Needs a Title
Video games have gained mass popularity and attention over the years. Being a part of the technology revolution, they have the potential to keep people of all kinds occupied for hours at a time. VIdeo games have changed from an activity that people have enjoyed as a pastime to changing people’s lives, both children and adults alike. More so, gaming has become more of an acceptable occupation than in the past. People can play video games and make a very good living off of it. What people have once seen as a harmful thing that controls children’s minds can now take them farther than they’ve ever gone before.
Video games aren’t all that positive. They also have some negative attributes as well, like addiction. Aviv Malkiel Weinstein, author of the article, Computer and Video Game Addiction—A Comparison between Game Users and Non-Game Users, says:
“Although repetition of favorite activities has a moderate effect upon computer game addiction, flow experience, the emotional state embracing perceptual distortion and enjoyment shows a strong impact on addiction”
Addiction is seen as a mental health issue that has gained more attention over the past few years. It can lead to other things that become more problematic as time goes on. In Video game addiction: The push to pathologize video games, authors Anthony Bean, Rune Nielsen, Antonius van Rooij, and Christopher Ferguson claim “it should be possible to document that there are some individuals who start with video game addiction even if that then worsens into depression and other issues.” They go on to explain how it is unclear if video game addiction is a gateway into a “‘unique’ disorder if the excessive gaming is symptomatic of underlying issues,” or they are being “miscategorized and misinterpreted as a separate disorder.”
An addiction to video games must be addressed. However, the different signs of addiction are no different than a person with a gambling addiction or someone with a drug addiction. But what if the problem isn’t addiction? Something about video games of all kinds is attractive to its players. But the question is “what is it” and “why do the players keep coming back?”
To fully understand why people are captivated by video games, we first need to understand the different incentives that games offer. 1.2 Incentives and Flow, a section from the study, Project: Video Game, addresses the different incentives that gamers are introduced to. According to the study, “there are other factors that can keep players engaged in a game.” They go on to say that an advantage of adding incentives to video games is ”they can quickly teach and reinforce desired behaviors. Typically, people will quickly learn the cause-and-effect relationship between their actions and the incentives.”
But the same can happen for people when they perform poorly in a game. The study suggests that removing the incentives will teach people to “quickly stop performing a behavior if the rewards and punishments are removed–unless the person has developed some internal motivation to keep performing the behavior.”
The stimulation that players can get from the incentives of video games is something that Calton Erickson and Richard Wilcox address in their essay, which talks about drug addiction. In their essay, Neurobiological Causes of Addiction, they say that people “mistakenly believe that drug-induced euphoria, craving, or physical withdrawal are causative factors in chemical dependence.” This is just with drug addictions but it could be assumed the same with gambling addictions.
Though they don’t put any unnatural chemicals into the mind of the user, video games do give the user a euphoria. Almost like a momentary high. People with addictions want to keep that high feeling, so they’ll do anything that they can to keep that feeling going. And if that means continuing with the unhealthy behavior, then so be it. But video games don’t cause addictions though. The feeling of doing well in the game, and the incentives that are given to players when they do well can give the players a momentary high as mentioned before.
There have been a number of different games that have become popular. Point of view shooter games, where the player can immerse themselves in a virtual atmosphere, and the only thing that matters is the amount of kills that the player has is a good example of this.
The amount of kills that a player gets in a game boosts them on the tier list. A person can think of those tiers as a social ladder of other players. Someone that does well in different matches will continue to advance. On the other hand, those who struggle to do well in said matches against other players will be at a standstill, and even fall down a tier.
A player can fall down a tier and can use that as the motivation to get back to where they were or even move up more tiers, if they’re able to do it. When a player climbs up the different ranks that a game has to offer, it isn’t because they’ve suddenly gained the skills to beat any opponent that comes their way. It’s more because of the luck of that player. If they are paired with a random player, there’s no telling whether they’ll do well or not, which can result in a player’s rank falling a bit.
These shooter games reward both skill and luck, but they also punish both. Players who rise a tier face stiffer competition, which might harm their rankings and punish them for succeeding. The good fortune of being assigned to a series of successful teams might not be addictive, but if it’s followed by a string of bad assignments, it might provide just the right amount of “random reinforcement” that psychologists and addiction experts say keeps players coming back.
Why do people continue to play the games if they can cause some signs of addictive behaviors? They do it because it’s fun, and they do it because they need the satisfaction of doing well.
References
1.2 incentives and Flow. 1.2 Incentives and Flow – Project: Video Game. (n.d.).
Bean , A. M., Nielsen, R. K., van Rooij, A. J., & Ferguson, C. J. (2017, October). Video game addiction: the push to pathologize video games .
Erickson, C. K., & Wilcox, R. E. (2008, October 20). Neurobiological causes of addiction. Taylor & Francis.
Weinstein, A. M. (2008, October 20). (PDF) computer and video game addiction—a comparison between game users …
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Counterintuitive Fall 2022 
Overall, I want to know how I did. I know that I asked a few questions in here, and I tried to avoid making them rhetorical. Rereading this, I feel like I presented my topic a little too casually and I’m honestly not to sure. If you could give me some feedback soon, I would greatly appreciate it.
Thanks for the specific request, Mercy. I’ll do my best to return soon for feedback. This morning, I’m here only to acknowledge your request.
Strive for an INFORMAL, not a CASUAL style. You want to be authoritative but approachable. Too casual and you won’t sound knowledgeable. We don’t have any actual credentials, so we have no business pontificating on our topics, right? An authoritative voice is our only credibility.
Video games have gained mass popularity and attention over the years. Being a part of the video game revolution, they have become a time consuming activity for kids of the youth today. It changed from an activity that children have enjoyed to changing people’s lives, both children and adults alike. More so, over the past few years, gaming has become more of an acceptable occupation than in the past. Adults and teens can play video games and make a living off of it. What people have once seen as a harmful thing that controls children’s minds can now take them farther than they’ve ever gone before.
Video games aren’t all that positive. They also have some negative attributes as well, like addiction. Aviv Malkiel Weinstein, author of the article, Computer and Video Game Addiction—A Comparison between Game Users and Non-Game Users, says: “Although repetition of favorite activities has a moderate effect upon computer game addiction, flow experience, the emotional state embracing perceptual distortion and enjoyment shows a strong impact on addiction.”
Addiction is seen as a mental health issue that has gained more attention over the past few years. It can lead to other things that become more problematic as time goes on. In Video game addiction: The push to pathologize video games, authors Anthony Bean, Rune Nielsen, Antonius van Rooij, and Christopher Ferguson claim “it should be possible to document that there are some individuals who start with video game addiction even if that then worsens into depression and other issues.” They go on to explain how it is unclear if video game addiction is a gateway into a “‘unique’ disorder if the excessive gaming is symptomatic of underlying issues,” or they are being “miscategorized and misinterpreted as a separate disorder.”
A child’s addiction to video games is a very serious matter that must be discussed and addressed, but this problem is no different than a person with a gambling addiction or someone with a drug addiction. What causes an addiction in people? Some could say that it is a repeated action that people get used to doing over a period of time, but it’s a little more complex than that.
To fully understand what addiction looks like in the brain of a human, we need to understand the study behind it. Calton Erickson and Richard Wilcox address this in their essay, which talks about drug addiction. In their essay, Neurobiological Causes of Addiction, they say that people “mistakenly believe that drug-induced euphoria, craving, or physical withdrawal are causative factors in chemical dependence.” This is just with drug addictions but it could be assumed the same with gambling addictions and video game addictions.
Maybe they don’t put any chemical into the mind of the user, but they do give the user a euphoria. A high if you will. People with addictions want to keep that high feeling, so they’ll do anything that they can to keep that feeling going. And if that means continuing with the unhealthy behavior then so be it.
This is a very quick transition. We don’t know who “they” are, and we don’t know what gives users euphoria. I presume you mean GAMES not the makers of games DELIVER euphoria. But do you notice that your claim “they do give the user a euphoria” contradicts your source above? Erickson and Wilcox say euphoria DOESN’T cause chemical dependence. You want to broaden their claim to include non-chemical activities like gaming or gambling. But it doesn’t broaden that way. You’d have to conclude that gaming DOESN’T cause chemical dependence.
So . . . and I know this is a lot to expect of a 10-page paper, are you going to claim that it creates a NON-CHEMICAL dependence? That seems to be where you’re headed.
Going back to the people that play video games, there have been a number of different games that have become popular. Point of view shooter games, where the player can absorb the atmosphere from the player and immerse themselves in a fantasy world where the only thing that matters is the amount of kills that the player has.
The amount of kills that a player gets in a game boosts them on the tier list of said game. A person can think of those tiers as a social ladder of the other players. A person that does well in the games will continue to advance. On the other hand, those who struggle to do well in those matches against other players will not advance and even fall down a tier.
A player can fall down a tier and can use that as the motivation to get back to where they were and then move up more tiers, if they’re able to do it. When a player climbs up the different ranks that a game has to offer it isn’t because they’ve suddenly gained the skills to beat any opponent that comes their way. It’s more because of the luck of that player.
A player needs skills to rank up, but there are other components that lead to a players standing in the point of view shooter games. One of those things, as I’ve already said, is the luck that a player has with their team. Some player get lucky and can get all the way to the top, and be one of the best players that the game has to offer.
But for a good majority of players, they can never get to the point where they are at the very top. The same reasons that can help a player, can actually hurt them too. A player can have bad luck with a team and lose against their opponents. Needless to say, when a player loses, they’re ranking can decrease. Another thing to take note of is if the player continually loses. More than they actually win. The player’s standing in the game can also decrease because of that too. There are a plethora of different reasons as to why a player shouldn’t doesn’t advance in the rankings. The player doesn’t know why it is happening. It doesn’t mean that they’re a bad player, or they can’t catch a break. They just don’t know why it happens.
In short, Mercy, you can improve this paper by concentrating on the POSITIVE claims you can make and ignoring the wrong opinions others have along with the opinions that have that are irrelevant to your narrow focus. Which is:
It seems to me at this point in your research, you want a good CATEGORICAL argument that the shooter game you’re most familiar with meets the qualifications for a “random reinforcement generator,” a term I guess I just invented. Let’s call it RRG.
You don’t need to spend time on chemical dependence, since, as you’ve claimed, games don’t provide a chemical incitement. (Or do they? Aren’t endorphins released? Aren’t they considered chemically addictive?)
But you CAN do a point-by-point illustration of all the addictive reinforcements the game world provides. You’ve begun that process with your observations about kill rate, tier rankings, the luck of the draw in being matched with teammates, etc. Use the game you know best to SHOW how every aspect of play (including deciding when and when NOT to play) contributes to a growing addiction.
That was exhausting, I imagine. If it’s helpful, please let me know. If it’s too much, let me know that, too. Feedback is a conversation.
I know this is a little late but I made some revisions to the argument. I would like to know if the argument is better and I would also like to know if the flow is a little better.
I would also like to ask for a regrade if that is possible 🙂
Your writing is better in this version, Mercy, and earns some points on a Regrade.
Your evidence is not very strong.
The Bean study doesn’t prove much of anything. The authors say “it should be possible to document something,” but they don’t conclude that they can.
The Calton study doesn’t say anything about game addiction. It doesn’t even draw conclusions about drug addiction.
These are just two examples of your research finding SOMETHING, but not necessarily something useful.
You devote four paragraphs to shooter games and “talk about” ways the game might induce further play or punish players BOTH for success and failure, but you don’t conclude ANYTHING about why they should become more addicted to games as a result.
Regraded.