Coming up soon on Flipswitch, we'll be interviewing a couple of major designers in the video game industry as we take a look at the issue of video game addiction.  At times, it may come across like we're wagging our fingers at them for making games that get so many people for such long stretches of time; however, that's not exactly right.   The reality is the fact these things are so fun to play for so many people that it makes them want to play forever means in their particular field of video game making, they're extremely good at their jobs.  That is precisely what they're supposed to do.  So, we're definitely not trying to sound conspiratorial or that they're somehow "to blame" for the phenomenon of average folks playing video games for WAY too long.

Instead, through examining some of the ways that video games  are made and some of the underlying issues involved, you guys will be a little more aware of what's going on with video games.  It's certainly just more than button mashing and colorful lights on a screen. It's big business these days, with some of these games having the same budgets as blockbuster summer movies.   There is a lot of psychology and technology that is moving behind the screen; story elements, cognitive principles of motivation, and more.  Some of the stuff that goes into game making is so obscure, that you wouldn't even think of it as a casual gamer.  

For instance, did you know that in simulation games that if a game is TOO like real life it can actually be offputting to the player.  Imagine if every time you played a certain game, it took you 30 minutes to go to the other side of a small town because you have to stop for red lights every few seconds.  You'd get annoyed quickly.  Of course, in Grand Theft Auto (GTA), running red lights is not even something police will chase you for, not because you're that cool, but because if they did, you'd never get anything done.  Yet, everyone raves about how "real" GTA is.  It's strange to think that it was intentionally designed in some ways to avoid being real.  

Through all this designer information, hopefully, you'll have the ability to make better choices about your own playing.  Having a mood disorder already puts you at higher risk for video game addiction (as some of the future experts we'll talk to attest).  With that in mind, it's good to know that there are definitely psychological processes that can have a big effect on you always going on in video games.   Be smart with it.

One of the questions we've been thinking about while talking to gamers, designers, and doctors for our megashow coming up on video game addiction is the idea of it slowly but surely becoming "normal" to play video games for long stretches of time.  It didn't used to be that way. It used to be that you had to go to an arcade and spend your 5 or 10 dollars in quarters playing what game you could until it was all gone. Then when early systems came out, people would play those games for a while and go do something else.  I mean, how great can a stick figure using a badly drawn other stick (vine) to swing over a couple of dots (quicksand) on a screen really be?  But as gaming has gotten more fantastical, there has been a slow moving of the goalposts of what it normal for playing time.  

At one point, telling your friends that you spent 2 hours playing a video game would draw looks from people.  Now, nobody thinks twice of it.  And those goalposts move a little more each year it seems.  

And goalposts is really the right word too.  Coming up, we'll be releasing our interview with the executive producer for the Madden Football series Phil Frazier.  Phil gave us lots of good information on game design and some of what goes into developing a successful game.  He also gave his own thoughts on the topic of video game addiction.  He was very open with us.

In 2004, that year's release of Madden included this advertising campaign.  It has the photo of a sullen girl and the caption "Break It To Her Gently," referring to a long held inside among Madden's mostly male players that they spent so much time playing Madden each year after the new release that they didn't spend hardly any time with their girlfriends.  It became such a normal thing to happen that the EA folks decided to actually use it as an advertising campaign.  The goalposts had moved.

 It's something to keep in mind when playing any game.  One day it may be normal to play for 48 hours consecutively.  That doesn't mean it's what you should be doing.  Remember, regardless of how normal it was/is, there was a wife or girlfriend on the other end of that "break it to her" gently conversation.  She has some ideas about what you can do with those evolving standards of "normal."

**Look for upcoming interviews with executive director of Madden Football Phil Frazier and MMORPG guru Bill Roper.