Control the Controller: I hope this book wasn't as expensive when I bought it

Buy on Amazon, if you can afford it

For a while, videogame addiction was the hot topic of choice among the twenty-four-hour news cycle talking heads. For all I know, it might still be. As gamer who not-so-secretly feared she might be prone to addiction, the subject always interested me quite a bit.

Now that I know a little more about medicine and health, I can say with certainty that I've never actually been addicted to anything. Saying that I could be because "I can't quit chocolate" makes about as much sense as the people who say they're "so OCD" because they like a neat and clean work space.

Nevertheless, the subject still interests me. Since games as we know them haven't been part of our culture for too long, it was a little difficult to find work focused on the subject of videogame addiction, but a few months back, I purchased a copy of Control the Controller: Understanding and Resolving Video Game Addiction by Dr. Ciaran O'Connor, a psychotherapist working with gaming addicts.

What makes this book a special resource is that Dr. O'Connor is a gamer himself, one with background in videogame design. His background lets him see that, while some people probably cannot touch a game without spiraling into unhealthy playing habits, most gamers can reach a point where they can play without letting it become detrimental to their familial, romantic, platonic, or professional relationships. He understands that videogames are a much more like alcohol than . . . say, cocaine, in the sense that, like alcohol, they are perfectly legal to use, and perfectly safe in moderation.

Essentially, Dr. O'Connor doesn't equate gaming itself with videogame addiction, so he avoids the pitfall of talking like the mere act of playing leads to personal, professional, and financial ruin. He does so while acknowledging that game developers do try to create games with the purpose of hooking vulnerable players, even when it means developing a game that's not particularly fun to play. Such tactics have always been part of the business, but they've grown more prominent with the rise of "casual" gaming on smartphones and the development of downloadable content, where developers can theoretically make a game that would be profitable forever.

O'Connor identifies six "signs" of gaming addiction:

Salience: gaming has become the most important part of the gamer's life. The majority of their thoughts and desires are now about the game. 

Mood Modification: the gamer's emotional state becomes heavily influenced by gaming to the point whereby they appear to need the game in order to control their mood.

Tolerance: The gamer is never satisfied by the games, either perpetually playing the same game or cycling through many different games.

Conflict: The gamer finds themselves frequently arguing with or trying to deceive others when it comes to the subject of their gaming habit.

Withdrawal: When the gamer finds themselves unable to play they suffer from negative emotional states such as irritability, sadness or anxiety.

Relapse: the gamer has previously made attempts to control their gaming, either with or without the support of others, but has always reverted back to excessive gaming. 

- Control the Controller, Kindle location 955.

Looking at that list, I almost feel silly for thinking that I was ever addicted to a videogame. Nothing applies to me. Most of all, I can't imagine feeling "tolerance" towards gaming . . . if anything, I'll always be a casual gamer because after about two hours, no matter how fun the game, I'll have grown tired of it.

Even more interesting to me were the sections where O'Conner described how designers build in features into their games just because they know that vulnerable players will be hooked. For example, it's common for some gamers to spend hours and hours, or real money (or both) for the privilege of opening a chest that has a very low probability of containing a rare piece of armor or weaponry. Such a task is hardly gaming at all--it takes no skill to press a button and watch a chest opening, but there are gamers who will sit in front of their computers watching such an animation over and over and over and over again.

Another common tactic is to make the early levels of a game very easy and to give the gamer enthusiastic rewards for completing the simplest tasks. As the game progresses, the levels become more difficult and the players gets less reward (in-game money, armors and weapons, level ups). Although, any gamer would recognize this as a expected difficulty curve, not some nefarious plot to harvest legions of addicted slaves.

And therein lies the challenge in distinguishing normal gaming from excessive or addictive gaming: some of the very features that might flag as "addictive" are necessary for the medium.

O'Connor argues that a gamer who spends nine hours a day gaming but can maintain meaningful and satisfying professional, familial, and romantic/platonic relationships, and enjoy the majority of their nine hours of play, is not an "addict". But the gamer who only plays an hour a day, but that is his only free hour per day due to a demanding job and he doesn't even enjoy his gaming time . . . well, that gamer is in trouble.