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Back in 2002, then-seventh-grader Surya Santoso was spending six to seven hours at a time playing “Nexia,” his favorite online game.

The game, the first massive multiplayer online role playing game to hit Indonesia, was enormously popular when it debuted that year.

“During those years, it was almost like my life revolved around the virtual world of my avatar, the mage Nonamushi,” he recalls.

“I was obsessed with increasing my character’s power to heal and to attack, to the point where I often forgot to eat and sleep. I wanted to stop, but my mind always persuaded me: ‘Just one more level, just one more step.’ ”

Now a university student, Surya has vowed never to touch another online game because he knows how casual curiosity can lead to a destructive cycle of addiction.

“My schoolwork was compromised because I would use up the time for homework to play,” he says.

“There were also one or two times when my friends and I skipped class to go to a nearby Internet cafe. As for my parents, they stopped trusting me because I kept lying to them.”

Also caught in the powerful grip of the online game were most of Surya’s male friends, with whom he chatted while exploring virtual worlds.

A Growing Phenomenon

While the downsides of excessive online game play have long been discussed, parents and teachers still have trouble weaning children off the habit.

“Every time I find my son playing online games, I unplug the computer keyboard and stash it away,” says Maya (not her real name), who has two boys.

“I’ve encouraged him to channel his energy to sports or elsewhere, but it’s very difficult. Computer game addiction is very similar to cigarette addiction.”

Other parents turn a blind eye, as long their children aren’t dabbling in more harmful activities.

“Games are acceptable as long as they keep my son occupied over the summer,” says Sari, the mother of a seventh-grader.

“It’s better to let him play online games with friends I know than to have him explore something like pornography.”

Aisa, who runs the popular Spiderweb Internet cafe in Tangerang, says most of the children gaming there are dropped off and picked up by their parents.

“It shows that parents have no problem with their kids having the habit,” she says.

“During the holidays, the kids spend up to 10 hours a day here. During the school term, they come here for about two to three hours daily.”

Still, excessive online gaming is blamed for lowering students’ grades drastically.

“Because my son used up his study time to play games, his teachers noticed a drop in his grades, and I’ve been called in before to talk about it,” Maya says.

In other countries, the issue of online game addiction is receiving serious attention because of its potential to destroy personal relationships, educational opportunities and careers.

“Online games condition the child behaviorally to want to play more, because every step involves a reward,” says educational psychologist Fransisca Ting, adding these rewards can be extra abilities, gear or social status.

“This gives [players] a sense of power, of competence, that they may not be receiving elsewhere,” she says.

Regardless of the problem, the fact remains that the online gaming industry will continue to expand.

The nation’s Internet market has grown from 1.9 million users in 2001, roughly 1 percent of the population, to 25 million users in 2007, or 12.3 percent, according to the Indonesian Internet Service Providers Association (APJII).

Of this figure, the growing online game market accounts for eight million users, according to a presentation by MMORPG.co.id this year.

The number of online games in Indonesia has also proliferated. Once dominated by “Nexia,” today’s range includes “Point Blank,” “World of Warcraft” and “Ragnarok.”

Though it used to be dominated by high school boys, the gaming industry has also broadened its reach. A fifth of online gamers are now female, Aisa estimates, while younger children are also being drawn in.

The youngest customer at Aisa’s Spiderweb cafe is a kindergarten boy “who comes in regularly to play ‘Point Blank,’ ” a first-person shooter game.

New Solution

Aware of the futility of trying to pry children away from their computers, some games are now trying to turn this seemingly wasteful addiction into a productive tool to support an educational agenda.

One such example is “Second Life Education,” a Linden Labs creation that explores new horizons for learning in a three-dimensional virtual environment.

It invites people of all ages to open an account, create their own avatar, converse with other participants, trade goods and receive an education — activities very similar to those in the real world.

Unlike distance learning, “Second Life Education” claims that its users feel a greater sense of presence through a personal alter ego.

The learning experience can extend as far as the imagination — from a simulation of real Elizabethan settings when studying Shakespeare, to participating in field trips inside virtual organs and machines.

Harvard and Princeton are only two of the institutions currently experimenting with integrating virtual learning within their curricula, the “Second Life” Web site says. Ohio University even set up a functioning virtual island campus in 2006 for just a few thousand dollars.

While skeptics have their doubts, Sari resonates the hopes of many parents trying to channel their children’s energies toward something positive.

“Given how online games can capture a child’s attention, these captivating new technologies may just prove to be excellent educational tools, if used properly,” she says.