Negative Effects Of Cheating In Video Games
  1. Negative Effects Video Games Have
  2. Negative Effects Of Violent Video Games
  3. 10 Negative Effects Of Video Games
  4. Video Games Negative Health Effects
  5. Negative Effects Of Playing Video Games

Cheating can, of course, be a good thing. We've all entered cheat codes into games to unlock special modes, to obtain weapons, to give ourselves infinite ammo, or extra lives. Video game news and analysis. Tips to help you win. They found that there weren’t any negative effects from knowing that there was aim assist on for some players. Cheating and outright.

According to EEDAR, 211 million people, or 67% of Americans, play video games. That means millions of people could be causing damage to their brains, mental state, or ability to sleep.

  • Too Many Video Games Can Be Harmful
  • Effects of Video Games on Health
  • Effects of Video Games on Behavior
  • Effects of Video Games on Sleep
  • Effects of Video Games on Addiction

Keep reading to learn the negative effects of video games and how to prevent it from happening to you or a loved one.

  1. About 54 percent had thought about cheating and 39 percent had actually cheated. But the correlation is the same: people with an avoidant attachment style are more likely to cheat.
  2. Losing creativity is another main effect of cheating. Students who are cheating do not put any effort to their works at all which will lead them to gradually lose their creativity level every time they copy other’s works or have someone to do their works instead themselves.

Too Many Video Games Can Be Harmful

What are the negative effects of video games?
Video games can negatively affect the brain, memory, and vision. They can cause stress, anxiety, and even isolation if the addiction gets severe enough. Video games can even kill brain cells and interrupt a person's sleep.

How do video games affect the brain?
Studies show that people playing 'shooter games' damage the hippocampus area of their brain. This is the area used for spatial and long-term memories. Research states that this is because shooter games require excessive use of the caudate nucleus rather than the hippocampus. The caudate nucleus takes grey matter from the hippocampus, which can lead to illnesses like depression and Alzheimer's.

How do video games affect your memory?
A study conducted by Pyc and Rawson showed that 'video gamers' lose some of their short-term memory, but have better long-term memory than non-gamers. The participants studied two pictures for 2½ minutes. After that time, half of the students played a video game for 15 minutes while the other half read a book. After the 15 minutes, each group wrote down what they could remember from the first picture. After 24 hours, they returned and wrote down what they recollected from the second picture. The 'gamers' scored better on the 24-hour test, but worse on the test immediately following the video game playing.

Effects of Video Games on Health

Are video games harmful to child development?
In a study conducted by psychologist Craig A. Anderson, it was proven that children who play 'aggressive' video games often have aggressive behavior. They also have a decreased level of empathy for others. Others state that 'violent video games' desensitize. This may make an adult less affected by violence as well as more likely to commit the violence himself.

How many hours of video game play is unhealthy?
The 'sweet spot' for video game playing is one hour or less a day. With this amount of video game playing, children have better social skills and enjoy life more. On the other hand, those who play more than 3 hours per day have problems with hyperactivity and attention, and have inept social skills.

So, it's not that playing games is unhealthy, it's that playing them for too long at one time is the problem. Mix it up, then choose a program like Mistplay, which makes the best use of your game time with loyalty rewards.

Does playing video games hurt your vision?
Just like 3 or more hours of video game play can cause health issues, it can also cause vision issues. While playing video games for short times (1 hour or so) does have its benefits, playing for more than 3 hours can cause computer eye syndrome, eye pain, issues with focusing, and even headaches.

Can video games cause stress?
A study on violent video games and the stress they cause show that children playing violent video games have increased stress levels. It could be due to the body's ability to 'fight or flight' when presented with a stressful situation, such as a shooting game. Because the gamer doesn't 'fight or flee,' and they instead sit in their chair for what could be hours, the stress takes a toll on their health and their mind.

Can video games kill brain cells?
Whether video games kill brain cells is still out for debate, but a study conducted by scientists at Tohoku University did find that children who play video games for hours a day might have underdeveloped frontal lobes. This can inhibit proper emotions, the ability to learn, and the ability to remember things.

Can playing video games make you motion sick?
Doctors have found that certain motion video games can make people feel motion sickness, similar to what they would feel in a car or on an amusement park ride.

They think it's because your eyes say that you are moving, but your inner ear says that you aren't. Your brain gets confused and it could result in dizziness and nausea.

Effects of Video Games on Behavior

Do video games affect behavior?
The benchmark for negative effects from playing video games centers on the 3-hour mark. At that point, video game players tend to exhibit behavior issues, act more hyper, and lose interest in school and academics, more so than those who play less than 3 hours a day.

Do video games cause violent behavior?
Violent video games have been tied to violent behavior, but to varying degrees. While it often shows decreased empathy in video game players, as well as a tendency to be more aggressive, there are no conclusive studies that show a direct correlation between video games and crimes committed. The feeling is that the longer a person (child or adult) is exposed to violent video games, the more aggressive they may become.

Can video games cause anxiety?
A study conducted by researchers at Nottingham Trent University and University of Oulu found that video game addiction leads to anxiety among other mental health issues. As much as 9% of gamers experience some type of anxiety as a result of their game playing habit, although the numbers tend to be lower in children game players than adult game players.

Effects of Video Games on Sleep

Can video games make it hard to fall asleep?
Video games can delay a person's sleep, especially adolescents. A study conducted by Flinders University found that increased physiological arousal and cognitive alertness make it harder for adolescents to fall asleep after playing video games at night.

Do video games interfere with sleep?
The studies by the researchers at Flinders University also found that there 'might be' a connection with the amount of REM sleep a teen gets after playing video games, but the research is still ongoing. As most experts suggest, playing in moderation can help alleviate any potential issues.

Should kids play video games before bed?
Use of video games before bed does make it difficult for many children to get a good night's sleep. 18% of parents in a recent study cited sleep issues with their children who played video games at night. Experts recommend limiting video game or even media time (TV) to the daytime hours to avoid the risk of sleep issues at night.

Can playing video games make you tired?
Playing video games may not make you tired while you play them—they may actually have the opposite result. But what they can do is interfere with the quality of sleep that you get.

If you don't get a good night's sleep because your brain couldn't shut down after being ramped up from video games, you'll feel the effects the next day. Even if you get 8 hours of sleep, you may feel tired, irritable, and unable to focus because of the lack of good sleep.

Effects of Video Games on Addiction

What is video game addiction?
Video game addiction, like alcohol and drug addiction, is an impulse disorder. Gamers rely on their ability to play video games at all times. If they are unable to get their 'fix,' they start to experience irritability and aggression. Rather than relying on a substance, gamers rely on the fantasy world that gaming provides to escape their own reality.

What are the types of video game addiction?
There are two types of video game addiction. First is the addiction to single-player video games. Gamers get addicted to beating a certain score or completing a specific mission. If they are unable to do so, they become obsessed.

The other type of video game addiction has to do with multi-player games. Gamers addicted to these types of games get lost in their 'virtual world.' They find a way to escape their own reality and become one with their online character and the people in it. When forced to leave this fantasy world, the addict can become irritable and/or aggressive.

What are the physical signs of video game addiction?
Every gamer will exhibit different symptoms of video game addiction, but some of the most common include:

  • Fatigue.
  • Lack of caring for oneself.
  • Headaches.
  • Problems with joints and ligaments as a result of playing the games too much.

What are the emotional signs of video game addiction?
The emotional signs of video game addiction include:

  • Anger or frustration when not able to play.
  • Inability to focus because one's mind is on the video games nonstop.
  • Finding ways to get out of obligations to stay home and play video games.
  • Losing friendships or causing strain in relationships over the video games.

How can you treat video game addiction?
The most common treatment for video game addiction is cognitive behavioral therapy. Unlike addictions to drugs or alcohol, there are no medications that a person can take to 'get rid of the issue.' Instead, players need to learn how to remove the focus of video games from their lives and to enter their 'real life' once again.

The Benefits of Playing Video Games

Can video game playing improve hand-eye coordination?
A study conducted at the University of Toronto found that people who play video games often have a heightened sense of hand-eye coordination or coordination in general. This makes it easier for gamers to learn new tasks that involve coordination in real life, which can be beneficial.

Can video games improve reaction time?
Certain video games—such as action video games—can change reaction time. This is because players have to react quickly and swiftly in order to succeed at the game. Players of non-action video games do not increase their reaction time nearly as much as those playing action games.

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This was not an easy post for me to write. I love gaming and I’ve loved watching esports grow. I spend most of my effort trying to advocate for esports. There are, however, some negative effects to gaming and esports.

What are the top 10 negative effects of gaming & esports?

  1. Health Risks
  2. Injuries
  3. Mental health
  4. Addiction
  5. Performance enhancing drugs
  6. Match-fixing
  7. Corruption
  8. Gambling
  9. No players union
  10. Cheating

In my opinion, a lot of the negatives on this list can be applied to most sports. If you want to do your “due diligence in research”, check out my post on the 10 Positives of Esports and Gaming (opens new tab).

Health Risks

In case you haven’t noticed, this website is all about bringing better performance to esports and gamers by improving the health and fitness of players.

It wouldn’t be a CyberAthletiks list if it didn’t include health at the top.

Unfortunately, gaming comes with some significant health risks. I want to point out, however, competition is not about health. If you want to be healthy, don’t compete.

Trying to be the best at anything in the world is going to come with inherent risks. Marathon runners might mess up their knees, baseball pitchers might destroy a shoulder, and powerlifters might ruin their back.

This doesn’t mean gamers should just accept the risk and remain complacent.

If you are a competitive gamer or want to be, acquiring an injury or illness that could have been prevented is just laziness and your performance will suffer.

Too much sitting

Ever heard “sitting is the new smoking”? Well, there is some truth to that. People weren’t meant to sit on their glutes and hamstrings all day.

So while I’m a believer in proper ergonomics while gaming, you’ll still be sitting.

Being sedentary for too long is starting to be linked to numerous health complications such as:

  • Heart Disease
  • Cancer
  • Diabetes (Type 2)
  • Weight gain
  • Mental health
  • Metabolic syndrome
  • Back/Neck pain
  • Muscle degeneration
  • Osteoporosis

Don’t believe me? Check out the compiled research over at getamericastanding.org.

While I’m a huge proponent of standing desks, I don’t necessarily recommend them for gamers. In my post on standing desks for gamers, I discuss more on my rationale for why gamers may not want to completely switch to a standing desk.

Although gaming comes with the health consequences associated with being sedentary, there are always opportunities to move more and sit less.

Also, learning how to maximize your practice so that you can spend less time gaming and more time in training, recovery and activities you enjoy, will enable a longer and healthier gaming career.

Injuries

Yes, esports athletes and competitive gamers get injuries. You’ve probably heard about Repetitive Stress Injuries, but there are other surprising injuries associated with gaming.

For a longer discussion on injuries in esports, check out my post: Pro Gaming Injuries – What Gamers Need to Know. /how-to-turn-on-cheats-in-game-in-minecraft.html.

Repetitive Strain Injuries

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS) is probably the most known about and feared repetitive strain injury for esports athletes and competitive gamers.

I want to make clear that carpal tunnel syndrome and repetitive strain injury are not synonymous terms for the same injury.

Repetitive strain injury is a term for many different cumulative trauma disorders that include carpal tunnel syndrome.

So, if you have CTS then you have an RSI, but if you have an RSI, you do not necessarily have CTS (it could be tendinitis, epicondylitis, cubital tunnel syndrome etc.).

In a nutshell, the Carpal Tunnel is located around your wrist. There’s a small tunnel in your wrist made up of ligaments and bone.

Video

Negative Effects Video Games Have

Within this small tunnel run tendons that allow you to flex your fingers. Also in the Carpal Tunnel is the Median Nerve, and its job is to communicate with your brain so that you can move and control your thumb, and feel things on the thumb side of your hand.

In case you haven’t guessed, the Carpal Tunnel is very small and limited. Any sort of swelling or inflammation of the tissue surrounding it can put pressure on the nerves.

Basically, the symptoms associated with CTS (tingling, numbness and burning) is a result of the breakdown in communication between the nerve in the carpal tunnel and your brain.

Back in 2011 Lee “Flash” Young, one of the greatest Starcraft 2 players ended up getting surgery for a wrist problem he had.

Things were so bad he ended up staying in a sports rehabilitation centre.

Collapsed Lung

This may sound like a dramatic injury that shouldn’t be associated with gaming. Collapsed lung, or ‘pneumothorax’, is defined as “the presence of air or gas in the cavity between the lungs and the chest wall, causing the collapse of the lung”.

Now, before you start taking some long deep breaths, be aware that over the last decade, there have been less than a dozen reported cases of the collapsed lung in esports athletes.

It is much easier to prevent this from happening than to actually have it happen.

In esports athletes and gamers, a collapsed lung is most likely the result of a combination of bad habits, such as:

  • poor posture
  • unhealthy diet
  • inactive lifestyle
  • poor breathing techniques

Mental Health

A gamer’s mental health is just as important as their physical health. Physical injuries in esports come as no surprise—they happen in every sport, but gamers experiencing challenges with their mental health may see a big dip in their performance during competition.

It’s hard to say what mental health challenges are most prevalent in esports, but the two big ones I’ve read about in the media are anxiety (especially in the form of panic attacks) and depression.

Anxiety can present itself in many different forms. Justin “Plup” McGrath, who competes in Super Smash Bros. Melee, experienced anxiety in the form of a panic attack; LoL pro Diego “Quas” Ruiz retired from esports after being suspended and spoke out about his battle with depression.

Just do a quick search about mental health in esports and you may be surprised to find that competitive gamers are having a lot more to contend with outside of physical injuries.

I wrote a post on tips for mental health in esports which you can check out here. The combination of being sedentary with little priority given for recovery will take its toll on competitive gamers mental health.

Gamers will benefit both in health and performance if they put some priority into their mental well-being.

Addiction

Anything with the potential to be addictive will typically get 10% of a community addicted to it. So, for alcohol, roughly 10% of people in societies where alcohol is prevalent will end up struggling with alcohol addiction.

Gaming, according to the ‘World Health Organization’ (WHO), can lead to ‘gaming disorder‘. Gaming disorder is described by WHO as:

Gaming disorder is defined in the 11th Revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) as a pattern of gaming behavior (“digital-gaming” or “video-gaming”) characterized by impaired control over gaming, increasing priority given to gaming over other activities to the extent that gaming takes precedence over other interests and daily activities, and continuation or escalation of gaming despite the occurrence of negative consequences.

For gaming disorder to be diagnosed, the behaviour pattern must be of sufficient severity to result in significant impairment in personal, family, social, educational, occupational or other important areas of functioning and would normally have been evident for at least 12 months.

For most of you reading this will probably shrug off any warnings about gaming and addiction, and that’s ok. But don’t deny it, people become addicted to all sorts of things.

It’s bad for the gaming community to turn a blind eye when outsiders point to the negative effects.

In fact, back in 2011, a gamer died at an internet cafe after playing for three days straight. A baby died in 2014 because their parents neglected it due to their gaming addiction.

And there was Neil Roberston, an elite snooker player who stated gaming and almost ruined his career when he became addicted.

I remember watching this documentary when World of Warcraft was sweeping over the world:

I think it’s safe to say with the above examples that gaming addiction absolutely exists.

However, things get murky with esports and competitive gaming. Some of the guidelines and warnings state that anything over 20 hours a week is problematic.

Well, that’s like saying an NBA player who practices for over 20 hours a week is addicted to basketball. Sometimes, or a lot of times, outsiders just don’t understand.

If you suspect yourself or someone you know has a gaming addiction I would recommend checking out this website: gamequitters.com.

Performance Enhancing Drugs

Athletic competition at an elite level will always have performance-enhancing drugs.

I’m sorry to burst anyone’s bubble, but if you think drug testing in sports stops athletes from using drugs, you are very mistaken.

Where there are fame, honour and finances to be earned, the temptation to get an edge over the competition is often too alluring for many competitors.

In esports right now, performance-enhancing drugs usually take the form of stimulants like Adderall. Back in 2015, CS:GO player Kory “Semphis” Friesen had stated that his entire team was using Adderall.

Negative Effects Of Violent Video Games

It was around this time that the esports community started to question just how rampant performance-enhancing drugs were among the players.

Using and abusing stimulants such as Adderall come with a risk to a players health. Some of the side effects from abuse can include:

  • Headache
  • Dry mouth
  • Nausea
  • Digestive issues
  • Reduced appetite
  • Diarrhea or constipation
  • Anxiety
  • Restlessness
  • Pounding or fast heartbeat
  • Shortness of breath
  • Difficulty sleeping and staying asleep
  • Excessive fatigue

I really wouldn’t recommend risking any of these side effects for a short term gain, especially considering how devastating they could be on performance. I’ve also written two other posts on the subject of performance-enhancing drugs for gamers:

Should esports drug test athletes?

I’m often on the fence about this topic. I believe the use of performance-enhancing drugs is going to occur whether or not athletes are being tested. It’s like a bike lock, it keeps honest people honest.

My problem is on the costs associated with drug testing. The Olympics, for example, spend over $300,000 a year on testing.

Athletes, however, are constantly searching for designer drugs that pass these tests or learning ways to manipulate variables in order to pass a test.

My thinking is, why bother spending the money if it barely works? Additionally, drug testing is extremely invasive, just read this article: Drug Tests Treat Athletes Like Extraterrestrials.

Anytime I discuss this topic I can’t help but think of Daniel Tosh’s joke:

I think pro-athletes should be forced to use steroids. I think we as fans deserve the greatest athletes science can create! Lets go! Anything that will make you run faster, jump higher! I have High-Definition TV! I want my athletes like my video games! Lets go! I could care less if you die at 40. You’ll hate life after sports anyways. I’m doing you a favor.

Match-fixing

Where’s there’s money there will be cheating and corruption, and esports is no exception. What is match-fixing in esports? It’s a competitive match played with either pre-determined results or partially pre-determined results.

That is, the outcome of a game is known before it even starts.

Match-fixing is often fueled by gambling or other financial reasons (e.g., one organization bribing another).

Esports has had its fair share of match-fixing scandals and it’s probably been happening ever since competitive gaming existed.

I remember the CS:GO 2014 match-fixing scandal. It was between iBUYPOWER and NetcodeGuides.com, and it was the first of its kind. Evidence began to surface that some of the iBUYBOWER players had bet skins against themselves.

The result was some hefty bans for the iBUYPOWER players who were involved. If you watch some of the match highlights, it’s pretty obvious something suspicious was going on.

In 2010, StarCraft was the centre of match-fixing scandals. Players were being approached by online betting websites and some made deals to throw games for financial gains.

There were 11 players that got banned and some even faced criminal charges and possible jail time due to Korean law.

Corruption

Money corrupts. Corruption is even easier when there’s no organization that governs esports, it’s sort of the Wild West out there.

Probably the most famous example of esports corruption is in the story of the League of Legends, well, legend, Cheon ‘Promise’ Min-Ki. Promise’s sad story is full of lies and deception by his management.

When it was realized that everything was on loan (salaries, computers, housing) pressure was then put on the players to fix matches in an effort to recoup spent money.

Unfortunately, Promise was the victim of his manager’s corruption and even attempted suicide after the incident.

The promise has since recovered and appears to be living out of the spotlight, I hope he is doing well and enjoying life.

Gambling

Esports match-fixing and corruption have something in common, gambling. And not just any type of gambling, but an unregulated, non-age restricted gambling catastrophe.

What makes esports gambling such a catastrophe is the use of skins. Skins are a huge micro-transaction in many esports games.

Children, yes, literally a child of any age, can earn skins and use them to bet. If they win, the skins can often be traded in for real money.

To make matters potentially worse, the United States Supreme Court took away the federal law that prohibited states from legalizing many forms of betting on professional and collegiate sporting events.

While I’m not against betting on sports and esports, the current issue is with underage children having the ability to gamble in a seemingly unregulated environment.

With more opportunities to gamble, more websites for esports gambling will pop up, many of which will entice underage users to bet with skins.

No Players Union

Player unions for sports are organized associations that aim to protect players and further their rights and interests.

Currently, this does not exist in esports. That means organizations have no rules or laws to abide by how they treat their players.

Unions help give its members a voice. Organizations, team owners, tournament/league organizers currently have the biggest say when it comes to decisions in esports. In theory, a union in esports would help protect players from being taken advantage of or being treated as a commodity.

There are, however, some big barriers for esports players unions. Some of them include the numerous different titles/games in esports. In professional baseball, there’s a baseball players union.

10 Negative Effects Of Video Games

But in esports, do you have a union for each game? What happens when games fall out or when new games become an esport?

Additionally, esports players can live anywhere in the world and still compete and be part of a team that competes all over the world. It would be very difficult to enact a union that stretched the globe.

An esports players union is a bit of a touchy subject. Some argue it’s necessary, some argue it’s not, and that it would, in fact, be detrimental.

Due to the legal challenges in creating a union for esports players, it’s probably not going to happen anytime soon.

Cheating

Video Games Negative Health Effects

Well, this is just an obvious negative side of gaming and esports. Nobody likes a cheater.

Players have been caught cheating in almost every major esports game and there doesn’t seem to be any sort of guaranteed solution in sight.

gl;hf

Negative Effects Of Playing Video Games

*Don’t forget, I also posted the 10 Positives of Esports and Gaming.

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