Video Game Addiction Tries to Move From Basement to Doctor’s Office

hawki · Jun 17, 2018

"Video games work hard to hook players. Designers use predictive algorithms and principles of behavioral economics to keep fans engaged. When new games are reviewed, the most flattering accolade might be “I can’t put it down.”

Now, the World Health Organization is saying players can actually become addicted.

On Monday, “gaming disorder” will appear in a new draft of the organization’s International Classification of Diseases, the highly regarded compendium of medical conditions.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/17/...column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

Next up:

Social-Media Disorder

Smart Phone Disorder

Selfie Disorder

Try Another Anti-Malware Program Disorder aka Wilders Syndrome

guest · Jun 20, 2018

WHO Calls Gaming Disorder an Illness. Experts Say Not So Fast
June 19, 2018
https://www.wired.com/story/who-calls-gaming-disorder-an-illness-experts-say-not-so-fast/

But while experts generally lauded Google and Apple's new tools as a step in the right direction, many of them have reservations about gaming disorder's inclusion in the ICD.

"I don't want there to be people classified with a mental disorder when they don't really have one," says University of Connecticut psychologist Nancy Petry [...]
And at least right now, critics contend, that evidence doesn't exist for gaming disorders. Many existing studies on the subject are of surprisingly low quality

[...] but many people game 10, 15, 20-hours-plus per week and still live happy, productive, socially active lives. In the absence of clear diagnostic guidelines, critics say, the WHO risks stigmatizing healthy relationships with gaming.

Conditions, experts fear, are ripe for overdiagnosis. "The rush to pathologize a behavior that might otherwise be healthy—it's risky," Nacke says. If, in identifying that one person in a hundred with a serious gaming disorder, you misdiagnose 10 others, that's a serious problem.
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xxJackxx · Jun 20, 2018

Are they going to start giving people disability checks for sitting around playing video games now? I don't want to live on this planet anymore.

guest · Jun 21, 2018

Duty of care: Boy, 10, so addicted to video games he stopped going to toilet to stay online and damaged his bowel
June 20, 2018
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/20...dicted-video-games-stopped-going-toilet-stay/

Dr Jo Begent, a consultant paediatrician at University College Hospital (UCH) in London, said the boy was playing World of Warcraft, Call of Duty and Fifa eight hours at a time with his gaming addict father and become so seriously constipated his bowel and bladder stopped functioning.

Dr Begent, who is also an NSPCC trustee, said it was the worst of a regular flow of cases she has to deal with of children addicted to gaming or social media, with each accounting for one or two cases a month, including some where the child had dropped out of school.

It has taken two years of treatment and support on the NHS to wean him off his addiction and stabilise his family life. He was still “not 100%” but was playing games in a more settled way.
She believed parents had an important role to play but the firms also had the technology for automated time limits on the games which could be a way to tackle the problem.
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guest · Sep 16, 2018

More and more couples are reportedly divorcing over Fortnite
September 15, 2018
https://www.dailydot.com/parsec/fortnite-divorce/

According to a recent report by U.K. divorce resource site Divorce Online, more than 200 couples filed for divorce in 2018 while citing Fortnite and addiction to other games as a reason for the split.

“These numbers equate to roughly 5 percent of the 4,665 petitions we have handled since the beginning of the year and as one of the largest filers of divorce petitions in the U.K. is a pretty good indicator,” a Divorce Online representative wrote.

With the rise of digital media, addiction to games, social media, and other electronic distractions will likely stay a significant source of marital problems in the West. The World Health Organization established Gaming Disorder (otherwise referred to as gaming addiction) as a public health concern.
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guest · May 25, 2019

World Health Organization classifies ‘gaming disorder’ as an illness
May 25, 2019
https://venturebeat.com/2019/05/25/...ion-classifies-gaming-disorder-as-an-illness/

The World Health Organization moved forward with a proposal to classify “gaming disorder” as an illness.
WHO added gaming disorder to the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems. This refers to gaming disorder as a kind of addiction, or “a pattern of persistent or recurrent gaming behavior (‘digital gaming’ or ‘video-gaming’), which may be online (i.e., over the internet) or offline.

Stanley Pierre-Louis, CEO of the Entertainment Software Association, which represents the video game industry in the U.S., has opposed the move because it lacked research foundations and could lead to bans on video games in various countries.
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guest · May 27, 2019

Beijing’s new gaming addiction clinic opens
May 27, 2019
https://www.abacusnews.com/digital-...ction-clinic-opens-old-wounds/article/3011990

China has a complicated history when it comes to treating gaming or internet addiction. Doctors in the country were treating people with game addictions long before the WHO had even introduced the issue to its agenda. Yet one doctor in particular has tainted the industry in the eyes of many.

When asked about the impact of the new WHO classification, University of Hong Kong professor Cecilia Cheng said it will mostly raise public awareness around excessive gaming without causing a big impact on the gaming industry or eSports.
Cheng led a research project that determined one in 10 primary school students in Hong Kong is either already addicted to video games or at risk of becoming an addict. They spent more than eight hours per week playing video games on average.

“Personally I don’t think this act [by the WHO] is a measure to combat the timely problem of gaming addiction because gaming addiction is only one type of behavioral addiction (other examples are pathological gambling or shopping)," she wrote in an email.
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guest · Jun 1, 2019

16-Year-Old Boy Dies Of Cardiac Arrest While Playing PUBG
June 1, 2019
https://www.techworm.net/2019/06/boy-dies-cardiac-arrest-pubg.html

Since PUBG is an addictive and competitive game it takes the adrenaline rush to a new horizon.
16 Year Old Boy Died While Playing PUBG
Furqan Qureshi, a 16-year-old boy and a student of class 12 died due to cardiac arrest while playing PUBG continuously for 6 hours. He was rushed to a hospital but unfortunately, the doctors failed to revive him.

Dr. Ashok Jain, (who treated Furqan) stated that “The death was caused possibly by severe cardiac arrest triggered by sudden, but deep shock. It’s possible that since the teenager had been playing the game for long hours at a stretch, he could have delved into some kind of syndrome from which it was difficult to come out,”.
Furqan was a swimmer and didn’t have any heart problems.
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bellgamin · Jun 1, 2019

xxJackxx said: ↑

Are they going to start giving people disability checks for sitting around playing video games now?... ...
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Pay me to play? Sounds great! Video games haven't hurt me... hurt me... hurt me... hurt meeeeeeeeeee.........

EASTER · Jun 2, 2019

bellgamin said: ↑

Pay me to play? Sounds great! Video games haven't hurt me... hurt me... hurt me... hurt meeeeeeeeeee.........
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Just think. If this invention was around for us instead of bubble gum cards, transistor radios, and tube TV's nobody would have been safe today

guest · Jun 26, 2019

Inside China’s battle to keep internet addiction in check
June 27, 2019
https://www.scmp.com/tech/policy/ar...as-battle-keep-internet-addiction-under-check

They had gone to drag the teenager away from his computer at the behest of his mother, who had watched her son skip meals and forgo sleep to play online games for 20 hours a day for weeks.
“We dared not block his access to the internet for fear he would harm himself. It was the end of my world.”
Li is one of about 100 mostly teenage boys and girls at the Adolescent Psychological Development Base, a drab collection of buildings located about 30 kilometres (19 miles) from central Beijing.

China has stepped up its oversight of its video gaming industry following a directive by Chinese President Xi Jinping last August to the government to prevent widespread myopia among children.
In the past year, Tencent, the market leader, has introduced age verification and limits on play time by young people. The Shenzhen-based company had no comment for this story.

Wang Guoqiang, a factory worker from Hebei province, has stayed at the centre with his son for a year and has spent more than 150,000 yuan [=~$21.800] on treatment. It is a huge financial burden but worth it, he said.
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guest · Oct 7, 2019

Epic Games faces class-action lawsuit for "knowingly" making Fortnite too addictive
The suit claims Fortnite should come with a warning
October 7, 2019
https://www.techspot.com/news/82221-epic-games-faces-class-action-lawsuit-knowingly-making.html

WTF?! Most people would agree that when it comes to video games, being addictive is a good thing. That ‘just one more go’ feeling usually means players are enjoying themselves and want to experience more. But what if a title is too addictive? That’s the accusation being directed at Fortnite and Epic Games, which is facing a lawsuit for “knowingly” making a game that’s allegedly as hard to quit as cocaine.

Calex Légal, a law firm in Montreal, Canada, is preparing a class-action lawsuit against Epic Games. CBC reports that the legal notice was filed on behalf of the parents of two children, aged 10 and 15, and claims that playing Fortnite causes the brain to release dopamine in the same way as taking drugs such as cocaine, resulting in chemical addiction.
It’s also claimed that Epic Games did all it could to make Fortnite as addictive as possible.

"They knowingly put on the market a very, very addictive game which was also geared toward youth."
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The case also notes the World Health Organization’s recent decision to add ‘Gaming Disorder’ to its International Classification of Diseases.

"In our case, the two parents that came forward and told [us], 'If we knew it was so addictive it would ruin our child's life, we would never have let them start playing Fortnite or we would have monitored it a lot more closely'," Chartrand added.
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CBC: Addicted to Fortnite? Montreal law firm says video game company should pay up

guest · Oct 8, 2019

NHS opens clinic to help child addicts of computer games
GPs will be able to refer young people, after ‘gaming disorder’ defined as a health problem
October 8, 2019
https://www.theguardian.com/society...linic-to-help-child-addicts-of-computer-games

The NHS is opening the country’s first specialist clinic to treat children and young adults who are addicted to playing computer games such as Fortnite, Candy Crush and Call of Duty.

Staff will help those aged 13 to 25 whose lives are being debilitated by spending countless hours playing games. From Tuesday GPs and other health professionals in England can refer addicts to the service, with treatment starting next month.
It has been set up because of concern about the growing number of children and young people whose heavy use of computer games is causing problems for them, especially with their mental health.

“Gaming disorder is a mental health condition which can have a hugely debilitating effect on people’s lives, both for patients and their families who can be left feeling utterly helpless in the wake of their loved one’s addiction,” said Dr Henrietta Bowden-Jones, director of the NHS’s new Centre for Internet and Gaming Disorder and the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ spokeswoman on behavioural addictions.
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guest · Oct 22, 2019

Study casts doubt on value of WHO’s “gaming disorder” diagnoses
"Dysfunctional gaming" seems to be more symptom than cause of psychological issues
October 22, 2019
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/10/study-casts-doubt-on-value-of-whos-gaming-disorder-diagnoses/

Since the World Health Organization proposed new diagnoses for "hazardous gaming" and "gaming disorder" last year, there's been an ongoing scientific debate about which way the causation for these issues really goes. Does an excessive or addictive relationship with gaming actually cause psychological problems, or are people with existing psychological problems simply more likely to have an unhealthy relationship with gaming?

A recent study by Oxford's Internet Institute, published in the open access journal Clinical Psychological Science, lends some support to the latter explanation. But it also highlights just how many of the game industry's most devoted players may also be driven by some unmet psychological needs.
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Addressing the value of WHO's potential gaming diagnoses directly, the authors say their work "strongly suggest[s] that dysregulated gaming is unlikely to be a practically significant route by which psychological-need frustration undermines psychosocial functioning."
The researchers conclude by asking rhetorically "if the attention that researchers and clinicians give this immensely popular activity is empirically justified. Judged on the basis of the evidence reported in this study, we would conclude it is not."
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guest · Dec 23, 2019

Video games are dividing South Korea
Arguments over whether game addiction is real have led to feuds between government departments and a national debate over policy
December 23, 2019
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/614933/video-games-national-crisis-addiction-south-korea/

Is this really a public health crisis?
Adding gaming disorder to the official medical lexicon marks a significant shift. Despite the years of concern and study about the effects of video games, conclusive evidence of any links to addiction or violence has been hard to come by.
“We’ve had 30-plus years of research on gaming addiction and we’re not really anywhere closer to understanding what it is that we’re actually talking about,” behavioral researcher Pete Etchells recently told MIT Technology Review.

There have also been suggestions that Asian countries like South Korea—which are generally more sensitive about gaming addiction than their Western counterparts—leaned on the WHO to include gaming disorder in ICD-11.
In August 2016, an American clinical psychologist, Christopher Ferguson, emailed the WHO to advise against the inclusion. “It’s probably not an issue that’s quite ready for prime time,” he wrote. One of the email’s recipients, ICD-11 project officer Geoffrey Reed, replied: “Not everything is up to me. We have been under enormous pressure, especially from Asian countries, to include this.”

Even government agencies have openly feuded; the South Korean culture ministry refused to join a consultative body led by the health ministry last May, effectively stonewalling early moves to implement the classification.
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guest · May 25, 2020

Chinese lawmaker proposes government-enforced age restrictions for gaming
China's efforts to combat gaming addiction have so far mostly relied on independent systems from gaming giants Tencent and NetEase
May 26, 2020
https://www.abacusnews.com/games/ch...orced-age-restrictions-gaming/article/3085964

A Chinese lawmaker has proposed a government-led age rating system for online games to protect minors from addiction and health issues, stepping into an area that has currently been left to major gaming companies such as Tencent Holdings and NetEase to police themselves.

The system should be supervised by the national cultural and news authorities, which would enhance reviews of online gaming content and step up penalties for companies who violate the rules, according to Zhu, an educator and vice-chairman of the China Association for Promoting Democracy.
Based on the nature of the content, online games should be classified into categories such as early education, controlled, limited and prohibited, he said. For under 18s, Zhu also proposed applying different levels of playtime, spending limits, and real-name verification methods including phone numbers and facial recognition.
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guest · Jul 2, 2020

Pakistan blocks online game PUBG over 'negative' impact
July 2, 2020
https://today.rtl.lu/news/business-and-tech/a/1542774.html

Pakistan on Wednesday temporarily blocked the hugely popular online game PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG) after receiving complaints it was addictive and following media reports linking the brutal, multiplayer shoot 'em up to suicide.

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority said it had received "numerous" complaints from people saying the game has a "serious negative impact on (the) physical and psychological health of the children" who play it.
The PTA said it had suspended internet access to the game pending a high court hearing on July 9.
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Pakistan's Dawn newspaper last month reported that police in Lahore had recommended a ban after a teenaged player killed himself.
The newspaper said police believe the 16-year-old boy committed suicide after he failed to accomplish a mission.

Pakistan's move follows similar bans in Jordan, Iraq, Nepal, the Indian state of Gujarat and the Indonesian province of Aceh.
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PTA has received numerous complaints against PUBG wherein it is stated that the game is addictive, wastage of time and poses serious negative impact on physical and psychological health of the children. pic.twitter.com/GDJqTeuTaf
— PTA (@PTAofficialpk) July 1, 2020
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