Addiction To Virtual Reality Games

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Virtual Reality games are the digital simulation of the game era before video games existed; as for it is trying to recreate the illusion of actually being part of the game instead of playing it on a flat monitor. What is virtual reality? What is its role in the game industry? How will it develop in the future? What will it cause? A broad definition of Virtual Reality according to Steven LaValle is “Inducing targeted behavior in an organism by using artificial sensory stimulation, while the organism has little or no awareness of the interference.” ( LaValle 1). He states that the player or the user is put in a situation made by the creator of this certain virtual environment so that the user can hardly distinguish the artificially simulated…show more content…
The more attracted they are to the game, the more they play. However, when it comes to virtual reality, they are much more attracted to the involvement in the game physically. Thus, addiction to virtual reality games might have a higher percentage than the usual video games. According to Bob Affonso, Maressa Hecht Orzack asserts that children use the computer "as a tool to evade, procrastinate and escape," and that "among the most vulnerable are children who are lonely and bored or from families where nobody is at home to relate to after school." Boredom and escapism are the main reason of video games addiction. Vorderer has also mentioned a similar claim in his book “they often play games to escape into an alternate reality”. ( Vorderer Thesis IV). He also mentioned that “These people want this alternate world to be as “real” and as “consistent” as possible” (Ibid). Both of them agree on the fact that virtual reality offers an alternative reality, it fills out the missing aspects in the gamers’ real lives. It allows the people to express themselves and escape from the real world. Once they like it and enjoy, they spend all their time playing these games. The player experiences the conditions of happiness, power, and satisfaction in one’s life while playing virtual reality games. Hence, this results in the player’s entrance into a phase of non-stop gaming and addiction. When playing…show more content…
DeepMind technologies are trying to build an artificial intelligence system similar to the human mind, capable of carrying out the process of analysis and making decisions by itself. If this kind of A.I. will be applied to virtual reality games in the future, people will be able to play games by themselves in a virtual world with the semi-human computers, completely isolated from any social relationships and interactions. The results that might proceed from this human-machine interaction in a virtual world are all hypothetical, but one can guess that it might be similar to the isolation caused by the internet or video games. For example, as stated, “Internet has spurred a phenomenon of social isolation which leads to reduced communication and intimacy with friends and family. Many people no longer need to venture from their homes in order to work or enjoy themselves.” (Botella, Quero, and Baños 90). Virtual reality will not be much different, as for, the user will not feel the need to communicate with anyone in the real world, communication within the game with machines will be enough for him. Thus, “people will become so involved in their activities in cyberspace, that they will, in turn, neglect their social and functional involvement in the “real-world” (Albert, Schultheis and Rothbaum 19). They will feel satisfied with the social relations they experience in the

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