World Health Organization website's Q&A




Before I write my own opinion, I want to see the responses from the people in SEN.

I think associating a disorder that's based purely on a non-chemical sort of addiction (if you don't count dopamine) with a single type of activity/thing which could be applied to any number of activites/things (watching tv, obsession with a sport, etc) is really disingenuous.

I had a many year long stretch where I was a ski bum. I was obsessed with skiing, and I did nothing but work+ski, letting all other areas of my life essentially suffer. Did I have "skiing disorder"?

"Disorder" seems like a very negative term. I can point out some cases where gaming proved to be beneficial. It can relieve stress (if you stay away from PvP) and improve reflexes/puzzle-solving skills. I've been hooked on Starcraft since the early 2000's. Soon after, I started mapping, and I liked it even more. Even after 10 years of Starcraft slowly dying, I still work my hardest to make new maps and further push the limits of the game.

The experience gained from mapping is very useful for learning Computer Science (Code structure, variables, complex logic, and debugging). In fact, I wouldn't be this interested in Comp. Sci. if it weren't for Starcraft. So no, I don't call this a disorder, but more like a gift.

I think their point is that it affects people at a crucial time in their lives. If skiing interfered with your school work and anything that's necessary to the development of a well-adjusted human being then yes, it could be appropriately described as a disorder.

It's more preponderant than other hobbies with children and appears more likely to produce compulsive behaviour. The proportion of video-gamers who play video games to the exclusion of all other things seems greater than that of skiers who ski equally compulsively. This is pure conjecture though so feel free to change my mind with any evidence to the contrary.

What they fail to mention is that children, especially young boys, need creative outlets. Most video games aren't especially well suited for that purpose but they happen to be very closely connected to some that are, like development.

If children are our primary concern, then this just seems like the ADHD crisis all over again, where a large number of kids that didn't have any actual disease was being misdiagnosed. While I do agree gaming can have a huge influence on children, I think this is as simple as being a parental/disciplinary issue. I don't think applying some new term to children is going to help anything.

It's similar, but it's not as extensive as video games. The common goals among game developers has a direct influence to gaming disorder. Incentives set into extreme measures. The goals include replay value, longevity, and incentives. There's no doubt gamers would love to replay their games over and over again. There are certain gamers who play multiple games on a daily basis. Like real life goals, people would love to go above and beyond.

Games such as Skyrim has such longevity for one character, people are willing to create a new in a different race and/or gender. It's a major time sink. Games such as Minecraft encourages people to farm and being creative. I know one particular person in his 30's is so willing to spend 5 years and counting on a single Minecraft world on creative mode. Games such as Battlefield, Call of Duty, Overwatch, Rainbow Six Siege, Team Fortress 2, Counterstrike, Starcraft 2 all have nearly infinite replay value. A lot of gamers are completionists, they are willing to collect everything, finish all quests, and collect all of the achievements or trophies for hundreds of games. Games such as World of Warcraft, MapleStory, Destiny, The Division, Grand Theft Auto Online all have major time sinks for grinding for equipment and/or money. There are many games with daily, weekly, and monthly challenges. Their willingness to drive themselves to get everything as they can. Then there are games with holiday events, such as "2x experience" on Christmas. There are many gamers who would rather take full advantage of every second of the 2x experience than spend time with their friends and families in person. And then there's the controversial loot boxes that is a literal translation to gambling. It's like spending money on a slot machine, you won't know what you'll get. And then there are those single player games that include "one life only". Once a player dies and didn't complete the story or expected themselves to last longer than they should, they'll try again and again.

Online or offline. Replay value, massive amounts of content, and any other time sink activities can be associated with gaming disorder. When a gamer thinks the current game they're playing reaches to the point of "I'm done with this game for today", they move on to another game and that cycle continues with multiple games in a single day. Then now you have a gamer who treats each game as daily routines on a daily basis for I don't know how long. It could be a week, a year, or 20 years. It's these extreme measures that is associated with gaming disorder. It will interfere with school, relationships, jobs, and anything else in life with such neglect. That includes their health. Whether the health includes lack of diet, lack of exercise, lack of hygiene, lack of person to person communication, lack of sleep, lack of happiness, and so on. If gaming becomes a dominant force in a person's life where it becomes a daily routine, they will neglect a lot of things. Whether they forget to turn off the stove, forget about their homework, forgetting about their dinner and/or breakfast, or even forgetting about feeding their pets.

To make matters worse through irony, gamers will misinterpret the WHO's description of gaming disorder to the point where the WHO's claims are made verified and proven on these gamers acting critical. This phenomenon is quite extensive, unlike movies and TV shows. People are willing to watch every single episode of multiple TV shows, or watching endless amount of movies on Netflix. It's similar to "gaming disorder", but not to the extent.

And yes, spending money on video games can also somehow correlate to taxes, groceries, gasoline for their car, commute and so on. As if it's "normal".

Post has been edited 2 time(s), last time on Mar 6 2018, 6:24 am by KrayZee.

Blech I can see myself in KrayZee's example. I have a problem but feel like if I gave up gaming I'd give up more than half my life, literally deleting years worth of... whatever it is I was doing playing games and browsing the web.

Haven't watched the video though, I'm on my phone, I'll watch it tomorrow.

Edit: I don't see anything wrong with that video, seems pretty reasonable to me. The editor that wrote the questions obviously has a bias against gaming, but the professional being interviewed doesn't.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Mar 6 2018, 11:11 pm by Dungeon-Master.

You don't necessarily have to give up gaming. It's not alcohol or recreational drugs. Someone who wants to stay fit and healthy sometimes have cheat days that doesn't have negative impacts on their diet. When someone who is excessively angry is going through anger management, it doesn't mean they're not allowed to be angry at all. They just have to reduce the level of their anger that's considered acceptable and healthy.