by Art Young

Created on: February 14, 2009

It starts innocently enough. The menacing bad guys, who are armed to the teeth, meet their demise at the hand of a 12-year old kid with a videogame controller. This epic fight of good versus evil leads to more video challenges, including virtual football, basketball, baseball and any number of other video sports games.

The addiction to video games becomes clear to a parent or spouse when the gamer would rather "play" Tony Hawk's skateboard game than go outside and actually skateboard. This example suggests how video games affect the way we think.

The videogame business generates more revenue than the entire motion picture industry. Since their introduction Sony's PS3 has sold 6,998,000units, the Xbox 360 has sold 14,194,200 units and the Wii console has sold 18,230,200 units. In January 2009 alone, the video game industry enjoyed sales of $1.33 billion, up 13% from the previous year. In the context of the worldwide economic collapse, these numbers are staggering.

Evidently, millions of people, kids and adults, LOVE to play videogames. The result is that a substantial segment of the population is living vicariously. As with many "mega trends," this phenomenon is both good and bad for the gamers and the rest of us.

In order to end this epistle on a positive note, let's start with the downside of having tens of millions of kids and adults addicted to videogames.

As with any compulsive behavior, the addiction to gaming can cause health problems. It is not coincidence that one of the primary causes of the epidemic of childhood and adult obesity is the sedentary lifestyle of all those couch-potatoes - many of whom spend hours each day in front of a screen, trying to move to the next level of a videogame.

Videogames are not the only culprit in the obesity plague. We can also thank the fast food emporiums, the junk food junkies and the soft drink companies for this health fiasco that is threatening to bankrupt the healthcare system. However, a mindset that believes that it is more fun to "play" videogame sports than to actually go outside and play sports is a part of an insidious disease that can lead to diabetes, heart problems, liver damage and psychological/self esteem issues.

A lack of basic problem solving skills and the ability to maturely interact with others have also been mentioned by psychologists who have studied hard-core gamers. These problems need more scientific analysis and based on the fact that the gamer population is exponentially growing, it is a statistical

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