Countermeasures for Side Effects of Online Virtual Reality Games

Abstract

Computer game addiction generally signifies excessive or unhealthy inclination for computer games. Game addicts spend great amount of their time engrossed in playing games while neglecting the real world. They have the tendency to neglect important responsibilities and isolate themselves from others. Instead, they place greater importance on their status, performance, and achievement in games. Virtual stores, virtual libraries, virtual cinema, virtual trade shows, virtual schools, virtual characters have been emerging due to the popularity of the internet. An ambiguous term virtual reality has appeared in addition to the word virtual. There also appeared alien and UFO syndrome. Such social phenomenon has brought about confusion of reality and virtual world in which things that do not exist are mistakenly believed to exist. This study focuses on virtual reality games and provides an assessment of the causes and the side effects of game addiction and proposes countermeasures.