Interview

Interview

An interview was also conducted with a previous gaming addict to find out how gaming addiction has affected his life. The interviewee, who only wishes to be addressed as Tom, is fifteen years of age this year. He is of Caucasian descent and currently resides in Singapore. He started playing video games three years ago at the young age of twelve, mainly because of the influence that he was being subjected to by his peers. We chose him as our interviewee as we wanted to illustrate the impacts of gaming addiction to its very extreme and instill a sense of awareness in the public’s mind about the topic in question. Although he has cut down on his gaming time as of today, he is still being haunted by his addiction.

Q: How long have you been gaming now?
A: I started about 3 years ago when I was about 12.

Q: What was the main reason(s) that you decided to game?
A: Well, everyone my age then were just crazy about video games, so I figured I should try it out, and who knew? I ended up gaming for 3 whole years. It began initially because of the hype and to kill whatever free time I have, but yeah, it pretty much escalated to an addiction pretty quickly.

Q: When do you normally game?
A: Right away when I get back from school till as late as three in the morning the next day. Sometimes, I even forgo my meals to continue gaming. The only time I leave my console is when I have to go to the washroom.

Q: How has gaming affected your life?
A: Well, to fund my gaming habit, I ended up spending over $200 a month on the newest gaming titles and upgrading my hardware components. I do not come from a family that was well off, so it was really a strain for my folks to manage. As a result, this caused distress within my family. Also, my grades hit rock bottom almost immediately after I got “into the game” and started to stay up till as late as 3 in the morning to finish up a mission. I used to be scoring in the top half of my class at the least, but not anymore. Because of gaming, I also neglected other important things in life like socializing and such.

Q: Why would you say that you’re addicted to games for such a long period of time?
A: Basically, what had me hooked on for so long was the continuous expansion packs and such for the franchise. The objectives also get increasingly harder with each expansion pack and there was no such thing as shortcuts or cheats for this game. I guess that’s what got me hooked for so long. Also, I had this desire to strive for better achievements so that I could be respected by the people in this game, and I guess that was a contributing factor as well.

Q: Given your experience, what would you say to other kids or even adults out there who may be in the same situation as you were?
A: I would say that they still have a choice. Are they going to continue to let gaming addiction take control of their lives? Or are they going to do something about it? I guess I can say that I'm a living example here of what might happen should we have the addiction overcome us. I had a chance all these 3 years to make that choice. I could have quit, but I didn't. Now I'm just wasted. I hope folks out there would not turn out to be like me, as even I look down on myself for what I did, or rather did not do. No doubt, gaming is fun, but it's pretty much like drugs. It could help you overcome stress and such if used adequately, but could also harm you if used excessively.