Maplestory X Depression X Breaks X Prevention Method
I have always wondered why it seemed to me that Maplestory players seemed to have some depression, sadness, or anger -- perhaps a high amount of emotions. I wasn't sure if it was caused by Maplestory, or maybe if depressed people would flock to the game, and perhaps if I was seeing a connection that wasn't there. However, now I have somewhat of an idea that it could actually be caused by playing Maplestory for extended period. I do not believe everyone is aware of this information, because otherwise it would be talked about more and we may have guides on how to play healthily, So I will disseminate this information given the chance this may help someone.
Coupling ideas from my non-detailed research from articles and posts related to depression, I have found a possible mechanism -- onset decreased neocortex activity and later size and later-decreased limbic system size and increased activity in the reward areas caused by the game/reward structure of Maplestory -- which may lead to blunting of the positive reward response and increase in negative reward response -- or other games and the subsequent increased game-play caused by this -- by which Maplestory or other games would be an outlet for its players who play large amounts to become depressed, and how constant breaks in game-play, journal-keeping, and chronic exercise may help reverse this process.
I have a simple thought process for this mechanism, but there are multiple things I must discuss for understanding.
Depression leads to a decreased mental state. Maplestory's repetitive and easy nature of game-play, which you may see through the repetitive grinding, may cause decreased activity in the brain compared to what humans would normally experience through interaction with people and exercise. The repetitive nature gets more pronounced the further you go along in the game since you may train for hours at one spot for adequate leveling. Thus at any point when you are training, you may enter this decreased state, and so since you have entered a state which is also mimicked by depression, you may also mimic the feelings of depression even though you aren't actually depressed, and this may persist until you allow yourself recovery through intermittent breaks.
This decreased mental state is constant in depression because there are changes in brain activity and size of different regions which persist for a while without treatment. The main regions are the neocortex, which is responsible for emotional control, and the limbic system, which is the reward center and flight or fight area of the brain. During depression, the neocortex is shown to have decreased activity and size, which would mean any negative or positive emotions are more pronounced. Your limbic system, however, shows increased activity, which may cause you to have a higher drive for rewards, compacted by your emotional state, and also have higher anxiousness due to your increased flight or fight response.
Now, if you look at the way Maplestory is structured, you may notice that as you go along, it is more difficult to be rewarded. Perhaps before you could level in 1-10 minutes, and that increases to 11-30, then 30-45, 45-50, and so on, it's a variable increase, so you keep having longer periods of not being rewarded. Then later after you have leveled, you may also get into rng aspects to upgrade equipments. The rewards are "random," and so you have variable rates of success. You may take some hours to farm cubes and you may not get what you want until a few hours, or maybe a few days.
When you are rewarded quickly, your limbic system shall show increased reward response, thus increased activity. Since it takes a longer time to be rewarded as you go along, your level of pleasurable reward decreases, your neocortex has to work harder since you are doing repetitive tasks and are bored/irritated, and your neocortex runs out of fuel and your emotions will be stronger. If you get into the rng aspects -- especially with the increased limbic response -- you may keep playing for longer or keep spending money because you will constantly seek the reward -- thus your neocortex will continuously work and be depleted. Since the brain is like a muscle and needs recovery, this may cause chronic decreased neocortex activity and size like how your muscles may decrease in size without proper recovery or exercise, as well as a decrease in size in the limbic system, blunted positive reward response from use, and increased activity in negative emotional areas -- including anxiety.
Previously I said that depression shows some increase in limbic activity -- and decrease in neocortex activity.
So if you look at the structure of the reward system in the game again, you will see the possibility of depression or depression-like symptoms from chronic game-play, which also causes decreased neuronal activity and production.
Add to that decreased physical activity and you can see how your mental health is affected.
However, if this line of reasoning does hold some validity for you and from your experience see Maplestory as a potential cause of some depression-like things, you don't have to necessarily worry or quit unless you have trouble doing the things I suggest. I have a plan for you that may possibly reverse the process and may help you to learn due to increased emotional and reward response. It is simple. You would take a break from the game after an hour of playing to help your neocortex recover, and every time you would feel bad or irritated, you would write about that experience: what and why you were feeling that way at the time. This type of journal-keeping and introspection break may help keep up your neuron production and reshape the memory of your experience into the thoughts of your journal entry. You can also couple this with healthy snacking or a meal to further reward yourself.
And you should be fine if you already don't play for longer than 1 or 2 hours per day and spend time talking to people, exercise, or doing some type of meditation or learning or something.
I do believe that sticking to this process religiously would help combat depression or general foul mood while playing Maplestory and any other game for a long time-- or anything that may put you into a depressed state or tired your brain, and may even increase your intelligence.
You can do it!
tl;dr
Maplestory has mechanisms to cause depression. The mechanisms are decreased neocortex activity and excited limbic system from the reward structure/playstyle of the game. You may be able to prevent this brain activity with breaks, light exercise, and journal-keeping after a negative experience in-game if you play a lot.
29 Comments • Newest first
@redskull: Yes, interesting. I'm glad you see something in my reasoning. Now as we go along, I think we can look at these things as a community and try to have a healthful gaming experience.
Very interesting, you may be on to something, and not just maplestory but modern games in general (mobile games and their coins, daily rewards, challenges, mass gifts just by completing a level, etc)
Thank you, @themayorofchat: I appreciate the feedback.
That was a pretty nice read. Good job.
@kaaskopmage: I'm not sure if you are joking or not, but that gives me ideas. Thanks.
Lies. I don't see references to peer reviewed journals.
@readers: It's good that you're studying in college right now. Keep it up.
Also, if you're interested in other reasoning behind depression, and the limbic system, you should make a thread about it.
So should @caracal
@soundfix: lol this is what happens when you have someone like me who is actually studying this sort of thing in college right now
@gakinotsukai: It's not so clear.
Ciao.
Oh wait, also, I have noticed that you seem to keep a type of journal within the story section, talking about your personal feelings and making sure you don't get too heavily within the long farming aspects, perhaps you have developed a decent amount of emotional intelligence. That may go along with my suggested healthy habits.
Do you also exercise, pay attention to diet, and casually converse with acquaintances?
@wellness: Nvm. For someone who's opinion usually is, "heavily dependent on outside factors", it's clear it's not the case here. Peace.
@caracal: Since I'm explaining the mechanism by which it may develop depression, the first sentence doesn't apply. It may apply if I were to say: people who play Maplestory have depression, so Maplestory causes depression. That is not my "argument."
quote=caracal :"the reward system is not a unique concept. we've all experienced it at some point. if anything, people who are predisposed to the condition are less likely to be influenced by the reward system because their 'neural responses to gains are blunted'
(https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27015724)"
I'm not following all of the terms here, but it seems to be saying there is greater response to loss than there is to gain. That may follow along with the premise that negative-emotional activity may increase. However, since it says the opposite response may be blunted, I may want to look back and clarify how the areas that would make you feel good from getting rewarded may be blunted.
Also, you may not be following my reasoning, but I don't see how the other stuff is relevant to my point.
@gakinotsukai: In the first paragraph, I think you're making the error of stereotyping gamers. Not all of them use it as an escape, and part of my reasoning includes how people may stay interested in playing the game due to the reward structure -- it is the quick gains in earlier leveling and the easier time gaining equipments which bring rewards and positive emotional response. Perhaps this is why people continuously switch characters.
For the last part of your response, it doesn't go along with my point or theory, but I think it's okay for you to note that people with depression may exacerbate their symptoms.
@soundfix: Overall I think it is a good thing, but I was slightly surprised myself.
@deeemon: It depends on how they play the game, but there may be some mechanisms by which constantly seeking the "right" clothes and whatever else they do may lead to depression.
It's mostly the chat section right? Which is more frequently used for out of MS topics. Heavy gamers or ones that rely on using video games as an escape usually fall into this category. It's not something that if you play MS then you develop depression. It's more along the lines of having depression may imply that you are playing games in order to find a social aspect or escape reality. MS just happens to be a free to play game that's accessible to many.
Now if you want to argue that Free to play games are the worst for people with depression or some other mental issue then I wholeheartedly agree for the exact reasons that you listed.
I don't know what any of this stuff is. But nexon is the one that angers the frig out of me, dood. Also some players who act like stubborn idiot jerks, never leaving me alone to level up in peace because they've never seen a Jett, Mihile or Mechanic train before, those fricks. I don't think I feel depressed when grinding. If I have to level up a character, I just do it and get it over with and move on to the next one, dood. nexon never does anything right or make this game any better. Man, what a bunch of jokers.
I always thought Hen hoes were the most depressed players in this game. What do they even do?
This thread is getting wayyyy to serious for a basilmarket post LOL.
correlation does not imply causation.
i don't know how you can conclude that a mapler, or anyone in general, has been diagnosed with depression without being explicitly told so. one may exhibit some signs and symptoms, but please keep those assumptions to yourself.
the problems you list are not exclusive to maplestory or gaming. everyone, not just those with depression, experience frustration and fatigue after hours of doing some form of prolonged activity. i would definitely expect to find diminished brain activity as a result.
the reward system is not a unique concept. we've all experienced it at some point. if anything, people who are predisposed to the condition are less likely to be influenced by the reward system because their "neural responses to gains are blunted"
(https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27015724).
every cause you list affects us all, so why don't we all have depression?
staying physically and mentally healthy is common knowledge. sometimes people with depression literally can't do that. things like showering or getting out of bed become difficult because depression affects everything from how you think to what you do. self-care is oftentimes neglected.
matters of the brain aren't simple. the exact causes and mechanisms concerning depression, along with other psychological disorders, aren't known. i know you have good intentions, but i think you have a naive view of the subject at hand. you should take some more science courses if that's what interests you. add a bit of pharmacology and see how difficult mental illness is to treat.
the prevention tactics you suggest are health tips for everyone to follow. i can't say that they prevent depression though. ultimately, i think people who play maplestory and have depression do so because they just find it enjoyable. escapism, if you will. don't overthink it.
@readers: Thank you for pointing about the typographical error when I talked about the increases and decreases of the limbic system. I corrected it and added clarification.
About the other stuff, the way I post on this website is under the assumption that any questioning on the technical side may be googled if anyone shows interest -- I'm mainly giving my own reasoning by which the game can cause depression since this is something Maplestory players may be interested in if they see some depression-like symptoms in themselves.
@wellness: Those are not counterarguments so much as they are other considerations, but I can be way more harsh with counterarguments if I wanted to (ex. lack of proper sourcing & no reference to academic sources, no empirical backing for solutions, says limbic system activity both decreases and increases, actual methodology not clear, etc.). I still fail to see the significance of focusing on MS (why is it, for example, that some people who play MS have no problems, while others do? It's certainly the same game, and we all have human brains). At the moment, your method is akin to treating one symptom of something out of very many - and not a very guaranteed one at that because of what I've said.
"Increased limbic system activity" says nothing when the limbic system comprises a lot of the brain, hence why I suggested more specification.
@readers: My main point is that Maplestory can be a cause for depression due to its reward structure which may trigger physiological changes. So although I agree there may be other contributing factors, using it as a counterargument may be missing the point. If there is someone who can see the connections, they may see Maplestory as a cause or contributing factor for their feelings and change their lifestyle; and they may apply it to other areas as well. It would be that simple if it makes sense to them.
Also, the limbic system includes the hippocampus and a lot of other brain regions.
@wellness: Just because the amygdala and serotonin (to use examples) is involved in both does not mean that the processes are the same for both. There's a lot of debate over the mechanisms involved for both, and thus makes it hard to find some concise answer. (I'll mention a few other things to consider: circadian rhythms, other brain regions like the hippocampus, specific NTs & genes, nature versus nurture, etc.) If you want to contribute, don't just debate with me - go to school, make this your field of interest and work your way up.
Other things happen in people's lives that may create depression or addiction. These factors may be biological, or social, or etc. Example of a social factor: Their parents abuse them and their peers at school bully them and so they escape by playing video games. Maybe they're innately driven to be addicted to video games in some way without outside influence. Nobody knows these things for sure. They vary from individual to individual. MapleStory therefore is unlikely to be the only factor.
@readers: I can see where there may be some benefits in adding a detailed explanation of depression, but it's not really my focus. I'm assuming that everywhere knows what depression is or feelings of sadness and boredom and will look it up if they are not sure if they have those same feelings.
Also, the technical information is one of my main focuses so I can show there is a tangible reasoning to how the Maplestory reward structure may cause players to develop depression.
I'm not sure what you mean by the last sentence, but addiction and depression can go hand in hand since they have the same underlying physical systems (limbic system and neocortex) and similar mechanisms for action (neurotransmitter action). Essentially, that's why I'm speaking about the same reward system.
I might make a shorter thread for some people who have trouble reading it -- and this may not be to you -- but there is nothing inherently wrong with a longer thread, and the only reason why people may expect threads to be shorter is because most of them are. There is also no inherent expectedness premise for the threads to be short on this site.
Maybe it goes against the social norm of this site, but meh, read a longer thread that may or may not help or enlighten -- live a little.
@wellness: It's an oversimplification, sure, but unless you have an interest in psychology, nobody really wants to read the technical aspects, even if it's for the abstract that appears before actual academic papers.
Also you only documented the reward systems that are at play during development of addictions. You didn't actually talk much about depression. Depression is also a very complicated thing and it's more likely that people get addicted to MS for other purposes and not the idea that MS itself causes depression.
@soundfix: I like the "sound" of that.
@readers: I guess you can't expect a guy to be able to summarize well just because he can "read."
Better tl;dr: Breaking news! Too much video gaming bad! Stopping good!
Well it certainly seems like you really care about our... wellness.
>>>>>tumblr
Thank you, @pinyin. There's a lot of information out there that can help us.
good stuff
@endurance: Hey, I guess you don't have endurance after all. ba dum ting.
Jokes aside, I'm more driven by fears and obsessions than expectations.
Also, there is a tl;dr
Hope you didn't expect me to read all that.