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‘Need to address issue that causes addiction’

KUWAIT CITY, Feb 9: Psychologically classified as a mental illness, socially caused isolation of some, and decreased productivity in others, it has been classified as one of the most important tributaries of the global economy with rapid growth, it is the electronic game – Player Unknown Battle Grounds or PUBG that has won over an audience of hundreds of millions around the world, reports Al-Rai daily.

As usual, Kuwait had a share of the PUBG fever that swept through the world. It spread among people of all walks of life, from school and university students, to employees, housewives, and even parents before the children, causing a social and psychological crisis that has left many problems in its train including expulsion from work. The principle of the game in short, is to choose a region to start from, pool weapons, stay inside the playing area, kill everyone, and win for you and your team in the end.

The idea is very simple, and the fact that all the players are real is somewhere, makes it more fun. Allowing the voice chat inside the game makes it even more interesting. In about 15 minutes PUBG turns from a young man who lives a normal life to a fighter on a battlefield struggling to come out winner which is the one who holds to the end. Globally, electronic games, including PUBG, seem to have surpassed the psycho-social impact node, entering the doors of the most prestigious universities as study courses and new academic programs for the electronic gaming industry, especially as statistics from the global gaming and e-gaming market point to rapid inflation in the industry and generated revenues, until the order came to provide scholarships for the best players in the game.

It seems that the so-called “entertainment industry” has attracted entrepreneurs, firms, businesses and technology to invest the public’s attention in these games in promoting national economies. Entire companies have been established to develop the new electronic games so that the player remains passionate about the game until addiction sets in. “We play together in one team from all over the world, we can talk to each other during the game with the use of the microphone said Dana, first year in university. I think it is fun, and I spend about 7 hours a day playing mostly at night, which sometimes forces me to miss the lectures at the university.

Meshal, who is the head of a family and father of 3 children and owns a transport company, said: “The rate of play is at least 10 to 12 hours a day, especially since all my friends play it. He stressed that all his friends are heads of families like him. Razan admitted that her expulsion from her job was due to her busy phone and PUBG has played a big role in losing the job,. However, “I continued playing the game as simultaneously look for another job,” Razan said. At the local level, Dr Khedar Al-Baroun, a professor of psychology at the Kuwait University, said that “addiction to video games depends firstly on the degree of the human vacuum, which does not know how to operate time, so there is only the screen and the keyboard.”

The effect is not limited to the human psyche, but also affects the person’s temperament, hours of sleep and thus productivity in work, not to mention that this addiction hinders the healthy movement of the person who keeps his head low on the mobile phone for long periods, the professor said. The professor suggested that the state must step in and address the issue that causes addiction and have serious psychological and social repercussions.