NURTURE
Aloysius Chow discusses how
an addiction to online games
could be just as ruinous as
substance and alcohol abuse,
and what you need to do
to save your child from the
gaming epidemic.
Nicol may seem like an average
twelve-year-old logged on to the latest
extension of his MMORPG (Massively
Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game)
on his computer, with a Razor sticker
overlooking him like a talisman.
His friends in South Korea, America
and the Netherlands are planning for a
“raid”, which is gamer’s lingo meaning a
coordinated mission to defeat high-level
enemies. Nicol and his gamer friends
spend the next three hours on the raid.
To their delight, it is a success. “Great
job, guys! We did it in record time. Gotta
post dis on d forum,” exclaims Nicol.
He then bids farewell by informing his
friends, “I gtg. Time 2 change 4 sch or
teacher will own me.”
And Nicol logs off the computer at 6 am,
much to the chagrin of his mother who
has awoken to discover he has forgone
a night’s sleep yet again to engage in a
cyber fantasy world. “At least I’m not
smoking cigarettes or drinking, right or
not, Ma?” is what Nicol usually rebuts
when either of his parents advises him
not to spend too much time gaming on
the computer.
But what Nicol claims may not be
accurate. In 2009, a team of researchers
used functional magnetic resonance
imaging, a state of the art brain imaging
method, to study the brains of people with
online gaming addiction. When compared
with a group of similar individuals who
were not addicted to gaming, these
researchers found that the active brain
areas of online gaming addicts were
significantly different, appearing similar to
those of substance (or illicit drug) addicts.
..a new entry into the bible
of psychiatry, suggesting that
extreme conditions of gaming
addiction may be almost as
detrimental to an individual as
the abuse of substances such
as alcohol and cocaine.
G.A.M.E.S.
Gaming
always Might
Endanger some
By Aloysius Chow
This means that the addiction to online
gaming is as strong as that of illicit
substances, and has already led the
academic and medical community at large
to acknowledge the seriousness of online
gaming addiction. In fact, a recent edition
of the American Psychiatric Association’s
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of
Mental Disorders (DSM-5) lists Internet
Gaming Disorder as a new entry into the
bible of psychiatry, suggesting that extreme
conditions of gaming addiction may be
almost as detrimental to an individual as
the abuse of substances such as alcohol
and cocaine.
Countries have also realised the potential
serious consequences of online gaming
addiction, and some have already started
taking action. In China and South Korea,
there are military-style boot camps for
online gaming addicts and the latter has
even considered controlling popular
online games through legislation, like what
they do for alcohol and drugs.
Is this just a panic created to ensure that
online gaming addiction does not ensue?
Unfortunately not, according to statistics
collated by companies which sell these
games. It was recently reported that there
was a drop in the number of subscribers to
World of Warcraft (WoW), and the final
number of subscribers was 8.3 million
- a staggering number that exceeds the
total current population of Singapore.
Now, before I seem like raising the alarm
prematurely, it is true that not all of the
8.3 million subscribers of WoW would
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