Is gaming evil?

Gaming is no longer what is used to be.

A term once reserved for throwing die, kicking balls, or jostling for position amongst other people, now describes people sat behind a screen in dimly lit rooms.

Is this a good thing? Are people spending too much time in their gaming worlds?

Is gaming the cause for depression? Anxiety? Sexual dysfunction? Violence?

There are many arguments for both sides of this multi-billion-dollar coin, I will dip my toes into the paddling pools of a few to discuss pros and cons of gaming, with the hope that you will come along with me and agree that gaming is not such an evil pet to adopt.

Gaming is addictive and this bad

Is gaming addictive?

Is this a bad thing?

Booze is addictive. This has been known for some time now. Is all booze bad? People can argue for and against wine's benefits all day but when it comes down to it, too many drinks will kill you.


This article declares some 40% of all players of world of warcraft are addicted, and ends the piece with the following: "people who spend too much time on these activities to the exclusion of all others risk negative real-world consequences." Makes sense to me.





Jane McGonigal in this TED talk from 2010 states that us earthlings (approximately 7.06 Billion and counting), spend three billion hours each week playing video games.

She argues we need players who are ready and willing to save the proxy worlds they inhabit to save our real one.

If we do a little math and take answers.com's figure on how many people have access to a computer at 15%; then on average, three hours a week are spent gaming by one billion people.

Hardly a number I would equate to being addicted.

Should you find yourself addicted to gaming, Professor Maressa Hecht Orzack is here to help! She is pictured above touching her chin.

The Professor lists some symptoms below:

Let us check and see if we know anybody who may fit the bill.

A child that does not want to do chores.

Let us get serious now, we were all like this.

An unhappy husband starts calling on-line services?

Let us not dwell on this one too long.

Connecting with the internet from 9pm.

Let us not reveal what time of the morning we check our e-mails, or Facebook over our morning coffees and cigarettes.


By the good Professor's reasoning, all silly children, unhappy Husbands, and users of a computer late in the day are ADDICTED TO COMPUTERS.

Again: Ye Gads.


The reason as to why World of Warcraft (World’s largest game) is so big is that people are "...addicted to the game because it's fun, and you can't beat it."


Fair enough.

The argument that gaming is a bad addiction seems an invalid one.

Video Games make people AGGRESSIVE

I began playing games collecting coins by bumping into bricks.

I grew and had to run people over to get points.

I became old and shot people with Sniper Rifles.

As I blog about gaming and all its evils, are gamers being exposed to violence that would cause them to stab rival players, or shoot a police officer?

Is there really any correlation between violent games and real life violence?

The Supreme Court made a stance on violence in video games, agreeing with California State Law prohibiting some age groups from buying bloody games, despite (!) being 'unconstitutional'.

This paper has in depth explanations of Violence and Gender marginalisation as a result of video games. The author Tracey Dietz summarizes by stating: "...it is unclear what long-term effects and what effects from long-term exposure to the presentations [in violent video games] will result [in]."

We've now The Supreme Court on one side, Tracey on the fence, and Time Magazine on the other side stating in their article right in the title that "Video Games Don't Make Kids Violent". Right on Time Magazine.

This table of statistics from the United States Government shows youth offenders of violent crimes has steadily dropped over the last 20 years, contrary to the amount of violence being exposed to people in the graph below:

Surely proof that violent games do not equal violent people.

Swedes have recently argued "…a good ability to cooperate is a prerequisite for success in the violent gaming environment."

A description of a murderer?

Not any murderers I know.