In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, the producer and director of a BBC Panorama gaming special show, Emeka Onono accused the games industry of being “very defensive” over the age old issue of gaming addiction.
Onono says the “potential for things in games to be addictive needs to be researched and acknowledged,” and that this potential was “something that the industry’s always doggedly denied”. He did however state his sentiments are not anti-gaming, but that it needs to be researched.
Onono claimed “what we do know and we have made clear is that, for the vast majority of people games are good. It’s a positive thing. But we need to keep an eye on them: what can be good for you can also be bad for you”.
The said programme featured a number of gamers, in Britain and South Korea, who claim to have suffered severe social and emotional problems as a result of their gaming habit. Onono explained that a when a child might be bullied or they may have self-esteem problems or they may be depressed, games can be used as an escape for a while.
“But what can start off to be something that can help them, in some cases turns into something else where the game becomes a problem in itself,” Onono concluded.
