When Does Play Become An Addiction?

For me personally, play has been a huge part of my life for as long as I can remember. The mindless, silly games that I played as a toddler and younger child had an impact on how I look back on my childhood. Although I am now a college freshman, I still believe that playfulness is an important characteristic of human nature. 

But is there a point at which play in virtual worlds becomes too immersive? When is the appropriate age for play to, essentially, take a back seat to life in the real world?

Julian Dibbell’s 2006 book, Play Money, poses these questions and, as the book continues, Dibbell attempts to answer them. 

During his time as a fellow at Stanford Law School’s Center for Internet and Society, Dibbell was granted the ability to pursue any research that interested in the field which inspired him. He chose to attempt to make a reasonable income in virtual worlds, mostly Ultima Online. While watching his young daughter play with her toys, Dibbell began to pose questions regarding to play and how they related to virtual worlds.

Interestingly enough, in my Introduction to Psychology class, we recently read an article titled “Taking Play Seriously” by Robin Marantz Henig. I immediately made the connection between Dibbell and Henig’s works. The article, published in The New York Times in 2008, described the debate occurring amongst psychologists regarding the play in young children. Henig writes, “[p]lay...is a central part of neurological growth and development - one important way that children build complex, skilled, responsive, socially adept and cognitively flexible brains” (Henig). She continues, “play evolved because it is good preparation for adulthood. It is a chance for young animals to learn and rehearse the skills they will need for the rest of their lives, and to do so in a secure environment, where mistakes will have few consequences” (Henig). 

How I picture play

Returning to Dibbell’s work for a moment, he writes of a John Dugger, a fellow player on Ultima Online, although addict would be a better word to describe Mr. Dugger. Dugger, a Wonder Bread delivery man who had separated from his wife a few years before, spent most of his time in, what he referred to as, the dungeon - “a section of the garage walled off to make a small, barely ventilated room, where he sat five hours a night, eyes fixed on his computer screen and on the tiny, make-believe self he maneuvered through Britannia’s cartoon landscape” (Dibbell 51). 

Mr. Dugger would later refer to his online activities as “play”, but when one compares what this 43-year old is doing to Henig’s definitions of play, one would notice a distinct difference. Henig’s definitions of play, which I agree with, state that play is an important part of a child’s life. Nowhere in her article does Henig mention virtual worlds as a form of play and I, not being a gamer, certainly would not either. While I would agree that playfulness is an important part of life, I think that the amount of play that gamers, like Dugger, take part in cause them to lose touch with reality. 

Play, I would argue, is most important during childhood, as a part of a young child’s development. Those similar Mr. John Dugger are done developing and, in my opinion, should not use play as a reason behind excessive gaming. Whether virtual worlds are an escape for a gamer or an addiction, for many, it is past the point of play. 

Works Cited

Dibbell, Julian. Play Money, Or, How I Quit My Day Job and Made Millions Trading Virtual Loot. New York: Basic, 2006. Print.

Henig, Robin M. "Taking Play Seriously." The New York Times 2008. The New York Times. Web.