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"?
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.
None.