a positive association with (and sometimes addiction to) dissociative practices, because it provides our bodies and minds with a respite.
When you're sitting in class and hour 2 rolls around, you have so much lecture information in your head that you start to doodle or play on your phone because you have reached your threshold of stimulation. Your brain functioning can change or slow, your body can relax, and your mind can stop processing for a minute. Or for another example, say you worked a 12 hour shift where you had to engage with people the entire time, or be on your feet, or make executive decisions. Who could blame you for coming home to watch Netflix for four hours? It doesn't require the same type of real-life decision making processes and therefore allows the stimulation of your day to recede from the threshold, and be refilled later when you have to be aware again. Why some people choose to dissociate through means that could stress them out (WoW) doesn't really make sense to me, but that may just be me. Perhaps for some people, World of Warcraft IS the reality in which they must be hyper-aware, and real, mundane life is what they use to take a break.
As I've already posted before, this article just reminds me of the phrase I've heard so many times in my life that "moderation is key" and "too much of anything is a bad thing". As many of the articles have delved into, dissociation practices have been an integrative part of our culture and, more dramatically, our human existence. This got me wondering about whether or not other species dissociate and how they might be going about doing it. After all, dissociation, in moderate doses, relieves stress and can improve overall mental and physical health, as we saw with the Zar and Shamanistic rituals.It seems like other species would have similar methods for survival purposes.But maybe trying to make comparisons between humans and animals is too far a stretch with this topic.Is this an exclusive ability experienced by humans? Maybe our advanced self-conception skills are the requirements needed to be able to dissociate. I imagine that the level of stress human's experience on a daily basis revolves around personal anxieties caused by our ability to predict the future, feel others' pain and experience the weight of responsibilities. These are all things we can do because we can conceive ourselves. This was a bit of a dead end thought, however, because all of the great apes, apart from gorillas, possess the ability to self-recognize which is a precursor to self-conception, therefore making my argument pretty faulty. But it's definitely interesting to think about.
For my follow up, I decided to do some research on the topic on my own because I remember playing Runescape and not being that into it when I was in Elementary school and middle school. I guess I was into it, but only so far as my friends in real life were (when they quit, I quit). When I looked up the difference between the two, I discovered there are different models of playing online MMORPG video games: Free to play, Pay to play, Pay once and play, Free to play with store. Free to play is when a game makes its money off of ad revenue and maybe an optional subscription fee for added content (this is the Runescape model). Pay to play is paying every month to play the video game often with the ability to purchase items in game for real money (this is the World of Warcraft model at 15 dollars a month). Pay once to play is paying a large sum one time and then switching to the free to play model with an ingame store (Guild Wars 2). And then theres the Free to play with store model which we are all basically guilty of playing where they make money on in game purchases (a lot of phone game like Haypi kingdom and Clash of Clans). I will admit I Clash, but I haven’t spent any of my money on it yet. However an interesting study on gaming(done by IGN a gaming website) showed that the different players of these different types of MMO’s had different personalities in general. This could be due the people motivations for playing video games or an increased willingness to conform to the society they are a part of the more money they spend on a particular game. Whatever the case may be, it is obvious that some people have a much bigger problem with gaming than others and this could be due to their introverted nature and need to socialize in some way. Hopefully as gaming takes a turn to the more immersive (3D gaming with Oculus Rift) there will be more papers put out on studies done on the belongingness aspect for us to analyze.
Interesting. I'm also a Clasher, but that's it. Wonder what my personality profile would be...
Follow-Up comment: You know, I spent my last comment ranting about how 'not into' video games I am, between not ever being any good at them and preferring to watch the story rather than manipulate it myself, to having a very low tendency for dissociative activities. However, this week for finals I deleted my Reddit and Pinterest apps off my iPod to avoid the temptation to get distracted and procrastinate when I needed to be studying and writing a research paper. I found, especially as the week wore on and I was running on less and less sleep, I really craved distraction. "Translate this passage and then play dots. Write a page and then play a round of fruit ninja." The longer I went without taking a distraction break, the harder it was to focus on the task for which I was determined to avoid distractions. It is 2:40 on Friday morning and I haven't slept since Tuesday night. I am still up because I need to knock out this comments, but I am simultaneously craving sleep and an hour of Reddit browsing. Point is, it turns out that I do have some dissociative tendencies and habits after-all. It's just not video games specifically.
I was kind of sad that we didn't end up getting to play WoW in class just to see what everybody thought, but I've never really had that much of an attraction to computer games. I've grown up playing video games my whole life, but it was always on a console system hooked up to the TV (I remember Christmas 1996 where my sisters and I opened up the nintendo 64; best Christmas ever). Though it is definitely possible to become totally absorbed in console games, I think that the prevalence of MMORPG's on computers compared to console games is an important distinction. As I mentioned in my earlier comment, role playing games are so easy to become absorbed in because that character is a representation of the actual person; They player will pick what the character looks like, what their abilities are, and maybe the attacks and armor they have. When I play battlefield or call of duty, about all I can change is what gun I use, so I feel like it is a much less personal experience than games like WoW.
In Hillarie's follow up comment, she mentioned how absorbed gamers will continue to play and forgo their responsibilities, even if the game is pissing them off or they have some deadline to meet. I witnessed this personally with both of my roommates last year; they would just sit in their rooms and play League of Legends or WoW, even if they had a test to be studying for. Long story short, both of them failed out of school.
As we talked about in class, some people have more of a tendency to display dissociative behavior than others, and I think this is more important than the type of game the person is playing. I think this is the most important aspect of games that people become absorbed in because some people like to place the blame on the games rather than on the personality of the gamer.
This was definitely my favorite article of them all. It’s the only article that focused on dissociation through technology which is a rampant issue these days. I didn’t give too much mind to the Dissociative Identity Disorder, but after re-reading your post it reminds me of a few things brought up in my own article. Dissociation is generally used to reduce stress, but extreme forms of dissociation can cause serious issue. Although trauma was the cause of most of the severe dissociative disorders in my article, it’s still easy to recognize that any form of extreme dissociation can have drawbacks. A lot of addictions (like tobacco and alcohol) begin as a casual indulgence and frequently a stress reliever, and over time people who enjoy it enough begin to rely on the stress relieving qualities more and more. I don’t think it would be any different in DID, where it starts off as a kid unwinding from a hard day at school, it may slowly turn into the only way to not think about the awful project due in two weeks (or the blog post you should have written two months ago 😉 ). The surprising difference between game addiction and most other addictions is that although the game has an incredible ability to help you forget about external stress, it also has its own internal stress causing qualities. Cause I mean unless you’re an animal crossing fan (which is my favorite game ever) I don’t think you’ll find a game that is free of stressors and challenges that can also keep your attention.
I thought it was really interesting how this piece on immersion in World of Warcraft fit into the model that Jacob described when writing about Rebecca Seligman's research on the adaptive and discursive paradigms of dissociation. Since more than half of the respondents in Snodgrass' research said that the game increased their happiness and an even greater percentage said it was helpful in relieving stress, one can infer that playing World of Warcraft is "adaptive" technique to dealing with stressors in the real world. This places addicted gamers in the psychiatric paradigm of cognitive dissociation that commonly features fugue states, amnesia, and identity disturbances in those that fall into this category. As mentioned in Snodgrass' work, World of Warcraft often creates a distortion of reality in gamers that can neutralize the positive effects of dissociation. This would happen when one of the gamers experiences an "identity disturbance" and believes that the character in the game is an embodiment of themselves in the real world. Going back to see how these tie together gave me a much better understanding of the various types of dissociation and their causes.
One of my other classes recently looked into other types of online games whose players would fall under the psychiatric paradigm as well. The Sims computer game was the first to allow gamers to adopt avatars that reflected real-life personas in order to live out fantasy. Today, games like "Second Life" allow gamers to go online and interact with other avatars being controlled by real humans in a completely separate reality.
From the title alone, I knew that my answer to the question was going to be that's the excessive playing of video games was harmful, and this article has only fueled my opinion. Video games in the modern era are very sophisticated and immersive, and thus they aid in being another one of the ways to detach our society from one another even more than before. Technology has us so wrapped up in the immersive qualities and the instant gratification involved with video games, that people don't foster human relationships, and they accept these cultural ideas of detachment and isolation. Now, there all productive elements of be to every situation, and video games is no exception. The one I always hear is that if you play video games enough, you can really master the the idea of hand-eye coordination...and that's the only positive effect of video games that I personally have ever come across. For that reason, I continue to believe that I successfully examined how excessive video games are harmful to society.
[…] too long ago, I read that the amount of time kids spend playing video games is influenced by their immediate […]
Great article with funny and thoughtful comments from students.
This part stood out to me the most:
"...with short-term stress an increase in dopamine allowed people to feel focused and alert. While in a long-term situation it led to an opposite effect. Causing those under chronic stress to need more feel-good activities and becoming more susceptible to subsistences abuse."
I find that when I'm stressed over longer periods of time (e.g. big impending deadline) I'm much more prone to play a game out of avoidance as opposed to just a fun activity I do for 30 - 60 minutes. When I'm also avoiding something or some things, the dissociative experience can last a lot longer and I can end up staying up late, missing sleep, and getting mad at myself. Ugh - stupid!
Maybe we all need to look at sources of chronic stress in our lives and make sure we manage them in a healthy way, have a positive outlook on them, etc.
Thanks for the article!!!