By | Syed Safa Chishti
Srinagar: Adapting to the diurnally strenuous rhythmic routines of life demands a shift in one’s off works activities like hiking, reading, watching television, touring etc. However when it comes to playing video games, one may succumb to the various features that it has to offer without comprehending of how this subtler pastime which acting as a stress buster in packets has a lot to compensate based on its extreme vandalistic overexposures.
With Krafton, the South Korean video gaming company who gave the famous gaming experiences to masses like Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) and Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) having confirmed the launch of new game, Road to Valor Empires in India has unvield some serious concerns over how much of too much gaming could be seen as normal.
In a written reply to the Lok Sabha in 2022, the Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar expressed his concerns over the possible risks and challenges associated with online games.
However, the reception of gaming overall amongst receivers continues to increase with lauding reviews. “It is not like it stops one’s ability to think to work”, says Adil Fayaz a sophomore at college, “I excel in my class and grades. But I feel relieved when I play my online video games. On the contrary it enhances my skills to be fair. My day is complete when I finish at least two levels of my game”.
Syed Tahir Rufai, Psychologist at Beautiful Minds, Bangalore shares his opinion of how the benefits of gaming, although get underweighted in comparison to its abundant negatives but when used in controlled forms could aid in improving one’s reflexes overall. “Driving people away from daily pressures it does ensure giving a source of virtual tranquility in the form of escapism by simultaneously improving one’s motor skills like the usual hand and eye coordination. They are an apt mode of improvisation for problem solving skills inducing a format to prompt a player into thinking thereby increasing their cognitive functioning”, said, Syed Tahir.
Tahir emphasizes on how such mediums could also serve as a benefit to counsel people out of their phobias and ensure connectivity across, “Take the example of agoraphobia for instance; people who struggle to go out and meet new people are in other way sustained by enhancing their senses of social connectivity through online communities and their peer groups by cross conversations”
However Tahir stresses on any forms of benefits when exploited beyond their measures to be bound on having a counter effect, “addiction is any way or forms poses annihilation of a human body functioning. Overdoing it poses its ramifications in expectedly unexpected manners. When spent hours on gaming, the pros take a back seat and the excessive exposures of cons begin exploiting the body’s activities. In many ways it can seclude a person and lead him/her to succumb themselves into stress and trigger anxiety”.
Larger levels indulgence of gaming encourage a person to play for far longer periods than required like PubG, Clash of Clans etc, states Tahir. “Video games are designed as such that the neurotransmitters in the body are released in the brain that gratify the feelings of pleasure or satisfaction via dopamine. For any activity that produces the release of pleasures a person tends to give oneself into repeatedly as drug addiction. Most drugs release domain and get people hooked onto it, although the effects of the latter are grave” He further adds, “Gaming addiction supply people with a means of intimate rewards yielding a sense of progression that reflects in them. Achievement of instant gratification by social media as such poses harmful outcomes when used extensively”, Tahir added.
Depending upon the game types, multiple studies tend to show that violent games can project traces of violent behavioral patterns along with other factors making them immune or numb to violence.
On this Tahir highlights, “Aggression in gaming is very subjective not necessarily conclusive. As per some studies violent and aggressive factors in gaming could lead to inculcating violent behaviors. Reason being, many of them playing such games are not always observed to be violent or aggressive in nature. But there are other things that can be affected by games like lack of sleep, social interactions lessening, physical health deterioration and long hour’s submission to gaming. Thereby possibilities of inflicting passive behavioral forms could be reinforced as per studies”.
With more games on board to be launched, the need to incorporate video games as a mode of relaxation in limits over normalizing its usage as a trend becomes imperative to prioritize ones’ productiveness over pleasure. “People must have a sense of prior realization over the fact that excessive usage only rewards in gratification for completing their score boards in levels and tasks, but overall it loses its essence by taking a toll on one’s physical, mental and financial stability” Tahir said.
