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Abstract
Psychological, sociological and neurobiological factors are introduced and each component describes its relevance to the development of excessive and addicted computer gaming. The psychological argumentation discusses diagnostic criteria, the relation to substance related disorders, and predictors. The sociological approach focuses cultural aspects and describes the negotiating-process of social in- or exclusion using consumption-sociological theories. Above neurobiological aspects got elaborated in regard to the mesolimbic dopaminergic reward system. Strong evidence was gained in EEG-methodology based paradigms. Beyond each sub-discipline it is not only argued within the relevant discipline, furthermore the argumentation is combined to create a multi-disciplinary etiopathogenetic model.
Keywords: Computer game addiction, etiopathogenetic model, psychological factors, sociological factors, neurobiological factors, vulnerability.
Introduction
There is no question at all: Computer games are meant to be fun and therefore they are designed primarily to be attractive. Inducing enjoyment is one key feature of every commercially successful game. Since its beginning the market of video and computer games has developed rapidly. Thinking of "prehistoric" games of the 80s like Pac Man® nowadays causes associations of rough pixels, coarse movements and squeaky sounds. At best, it makes one feel nostalgic and it might make one feel puzzled (and) contemplating how these ancient games could ever have brought joy and distraction to the gamer. Thinking ahead, this might be one cause for the fact that addictive computer gaming has not been widely discussed in the 1980ies, but nowadays is. Like
Internet Addiction, which must be seen as a broader label for a bunch of different Internet-related subtypes of behavioural addictions, Computer Game Addiction (CGA), mostly related to games that can be played online, like Massively Multiplayer Online Role- Playing Games (MMORPGs), can cause similarly severe psychosocial and health-related problems in a limited number of vulnerable individuals - having nothing to do with a mere recreational activity.
Although it is evident that the number of publications on Internet Addiction has grown over the past years, specific studies on CGA as a major subtype of Internet Addiction are comparatively rare. Generally, research on the topic of Internet Addiction must be considered carefully, because there are still are no studies focusing on a comparison of its different subtypes. Following Young (1998), Internet Addiction has to be understood as a major, rather...