Written by Kai Eysselein President / The Namibian Electronic Sports Association
It is about 10 years ago that I realized that I was a workaholic. During that time I was in the office two hours before anyone else. I would work through the day, skipping tea breaks most lunch breaks too. In the evening I would put in another two to four hours before going home. My average work day including weekends was 14 hours long. My friends and family made me aware that my work habits were unhealthy and I should balance my life with other activities too. So I changed my work habits and started working no more than the regular hours. Since I stopped working so much I needed to occupy my mind and find a way to spend the extra time I had on my hands. I played every game I could get my hands on. So my days were filled with working, and my evenings and weekends with gaming. During that time the internet access in my country was still dialup, so online play was impossible. 6 years ago that changed and I ended up playing a game called “America’s Army”, a tactical shooter that is developed for and endorsed by the US Military. When I stopped playing 3 years ago, I had clocked almost 4000 hours officially, with many more hours unaccounted for. During that time I played in a team, competing at a high level. Part of our team commitment was to play 6 days a week for at least 3 hours. We had to spend that time online, practicing and competing. We were undefeated champions for quite a while in the regional championships and competed with the French champions who could not beat us either. Most people thought we cheated because we had every aspect of the game and tactics practiced and drilled to perfection. I would however play 7 days a week, averaging probably 6 hours a day. Saturdays and Sundays would start at 7am and end at or even after midnight if I could. During that time I stayed with my fiancee and got married. I did not realize how much strain my relationship had because of my habits, and my wife was very patient and supportive of them. I did not know how much I hurt her and how much damage my gaming would do to our relationship. Things changed very rapidly. A new version of the game was released, which turned out to be very buggy. The community fell apart and thus my time was free to do other things. I was very depressed and frustrated with my life. I realized that I had become obsessed with the game, maybe even addicted. I looked for help online and found a group called “Online Gamers Anonymous”. I joined their forum and communicated regularly with other addicts. I realized that the problem was bigger than I thought and made a decision to change my life. I sold the gaming PC and enrolled for a part time course to improve my qualifications. At the same time I committed my time to the gaming community and gaming as a sport. I decided to get gaming recognized as a sport and that part of the responsibilities that go along with that are to promote healthy habits and a culture that is on par with that of any other sport. The challenges faced by gaming as a sport are many. Since gaming has become the number one social activity enjoyed by people of all ages all over the world, it is also prone to the most negative press. The key arguments against gaming being mentioned start at the content of games and age restrictions, cover physical health and health issues and also reach into mental health, addiction being one of them. Being a recovering gaming addict myself, I feel a very strong responsibility towards other gamers and society to share my experience and inform people about the risks. I have successfully changed my life from someone who obsessively gamed, to someone who can game casually. Fortunately I am in the position to share my experiences and to inform the public about the risks and how to deal with them in the best way. The first step in having achieved this was to formalize the Namibian gaming community and create the national e-sports body as a founding member. As co-author of our constitution I ensured that healthy habits form part of our objectives. The next step is about getting informed and informing the public. Being transparent and honest with ourselves and others will allow us, as sporting administrators of e-sports to grow electronic sports and ensure that it gets the recognition economically and most importantly, socially too. Gaming has many positive aspects too, ranging from social interaction, to skills and intelligence training. These have been researched and highlighted in the media almost as much as the negative press gaming has received. This article is the first in a series of articles about gaming addiction and healthy gaming habits. The next article will focus on obsessive gaming and gaming addiction.
