Video games are literally created to be addictive. Every year, video games are created to be more immersive, more explosive and more attention grabbing. Game controllers now vibrate and make sounds in correlation with the action of the game. In 2014, a gaming console was set up to draw blood from a gamer when their avatar lost blood in a battle – for the worthy cause of donating blood but still through extreme gaming. Video games are harder to resist than ever before, but for those who choose not to lose their lives to video games, there are ways of managing a gaming addiction rather than letting it manage you.

In general, the best method of allowing one’s self a healthy amount of video gaming is by planning and organizing one’s time so that it is balanced between work, play, health and relationships. These four priorities should be balanced equally to be a healthy person in general. Your personal or professional vocation makes up your purposeful time. Your medical practices, exercise and nutrition comprise the time you devote to personal health. The attention you give to family, friends and significant others is your relationship time. And lastly, the time you devote to fun, can include time to game, although it does have to include the other things you do for fun as well.

Even more specifically, plan your gaming time in advance and be prepared to enforce rules on yourself to control your gaming impulse. Decide in advance how much time you will allow yourself to game, considering your other time obligations. As your time winds down, consciously prepare yourself to reach a stopping point. If you find it difficult to limit yourself, make use of an egg timer as an external accountability measure. Controlling your gaming impulse takes time, thought and work, but if you are serious about living in a healthy, balanced way, you too are capable of knowing when to say “no” to video games.

Frequently, when someone seems to have too much time on their hands, the advice that comes their way is that they should take up a hobby. Does that mean any hobby is good for you? When it comes to video games, the jury is still out. It is true that video games are a multi-billion dollar industry and that they appeal to a very wide market. It is also true that they have a bad reputation for violence, addictive qualities and laziness. Typically, those who love video games really love them and play them as often as possible. But is this hobby helping or hurting the rest of them?

Some people do not think there are arguments in defense of video games, but there are actually some legitimate ones. For example, video games have proven to increase a person’s hand-eye coordination when played regularly, which translates to their hand-eye coordination in the rest of life. On top of that, some video game creators are deeply concerned with including educational material in their video games. For instance, certain games that are based on a historical war will include facts and trivia for learning as well as gaming, and historical accuracy within the game itself. It is arguable that attributes such as these make gaming a worthwhile hobby.

On the other hand, there are plenty of arguments made against video games as well by people who find them to be a waste of time. When video games became mass produced in the 1990s, one of the first complaints about them was that kids playing them were being inactive. The nature of video games is to sit and stare at a screen, moving only your hands, which is widely regarded as bad for the body. Video games are now associated with weight gain and muscle deterioration. Some video games have also been highly criticized for being very violent video games, and have even been considered contributors to school shootings. Presently, video games are also considered by some to be a legitimate obsession that can require inpatient treatment for addiction, as there are people who game obsessively for days at a time.