A Dutch clinic is offering to help computer game addicts get back to reality, writes Davin O'Dwyer
When it was announced that an addiction centre for computer game addicts was opening in Amsterdam, it was hard not to think of a coked-up Super Mario or a strung-out Lara Croft seeking help in a pixelated Priory clinic. But if you have ever played a computer game and been consumed with the desire to get to the next level, win the next showdown or beat your last record, you have probably described it as "addictive". In a city notorious for its narcotics, a few hours on a Gameboy probably doesn't seem so harmful, but large numbers of gamers are finding their favoured pastime has begun to negatively control their lives and are seeking help.
The residential treatment centre is the brainchild of Keith Bakker, although it warns on its website, "We do not provide medical or psychiatric services. We are a lifestyle coaching company." Bakker, a former drug addict, came across increasing numbers of people with excessive video gaming habits, including children as young as eight. "We have kids who don't know how to communicate with people face to face, because they've spent the last three years talking to somebody in Korea through a computer," Bakker has been quoted as saying.
Gamers have a lot more to be getting absorbed in nowadays than Tetris. While the Xbox console or the PlayStation Portable can be time-consuming, their games have a predefined end point. Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs), on the other hand, are immersive online worlds with many thousands of players taking part in a continuous alternate reality without end. World of Warcraft, Everquest and the aptly titled Second Life are among the most popular MMORPGs, with virtual economies and communities that function just as in the real world. Some gamers even make a real-world living by trading in virtual goods that they have created in the games. But with reports of players in China and South Korea playing for days at a time without a break - on at least one occasion resulting in a fatal heart attack - it's clear that the games are seriously absorbing.
BUT IS EXCESSIVE video game playing a definable addiction? Stephen Rowen, clinical director of the Rutland centre for addiction in Dublin, says it is still an under-researched area. "Most experts believe that some addictions are what they call process addictions, that would include gambling and compulsive overspending, and possibly video game playing," he says. "It would appear that some people can get into this in a very compulsive way, lose control and have it interfere with their schoolwork, their job, or isolate them in terms of their relationships with their family or peer group, and it could possibly have significant, damaging results. But it needs to be more carefully, thoroughly researched before we can be absolutely certain that it qualifies as a genuine process addiction."
While many gamers on message boards and blogs are defensive about the new treatment clinic, seeing it as an example of people's prejudice against this alternative form of social activity, at least one gamer admits there is a serious risk of addiction. "It's really easy to become addicted - the games themselves are built to be addictive," says Alex Montgomery, a gaming middleware developer and World of Warcraft player. "I think a lot of the attraction is that it is quite social in its own way, since you're playing with real people, especially in the higher levels where you need 40 players playing together to complete quests. But you have to put in X amount of playing hours to get gear and progress in the game. You can't get to level 60, for instance, without having played 12 cumulative 24-hour days."
What about the heavy gamers who say it's a misunderstood activity? "It's like people who live their life stoned all the time," says Montgomery. "They'll say it's a lifestyle, but it's a harmful lifestyle. It's probably not good for your soul to play too much."
The problem of over-playing is so great in China that the Chinese government is attempting to get the game companies to degrade character performance after a few hours' consecutive play. But is over-playing an issue here? Mary Forrest, clinical director of Teen Counselling at Mater Dei on the Clonliffe Road, Dublin, doesn't think so.
"Occasionally young people do excessively use texting or Bebo, but things go in phases, fads come and go. While overuse of anything is not good, I'd rather see them at a computer than, say, sniffing glue."