Exhilaration and fear coursing through your veins you burrow under a blanket, hoping it will dim the light of your screen. One more second successfully hidden from your parents is one more second you can spend in a game world, in a narrative that transcends mundanity, where you can be someone or even something else.
I know many adolescents relate to overdependence on gaming and the taught response to deal with it- “stop gaming!”. Too many times we have been told by schools and parents that these portable screens are lighting our way to doom and that the only solution is completely cutting out gaming. But is that the case?
The good…
Clinical children’s and adolescent psychologist Dr Luiza Brandão, who has studied and written on the effects of adolescent gaming for her postgraduate degree in Clinical Psychology, concluded that gaming has incredible positives for youth, not only as an avenue for entertainment and relaxation, but also as a platform to socialize with peers and acquire vital interpersonal skills of communication, negotiation, and conflict resolution.
Further, when thinking of educational games like Kahoot and Education Perfect, I realize that games can accelerate and spark a passion for learning. Game mechanisms, such as instant gratification and conditioning, make games powerful learning tools- however, it must be noted that these mechanisms are a double-edged sword, which we will later discuss.
Games are also an insulated environment where children can practice problem-solving and creative thinking, skills that are needed in “real life”. However, just as skills developed in the game world easily translate to the real world, the consequences of over-reliance on the game world can easily spill into our daily lives.
…and the bad
We’ve established that gaming can have undeniably positive effects, and it's never the issue/question of “gaming is bad, banning it is good”. However, Dr Luiza Brandão also stated that gaming could become harmful once it crosses the boundary into overdependence, which is characterized by compulsive in-game spending and lying about overuse or said spending.
As reliance builds, mental health deteriorates. The inability to regulate time spent gaming or being criticized by family members for overdependence can lower self-esteem. A vicious cycle is born: adolescents escape to the world of gaming to avoid confronting their overreliance and conflict with their families.
Over-reliance leaves less time for schoolwork and extracurriculars, benchmarks society uses to measure our development. Dedicating less time to these aspects may lead to our decreased performance and biased treatment from schools, teachers, and family members, striking down self-esteem even further and pushing us to seek refuge in gaming.
But how can we identify if we are over-reliant on gaming? What should we do if we are over-reliant? The line between healthy and unhealthy gaming habits blurs easily, so how can we tell which side of that line we are on?
The Vegas Generation
Motivated by observing unhealthy gaming habits and our generation’s uncertainty in dealing with them, Dr Luiza Brandão, with the technical support of the Regional Psychology Council of São Paulo, helped create the Vegas Generation platform.
Vegas Generation is designed to be a database that helps children and families make informed decisions about gaming, strips away the taboo surrounding gaming, and encourages active discussions of gaming habits.
“Vegas Generation” was selected as the platform’s name because it refers to the generation born in the digital age, where overreliance on gaming is becoming more prevalent. The platform aims to raise awareness of adolescent gaming overdependence by comparing the repercussions of adolescent gambling to adolescent gaming overreliance and encouraging us to take action to prevent and help youth recover from both
The platform provides a self test based on the DSM, a diagnostic handbook many healthcare professionals use, that families can take with their children to determine if their child’s gaming habits are healthy. The wealth of information, which is more specialized compared to Google searches, aims to answer the most frequently asked questions about gaming. The Vegas Generation platform is a resource for children and families facing gaming over-reliance or trying to prevent over-reliance.
Empowerment
The Vegas Generation platform teaches us to become more conscious about our gaming habits by becoming informed about game design and what happens to us psychologically when we game. Dr Luiza BrandĂŁo spoke on how over-reliance on gaming is caused by a combination of in-game and environmental factors.
The world is a hectic place, and adolescence is often the stumbling block that catches us feeling as if control is slipping out from between our fingertips. As children, we were raised to believe in a society built on absolutes, rights and wrongs, but as we grow it becomes evident that, in a somewhat hypocritical way, the world does not adhere to the philosophy it deemed essential to ingrain into us.
In such a time of uncertainty, we seek a society we can understand- with infallible rules. Games answer this need precisely- after all, game algorithms are written with “if-then” statements. A game is a controlled, micromanaged environment, where everything from the sound effects to the pixels of color is decided by developers. It is understandable that we cling onto these game worlds, which are more sensical than the “real world”, as a safe haven.
Additionally, games are designed with the intent of trapping the gamer in the game for as long as possible to increase the possibility of in-game spending. Games have evolved and innovated over the years to become even more addicting. Whereas previously the main type of spending on gaming was paying for access, games now rely on the principle of microtransactions, modeled after gambling game design, which makes in-game spending more insidious. “Microtransactions” is exactly what it sounds like- smaller sums of money spent at a higher frequency. Since users are only dispensing a small amount each time, it is easy to neglect the overall sum spent in-game, which can snowball and impact financial health.
Instant gratification is also used to keep players hooked on the game. Intricately designed elements such as colorful graphics, sound effects, and music all serve to keep users in the game.
Becoming informed about game design helps us become more conscious of our gaming habits, and able to make informed decisions about gaming.
The Vegas Generation Message
Dr Luiza Brandão summarizes the goal of Vegas Generation to “[empower] families” by providing information about youth gaming so gaming can “occupy a place in entertainment but not cross the frontier to mental health and financial health problems”.
Let’s empower our generation, the Vegas Generation, by spreading the Vegas Generation message of informed and conscious gaming farther and wider.
