I get Gurges.
Game urges.
I get inclination to play
games that I've played and completed before. Nothing really remarkable about
that right?
However, I've noticed that
I want to play the same games around the same time I did the year before. Recently,
it's been Mass Effect 3. But you know you can't just play 3, you have to go
through them all to get to 3.
Thanks to a little social
media app thingy it tells me I had the same desire to indulge myself with
Femshep the same time the year before and the year before that. Is there
anything to this? Does anyone else go through the desire to play games the same
time of year? I wonder if it's because we invested so much time in a new game
when it was fresh and glorious our brains remember "hey you felt really
good this time last year, thanks to that new gaming experience, maybe you
should play it again so we get that same rush again".
I’m not a Scientist nor am
I very technical so forgive me for any mistakes I may make in these next few
sections. Most of this was not common knowledge to me before I started writing.
I decided to look in to
why this may be the case and wondered if it’s something to do with how your
body responds to stimuli from its environment, like in Seasonal Affective
Disorder, and how your brain records that experience. There is
such a phrase as ‘Body Chemistry Memory’ or 'Cellular Memory' which is somewhat on the Skepticism list and I feel it doesn't quite capture what I am trying to define/answer.
Chemical reactions don’t “remember” how to react, they just respond depending
upon the factors involved. When those same conditions are met each time the
response would be the same right?
In psychology we are taught that through
experience we develop schema, a kind of framework in which we use each time we
encounter that situation. (Enter a Library= must be silent. Wait for green man
to cross the road otherwise you’ll die etc). That is what is stored in our brain,
so, now bare with me here, when our bodies react to our environment they would
produce a physiological and psychological response simultaneously that the
brain retains, yes? So when those conditions occur again our brain recalls that
information and gives the same response “oh hey the last time this happened we
responded like this so that means we have to respond in the same way” now it
does this regardless whether we responded to the experience in a positive or
negative way. I’d imagine similar to SAD when the body is overwhelmed by
certain environmental conditions that it doesn't produce
the appropriate response.
How does this relate to
games? Haad on man, I’m getting there!
Countless studies have
been conducted on the effects of video games on behaviour but I only found a
few actually relating to brain chemistry. Mostly, researchers have focused upon
negative stimuli presented by games, i.e violence and how that affects the
person afterwards. In one study, that has been cited in various places,
but the original source from a Japanese news website eludes me, monitored the
Beta waves of folks who don’t play videogames (they exist!) and people who play
them an awful lot (like me and you). Beta waves indicate frontal lobe
activity which is responsible for emotions and creativity. Seems us gamers have
zero beta waves and no signs of our brains in a resting mode while we are playing
games and this doesn't change or revert to a “normal” level after the game is
switched off. The original researcher suggested this is the reason people who
play videogames for long periods of time are prone to personality and
anti-social behaviour. Another writer talking about this study
mentioned the possibility that the brain perceives the games as real hence the
behavioural changes and the brain not being in a “rested” mode so playing games
to relax is simply not the case where our brains are concerned! The latter I
agree with, however the original study, and many others like it, didn't measure
the participants’ predisposition to anti-social behaviour or anxiety or even to
violent behaviour. They would have had to monitor those who never played
videogames and ask them to gradually increase the hours of game time and record
brainwaves to really say if it was the game that contributed to the behavioural
changes.
Most videogame research is
based around the effects of violence and mature content in games and how that
possibly contributes to a person being violent themselves. We all know by now
that ALL media exposes us to these same things every day. Videogames are blamed
for desensitising people to the violence of war and criminal acts but we are
seeing more and more of these images being broadcast by the news and in some
cases glorified by other media. They used to block out images of dead children
and bloody missing limbs you know. They don’t now. That shit sells. It’s
constantly happening around the world and we are shown these images all the
time it’s almost becoming the norm.
I did find a gem of an
article (while finding the above pictures so it's the same link) about the BENEFITS of gaming to help treat psychological
disorders as our brains are “trained” to grow bigger during play. Best quote:-
“These brain regions are involved in functions such as spatial
navigation, memory formation, strategic planning and fine motor skills of the
hands. Increasingly, the level of connectivity between brain areas is being
linked to higher intelligence and consciousness.”- Christopher
Bergland 2013
You guys and read more here and the source is here (journal link) if you have
access to the journal. I don’t so I’m a little disappointed I can’t read the
full thing.
What I can’t seem to find
is anything relating to videogames and Happy emotional responses. I suppose
because that subject is not in vogue and parents and officials want something
to blame for anti-social and pathological teenagers.
Clicky for Snippet on one such study/ Pic Creds same source.
If our brains perceive the game as a real
experience and increases fear, anxiety and paranoia when playing
violent/war/horror/shooters that continues to last after the game has been
switched off then surely it would mean that games that make you feel
happy/elated/inspired/successful should also continue to last after the game is
switched off?
Why would the brain, if it
perceives the game as a real experience, want to experience it again?
Especially since most games are a creator driven narrative that the player
can’t change the outcome. Even the desire to play those violent war/shooter
games constantly, why would the brain want to experience what is essentially a
traumatic experience?
Apart from when this happened. Sorry Moira/ Pic Creds: Me!
Where does the desire to
play the game again possibly come from? A basic response to seasonal
associations? Not necessarily to do with the seasons in the weather sense, but
our psychological associations to a period of time in our lives. Again, studies
showing the negatives and connections to Seasonal Disorders (Winter and Suicide
for example clicky) but not much on positive seasonal associations. Maybe
because it’s not much of a social phenomenon to warrant investigation?
Steam Summer Sales, Big
Summer releases, Publisher and Dev conventions, Big Christmas releases, highly
anticipated titles, teaser Downloadable Content, Half-Life 3?! To us gamers,
these are positive seasonal associations. That rush of excitement to play a new
release after waiting so long (I’m looking at you Mass Effect 3), that level of
elation continues as you play the game which doesn't dissipate after you switch
it off. Your brain takes that experience, if we assume it perceived the game as
real, and produces a physiological and psychological response. Remember that
from earlier? I said that a while back… So even though the game came out a few
years ago my body and brain retain that experience and want to repeat it.
The answer to this, I
think, it is because our brains are addicted to their own juices.
This concept is not new in relation to videogames.
The prime framework of gaming addiction theory is the role of endorphin's in
gamers. I know too well the consequences of that fine line of enjoyment leading
to consumption. When getting to that next level is the briefest euphoria and it
all but consumes you like quicksand and you’ll spend money and time to keep
your head up just to feel that rush again, but it gets fainter and fainter each
time. Until it consumes your life or even takes your life, in extreme cases.
I often liken it to a hollow orgasm. Your 4th
never quite feels like your first, huh? Even for guys I’d imagine it feels
similar. That’s the only metaphor I can think of to describe what it’s like,
well for me anyway.
I've tried to find research that wasn't related to
the after effects or negativity that surrounds this topic but it seems not many
have picked up on this fact that the target groups in these studies are
addicted to the chemical produced by the brain as a result of playing instead
they focus/blame the game itself. As I said earlier it’s still “in vogue” to
use videogames as the scapegoat to explain away behavioural problems in young
people.
It seems fellow gamers and bloggers know
what I’m talking about all too well as they have quoted the same guy (clicky) but the academics who study us just don’t want to broach the subject,
or maybe they've tried to and their work has been “held back” by the
publishers? Or I just can’t find it?
I have explored some answers to my questions but
I’m still not fulfilled.
I guess some things I've found can explain why I
play games repeatedly but not the same game especially where I cannot change
the outcome of the narrative or explain why I feel the urge to play it around
the same time of year?
I have discovered that it’s not only Endorphin we’re addicted to but a few of its friends too:-
The Happy Chemicals join your party!
Dopamine, the guy who makes you want that next
level, the Warrior,
Serotonin, the guy who makes the imagined real and
the real imagined, the Mage,
Oxytocin, the guy who makes you emotionally
invested, Priest,
And lest we forget;
Endorphin, the guy who makes you euphoric and
numb, the Bard.
