Addicting Games

Tech writer and web designer Wayne Smallman has been discussing whether video games are good or bad for kids and has kicked up something of a magnetic traffic storm into the bargain. Earlier this year, Allan Reiss and colleagues at Stanford University School of Medicine in the US did a functional brain scanning study (fMRI) that looked at the region of the brain associated with rewarding feelings. Male and female volunteers were asked to play a simple game while they were being scanned and the researchers observed activity in the brain’s reward centers.

Apparently, these lit up the most in the males than in the females, which the researchers claimed, suggests a possible explanation as to why males enjoy, and even become addicted to, video games more often than females.

In reading, Smallman’s articles on the subjection of the good and bad of video games, I was curious to know whether there had been any parallel research to see whether supposedly addicting games are equally as good or as bad for males as for females. In other words, if video games are good for hand-eye coordination or bad for children in that they somehow stimulate aggression, then does this happen equally in girls as it does in boys? Can a violent game make a girl just as violent as a boy or can a game needing lots of skill benefit girls just as much as boys in improving their reactions and responses?

A PubMed search turns up no current research papers that discuss such important matters directly, although a paper in the journal Developmental Psychology (2008, 44, 195-204) looked at internet and game playing use differences between boys and girls at a Canadian high school, concluding that boys tended to play games and use the internet more. Greater “screen time” meant higher friendship quality but less positive parental relationships. Importantly, the researchers say, “moderate use of the Internet was associated with a more positive academic orientation than nonuse or high levels of use.”

There are some interesting recent studies on video games in general that were published in November 2008: According to new research by psychologists at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, “Expert video game players often outperform non-players on measures of basic attention and performance.” However, it is not known whether such differences are cause or effect. Do those with the necessary skills to become very good at video games simply play video games because they are inherently very good with the necessary skills or do they develop those skills because they play video games. The researchers, led by Walter Boot, tried to figure this out but come to a rather nondescript conclusion (Acta Psychol Amst, 2008, 129, 387-398):

Our results suggest that at least some differences between video game experts and non-gamers in basic cognitive performance result either from far more extensive video game experience or from pre-existing group differences in abilities that result in a self-selection effect.

Over on SciScoop, I rather flippantly suggested that addicting games are simply another manifestation of our obsession with sex. It’s perfectly natural, we’re driven by our genes selfish demands to reproduce. So, if boys are more obsessive and/or compulsive than girls (and there is anecdotal evidence, at the very least, to suggest that is the case, then addicting games are simply another target for that obsession, as are stamp collecting and soccer are for others.

And, for anyone who thought playing on their Wii, however addicting, would be good for their overall fitness, I’ve got some bad news. A British study published in July 2008 (Br J Sports Med, 2008, 42, 592-594) suggests that, “Playing new generation active computer games uses significantly more energy than playing sedentary computer games but not as much energy as playing the sport itself.”

The researchers add, “The energy used when playing active Wii Sports games was not of high enough intensity to contribute towards the recommended daily amount of exercise in children.” So, waving your arms around in front of the Wii TV, with a Nunchuck in each hand is not as good as getting outside and obsessing over soccer or some other real sport. Who knew?

W Boot, A Kramer, D Simons, M Fabiani, G Gratton (2008). The effects of video game playing on attention, memory, and executive control Acta Psychologica, 129 (3), 387-398 DOI: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2008.09.005