The increase growth of the networks and the internet had soon great effects into the games world, in the beginning they were offering the possibility to communicate between computers then, years later, to download entire games or some of their sections (like maps, patches for games, player profiles) from the internet. Actually, the growing popularity of games and the easy access to Internet have take gaming to a whole new level, a true explosion of an online gaming industry.
The dangers of gaming were know long before there were online gaming, and that problems only grew instead of decreasing. Some would say that the online games are safe and there is absolutely no danger in playing, but most of them would be just lieing you in the face: gaming can bring dangers and addictive behaviour when it's done in excess. The behaviours brought by online gaming are in some way similar to the behaviours of drugs and they can be treated in the same ways. It is said that onling gaming rehabilitation facilities have been established on the internet and offline (real world) and the medical community is beginning to recognize online gaming as a real addiction just like gambling, alcohol and drugs... some even say that's the first informational addiction (oposing the chemical addictions).
Online gaming are affecting everyone, no matter if the person is a child or an adult, male or female, young man or old man - only the degree is different depending of personality and exposure. Of course, children are more exposed than the adults. Some of the signs that can help you identify a person that is addicted are:
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he/she spends a lot of time in the proximity of computers, „working” but there is no progress to the work.
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loss of interes: the person may begin to lose interest in the daily activites including job, friendship, school, lover, even getting out of the house. Some people lost their jobs and where evicted from their rental because they were losing their time playing instead doing something productive.
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decline of personal hygiene or health: in some cases the person stops taking care of himself/herself, the short term result is a bad hygiene, the extreme results are bad health or even death.
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non-stop talking: in some cases, especially when young peoples and children are involved, they start talking all the time about their succeses in the games and they become obsessed with strategies for winning, the online gaming subject always makes the center of their conversations.
Gaming addiction can perpetrate a lot of physical and mental issues that can be difficult to reverse. Many people become addicted to this because they are isolated and they are reaching out for activity and interaction via internet, the online gaming provide both.
The best way to minimise the problems is to spend only little amounts of time playing online. That does not eliminate the dangers, but reduces them good enough to have a future.
