Relationships Built Through Online Gaming

                                                    Build It One Way Or The Other

             People worldwide are becoming addicted.  The disease is like no other. It infiltrates households, destroys relationships, and changes characters and personalities.  It can also develop healthy, enjoyable, interactive, and long lasting relationships.  The hosts it chooses have no immunity once it’s in their systems.  As with any addiction, it needs continual feeding.  So it constantly attacks the nervous system producing a kind of anxiety that just can’t wait.  It’s true, online gaming can build relationships one way or the other.  So if you’re addicted, why not come out with something tangible. Whether it is fantasy sports such as football, basketball, or baseball, it can become addictive. Other gaming types at times can produce a more serious addiction.  Games like “World of Warcraft,” “Call of Duty,” and online gambling are games that are not seasonal; they can be accessed and are available at all times.  With the onset of Xbox live, gamers playing compatible games can connect worldwide.  During this worldwide connection a relationship (virtual of course) can develop.  So you ask, what does addiction have to do with building relations through online gaming?    

Online Gaming can be addictive, but it can also produce positive, productive, healthy relationships.  People can network; friends, and families, can play together.  Anthony Rotolo, a professor at Syracuse University who studies social networking, said in an article written in Men’s Health magazine (2012) that “he has friends whose long term relations began through playing together online.”  Think about it this, every person that consumes alcohol is not an alcoholic, but many business deals have been made during happy hour.  Families can get together and play games, as well as exercise together.  They can create separate profiles, and use them to track, and compete against each other.  Families can have their own Olympics!  Online gaming can be beneficial in fight to maintain family time.      

Online gaming can develop other competitive, healthy relationships as well.  Let’s take fantasy football for example and mainly because it can be considered seasonal, is a game that invites friendly competition.  It can enhance previous relationships as well as introduce new relationships in the process. Other gaming activities can do the same but for this blog, fantasy football will be used.  For instance, you can get four people together and start a league.  If those four each ask two other people to join that do not have a relationship with the initial four, the networking process has begun.  It can start earlier just with league rules and setup but it generally kicks off (no pun intended) with the draft process.  Team owners began vying for players, strategizing for picks, and communicating for trade and waiver position.  When the season starts, personal numbers, email addresses, and the like are exchanged.  People begin bonding with others through gaming.  Week in and week out you are communicating with divisional rivals and others outside your division.  The friend of your friend has now become a friend of yours.  You may be visiting a new city and need information as simple as directions to a good restaurant, your online gaming experience has helped you develop a new relationship with someone in the area who will not only direct you but will meet at the restaurant.  Employment almost always somehow comes up.  Someone in your league may be out of a job when others may have information about job openings and freely pass it along.  It’s that friend of your friend, which has now become a friend of yours through online gaming.  When the season ends, some leagues get together for what some may deem their “Superbowl party” where they place the league champion’s name on a plaque and present it to him.  People travel from all over the United States for this relationship building event discovered through online gaming.       

There is another side to this phenomenal relationship building process.  John Sutter of CNN (2012) reported that South Korea may possibly be leading the way in the identification and treatment of gaming and internet addiction.  He states that “after wiring the nation with the world’s fastest broadband infrastructure, South Korea’s government spends millions per year to identify and treat gaming and internet addicts.” 

To treat this addiction, South Korea has now instituted what they call the “Cinderella law.”  This law blocks those under the age of 16 from accessing gaming sites after midnight, but what does it do for others?  How does this help those already infected with

such a debilitating disease, those that are older?  The addiction is being treated like other addictions.  In South Korea, this gaming addiction is recognized as a disease in need of treatment.         

CNN’s (2012) feature on “Gaming Reality” allowed Dr. Han Doug-Hyun, a physician on staff at Chung-Ang University Hospital in Seoul, South Korea, the opportunity to identify a “top 5” list of warning signs for this addiction.  The first sign listed is a disruption in regular life patterns.  He contends that if a person plays games all night long and sleeps in the daytime, this can be a warning to seek professional help.  His second contention is the loss of job or frequent school absenteeism due to gaming.  His third sign is the need to play longer.  He calls this the “bigger fix,” it’s the idea that you need more time to duplicate that initial thrill, but you never can, you’re always chasing it.  The fourth sign is that of withdrawal; Dr. Han suggests that some gaming addicts become irritable or anxious when they disconnect.  Finally, the continual craving that those addicted to gaming experience is the fifth sign listed by Han.  All these seem similar to other types of addictions including drug, alcohol, gambling and sex addicts. 

So how are these relationships developed?  How can we effectively use this online gaming medium for building other healthy relations?  The process of rehabilitation is one way to help addicted gamers build healthy, new, productive, relationships.  With many recovering addicts positive relationships occur through different types of support groups.  Let’s not forget that some online gambling is considered online gaming.  

 As of today the United States does not recognize Internet gaming as an addiction.  The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) found that 68% of United States (U.S.) households are playing video games (ESA, 2009).  Science Daily reported Studies done by Iowa State University found that 8.5 percent of gamers between the ages of 8 and 18 are clinically addicted (Science Daily2009).  However, the addiction is not listed in the official Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.  The term “Internet Use Disorder” has been proposed by the American Psychiatric Institute as a possible listing worthy of endorsement (look out for the term “pathological gamers”).  These addictions require treatment and support groups such as Online Gamers Anonymous.  The groups have developed recovery systems just for online gaming addicts.  Like other addictions OGA’s recovery process includes twelve step programs. They also provide access to a 24 hour online chat for additional support.  These groups, developed through treatment, provide several options for success through relationships.  “Warcraft Widows,” an online support group, was developed in 2005 for those whose partners play a popular online game, “World of Warcraft” (over 10 million players; Gamasutra.com, 2008). The purpose of this group, which boasts 4000 members, is to “provide solace to all those ignored loved ones” whose partners’ play the popular online game, “World of Warcraft” (DeMarco, 2006).  In other words gaming can become addictive and destroy relationships with friends and loved ones while building unhealthy relations with other gamers.  From this addiction new relations can be built with other addicted gamers that may someday turn into healthy relationships.  You can build these new relationships through the rehabilitation process.  The support groups available have the same goal in mind as with many other treatment groups and that is to build supportive relationships capable of helping addicts succeed with recovery.  

Gamers have choices, and with those choices come consequences.  Some choices end with gamers sitting in a circle waiting their turn to introduce themselves to new found friends saying “Hi my name is Such and Such and I’m an addict.”  Other choices allow gamers to monitor their online gaming experience, maintain that happy medium, show some restraint, and develop positive relationships, while enhancing the family environment through gaming without losing their job, their home, a spouse or their life.  Families can have a game night, playing "Wii Fit," or "Wii Olympics".  Friends across the country can enjoy competitive relationships with online gaming.  Either way, the relationships that can be developed may be well worth the time.         

 
Sources:

www.cnn.com/2012/08/05/tech/.../gaming-addiction-warning-sign.

www.theesa.com/facts/gameplayer.asp‎

www.gamasutra.com/view/.../gamasutras_top_20_trends_of_2008.

http://www.nova.edu/ssss/QR/QR17/hertlein.pdf

The Qualitative Report 2012 Volume 17, Article 15, 1-48

http://www.recovery.org/topics/about-the-online-gamers-anonymous-12-step-recovery-program/

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090420103547.htm