CHAPTER IV

DISCUSSION

This chapter represents the discussions of the result of this study in the context of

related literature and other studies regarding the reasons why students engage to playing

online games and how it affects their family relationships.In the case of this study, it was

focused on the senior high school students of Ateneo de Naga University. It included the

duration of playing online games, who they played online games with, their perception

about online games, the reasons that pushed them to play, and the effects that it brought

to them physically, emotionally, mentally, and socially.

Relationship with Family

Impacts of playing online games to the relationship of students to their family

Based on the answers of the respondents, they were not comfortable when they

play with their family. They chose to play with their friends because their actions and

words were not limited when they were with them. Also, no one stopped them from

playing and no one got angry by the reason that they were playing. Another respondent

said he paid more attention on playing online games rather than spending quality time

with family. He also said that he failed to help his family in doing household chores. In

these cases, online gaming made their family relationships weak. However, there was one

respondent who answered positively. He said that when his family was free, he would

spend more time with them rather than playing games.

One respondent said that whenever something wrong happens in his game, his

family would interrupt him, sometimes he tended to shout at them and then regret, saying

bad words. He would become irritated without reason. In this situation, the respondent
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tended to disrespect his family members because of online gaming. This affected

negatively the bond between him and his family. This kind of case was supported by an

article written (Ali, 2018) which discovered that online gaming caused gamers to possess

wrong values.

Another respondent said that he was aware that he paid more attention to online

games than his family. Online gaming became his priority rather than spending quality

time with his family. He isolated himself from the real world where he can interact with

the people nearest to him. He chose to spend his time with games which cannot make him

an open person. This situation was supported by the study conducted (Chai, 2011) which

stated that minority of children spend more time playing online games rather than spend

it with their family.

Playing Online Games

Factors that urged students to play online games

Based on the responses, playing online games brought relaxation and enjoyment

to the students. It brought them self-satisfaction and stress relief especially that they were

pressured of all the overloaded activities and school works in senior high school. Playing

also entertained them and kept them occupied when they were bored. Another factor was

the peer influence. Seeing their friends play also urged them to engage with it that was

why they also tried to get along with the trend. Some were told directly to play online

games. Another factor was getting a reward after playing. They were motivated to play

because of the prizes. A respondent said that he played online game to study the game

itself. Whenever he knew that there was something new about the game, he would

probably return to the game to explore that. Another factor that urged the students to play
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was the influence of media. While they watched in their televisions or scrolled their

social media accounts, they discovered that some gamers became popular because of

their skills and achievements in the gaming world.

A respondent said that online gaming had become his stress-reliever. Sometimes,

he used it to forget things. Whenever he was not in good mood, especially when he was

about to sleep, he would find it hard because he had many thoughts unlike when he was

playing. He was just concentrating to the game that was why he could forget the things

that made him in bad mood. He said that it was more helpful when he played with his

friends because of enjoyment. Online gaming had played a crucial role for the student to

relieve his stresses and frustrations from random things. Online games became his outlet

and way to forget all the negative things that he experienced. A related study conducted

(Lisa, 2011) supported his answer. Lisa stated there that online gaming was a mode of

recreation where students get to themselves, the people around them, the world they live

in, and how things work in their world.

Another respondent said that whenever there were new characters and new moves

in a game, he would find time to check them, he wanted to see them because he was part

of that community. He mentioned that whenever something “new” was in the game that

he played, he made sure that he can go along with the players who were exploring that

“new” in the game. He wanted to study that new character in the game and its skills to be

aware of it and to compare it to the other characters that he had used before. This

situation was supported by a study (Kit, 2018) which expounded that one factor affected

a person to engage more to online gaming. Because of excitement to explore the new
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trend or new challenges in the online game a person played, he became more active in

playing until he was too much exposed to it.

Students’ feelings after playing online games

Respondents said that after playing games, when they were defeated, they became

frustrated and stressed. They threw bad words and sometimes they felt a need to punch

someone or something to release their exasperation. A respondent said that sometimes,

being defeated caused their self-confidence to decrease. Sometimes when they were

being trash talked by their opponents, instead of being silently furious, they would argue

back to them or just mute everything that they said and then focus to the game. A

respondent said that it depended on the game. If he was fighting hard on a competitive

game and won, he would really feel satisfied but if he was able to figure out what was on

a puzzle game, he would feel a sense of fulfillment. When it comes to the physical

effects, after playing multiple rounds of games, they felt extremely tired and their eyes

became painful.

A respondent said that when he played online games, he became isolated from the

real world. Being too much focused on online gaming made him isolated and not

connected with the actual people. The respondent became anxious. No one can comfort

him whenever he was defeated in the game because he was not connected with other

people. He cannot open up his problems to other people because he limited himself to his

games. An article written (Ali, 2018) supported the claim that online games made gamers

isolated. They did not have the time to connect with their family or friends, they wanted

to be alone all the time.

Another respondent said that he learned about throwing bad words because of

online gaming. Doing such made his irritation to be removed. But sometimes, he needed

to punch someone. Online gaming could also give an effect like this especially when the

player was not successful to win the game. It was detrimental when it came to the point

that someone would hurt another one just for a satisfaction or relief. In an article

(Mindmeister, 2017 ), online gaming caused a gamer to become angry when playing. A

gamer had an outlook on violence which could truly affect his relationship and treatment

with his family and to other people as well.

Limitations

Several limitations were experienced in conducting this research. To begin with,

the number of students who participated in the study was still not adequate enough for

accurate results that could have provided some beneficial impacts of online gaming to the

relationship of the Ateneo de Naga University Senior High School students with their

family since lesser than the fifty percent (50%) of the population got involved in the

study. Also, the researchers needed to change the time of interview because they were not

able to meet the respondents at the agreed exact date or time of the interview due to the

different schedules of vacant time. The researchers also needed to change the

respondent(s) because of hectic and conflicting schedules.