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Online Games: The Addictive Features

March 11th, 2021

The teenagers of today spend a substantial amount of their time today playing games; be it online or on their consoles and PC through DVDs. Most of them though, tend to be attracted towards online gaming due to its great game play, easy user interface and addictive entertainment. Often being free of cost, online gaming has, since its advent, gained a huge fan following. What started off as a source of entertainment to while away free time is now fast transforming into an addiction. The whole lot of options made available in each game serve to attract users’ attention, and keep it for a considerable time; the result often is that they become addicted to a particular game. The fascination of them knows no bounds.

So, what exactly is it about an online game that grabs the attention of youth the world over? The answer is a diverse but a very obvious one. Here’s what we think is contributing to the growth of this addiction.

- The competitive nature of every online game. The fact that everyone can view scores and compare them with the best online, gives every person a reason to try getting better and better to somehow beat that one top scorer. This serves to engage their attention to the game unlike anything else, and has vital in the success of online gaming.

- In case a storyline or level based game, the thirst to get to the top at every level plays a crucial role in engaging the user’s attention. Each user tends to concentrate on the game being played in an effort to get to the most difficult level and win it. Some don’t even bother taking a break between levels, and stay constantly glued to their computer screens.

- The role-playing games available online make a young player imagine themselves as the character they are impersonating in the game, with the result that the virtual world becomes the world that they live it, and substantial effort is required to pull them back to the real world once they turn on their computers to play such a game.

- The games that have all levels locked, as is Angry Birds by Rovio Mobile, tend to engage the users’ attention by making them wish for unlocking all levels. This anticipation results in a knack for playing continuously till one set of levels has been cleared, and is a major ace in the developer’s basket to mint money.

- Online gaming, being connected to a server spread across the world, enables everyone to interact with many other gamers, thus making it simpler for them to find friends, compete with them, and have the time of their lives. This applies specifically to the isolated youngsters that have few friends in their school or college, because they find better company and gain confidence through such virtual contacts.

The cause for such addiction being seen in the youth of today for gaming, particularly online gaming, is being debated about. Some say it’s the parents fault who allow kids computers at young ages when they haven’t yet learned to sort out their priorities while others, blame it to the youth because most of them tend to ignore studies given half a chance, and that chance is given by a suitably addictive online game on one of their favorite online gaming portal.