The main theme of the film surrounds the concept of video game addiction and how it can affect people’s social behaviour and mental health. Video games are a form of entertainment, much like films and books. However, games can be just as harmful if not more so than film, depending on the gamer/viewer’s mindset. In contrast, films are not deemed addictive whereas games are considered habit forming as the viewer is in control of the characters and could become obsessed with the storyline. This can be viewed as a form of reception theory.
Reception Theory is a type of reader response literary theory which shows a particular reader or viewer’s response or interpretation (decoding) of a text, film, game, play or piece of music (Holub, 1984). For example, someone could watch a film and find it humorous whereas someone else could see it as incredibly offensive and insensitive.
This could be due to the film or music track’s message (Coding), or someone’s performance could be seen as offensive or insensitive (Media-Studies, 2022). People can take three different positions when viewing (Decoding) a piece of media; they can oppose the film, meaning they disliked the product. They can domain the film, meaning they will defend what the filmmaker has made. Or they can be negotiable, meaning they can accept parts of the product but are still unhappy with other aspects (Holub, 1984).
Gaming has been around for nearly 50 years; however, studies are still in their infancy surrounding the potential harm it can cause. Traits of video game addiction can include hyper-fixation over video games, negative mood swings etc. Not everyone is affected negatively by video games, some experts say that it’s harmful to label people if they are simply passionate about gaming. ‘Video game addiction’ ranges from around 1% to 9% in the percentage of people it occurs in (in both adults and children). It also manifests more often in males than females (Bhandari, 2023).
Between 2021 and 2022, 12% of psychiatric patients afflicted with ‘video game addiction’ cited games such as Minecraft, Call of Duty, Fortnite etc as games they have compulsively played. There are specialist clinics available to people with addictions to computer games. In the past year there have been 855 referrals to these clinics in the UK, 227 of these patients were under the age of 18 (Davies, 2023).
The world health organisation classified ‘video game addiction’ as a medical term in 2018. Since then, 4% of gamers (out of 6o million) are currently addicted to gaming (MacDonald , 2023). However, experts argue that severe cases range from less than 1% to 3% at the highest (Power, 2023). Statistics have been argued since the world health organisation declared the term (MacDonald , 2023).
Bibliography
Bhandari, S. (2023) Video game addiction: Symptoms, treatment, and prevention, WebMD. Available at: https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/addiction/video-game-addiction (Accessed: 06 May 2024).
Davies, R. (2023) More than 850 people referred to clinic for video game addicts, The Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/jul/14/more-than-850-people-referred-to-london-clinic-for-video-game-addicts-gambling-style-features-loot-boxes (Accessed: 06 May 2024).
Holub, R.C. (1984) “The Change in Paradigm and its socio-historical function,” in Reception theory: A critical introduction. London, UK: Methuen, pp. 1–2.
MacDonald , K. (2023) Pushing buttons: Video game addiction is real – but parents shouldn’t worry too much, The Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/games/2023/jul/19/pushing-buttons-game-addiction-gambling-industry-parents (Accessed: 06 May 2024).
Power, P.M. (2023) 49 video game addiction statistics: Most addictive games, MPower Wellness. Available at: https://mpowerwellness.com/video-game-addiction-statistics/#:~:text=Up%20to%204%25%20of%20gamers,that%20currently%20have%20gaming%20disorder. (Accessed: 06 May 2024).