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Computer game addiction is a new kind of psychological addiction in which computer games become the leading need of the individual. It may seem that this type of addiction is not as bad as alcoholism or drug addiction in which toxic substances become essential to normal metabolism. But this is only at first glance, because modern computer games are becoming more and more "advanced" and increasingly sophisticated in their imitation of reality, so more and more people are becoming hostage to them.


The psychology of computer games addiction
The underlying mechanism of computer addiction is a withdrawal from reality and a need to fulfil a certain role. In most cases this is a way to compensate for life's problems. In this case a person begins to implement itself in the game world and not in the real world.

There are many computer games now, fortunately not all of them are equally dangerous. Conventionally they can be divided into role-playing and non-role-playing. Determining which category a game belongs to, you can assess how dangerous it is.

Role-playing games are distinguished by their pronounced impact on the human psyche. In this case a person "gets into" a certain role, identifies himself with a certain character, at the same time escaping from reality.

Three types can be distinguished among role-playing games:

The "out of the eyes" view of a character;
With an "outside" view of their character;
Supervised games.

The most "addictive" games are those with an "out of the eyes" view. The gamer fully identifies with a particular computer character, as much as possible enters the role, because he "looks" at the virtual world through the eyes of his hero. Just a few minutes after the start of the session, a person begins to lose touch with the real world, completely transported into the virtual world. He identifies himself with the computer character to such an extent that he can regard the actions of the computer character as his own, and he begins to perceive the virtual world as real. At critical moments, he may fidget in his chair, trying to dodge shots or blows, going pale.

When looking at his character "from the outside", the strength of the role entry is less compared to the previous type of play. Although identification with the computer character is less pronounced, the emotional manifestations associated with the game are still present, which can be seen during the failure or death of the computer character.

In supervised games, a person is in charge of several (or many) characters. He does not see his character on the screen, but invents a role for himself. A pronounced "immersion" is possible only among people with a developed imagination. The psychological dependence that forms in supervised games is quite pronounced.

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