Jesse Hardesty loves video games. Hardesty is divorced. Those two things are not connected, the Tulsa man says.
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"I play video games recreationally, like a lot of people might read a book,” he said.
However, for a growing number of people around the world, there is a connection. For some people, experts say, video gaming is an obsession that affects their relationships with spouses, friends and family, and reality itself.
"I'm convinced it will be a growing problem as technology keeps advancing,” said David Walsh, a psychologist who heads the National Institute on Media and the Family in Minneapolis.
Researchers have just begun to focus on what our affection for computers and gaming might be doing to us.
"We've engaged in a grand-level experiment on society for the past roughly 30 years,” said Dr. Jerald Block, a psychiatrist in Portland, Ore., who specializes in obsessive computer and gaming behaviors. "We don't really know the long-term effects on humans of immersion into these virtual worlds.”
We can see some of the immediate effects. Web sites focusing on video game addiction are barraged with postings from people worried they are losing their loved ones to the virtual world. Medical organizations are considering declaring "pathological computer use” as an established diagnosis. In extreme cases, experts say, obsessed players have sacrificed careers, finances, eating and more, all for their passion: video games.
Walsh received a phone call from one woman who realized she had a problem with her gaming, he said. "She let her baby cry in another room for hours while she kept playing an online video game.” Some suicides have been blamed on video game obsessions.
Still, as with any activity, whether video gaming becomes a problem is a matter of degree.
Janita, a woman in Guthrie who didn't want her last name used, said her husband's daily two hours of online video gaming keeps him connected with his friends, who chat with each other while playing. And it gives him something to do while she's busy studying for college courses, she said.
"For us, it's been a good thing.”
Video games can even be a family bonding activity "the way past generations enjoyed playing card games together,” psychologist Walsh said. If people can play games 50 hours a week and still maintain a normal life, psychiatrist Block said, "more power to them.”
Hardesty, who organizes the annual Oklahoma Video Game Exposition, said he keeps in mind that "I have other responsibilities. There's still yard work on weekends.”
And Hardesty still rides his mountain bike, spends time with his two sons and works from 8 to 5. Handled responsibly and kept in perspective, video gaming can have many positive effects, experts say.
However, there can be a fine line between passion and obsession. If gaming begins to take away time, attention and money from important parts of life, experts say, the pastime can become a curse. An obsessed gamer could experience anxiety, depression or rage.
"For some people, the line between virtual reality and the outside world becomes blurred,” Walsh said.
One form of gaming is often associated with obsession: massively multiplayer online role-playing games, such as the wildly popular "World of Warcraft.” Such games can involve hundreds of thousands of players from different continents and can continue 24/7. Players needing to duck out for family time might be pressured by webbie teammates not to leave during a "mission.”
"Time becomes irrelevant,” Walsh said. "For some people, this is the center of their lives.”
Some video games produce the same kind of rewards as use of a drug, Coleman said. Also, a person who might be insecure and passive in the real world can experience domination and control in the virtual world.
"You can master that environment and become very powerful and become the top dog in that game,” Coleman said. For some, it can be a euphoric experience that's difficult to give up.
Block has noticed that people with video game obsessions often have some other kind of diagnosable disorder such as social anxiety or depression.
However, researchers don't know whether the psychological chicken or the virtual egg came first, so to speak. They still wonder whether video games cause obsessive behavior and other problems in some people, or whether people with such problems are simply drawn to video games.
"That's a really good question,” Walsh said.
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