Destiny 2 : Is it Addictive?

What is Game Addiction?

To celebrate the release of Destiny 2 on the PC I'd like to talk about the game once again. However, rather then add my voice to the chorus of those celebrating the game's beautifully unlocked frame rate on PC I want to put the game under another kind of light. Not exactly a negative light but simply a speculative light that begs the question, are you addicted to Destiny 2? Before we dive right into that question however lets look at what exactly defines gaming addiction. 

Normally WebMD wouldn't be my first choice when it comes to medical advice. Most enter the website with a rash and leave the site thinking they have a week to live. But when it comes to defining a diagnosis, especially one that might be in a medical grey area, it has some useful information gathered from acclaimed medical resources. And when asked what exactly game addition is WebMD defines it as:

"It's a clinical impulse control disorder," an addiction in the same sense as compulsive gambling.

The article goes on to explain that the victim of this addiction needs more of the entertainment that has grabbed hold of him. Notice I said 'needs' and not 'wants'. In my opinion, the deciding factor between what is a healthy habit and a crippling addiction is the sense of want and need. If you enjoy something, but can put it down and pursue other priorities then you understandably want to play video games when you can. But if you feel depraved when not engaging in an experience that has become what the rest of your priorities now revolves around, then you may have an unhealthy need to play video games. This concept of want and need is one I have devised, so although it has no medical backing to it, I believe it properly sums up the WebMD article on game addiction. 

Going back to the quote from Web MD, the addiction is compared to gambling, which is an interesting comparison. Recently Eurogamer has released an article that begs the question, are loot boxes in games a form of gambling? In the article they actually come to the conclusion that it is closer to opening a pack of pokemon or baseball cards then gambling. But it is also believed that this is something that deserves a continued and close look for any changes or devious developments. However, one quote from the article is interesting to keep in mind, and that's when they discuss this topic with Jamie Madigan, a game psychologist. That quote states:

"Whenever you open [a loot box], you may get something awesome (or you may get trash). This randomness taps into some of the very fundamental ways our brains work when trying to predict whether or not a good thing will happen."

But I'm sure you're probably wondering how this all relates to Destiny 2, and if you stayed here through all the research I commend you. And your reward is my confession that I found myself seemingly addicted to Destiny 2. Maybe not addicted to a crippling or unhealthy level, but I still felt a need to play the game. Is this simply a poor excuse for why I haven't written an article in over a month, maybe. But! I would also argue that the game has been designed to be addictive. Addictive in the sense that if you aren't playing RIGHT NOW you are falling behind, and to some that can drift the want to play this game into a need. 

Look at phone games, they're designed for small bursts of play and right when you begin to lose interest the game is updated to add fresh content. Destiny seems to follow this same concept of spoon feeding their audience content, and when the game doesn't see an update, one is being teased on their blog. The ingenious of the game is the fact that these events are either timed or seem to come with an expiration date. By that I mean, events such as the raid carry a mentality of completing as soon as possible. The community even boasts a 'world first' title to the group of 6 players who can defeat the raid first.

This mentality can be found throughout the game with exclusive rewards, and rewards that are earned solely through grinding. By that I mean completing events an undefined amount of times, putting the definition of insanity in motion, only to get the powerful gun or armor you were looking for. There are augments for why this is done and they lean heavily on the ever changing video game market, where a game no longer costs $60. You only get the base game for that amount, but the add-ons and DLC can bring the cost of a game easily over $100. And it's this market mentality that has created the scheduled spoon feeding of content. What Destiny 2 has done is chop up that process into smaller portions adding a new event, a new obstacle, or a new reason to play nearly every week.

And so, everyday I didn't play the game I felt as though I was falling behind. I felt as though my impulses, which were once under my control, seemed to revolve around the game. But if this is all true I'm sure your wondering how I broke free, and that happens to be the same answer to most addictions. Once I have acknowledged the problem it began to lose power over me. But now season 2 has been announced in the game and I can only hope that my resistance remains strong.

What do you think? Is game addiction real, and has Destiny 2 tapped into it?