Correction: Ben Medler should have been quoted as saying "digital immigrants."
Correction: All quotes attributed to Brian Magerko should be attributed to Ethan Watrall.
With online gaming increasing in popularity, MSU researchers are trying to determine if excessive gaming is an actual addiction.
A group of MSU students have opted to do research on addictive gaming. Group member and telecommunication, information studies and media graduate student Kenneth Nelson said plans are preliminary, but the research is focused on defining an addiction, identifying how people become addicted to games and how this addiction affects lives.
Addictive video gaming has not been rendered an actual condition or disease.
One reason video-game addictions are hard to diagnose is because researchers and doctors are not sure people can be addicted to a media with physical damage being the end result, said Brian Magerko, a telecommunication, information studies and media professor, who teaches game-programming courses.
"Everybody says, 'Yeah, I'm addicted,' but what does that mean?" he said. "Does that mean you just play a lot, or does that mean you have compulsive addictive behavior?"
A common public perception is that gamers lack social lives, but Magerko said there's a huge amount of social interaction with online games.
"You're there with thousands of people, people you see on a regular basis," he said. "The interaction you have is just as rich, just as robust, just as healthy as social interaction in a regular society.
Magerko said stereotyping gamers as antisocial is misleading.
In August, a 28-year-old man in South Korea died after playing nearly 50 straight hours of online computer games. In 2002, a man died in Kwangju, one of South Korea's largest cities, after 86 hours of marathon gaming.
Magerko acknowledged that excessive game playing could potentially be unhealthy.
"Is sitting in front of a television for eight hours healthy?" he asked. "Some people would say yes, some people would say no."
Culture differences between technological generations and baby boomers have prevented older Americans from understanding new entertainment and the use of advanced technology, said graduate student Ben Medler, who is president of SpartaSoft, an on-campus video game development group.
"We're still in this culture where the 40-plus year olds who didn't grow up with games, or even computers, are vigil immigrants, and they don't quite understand," he said.
Researchers of computer-addictive behavior and psychologists have suggested treatment for those who find themselves glued to the glare of their computers. Clinics to treat computer-addictive behavior have opened in the U.S. and Europe.
Addiction centers are unnecessary, Medler said.
"It's addictive that you want to keep going back to (the game), but it's not a need that will interrupt your life," he said. "I don't see games as a 'need' to play. It's the act of playing the game (that keeps one intrigued)."
People who play games excessively should know when to slow down while still having fun with friends, said Scott Reschke, owner of Fast Repair and Game Center, or F.R.A.G., 543 E. Grand River Ave.
"Take everything in moderation," he said.
