Aloha interest seeking companions,
For my senior project I am conducting a study of video games and the addiction kids and adults hold on them. Video games for decades have been the center of entertainment for people of all ages and to the horror of the parents the joy in many lives. My project will revolve around how video games came about into this world and why they are so addicting. Many brave souls have concluded that after playing a few hours of “gaming” they are not addicted and can quit at any time, yet after multiple weeks have past they find themselves playing the same game. I would like to know the back ground of why some games are more addictive than others and what are some ways of curing this addiction.
This project is still in the stages of an embryo where I have a general idea, but there are still millions of things to know on the topic. I would like to hit some general points in this project so that I can know further on my quest to find the truth. My first most pressuring question would be, why is this form of entertainment so addicting? What brings people back to playing such video games when in general every plot line or game style has been used before? My biggest example would be games such as Call of Duty or Halo. There is no real difference in the playing style of each new version of the game to the next, yet they continuously have high sales on the week a new product is released. A second question would be what causes the addiction in the first place? I would like to know deeper about why a human come back to a game every time. Is it like a drug where they need to have a dose of games every day? Or is it really a state of mind where people just play games because they choose to play a game and not need it. Will this continuous dose of games change a personality? Can it make a normal kid into a violent killer or a normally cautious person into an adventurer? If there is a qualification limit to someone how is addicted? Something like playing 5 hours of video games a day is enough to be an addict or is it more extreme? The question would be what are the most addicting video games we hold today? Will it be games such as world of war craft or a more international game such as the final fantasy or supersmash brothers? What if I were too addicted to one of those games? What is the remedy to get myself out of it? There has to be a cure for everything, so one of my goals is to discover the magic potion for gamers.
The only reason why I would have selected this topic is because I love videogames. Handheld, computer games, Xbox, you name it and I probably played it. I love the feeling of winning a hard level or talking strategy with friends about how to beat a level. There has come a time in every man’s life where they need to leave their comfort zone and my time may be approaching. My mother has brought it to my attention that she believes that I am an addict for video games. Of course, I full heartedly disagreed with a passionate argument about how they don’t affect my health. After the brawl I realized that much of my evidence have been from personal experience and are not proven so here is my time to shine.
I plan on reading and researching the history of video games and how they came to the world we live in. I would like to interview a psychiatrist to see if they have had a patient who was addicted to something and how they become un-addicted. I would like to know the difference between drugs and games and if they both affect the brain in a similar way. I shall search the debts of the ocean to find my golden answer and report back with a nugget or truth.
If there are any kind souls who would like to join me on my quest I would gladly appreciate the help. Anything related to the topic I will happily take and use in my final product of the project.
Thank you for your time young interest seeker,
MHB (Makoto H. Bowering)
