Video game addiction has been an especially hot topic lately, thanks to the rise of battle royale games likeFortniteandPlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds. There have been calls to outright ban the games, withPUBG Mobileaddiction being of particular concern in countries like India, where the game has been blamed for falling test scores for students. Now, according to aviral Facebook post,PUBGaddiction has played a role in a man leaving his pregnant wife and their child for the game.
According to the post, the man was introduced toPUBGby his siblings, and then started to play it excessively. This led to arguments, as the man was staying up all night to playPUBGand neglecting his responsibilities, like work. Eventually, the man decided to leave his family, which apparently occurred about a month ago at the time of this writing.
The post doesn’t appear to have any identification of the woman or her husband, so it’s possible that the account is fabricated. But while we can’t verify the accuracy of the post, it is worth pointing out that video game addiction is a real thing that has had an impact on families. After all, there is a reason whyFortnitewas cited in over 200 divorce casesin the UK alone.
The topic of video game addiction has become more mainstream lately, with the World Health Organization going as far as tolist game addiction as a legitimate mental illness. There have even been cases recently of people having to go to rehab due to their addiction toFortnite. However, even though video game addiction seems to be a serious problem for some people, it certainly doesn’t impact the vast majority of gamers.
It’s clear that more research is needed on how to properly treat video game addiction. In the meantime, it will be interesting to see if any countries move forward with bans on the biggest games, especially in India where prominent organizations havecalled for the government to banPUBGspecifically.
