cgames 01 – The Dangers of Digital Gaming
This is a talk that Thomas Umstattd Jr. gave at the West Austin Rotary Club on the dangers of digital gaming. We talk about the chemical triggers of gaming addiction such as dopamine and adrenaline as well as the emotional addictive triggers such as the longing for significance. We also discuss gamer widows.
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Transcript
Welcome, in this episode we are going to be listening to a talk that I gave at the West Austin Rotary Club on September 5th, 2007. This will provide a good overview of many of the dangers of digital gaming. Unfortunately I didn’t start my recorder right at the beginning of the talk so we have to catch it part way though. Alright, let’s get started!
He had been playing games all day. Basically he would wake up and he would play in the morning and the afternoon. He started playing this game called War to World Craft and he stopped going to class. He stopped going to work. He stopped going to the cafeteria. In fact, he stopped doing anything but playing the game.
After a while he just disappeared from school because he knew that he was failing all of his classes. Unfortunately, Danial, is not at all an isolated instance. There are organizations on line called “World to War Craft Widows.” When I saw these organizations I didn’t take them seriously. I was like, “what on earth?”
But together they have over 10,000 members. These are who feel like they have lost their husbands because their husbands are horribly addicted to video gaming or computer gaming. The stories that they share break my heart. They get married. They’re happily married and then say, their husbands go off to war and he starts playing. He comes back a different person. He’s playing the game 80 hours a week. He doesn’t want to talk with her. He doesn’t want to have any sort of conversations. These marriages are crumbling and these women are getting divorced. It’s a tragic story.
We’re like; “Where are these people? Why haven’t I seen them?” The thing is is when someone is playing for 80 hours a week they are invisible to society. They might work or they may not but we don’t see them. It’s not like gambling where there’s a foreclosure sign in the front yard and we can detect it economically. Still it’s destroying families in a very similar way that gambling is. Many parents and grandparents don’t feel equipped to help their children though this issue.
Who here is more technically savvy than their children. We have a handful. That’s normally about what I get. For me growing up, I was the IT guy. I was the one who fixed the computer. I was the one who built the computers and tried to convince my parents that it really was time to get another computer. My parents had no idea what gaming had become in my life because I was able to mask it from them. I was able to make it look like I was doing things that where productive.
My goal today is to inform you of some of the dangers of video gaming so that you as parents and grandparents can know more about the issue and make correct and informed decisions with your children.
Now, quickly, I’m going to start on the groundwork. Pretty much what we all agree on. So far most of the discussion on gaming has been on content. One of those content issues is that games objectify women. You don’t have to play a video game for very long to know that women, in the game, are kind of turned into objects of lust. They wear very little clothing and they are very much so disproportional.
It’s amazing when you have 20 year old guys that have the ability to create their own woman and put her in the game. She doesn’t look like most average women. Also gaming tends to glamorize crime. There is this game called “Thief” where the players are often children. These children take on the role of a thief and the goal of the game is to rob nobles, to rob tombs, to rob whatever.
So we’re glamorizing crime as well and also violence.
I’m sure I don’t need to convince you that games are violent. I’m sure you’ve heard it on the media because that’s what we’ve been talking about. Here is a picture of Jeanette Loise Clairmont she’s French and she’s in the Guinness Book of World Records for being the oldest person on record. She lived to be a 120 years old. Until she was a 119 she smoked everyday of her life. I use this example because it’s often portrayed in the media that everybody that smokes gets lung cancer and dies, especially if they smoke for a long time. But that’s not true. She’s just one example of someone who died with a perfectly good set of lungs in the grave.
But just because lung cancer doesn’t kill everyone doesn’t mean it doesn’t kill anyone. This is true with gaming as well. Just because some people don’t get addicted doesn’t mean that no one gets addicted. Another thing about games is when you play them on line the content gets worse. You may of purchased a game for your child. You checked it out and read the reviews on line. It looked like a pretty good game so you got if for him.
The problem is is when you take that game on line other players introduce new lines of content and advertisements for sexually explicit websites or sexually explicit encounters. There is a lot of cussing. They try to put filters on the games but as a gamer I know that gamers are more clever then the filters and able to get around them.
Another thing with content is something called an “Easter Egg. and a “mod.” An “Easter Egg” is a part of the game that is hidden from the radars and the parents and usually only gamers can find them. Sometimes that is something hidden by the programmers like a picture of the programmers and their names. Other times it is something that is very sexually explicit and very graphic. There have been games that have lost their rankings because these “Easter Eggs” where revealed and someone took it to the media.
These are the rankings that the have for games right now. When they started when the Electronic Rating Board was started they wanted to use the Hollywood system because everyone knows it but Holly Wood said absolutely “No!” So they said that’s fine. We’ll just change the letters. Instead of “G” for General it was “E” for “Everyone.” Instead of “R” for “Restricted” it’s “M” for “Mature.”
When you’re picking out games based on content these are somethings to look at. But that is not what I’m here to talk to you about. Most of you are already familiar with content. You’ve heard it in the media, you’ve heard it in the press.
The thing that is a more dangerous problem is the addiction. That is what I’m going to be talking about. One of the things that makes gaming addictive is the chemicals that are released by the brain. Researchers have just recently began to study what goes on in the brain when people are playing. They had people play while they where plugged into an EGI and they found out that the human mind lights up like a Christmas tree when they’re playing games. They are just beginning to understand what all goes on in there.
One of the thing that happens is adrenaline is released. Adrenaline, especially for young guys like me is really addictive. We will do just about anything to get an adrenaline rush. In fact so much adrenaline is released that the American Medical Society does not consider it a sedentary activity like watching TV. They did studies that show that you heart is beating 20% faster. You’re breathing like 15% faster. You’re taking in more breath because the game is putting you physiologically in an arena where it’s like life of death. Winning or losing. That adrenaline is flooding though your body even though you’re just sitting at a computer.
This is why you can’t understand why your young people are playing for so long and why they love it so much. For me as a gamer one of the things we used to do was compare the adrenaline with a whole bunch of caffeine that amplifies that buzz that we get from adrenaline. Caffeine gets the heart beating even faster. This alone is pretty addictive but it is not the only chemical released. Another chemical released is endorphins.
If you ever go running and you have a good feeling after you go running, it’s called the “runners high” it’s because your body is releasing endorphins. They trigger the same parts of your brain that opium does. Opium is a pain killer and it’s addictive. It’s good because we get it when ever we achieve something. In the game you get to go higher up and higher up and your brain is releasing constantly releasing endorphins.
They did a study where they took some children that had just had sugary. They gave them game boys right after surgery to play while they where recovering. Then they took another group of children and did not give them game boys. They found that the children with no game boys needed half as much pain killer and that they asked for half as much pain killer as the ones who did not have the game boys. Because they had painkilling endorphins flooding though their bodies.
But the most addictive chemical by far is dopamine.
Dopamine is the chemical released when you’re having sex. It’s the chemical released when you’re taking cocaine. It is extremely addictive. To show you how addictive it is let me read you a quote from PC magazine which is a pro-gaming, they say; “It turns out that playing video games activates the Bengali portion of the brain. The region that releases dopamine. This is the region of the brain that is affected by cocaine. The problem is is that this means that there is less dopamine available when the child needs to perform other less enjoyable task such as homework. Video games are not like cocaine but you’re brain thinks that they are cocaine. If you doubt that try to take the controllers out of my son’s hands before he reaches the safe point.”
Can any of you relate to that. You try to get them to stop playing but they just will not release the controller? The problem is is when they’re playing video games it releases the chemicals so that they have less chemicals to function in real life. Our body where created to release dopamine as a thing to encourage us to achieve greatness, to go on and to take risks and accomplish things. What happens is that it gets drained out of our bodies so we have a generation of young people who are performing poorly academically. SAT scores are lower this year than they have been in 10 years and every one is trying to figure out why?
There are many reasons why. I’m not going to say that gaming is the only reason but I will say that gaming is contributing because I see the effects as a student and as a young person I see effects on wanting to study hard and to work hard amongst my peers.
However, that is not the only way that gaming can be addictive. They can also be emotionally addictive. Dale Carnegie in his book “How To Win Friends and Influence People.” It’s a great book. It’s been out for 70 years. It talks about how we are all motivated by the desire to be significant. That feeling of significance comes from different places.
In a video came you become significant. You aren’t playing for a high school football game you’re playing for the Super Bowl. You’re not trying to rescue a cat out of a tree you’re saving the world. Or if you’re playing Star Wars the Galaxy you in a matter of moments can become a master general or a warrior. You become significant. The most addictive types of games. The games you play on line. The ones that never stop you’re not only significant in the game but you’re also significant before other humans with whom you’re competing with. They say; “Oh, wow! You’re level 50 wizard. You are very powerful! We respect you.”
This may sound silly to us but this is why people like my friend were playing for 80 hours a week. The thing is is that the more time we invest in becoming great and significant in the game the less time we have to invest life and passion in real life. You have all walked the path of greatness and you know that getting there is not an easy path.
You have to work, you have to struggle, you have to face real difficulties, and real struggles and you have to overcome that. Gaming allows you to shortcut that. In gaming you get to skip the difficult path to greatness. All you have to do is turn on the computer or the Xbox and BOOM! You are great! You are powerful! You are respected! This is why they become so addictive.
Another problem with gaming is that inherently nepotistic. The reason we play is to make ourselves happy and to give ourselves pleasure. That’s not a bad thing but what happens when someone really gets into gaming it becomes the only thing that they shoot for. Their whole life is consumed for living for their own pleasure, their own happiness. Of all the great and wonderful things they could shoot for they are really just shooting their arrows and putting them back into their quivers. They are choosing to not try at all.
This is a tragedy that is plaguing my generation. I’m seeing it on the ground floor. When we come before parent’s or grandparents we rattle off all of these things that we are wanting to do but very often we are not doing anything to make those dreams come about into a reality.
Now this is not to say that happiness is not a bad thing, far from it. Happiness is the natural by product of a life well lived but there is so much more to life than happiness. It’s like living our lives to eat. Is food important? Yes! But there is so much more to life than just living to feed ourselves.
One of the major frustrations it that gaming does not fill that hunger. You are not actually significant, you are just artificially significant. What that means is that, the people I see that are gamers are not happy. They are entertained and they are amused but they aren’t actually happy because they aren’t actually accomplishing anything. They aren’t actually a powerful warlock or a powerful elf. Instead he is really just a guy sitting at his computer playing.
They laugh, no one understood it when I was in it. They would say “it’s just a TV screen or it’s just a computer game. How on earth could you become so involved?” But once you are inside it is your entire life. It tends to consume your motivations and your longings.
So now what? Is the answer to just shoot the TV and get rid of the Xbox? From my experience it is much easier to get the Xbox out of your house than to get the Xbox out of your child’s heart. You see if they really are addicted. If they actually do have a chemical addiction it’s like taking all of the alcohol out of the house of the alcoholic’s. It might be helpful but if they haven’t chosen themselves to go to Alcoholic’s Anonymous and to get sober they are not going to get sober. It’s the same way with gaming.
That’s why I’m here to help parents. I have a book, it’s called “PlayStation Nation” it was written by some parents who walked with their children though it and it had all of their struggles outlined in it. I also have a DVD of this talk that you can show your gamers if that is what they need. It is also available on line.
I’m also writing a book about this as well because I’m wanting people to realize that gaming is not harmless fun. It’s like drinking alcohol, it can be healthy in small doses but it can also be very harmful. So my suggestion for you is to help your children or the gamer if your life because many of them are much older, help them say “yes” to something else.
For me something that really helped was I got rid of my PC. I got a Mac. Macs don’t do games very well. They don’t! But they do just about everything else. If you want to do a pod cast or a movie or graphic art or a website, Macs, which also run Microsoft allows you to your homework and to do creative productive things on your computer without all of the destructive things.
So in conclusion, are all games bad? They aren’t necessarily evil but they are dangerous. They are a lot like alcohol. If any of you have been in and gone though Alcoholic’s Anonymous you know that often times people don’t understand what a bondage it can have. People are like, “it’ just a glass of wine.” You’re like, “no, this is not just a glass of wine! This is my life! This is what I’m living for.”
Actually the reason many people drink is the same reason that many people game. Moderation. Take wine, in moderation it can be very good for you. It has a whole long list of health benefits but if it isn’t taken in moderation it can destroy your whole entire life and gaming is that same way.
So does any one have some questions?
Audience: “The man that played for 80 hours a week; was he married?”
Thomas: “The answer is sometimes. Sometimes the people that do play for 80 hours a week are married. It’s just tragic. Sometimes they’ll even quit their jobs so that they can play more. Then their wife is working and actually supporting their habit. Sometimes the wife will get a divorce or their girl friend will break up with them. It’s very detrimental.
I read a story on line about a man who had stopped his job to play and his wife went though this horrible pregnancy with all of these complications and he was so glued to his computer that he wouldn’t help her. She was on bed rest so her parents had to come in from out of town to help her. When this woman wrote the story she said: “My son is now 2 years old and he has spent maybe 10 hours of quality with his father.” So, yes, sometimes they are married, sometimes they get divorced but it’s just tragic when it gets to that point.”
Audience: “So someone is often times the enabler?”
Thomas: “Yes. We really need to start viewing this as we would alcohol and we need to deal with it with the same amount of tact and diplomacy as we would acohol.”
Audience: “When did you ever see the your problem?”
Thomas: “It really was a journey. God really brought a lot of conviction
because it was coming between my relationship with Him. So that He really triggered my conscience. I really struggled with a verse that said: “When I was a child I spoke as a child and acted like a child but when I became a man I put away childish things.” That got all of the gears in my head turning. I was like; “Wow! I want to be a man. I have this longing to be a man of God and this is totally keeping me in the realm of childishness.
Also doing things such as Speech and Debate, that was very challenging and very difficult and very scary and it required a lot of time so it pulled me away from gaming because I didn’t have time. I was doing this other thing now so I had a bigger “yes” in my life. Now for a younger person that might be difficult. It might even be something as simple as Little League baseball. You know you get them playing Little League and suddenly they’re outside, they’re active, they’re making friends and if they are good at it they will really catch on to it and pursue something besides video games.”
Audience: “What is a healthy amount of time to play on the computer?
Thomas: “Some people they can only drink one glass of wine and they are having trouble finding the door, others can knock down a whole bottle of wine and they are just fine (or at least they say they are) so it really just depends on the child. You want to look for triggers or clues. Are they choosing gaming before they do anything else? When ever they have free time is it their number one choice all of the time? That is a give away that it might be a problem.
Another thing is what are they wanting to talk to their friends about? Are they a balanced child? Are they wanting to talk about all sorts of things? or is it pretty much games all of the time? For me as a gamer it was games all of the time. I looked for friends who were gamers too so that I could talk to them about games. Our conversations would be telling each other stories of the games we had played. I’m not kidding! This is what we would talk about how we couldn’t wait till the next newest game would come out. But as parents you are the one that gets to make that decision.”
Audience: “Is there a Gamers Anonymous?”
Thomas: “I’ve actually started a website cgames.com that will provide that resource to gamers. There is also an on line gamers anonymous that provides that. We don’t have local chapters yet. Because this is so much a part of our society it’s not viewed as a problem. Who has ever heard someone talk about the dangers of digital gaming before? Right, because pretty much no one is talking about it. We as a society have not yet enacted programs such as AA for gamers. I really would like to help with that. I know I really would of liked to have that when I was a gamer.
Audience: “When do games get bad? When do you differentiate between games and digital interactive programs that help with say math?”
Thomas: “When I played educational games there were two types of educational games. There were the games that were made by actually game companies that hired a couple of teachers to get it by the parents and you didn’t actually really learn anything. And then there were the games made by teachers that hired a couple of game designers to get it by the kids. So you either had the fun games or the educational games.
Now I don’t really know, I haven’t played any math video games for quiet a while. Some games such as typing games have gaming elements but they are still very good. My experience is, and I’ve played a lot of educational games, my parents kept trying to get me to play the educational ones instead of the regular ones but I didn’t learn very much and they weren’t as fun as the other ones. My point of view, from a gamers perspective was that they were sold to the parents more that they were the actually gamers.”
Thomas: “You can there are a couple of games such as the one that he is talking about such as World to War Craft and 2nd Life where you will do things in the game to make money and then you could go on eBay and sell the game money for real money. There are a lot of things that you can make money and not help humanity improve. I’m not going to say that everyone who plays games is harming society. There are a lot of people that do that and it takes a lot of commitment and but it’s still not like working a real job as far as the amount of money that you will get back for most people.”
Audience: “What is the breakdown between male vs female?”
Thomas: “There is a breakdown. It’s a lot like alcohol but even more so. Men play a lot more than women and they play longer than women. If you look at people who play games it’s about even but then if you see how long they play the men play a lot more. Women might play solitaire for 30 minutes while many of the guys will play for hours upon hours. Now that is not totally true. There are many stories of women who get sucked in as well. On the Widows or Widowers groups there are many men who are “widowed” as well. But for the most part the worst cases are normally men. I have many theorys as to why that is. It might just be because we are geekier then the ladies or something like that.
This is Thomas Umstattd Junior and thank you for listening.
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