psychoanalyst's view

This is not the first, and, of course, not the last article about psychology of computer games, which was written for a psychological site. The topic is fertile - computers have become an integral part of life, and computer games are a seductive way to spend free time.

• Why do people play computer games?

• Computer game: is it good or bad?

• How to get rid of gambling addiction?

Thousands of people ask Yandex these and other similar questions every day. Considering these questions through the prism of psychoanalytic experience, I will try to give my answers to them.

People who play games

There is a common misconception that computer games are played mainly by teenagers. This is not entirely true. Rather, teenagers discuss their games more openly. Adults often find the fact that they are attracted to certain computer games somewhat embarrassing or even shameful. And they continue to play them, without advertising this fact among friends and strangers. In fact, computer games can captivate a person of any age, gender, family and professional status.

Why are computer games attractive?

The game can take quite a lot of time (and not always free time). However, many people prefer to spend time in front of the monitor. Why is this happening?

Computer games allow you to be transported to “another world.” They, like nothing else, allow you to immerse yourself very deeply in this world, and even at the body level to feel its virtual reality. The situation of the game allows you to be as free within it as “real reality” will never allow. The worst consequence of a mistake or failure in a game is having to close it and start over.

Games are attractive because they allow feel something what is missing in everyday life. Or, on the contrary, NOT feel something that life has in abundance. In addition, some games allow you to to be someone another, someone attractive, someone one would like to feel like.

Example 1: Being Lara Croft?

A number of games, especially role-playing games, provide the opportunity feel like a different person than in reality. For example, a fearless, courageous, strong savior of an innocent victim of terrible monsters, or a beautiful, smart, athletic, exceptionally attractive female archaeologist, ready to risk her life to acquire incredible artifacts.

The ability to feel your own strength, attractiveness, fearlessly take risks, and successfully unravel ingenious mysteries is almost a drug. And the stronger it is, the fewer opportunities a person has to feel the same in his real life.

Example 2: Kill the monster!

Many games have a strong aggressive context: kill as many enemies as possible! crush the terrible monster! gain strength and become invincible! The player feels excitement, strength, power, and deep satisfaction from the mass destruction of virtual creatures. It may seem that the game causes aggression that the person did not have before - a compelling argument against computer games?

Why do these games turn out to be so attractive to seemingly completely peaceful people, sometimes even timid in everyday life? Because they allow the expression of what he has repressedand aggression. They help to express what a person does not allow himself to express in reality - because the more a feeling is suppressed, the stronger and stronger it becomes somewhere deep inside. The virtual situation is safe, it makes it possible not to experience fear and guilt - those feelings that form the basis for suppressing aggression.

Passion for aggressive games is attempt get in touch with your aggression and, perhaps, learn to manage it. True, this attempt is not always successful, because virtual reality is still very different from the real one.

Example 3. Playing solitaire...

A whole layer of computer games (for example, logic games) were created in order to pass the time in situations of forced waiting. But sometimes it turns out that time is not at all unnecessary, and it is impossible to tear yourself away from a simple and fairly monotonous game. It would seem, well, what’s so addictive here?

Occupying one's attention, focusing on solving problems of varying degrees of complexity, observing a series of attractive visual images, going into the simple virtual world of colored balls, cards, beautiful diagrams, a person spends time moves away from the state of anxiety. By rearranging cards, grouping balls by color, or assembling words from letters, a person temporarily stops the flow of disturbing thoughts and images. But returning to reality also brings back anxiety.

Computer games: pros and cons?

Computer games can look like a completely pointless pastime if you look at them only from the perspective of external reality. For her, a person who spends hours in front of a monitor is practically lost. But since people are doing something, it means it has some kind of mental meaning. Which?

From the point of view of internal (mental) reality, computer games represent a kind of method of mental self-regulation. Game process helps relieve mental stress(to some extent). So they “go away” into the game from stress, dissatisfaction with their life and themselves, from the inability to show any strong emotions in real relationships.

This way of dealing with difficulties is similar to the use of alcohol as a way to regulate one’s state: playing (like alcohol) allows you to quickly (but only for a short time) change your internal state and relieve tension. When games are often resorted to as a means of achieving internal balance, it is possible gaming developmentdependencies. The mechanism of formation of alcoholic and gaming addiction similar: when mental tension is very high, there is a simple and rather pleasant way to quickly relieve it. This method does not require a particularly large investment of time, energy, money... In the case of alcohol, chemical dependence also comes into play. The creators of computer games fight for their clients, using various psychological techniques, schemes, tricks, and try to create games that touch truly deep strings in the human soul.

It is believed that online games are the most addictive. By coming into contact with other players in his virtual image, a person has the illusion of real relationships, real life. Then it's easy to lose track of the hours and sometimes the days. Physical needs, obligations to others, life circumstances fade into the background, and “the figure turns into the background” - virtual reality becomes more real for the player than “offline reality”.

Virtual Reality: In and Out

If computer games have become something more than a convenient way to while away free time, a person is faced with the fact that the passion for the game begins to disrupt the course of his daily life. The desire to get into the game becomes very demanding, even obsessive. And then the understanding may arise: “the games are over”, the gaming addiction. What to do?

Some people find it relatively easy to quit gaming. These are people with very strong willpower and a not very far-reaching passion for games. As a rule, such people, having realized their addiction, simply give up the game, removing it from the computer, and find something for themselves other, more suitable ways to cope with stress life.

Sometimes, friends who realize their addiction refuse to play together. A group effect arises: together it is easier to give up the formed habit, it is easier to find already half-forgotten activities in real life. And, of course, another person taken as an ally in the fight against addiction is controller(in front of whom it is a shame to break down), and support(so necessary sometimes in the fight with oneself). Of course, such a person could be someone close to you who does not suffer from gambling addiction. He can “strengthen” the player’s “I” captured by passion, offering his willpower and determination to help find a way out of the virtual trap. But this help is truly effective only if the player is aware of his addiction and wants to get rid of it.

Sometimes it is not possible to cope with addiction alone or even with the help of friends and family, despite all the efforts and desire. This is usually due to the fact that there is not just a habit, but a serious internal attachment to the game. This happens when the game “serves” some important psychological needs or distracts from serious psychological problems. Then it is impossible to simply close the game and turn off the computer - as long as there are problems, our psyche will look for their solution (and the easiest way is a virtual pseudo-solution - it has already found it and will simply repeat it!). Therefore, getting rid of gambling addiction often lies through reducing the level of anxiety, freeing yourself from internal conflicts, accepting yourself, self-esteem and increasing the ability to actively express yourself in the outside world, increasing the ability to build and maintain close relationships with other people, and finding meaning in your own life.

Psychologist-psychanalyst
Training Analyst and CPT Supervisor

A lot has been written about the benefits or harms of computer games. Some people defend this pastime, while others consider it almost the source of all evil on earth. Why do people play computer games? What attracts them?

The answer to this question can be found in human psychology. It is generally accepted that online toys are the preserve of teenagers.

But this is far from true. Every person can escape reality into the virtual world, regardless of their social status, marital status and field of activity.

Why are computer games attractive?

It's easy to feel different in virtual life. Feel emotions that will never exist in “real life”, or, conversely, get away from their excess. There are several types of games that attract people with certain personality traits.

1. I am a hero or we play Lara Croft

The plots of such games allow you to imagine yourself as fearless and courageous, those who will save the world. Or a smart and attractive lady who risks her life to discover artifacts and incredible finds. T-shirts, T-shirts, shorts, flip-flops, mugs, bags are decorated with the symbols of this game, thus emphasizing your hobby.

Such stories are like a drug for a person. He can no longer help but take risks and unravel mysteries. And the more he “goes” into the game, the less opportunity he has to feel such emotions in real life.

2. Defeat all monsters!

Many toys have a very aggressive context.

You need to destroy more enemies or kill a monster. Here the player is allowed to feel the excitement, strength and invincibility (after all, he has collected the maximum “lives”!). As a result, he feels pleasure from crushing creatures in the virtual world. Such games cause aggression in real life, even if such behavior is not typical for humans.

This type of computer fun attracts those who are timid and peaceful in everyday life. After all, in the virtual you can show all your hidden aggression. Such games allow you to express everything that a person hides in reality, because if a feeling is suppressed, it only becomes stronger. The virtual situation, even if it is dangerous, is still not real. There is no fear or guilt, which are incompatible with anger. For some people, aggressive game plots are an attempt to learn to manage their aggression. And it must be said that sometimes this succeeds.

If you decide to play a computer game, do not forget to look at the clock at least sometimes, because ordinary life does not wait and passes very, very quickly.

More and more amusement parks are being built, more and more new computer games are being released, quizzes and other competitions are multiplying on television, some are interested in historical reconstructions, while others enthusiastically ride scooters and roller skates... It seems that over the past two decades, games have decisively took over the world of adults. What is this – regression to infantile behavior, a desire to please your “inner child” or a desire to escape from overly strict social regulations? “The mood of play is one of detachment and delight, sacred or festive,” wrote the philosopher Johan Huizinga in his book Man Playing. – It gives us a feeling of joyful uplift and allows us to relieve stress. Play is a powerful source of energy; it is inherently full of positive emotions.”

Productive activity

Those of us who introduce elements of play into our routine work are more successful than those who focus only on their direct duties. This, in particular, was proven by Dutch scientists by persuading the management of one insurance company to allow some employees to sometimes play computer games at work. It turned out that employees, after playing, began to work more efficiently and received greater job satisfaction than their colleagues who did not participate in the experiment**. Although psychologists had to look for a company that would agree to conduct a “game” experiment for quite a long time. And no wonder - not everyone is convinced that the combination of play and work can increase productivity. Back in the 19th century, any pastime that did not lead to profit was declared idleness. Even Chekhov in “The Cherry Orchard” contrasted the “idler” and outgoing nature of Ranevskaya and the hard worker, the man of the new Russia, Lopakhin. Society agreed to tolerate only gambling - and that was because there was a chance to make a profit: by chance, the player could get rich.

Important Need

“People who have deeply internalized the social model of the industrial age feel obliged to look sad in order to be taken seriously,” says social psychologist Hubert Jaoui. – For them, being adults means not smiling, not playing, not crying, not experiencing emotions. Ultimately, these “rationalist realists” turn out to be depressed people, prone to passivity and fatalism. On the contrary, creative people know that reality is flexible and moving. So they play with it with pleasure, constantly re-creating it. If we take life too seriously, we deprive ourselves of the chance to change it.”

Does this mean that playing is our natural activity, and not at all a manifestation of regression or infantilism? “This is our need, which is fundamental to maintaining our mental health and creativity,” confirms Hubert Jaoui. “Without play, our reasoning becomes stereotyped, our emotions dry up...”

We know that play is extremely important for a child, and not only because it allows you to develop imagination, logic, and physical dexterity. “In play, a child symbolically moves into the world of the rules of human relationships,” wrote psychologist and teacher Daniil Elkonin***. What about adults? “A game is the realization of our creative potential, which often remains unclaimed in life,” explains transactional analyst Vadim Petrovsky. – We are achieving goals that were not in the plans, but were within our potential. The game allows for unlimited imagination and creativity. Everything can become everything, and we can become everything, here and now. And this is a tremendous pleasure." This is the difference between children and adults: children play to explore their capabilities and build their personality, and we, adults, play to forget about ourselves and surpass ourselves.

4 psychological functions of the game

All games, despite their great variety and diversity, were divided into four categories by the philosopher Roger Caillois, depending on whether the game is dominated by competition, chance, simulation or... vertigo.

« AGON. A whole group of games is a competition, a struggle, where equality of chances is artificially created and opponents face each other under equal conditions, which provide an accurate and indisputable assessment of the victory achieved. These include both team and individual competitions: tennis, boxing, football, athletics. The same class includes games in which the opponents at the beginning have exactly the same number and value of initial resources. Excellent examples are checkers, chess, and billiards.

ALEA. In Latin this is the name of the game of dice. This word denotes any games that are based on a decision that does not depend on the player and is not in any way under his control, that is, in which it is necessary to outplay not so much the enemy as fate. Not only do they not strive to eliminate the injustice of chance, but it is precisely its arbitrariness that forms the only driving force of the game. The purest examples of this category of games are dice, roulette, toss, baccarat, and lottery.

MIMICRY. The type is named so by analogy with insect mimicry. In this case, the game is to become a fictional character and behave accordingly. At a carnival, a masked man does not try to convince anyone that he is a real marquis, a bullfighter, a redskin... but tries to frighten others and take advantage of the surrounding freedom, which itself stems from the fact that the mask hides the social role and releases the true personality. So the actor doesn’t try to convince the audience that he “really” is King Lear...

ILINX. "Whirlpool" in Greek. Includes games that are based on the desire for dizziness and consist in the fact that the player momentarily violates the stability of his perception and brings his consciousness into a state of some kind of sweet panic. Such sensations are caused by various attractions, primarily roller coasters, swings and carousels. Adults have at their disposal a variety of dances - from the polite-secular, but also insidious whirlwind of the waltz to various types of frantic feverish-convulsive twitching. They get about the same pleasure when enjoying high speed, for example on skis, on a motorcycle or in an open car.”

Escape from everyday life

“We go into the house. The floor is strewn with candle stubs, the walls are full of eerie inscriptions. In the light of the lanterns everything looks unreal. Like decoration. It’s hard to believe that in Moscow, in a large park where children walk during the day and couples kiss in the evening, there is... something like this,” says 40-year-old Anna, a participant in the game “Watch,” the essence of which is racing through the city at night, searching for treasured instructions and... receiving a powerful dose of adrenaline.

The game allows adults to escape from everyday life in order to completely immerse themselves in a different environment for a while. And the more we are pressured by social norms, the more we need such an escape. “The game gives us the opportunity to feel the freedom that we are deprived of in reality,” says Vadim Petrovsky. – Burdened with responsibilities to other people and ourselves, controlled by superiors, the team, and relatives, we often feel like puppets being pulled by strings. And the game allows us, at least for a while, to stop depending on society and do things that are not allowed to us in reality. Moreover, in the game we can defeat someone, laugh at someone, manipulate someone... If in life we ​​are allowed so little, then in the game everything is allowed.” This explains the current success of role-playing games, costume history shows or paintball, where teenagers and adults spend hours shooting paintballs at each other.

Freedom of the “inner child”

The beauty of the game is that the player has no age. “When I play with my children, every time I admire the opportunity to again feel alive, open, and emotional,” admits 38-year-old Anna. This spontaneity is a manifestation of our “inner child”, that state of our “I” that is sensitive, vulnerable, emotional and self-sufficient at the same time. “This is a meeting with yourself, with that “I” with which everything begins in infancy,” explains Vadim Petrovsky. “Then in our own eyes we had absolute power, we controlled ourselves and the whole world, which lit up and went out depending on whether we closed or opened our eyes. When we play, we seem to return to those childhood situations where we were happy and certainly experienced pleasure.”

Listening to the “inner child” can be very important in moments of conflict or personal crisis, when a person is unhappy or confused. In this case, the learned habit of playing makes it easier to restore contact with him and find emotional balance. “Thanks to his intuition and spontaneity, our “inner child” will be able to find the right solutions, while an adult is locked within what is permitted, limited by his fears and prejudices,” continues Vadim Petrovsky. “It is also important that contact with the “inner child” fulfills our need to feel the integrity of ourselves in the past, present and future, the integrity of civilization, nature and space, our involvement in everything and dissolution in everything.”

Finally, the game also prolongs youth! We age according to the image of old age that we create for ourselves. We become victims of our own stereotypes when we associate it only with illness, weakness, and loss of opportunity. But this is not necessarily the case! It turns out that as soon as a person stops enjoying the game, he begins to grow old...

* J. Huizinga “Homo Ludens. Articles on the history of culture" (Progress Tradition, 1997).

** For more information, see the website of the University of Utrecht (Netherlands), uu.nl

*** D. Elkonin “Psychology of Game” (Vlados, 1999).

Often, when a person is asked why he/she plays computer games, a stupor arises. "What a stupid question?" - this is exactly what the answer will be in most cases. If you try to get a more reasoned answer, you may hear: “it’s fun, it helps you relax after work” or “it’s like immersing yourself in a multi-volume fascinating novel, in which you can also take part” or “this is an integral part of my life, I’ve been doing it since childhood I'm playing."

People rarely think about such an important question, which is why the answer to it often sounds like an excuse or an attempt to protect itself from those who do not perceive computer media as equal media on a par with cinema and literature. But I am absolutely convinced that you need to find the right answer so that when playing you don’t just waste time, but get the maximum benefit.

Games in one form or another have existed in human society since its inception, and the concept itself is present in the language of every culture. According to Ozhegov’s explanatory dictionary of the Russian language, “a game is an activity used for entertainment, recreation, and sports competition.” This is a way to release excess energy, get bright emotions and in every possible way increase the level of endorphin in the blood of participants. But is this statement true for everything that we habitually call games?

In ancient times, the only exception was perhaps chess. Invented no less than 1500 years ago, they clearly demonstrated that games involve not only physical strength and endurance, but also mental work. With rare exceptions, games have been consistently associated with aimless pastime throughout human history. And, I must say, not without reason.

With the beginning of the information era, humanity was faced with a new type of games, which came to be called “computer”. But why was the same old word "game" used for something so new and unusual? What can unite, for example, chess and football on the one hand, and Stanley Parable With Dota 2 with another. We used to call it “gameplay” - or simply interaction/interactivity. In outdoor games or shooters, this is the interaction between team members. IN Journey or Stanley Parable- interaction between the player and the game world.

The actions of the participants are always, in all cases, aimed at a specific result: scoring a goal, checkmating an opponent, or destroying the main tower of the opposing team are clear and obvious goals. But why play, for example, Stanley Parable From the point of view of the game itself, it is absolutely incomprehensible. It has no goal, no end, it does not call for being “faster, higher, stronger” than someone else. At the same time at Journey there is a task that is clear from the very beginning - to reach the mountain, but even here no one offers to compete with other people. So why are we playing?

Answering this question, I clearly distinguish two groups of people:

For the first group, computer games, like most outdoor games, are an excellent opportunity to “let off steam.” Get the necessary release, for example, by playing several matches in Call of Duty or FIFA- the most common motivation. This is why competitive games, as well as shooters, action and slasher games, are so popular. And there is absolutely nothing strange or wrong about this. The main thing is to be aware that this is precisely your main motivation to play. In the end, computer violence and excitement help to throw out unnecessary emotions in the virtual world, and not on family members or work colleagues, which is extremely important for a person in principle.

For the second group, computer games are a way to get unique experiences that are impossible in real life. Games help these people find answers to pressing questions, solve personal problems and look at the world from a different angle. By the way, this is exactly what makes individual computer games art, which cannot be said about any other type of game in principle.

The main goal in Journey- the journey itself, which each individual player will associate with a personal “path” to the cherished goal. Journey once became the embodiment in a game form of my desire to successfully pass exams and enter a university, so for me this is a very personal game. In it I competed only with myself. I tried to understand what I really wanted and how I could achieve it. Very few games are able to influence the player on such a personal level, helping him with real problems.

This is not to say that these two groups of players never intersect, but this happens very rarely. I, for example, can equally get carried away Journey or Call of Duty. It all depends on the specific goal I have when I press the Play button. But at the same time, I know a lot of people who Stanley Parable will seem completely meaningless. As one of my friends said after playing it for an hour: “I don’t want to waste my time so uselessly.” Another good friend of mine simply cannot understand what captivates millions of people to spend tens and hundreds of hours Battlefield. For him, military equipment, explosions, and shooting are an empty and unnecessary pastime if they do not serve some higher purpose than simply demonstrating impressive special effects.

While I’m talking here, you probably have a few thoughts on the question: “Why do you play computer games?” I will be very grateful if you answer in the comments. Let's discuss this topic.

Why, from the very beginning of the development of civilization, not only children, but also adults always played?

In the business world, 2016 can easily be called a trend in the entertainment industry.

Why have online mobile games become a trend? Because even adults love to play and because the number of smartphone users is constantly growing.

In the next article I will show everything in numbers, but today we will talk about why all people, young and old, love to play and from the very beginning of the development of civilization, people have always played.

If you are reading this article, then you, like everyone else, love to play and at the end you will receive toys as a gift.

If you don’t think deeply, the concept of play is associated only with children - this is a big misconception.

But in fact, a person does not stop playing all his life, because they say “all life is a game” according to certain rules. Which we set for ourselves.

Often we stop liking this game of life, but we cannot get out of it, because it has certain rules. And sometimes we want to play another game of life, but the rules of that game allow others to join, but not you.

In sports, teams compete in athletics, biathlon, gymnastics - it’s just a competition. But hockey, football, and volleyball teams do not compete, but play. Don’t you think it’s not without reason that these competitions were called a game?

We grew up, but did not stop playing, only the games changed - checkers, chess, badminton, tennis. Many people like to play cards and lotto...

Computer games are simply a new stage in the development of games, dictated by time. First there were electronic toys, I remember playing Tetris. Then on computers, games are already built right into the system. There are also games for every taste on the Internet.

An entertaining page has been created on the blog, a page on which there are mobile games, as well as a crossword section. I will be holding crossword tournaments with real prizes, subscribe to the blog news to participate in them.

Why do adults love to play?

• To relieve tension or stress of the past day, to switch to the positive.
• Sometimes this is how one overcomes the fear of reality with its problems and troubles; in the game everything is solved easily and you can become and feel like a winner, at least in an unreal world.
• Sometimes they move away from real problems into virtual problems, which in any case will not affect real events.
• You can do everything in the game, even things you can’t do and things you would never do in life.
• And finally, a simple desire to kill time.
• Many more reasons can be written...

For example, before going to bed I like to play card solitaire on the computer - it erases the thoughts with which it was filled in my head, I don’t continue to solve problems in bed and therefore fall asleep easily.

In general, I love it. But nowadays you can easily see a 30-40 year old businessman or even a member of the government playing some kind of “shooting game”. And more professional than their children. Nobody thinks this is wrong.

Are mobile games beneficial or harmful?

Gaming has moved to a new level, mobile. And you can play mobile games while you are far from the computer.

Mobile Internet has taken the entertainment industry to a completely different level. This is convenience for players and billions of dollars in revenue for game creators.

You can play a mobile game absolutely anytime and anywhere. This allows people to pass the time while traveling, flying, at train stations and airports.
A huge variety of mobile games allows anyone to choose a game or several that suits them. Mobile games are incredibly colorful and dynamic, which attracts both children and adults.

Scientists write a lot about the benefits of mobile games, but they have not given a definitive answer; there is still a lot that remains unsolved.

Educational games, even for a two-year-old child, are useful within reasonable limits. During the game, the child’s practical skills develop and strengthen, he learns to think logically, and begins to train his memory. Children have always developed faster in a family where there are many other children to play with; children in kindergartens are more developed than children at home.

For older people, computer and mobile games prevent Alzheimer's disease. Even if you don’t have a partner to play checkers or chess, a computer can become one.

For people with enormous psychological stress, games relieve stress.

Although a game, of course, is a game, you can lose. But while honing your skills, you must follow the rules - these skills will certainly come in handy in life.

Have you noticed that happiness and success are found in those who live and work effortlessly?

There is also a lot of talk about the dangers of games, in the sense of gambling addiction and addiction to games.

But this is the same as with good wine - no one will cut down vineyards or stop the production of good grape wine because of the presence of alcoholism among the people.

Or the production of cars and planes increases, despite the fact that people die in car and plane crashes.

Mobile games online on smartphones and tablets are not only interesting, but also profitable?

The convenience of the mobile Internet cannot be overestimated and, accordingly, wide access to mobile communications has brought the gaming industry to a completely new level.

The growing quality of online games for mobile phones, their colors, and dynamics are attracting even more players to mobile games, and the work of game developers has increased.

My fellow countryman, 40-year-old Viktor Kisly, was in first place among the most successful Belarusian businessmen.

His childhood hobby, playing “tank”, and the fact that at school he spent a lot of time in his father’s software laboratory, led to the fact that at the age of 17 he and his friends began creating his first online game.

Victor has created a couple of dozen games, but the game World of Tanks brought fame and money to Victor Kisly. It is now one of the most popular mobile games in the CIS countries and most of the world.

If you have a smartphone, then you now have the opportunity to get acquainted with the best mobile online games.

Go to this site, choose a game for yourself, install it for free and also receive 20 tokens as a gift to participate in sweepstakes.