How many of you went home after work/school, turn on your computer, game console, PS2, or XBOX and start playing games right away? How many of you gave up time hanging out with your friends or have dropped out of social groups, have thought about hurting or have actually hurted someone, have had his or her grades slipping, have been hooked and addicted–all because of video games? If you answer yes to any of the above, then you have a high probability of being addicted to video games. Don’t worry, because you’re not the only one. The first step to any stop addiction is to be aware that you are addicted, and from there, find out what the problem might be, and solve it.

Adventure
There a lot of people in the world who likes adventure. They find life too boring, because day in and day out they do the same thing. Instead of having adventure in real life, they turn to video games. Games such as World of Warcraft, Everquest, etc. can provide such adventure. Those games can provide the thrill, the adventurous feeling you see actors and actresses have on TV and movies.

However, this has evolved into a problem and to solve it might be hard for some people. And you might be one of them.

In order for you to solve the problem, you must change the way you look at life. Instead of looking at life as a dull cycle, look at it as a new page every day. Even though you might do the same thing everyday, it isn’t always exactly the same. You don’t see the same people every day. Instead of looking at the repetitive process, look at the things which can be changed. For example, if you have office work, look forward to meeting clients because not all clients are the same. If you’re at school, then you can even look forward to the lessons at school, because there’s always a new one introduced everyday. The best solution to addiction is to hang out with your friends. That itself is an adventure. You don’t do the same thing every time with friends. You could all go out for dinner, movies, etc. You can joke about things that happens each day. Once you’re seeing life as an adventure, your addiction problem will slowly disappear.

Attention
There are people who like adventure, and then there are those who want to stand out. They are the people who like to be Indiana Jones, being admired by many. Instead of doing something in real life, they turn to video games. If they work hard enough in video games, then they’ll be good at it and people will know them. That’s how they’ll get the attention they wanted.

If you are one of those people, ask yourself this–if you are willing to work hard on a video game to be noticed by people, why don’t you work hard in real life to be noticed by real people? Sure, some people say working hard in video game is easier, but working hard in real life pays off more. In video game, no matter how you’re known to people, you’re known to people you don’t even know. In real life, if you work hard, you can be known to people who you DO know. You can be known by people who you can see and people who can see you. Some people might argue back, saying where they are, someone’s already known for being the “The Funny Guy”, “The Hardworking Guy”, etc. so all the categories have been taken. Well if that’s the case, there are 2 things you can do–make your own category, or excel at a category and take it from the other person. That means that if someone’s already “The Funny Guy” at you workplace or at school, then you become funnier. You’ll be known as “The Funny Guy” before you even know it. If that doesn’t work, then who’s to say you can’t have 2 funny guys? Once you get attention from people around you, then you’ll find video games seem less to you than they used to.

Anger & Depression
There are millions of people out there who suffer from depression or are angry, and video games serve as an escape for them. For people who are depressed, they don’t feel like doing anything else so they commit themselves to video games to escape from their problem. Some people are angry, and they play video games to take out their rage. If that’s the case, then this is a problem you need to talk about with someone. Like all other angry and depressed people, it’s hard to deal with this on your own. You need to talk to a friend or a counselor. Really, anyone can talk you out of your depression, especially if they are victims themselves. After your true problem of anger and depression is solved, then video games will be useless.

Power
Everybody wants power, some want it more than others. Instead of getting their powers in real life, they get powers in video games. In games such as World of Warcraft, or Runescape, the longer you play, the more powerful you become. With that, you can dominate people or kill people with your power. Yet, what happens if people move on from those games? Game trends don’t always stay the same. If you play a certain game long enough, you’d get bored and move on. Once everyone moves on, you’ll have to move on too because no one will be playing that game anymore. You’ll have to start all over again in another game. You could do that, or you could work hard in real life. You can even be a politician, because politics hold great power in society these days. Some say that’s way too hard, but think about it. What you learn in real life is permanent. No matter what trend goes, politics will hold power. Games aren’t permanent. You play a game, and when the trend moves on, you have to move with it or else your power diminishes. However, because it’s a new game you have to start from the bottom again. Logically, which one’s a better choice?

Curiosity
Humans are born as curious mammals. It is because of this curiosity that drove research, which evolved into development of technology. Curiosity can be a good thing, if used in the right place. There are a lot of people out there who are addicted to video games, just because they’re curious. It might be because of exploration in games such as .HACK, or they want to know what happens when the game ends. There are times when they get so curious, they became addicted to the game to satisfy their curiosity. If you are one of those people, then you could be next winner of the Nobel Prize. Why? Because instead of targeting your curiosity on games, you can target it onto science, or even at novels. When you fulfill your curiosity after you’re done exploring the game, and you’ve also beaten it, that’s it. Nothing more. On the other hand, if you read novels, or research things, that could fulfill your curiosity. You could target your curiosity on what happens in novels, or how it ends. You could also target it on why the universe is created like so, or the properties of an atom. If you focus your curiosity on the field of science, and keep pursuing it and you made a scientific breakthrough, instead of obtaining nothing like you would with games, you could possibly get the Nobel Prize, which is a million dollar prize. Also, the knowledge you have could be passed down to all ages. A high score is only temporary, but a breakthrough will let you be remembered forever.

Video game addiction can be at many levels. Some would even risk their lives to fulfill it. If you are one of them, don’t worry. Deal with the source of your problem, and it’ll deal with the rest. Whether you want adventure, attention, have anger and depression, desire power, or want to fulfill your curiosity, there’s always a way to solve it. Don’t be afraid. If you’re brave enough to communicate with people in online games, then you should also be brave enough to deal with your own problems.