World Health Organization to add Gaming Disorder to ICD

[Doomkid]

You can take my controller.

 

...FROM MY COLD, DEAD HANDS!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

..Actually, I’ve read a few stories where that really was the case. People found dead at their PC, game of choice still running - usually some boring thing like DOTA. Though one I read last week was a bit different, a teenager beat his single-digit age sister to death for spilling something on his xbox. Addiction is scary.

[scalliano]

4 hours ago, Gez said:

When will Gamers-with-a-big-G use the same righteous indignation against the entire nation of Japan for inventing the concepts of "otaku" and "hikikomori" as ways of saying that spending all your time shut in in your bedroom in front of your screen while forgetting to eat, drink, bathe, and talk to flesh-and-blood people is somehow bad?

What's Japanese for "misogynist"? :P

 

Everything is bad in excess, that goes without saying, but are those not merely symptoms of an underlying problem? Depression, social anxiety, all the way up to full blown autism in many cases? For many, gaming is an easy out because their real life sucks. This goes for any addiction. I've been there - I was ostracised throughout my early school life for committing the heinous social crime of being fat and wearing glasses and I spent nearly every waking moment on the Atari as a result because I simply didn't want to deal with people.

 

For the record, I was being fecetious. I think it's a good thing that thw WHO is taking note. My only concern is the potential for overzealous regulation of the industry rather than any attempt to tackle the root of the problem.

 

I will always identify as a Gamer-with-a-big-G, but to borrow the phrase from the gambling ads in my neck of the woods, "when the fun stops, STOP."

[Master O]

4 hours ago, Gez said:

When will Gamers-with-a-big-G use the same righteous indignation against the entire nation of Japan for inventing the concepts of "otaku" and "hikikomori" as ways of saying that spending all your time shut in in your bedroom in front of your screen while forgetting to eat, drink, bathe, and talk to flesh-and-blood people is somehow bad?

 

The reason that some of those Japanese people became that way is because Japanese culture is notorious for being rigid and inflexible.  It is a collective culture, which means anyone who is unable to fit into a specific role designated by their society will be ostracized and shunned.  Japan also has no tolerance for anyone who is any combination of mentally and physically weak.  If you outward display any kind of weakness like that, you will be ruthlessly exploited. A lot of braindead weaboos and Japanophiles mistakenly think that being otakus or hikikomoris is something "cool" from Japanese society.  It is not.  In fact, it is the complete opposite.  

 

These phenomena are a form of silent protest against a ridiculous work culture that many Japanese people find nihilistic and brutal.  

[Nine Inch Heels]

7 minutes ago, scalliano said:

Everything is bad in excess, that goes without saying, but are those not merely symptoms of an underlying problem? Depression, social anxiety, all the way up to full blown autism in many cases?

No, these things aren't symptoms of an underlying problem if they precede any other symptom/problem to begin with, that's the difference. It's not like you're gonna be going to a therapist, tell them you're depressed, and they'll tell you to reduce time spent gaming.

What they're talking about here are symptoms which have to be evident for 12 months, and I'd like to think (in fact, I know) that any therapist worth their salt isn't gonna ask you how much time you spend with games right away, unless you've got a nintendo switch dangling from your necklace on your first session. In most cases they will work down a list of the (statistically) most likely things, because that makes it easier for them to isolate and zero-in on the actual problem. Gaming disorder is anything but a likely cause for a "troubled life", given how many other "staple reasons" are around. Never mind that even if they get the idea their client has "gaming disorder", they'll still look for more stuff, because if it's a person who's "just" prone to addictions in general, then that needs to be diagnosed accordingly.

 

Look, I'm not saying there won't be false positives and such, and there's no doubt in my mind that the next best youtuber is gonna pull that up for dem clickz when it happens, sure. But to think that gaming disorder can't exist in a world where gambling addiction exists, and simply dismissing it as "a symptom of something else" is a bit "strange" as far as I'm concerned.

[seed]

2 hours ago, Nine Inch Heels said:

Look, I'm not saying there won't be false positives and such, and there's no doubt in my mind that the next best youtuber is gonna pull that up for dem clickz when it happens, sure. But to think that gaming disorder can't exist in a world where gambling addiction exists, and simply dismissing it as "a symptom of something else" is a bit "strange" as far as I'm concerned.

 

Pretty much this.

 

There's little doubt that there cannot be such a thing known as "gaming disorder", the only potential problem this could have would be the accuracy of the verdict, which is why I'm personally kinda paranoid about this whole deal tbh. An addiction is an addiction at the end of the day, and that needs fixing, before it goes to the extreme when it's too late there's no coming back.

[Marcaek]

19 hours ago, scalliano said:

Congratulations, games journalists, turns out you've been shitting on disabled people all this time. Hope you're all proud of yourselves :P

 

what an outstanding take

[geo]

6 hours ago, Doomkid said:

You can take my controller.

 

...FROM MY COLD, DEAD HANDS!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

..Actually, I’ve read a few stories where that really was the case. People found dead at their PC, game of choice still running - usually some boring thing like DOTA. Though one I read last week was a bit different, a teenager beat his single-digit age sister to death for spilling something on his xbox. Addiction is scary.

Not sure how serious you were since I'm reading text, but I think that qualifies as rage, not addiction. People beat others to death for cutting them off in traffic where no accident occurred. As for dead at the PC... people die while seated, even in their sleep. Addiction clearly the cause.

 

There's one of a man died after a 3 day gaming binge at an Internet cafe: https://www.cnn.com/2015/01/19/world/taiwan-gamer-death/index.html

 

The beating someone to death over games has been around 20 years. There was a dad that literally shook his baby to death because she wouldn't stop crying so he could get back to his game of Everquest.

 

Wow there have been so many Everquest deaths, I struggle even find the one I'm thinking of. Here is one more:

http://workbench.cadenhead.org/news/1372/child-dies-while-parent-plays-everquest

Ah ha!

https://www.shacknews.com/article/11470/everquest-killing

 

Oh yeah then there's that dude from Friends who played Fallout 3 for 24+ hours and then instantly broke his wrist. I blame the XBox controller for that, more than gaming. It really does mess with your wrist.

 

Now there can be more Youtubers getting disability!

 

Anyway... I will thank Doomworld for rarely murdering anyone. I would hate any of us shame the community by killing someone or committing crimes. Thank you fellow human being for being so cool to not be horrible people.

[scalliano]

@NIH: I'm not actually dismissing the concept of gaming disorder out of hand, rather that the framing of the whole thing strikes me as kind of alarmist. I can only speak from my own experience, but I fell into a spiral when I was younger because my life sucked. That's not going to be everyone's story, of course, but I still believe that, in many cases, there will be more to it.

 

As you rightly pointed out, the criteria for it are very specific. As I said, what I'm worried about is what happens next. There are already calls for slapping a tax on games (pretty sure that's already happening in certain parts of the States) and with our own censorship-happy government in the UK, who knows what they'll try and use this development for. Don't get me wrong, I'd be as glad to see the back of lootcrates as much as the next rational person, but it worries me that it's had to get as far as US government intervention. Given this new classification, where does it stop?

 

@Marcaek: I'm not on Twitter, so this forum will have to do :P

[Doomkid]

5 hours ago, geo said:

Not sure how serious you were since I'm reading text, but I think that qualifies as rage, not addiction. People beat others to death for cutting them off in traffic where no accident occurred. As for dead at the PC... people die while seated, even in their sleep. Addiction clearly the cause.

 

There's one of a man died after a 3 day gaming binge at an Internet cafe: https://www.cnn.com/2015/01/19/world/taiwan-gamer-death/index.html

 

The beating someone to death over games has been around 20 years. There was a dad that literally shook his baby to death because she wouldn't stop crying so he could get back to his game of Everquest.

 

Wow there have been so many Everquest deaths, I struggle even find the one I'm thinking of. Here is one more:

http://workbench.cadenhead.org/news/1372/child-dies-while-parent-plays-everquest

Ah ha!

https://www.shacknews.com/article/11470/everquest-killing

 

Oh yeah then there's that dude from Friends who played Fallout 3 for 24+ hours and then instantly broke his wrist. I blame the XBox controller for that, more than gaming. It really does mess with your wrist.

 

Now there can be more Youtubers getting disability!

 

Anyway... I will thank Doomworld for rarely murdering anyone. I would hate any of us shame the community by killing someone or committing crimes. Thank you fellow human being for being so cool to not be horrible people.

Rage is clearly a factor for the ones murdering people around them for interrupting their gaming, but it still seems like a symptom of addiction. It bares an uncanny similarity to the behaviour of meth or crack addicts when they can’t get their next hit. There’s a clearer distinction between that and road rage, but in all of those cases, someone resorts to violence because they can’t immediately get what they want. With road rage, you’re preventing someone from getting where they want to be.

 

Clearly no one of sound mind is going to resort to violence and people who do desperately need some kind of therapy or treatment before they destroy their own lives or someone else’s. Addiction isn’t necessarily the root cause for the violence, but there’s definitely an underlying relationship between severe addictions and violent or otherwise dangerous outbursts when the addict has had their drug of choice taken away.

 

You’re thanking Doomworld for “rarely” murdering anyone - does that mean there are or were murderers among the forum’s populous?! 😮

[dybbuk81]

20 minutes ago, Doomkid said:

You’re thanking Doomworld for “rarely” murdering anyone - does that mean there are or were murderers among the forum’s populous?! 😮

I think he meant compared to other games, which I guess leaves those two lunatics in 1999 that made the whole community probably catch a lot of crap for a while, because I know I at least did!

[MassiveEdgelord]

Personally I think it should be called "Gaming Addiction Disorder" as it's a much more precise accurate name and "Gaming Disorder" is slightly misleading as it makes it seem like gaming by itself is the problem.