With Netflix admitting that Fortnight is a bigger threat than HBO and games like the Red Dead Redemption 2 making $725M in just the opening weekend one can get an idea of such a mammoth this industry has become.
The gaming industry has grown faster than anyone could have ever imagined. Video Gaming is now a $139B a year business. In terms of revenue that’s bigger than worldwide box office, music streaming/album sales, the NFL , the NBA, MLB and NHL combined.
One of the biggest reasons video games have blown up are engagement driven outlets like live streaming channels, Freemium architecture, endorsement of global competitions. Now, one might think what is wrong with all of this?
The fact that gaming has made its mark everywhere, now it’s not only the PC or the console that is dedicated for gaming but with the rise of video game developer companies near me gaming has seeped in massively in the average digital life.
Too much of one thing is a cause for concern and I am not saying all types of gaming is bad. But not everyone is equipped with the tools that make games a passion instead of an obsession. The fact is with too much involvement bigger psychological factors come into play and this is where with fun the dark side of gaming can also be felt.
So, here some factors through which gaming can affect life negatively.
It’s Pointless
The first reason one should curb down gaming time is that it’s kind of pointless. Now some might argue with me and say well, gaming is fun, entertainment and there is nothing wrong with enjoying some games. And I would agree with you but at the end of the day it is pointless.
How many hours you choose to put into an activity which is essentially meant to be fun and entertainment is bound to have a significant impact on one’s life. Now, I am not saying watching Netflix for eight hours a day is great either, but it’s not about Netflix, TV or even gaming for that matter. But essentially it’s about what one wants to do with their life and how is spending time the way you do helping you achieve that.
At the end of the day no matter how much time you put into gaming, if you don’t go pro there is actually very little ROI that comes from it and there are a lot of other activities. If we put the hours we put into gaming in other activates the return on your investment of time will be significantly larger and have greater positive impact of life.
Impact of Mobile Video Game Development
Gaming owes its massive growth due to the face that due that the mobile game development industry has become highly competitive. And as this competition increases with increase the level of engagement these companies need to stay afloat.
I work in an App development agency myself and there are several mobile app developers operating in the complex. All the employees of the video game developer companies near me are observed talking about coming up with strategies to have higher engagements then before and let me tell you it’s a universal thing.
So, in other words gaming has become time consuming. If you are just gaming for just 30 mins a day or an hour, it might not have a significant effect on your well-being. But today’s games aren’t designed for you to just game a little bit, they are designed for you to play more and more and even spend money which gets the player more invested.
It’s Toxic
Games competitions now have an emotional feel to them and people with pre-existing anger issues find gaming as a refuge to spew anger. It can get very discouraging when you are playing a game and you are just constantly told that you suck, or people are saying racist or mean thing to you.
It’s just not a really enjoyable, fun, positive experience. This is also because in today’s day and age the world is so polarized and there is so much negativity out there and that negativity has debilitating impacts on you, especially one’s own view of the world.
This is the reason why I think that we as responsible gamers should be very intentional about the types of environments that we are putting ourselves in.
So, constantly having toxic behaviour around you, you really need to think about the return that you are getting from the time invested in toxic environments.
Another factor is also the global standardisation of engagement. This can also be related to the example about how developers from video game developer companies near me spend most of the time coming up with engagement ideas to drive more sales. Thinking in terms of only sales and engagement takes the innovation out of game development.
Cultivating Compulsiveness
Gaming is built on the idea of instant gratification, it’s built on the idea of giving the user feedbacks or rewards based on the efforts that you put in. The concept is genius, but on the other side it can become very psychologically compelling for gamers around the world.
This can cause a gamer to want to spend more time and place more effort on games because it becomes a more constant feedback loop, not only with all the effort that you put in. But also the chance to get intermittent rewards along the way can create this desire where you would constantly want to play games.
But the problem with this constant feedback loop is that it introduces an achievement and reward system that is far from how feedback comes to you in the natural world. This factor makes gamers spend more hours playing games just to feel endorsed.
Developers working worldwide and even in the video game developer companies near me are spending time figuring out achievements and rewards can trigger a certain call to action. The more the audience feels triggered by one thing the more attention they pay towards it.
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