Game addiction: An unstable door to success

Game addiction is a controversial topics for people and researchers. It is the only called an addiction rather than a hobby because experts falsely claim that.Back in 2013 the American Psychiatric Association (APA) declined to include game addiction in the 5th edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, concluding that there was insufficient. It is very hard to distinguish spending a lot of time playing games and what counts as addictive behavior.

A professional team consisting of players who spent a thousand hours honing their skills in the game.
Photo by: Intel Extremes Master

If someone is a known person to spend time in front of a computer screen and rarely goes outside he is automatically considered a game addict? That is just pure misjudgment. What if that person just spends a lot of time playing games? This is the hard part of trying to pinpoint addiction in this subject and sometimes someone will be misjudged.
Playing a game and working hard for it can now reward you in different ways. Like streamers who broadcast their gameplay of video games to a live audience.

Tyler "Ninja" Blevins. World's largest streamer. Streams daily. His dedication and entertainment has allowed his channel to explode into mainstream media and stardom.
File photo: Dexerto.com

This is made easy by Twitch who helped bring game streaming to the mainstream. A person can earn money in streaming mainly through subscriptions and donations but also through sponsorships. Subscriptions and donations are a viewer's way of supporting their favorite streamer. A youtuber who makes content off of gaming can also earn money through ads and sponsorships. An Esports player or professional gamers are people who participate in competitions, most commonly in the form of organized multiplayer competitions. Although originally participated by amateurs. Esports has erupted into mainstream mostly due to streaming, but not all parts in the world are new to esports. Unlike Asia who has had it for several years and is still rising in popularity because games like Starcraft 2 are famous in Asia and specifically in Korea.

Serral. No.1 ranking starcraft 2 player as of 2018. Ranked by GosuGamers.
A player from Finland who has earned $593,069 in prize money.
File photo by: Gosugamers.net

Add caption

Back in the early 2000's. Gaming wasn't given any commercial attention and hasn't fully developed into its mainstream counterpart now. Popular multiplayer games then were Quake, Diablo 2, World of Warcraft, and starcraft: Brood war.. Counter-strike: Source and Counter-strike 1.6. Although there were competitions with prize money in them, it wasn't really popular, it was only spread locally that someone or an organization is hosting a tournament. It didn't get much attention from non-gamers. What supported its rise to mainstream media are the launches of video games like Portal and Half -life and the launch of consoles like PS3 and XBOX 360, both which would become console manufacterer giants.

A LAN tournament hosted by ESEA.
file photo by: ESEA League.


During 2012. Gaming had its biggest tournament during that time. Dota 2's The International 2011. It featured a prize pool of over $1.600.000 USD. Hosted by valve and attended by the world's strongest team.

Natus Vincere wins TI 12 with a grand prize of one million.
file photo by: Valve

 The event has continued and is now yearly held. Fans can even help grow the prize pool through battle passes. Which a percentage of what fans are paying are going to the entire prize pool. This just goes to show that from what it was then has now grown into what it is now. Mainstream media has dismissed the idea of esports as a joke and not an official sports. Jimmy Kemmel even said once on TV "Why watch someone else play video games? Well guess who just won the I failed their parents trophy?".



My conclusion is that game addiction is hard to distinguish from spending a lot of time playing a video game and honing their skills from an addictive behavior,since the achievements of gamers have led to making millions just by sitting in front of a screen. The rise of games like Fortnite and PlayerUnkown's Battle Grounds have led to mainstream media. Due to the popularity,it has garnered wide media attention. Streamers like Ninja and Shroud have are a huge help to bring games and gaming to mainstream mainly because of their skills and entertaining streams. Although not everyone who will dabble into this kind of entertainment will find instant fame but it is a nice hobby to indulge in. We should all take the time to study the background of a certain subject or hobby before we judge it. Anyone can play video games, on their PC, or console, or mobile phone. Lets all take a moment to enjoy what the gaming industry has given us and enjoy gaming.