Addiction to online games forces victims to neglect their real lives

Online games can be a dangerous addiction for some people as they are neglecting their real life for a virtual life, especially when playing games that offer whole virtual worlds. These games can be highly addictive according to players Arab News interviewed. The players also said it was very easy to get lost in the game, where they can get almost anything that they want, or pretend to be any character. Though it is fake, they are willing to exchange reality for a virtual world. “I have been having many problems, especially emotional problems. I found out about this game on the Internet, and it was being advertised as a means to escape from problems. For someone so bruised emotionally, something like this was very tempting. So I played the game, and it was so easy to forget who I am and my whole real life,” Taf, 25, told Arab News. “The avatars the game offers and the fact that every single person you meet in the virtual world is a real person makes these games very attractive. Many players fall in love and have online relations in these games,” she said. “These games have a lot of adult content and adult areas. Many players engage in virtual sexual activities. This is another reason why many people get instantly hooked. The truth is these games can easily corrupt a person’s morals. They offer a fake life, when in reality our lives fall apart.” Taf says her problems only worsened when she gradually neglected all her regular activities so she could spend more time in the game world. She also became unsociable. “I even stopped combing my hair or dressing up, I was looking beautiful and feeling good just through my avatar. It was such an attractive life; it kept me hooked online practically from the moment I’d wake up. I spent two months like this. I didn’t even feel the time go by, and I didn’t like to be around real people, I just wanted my virtual friends,” said Taf. “My problems got very bad while I spent my time in the virtual world with avatars. That’s when I realized that my real life was deteriorating, because I lived a false one.” Riyad, 29, said he found such games so addictive that he stopped bothering about how he looked, and he never felt the need to leave his room. He said the game became his world. “There are so many locations to hang out in the game and there are new people to meet everywhere. I didn’t feel any need to be around actual people. But slowly my body became weak due to a lack of real activity, I started to get mentally and physically sick,” he said. Maryam Mutaaz, 32, a housewife, says she gets very upset when any of the other players steal her virtual sheep. Mutaaz told Arab News though she realizes it is a game and the sheep are not real. However, she said she still gets very upset and can’t concentrate on other things in her real life. “An online virtual life might be the easiest option for people with problems who are looking for the easiest escape they can find. These people need to get help to solve their problems instead of escaping into a game, which will allow their problems to get worse,” said Dr. K. R. Jayachandran, an education special needs expert and consultant.