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‘Gaming disorder’ is officially recognized by the World Health Organization

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Re: ‘Gaming disorder’ is officially recognized by the World Health Organization

#51

Post by rhacker »

falcolas wrote: post #30
rhacker wrote: post #11

So we're basically just replacing the word addiction now?

More accurately, addiction to the point it has a severe negative impact on the rest of the patient's life.

I was severely addicted to video games when I was a kid. My parents kept saying I was going to be a garbage man (ignoring the insult to garbage men) I don't think it would be the norm, but because of my interest in games I was interested in computers and here I am. I'm not like a top earner 1M / year AI developer or anything, but it definitely didn't impact my life. Now if my parents had taken me to some kind of "gaming disorder" center to get fixed, I would.. probably be a garbage man right now.

Re: ‘Gaming disorder’ is officially recognized by the World Health Organization

#52

Post by always_good »

dragontamer wrote: post #44
sasaf5 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This. Play 2 hours of videogames and babyboomer parents start loosing their minds (but not after spending the whole evening watching TV)

Which is hilarious. Because a single game of American Football is like 3 hours, and its "fine" to watch every game throughout a season, often multiple times a week. Ehhh... no thanks. I'll stick to my games. Nothing against Football or sports, but DAMN those things are huge timesinks I don't personally want to be a part of. I generally just spend a few minutes reading the scores / major plays so that I can continue t…

> pretty much every hobby eats up a lot of time.

Yes, but I wouldn't call idle consumption a hobby. It's like calling masturbation a hobby.

Reminds me of the trope of gamers annoyed that the opposite sex isn't impressed with their "hobby" as if it's some injustice that someone isn't impressed that you can sit in a chair for hours to play games or binge Netflix or enjoy amphetamines.

Re: ‘Gaming disorder’ is officially recognized by the World Health Organization

#53

Post by Tycho »

Video games are fine for some people, but for nerd-like personalities they present far too great a temptation to supplant real life goal obtainment with virtual status/achievement. I think its helpful to make people aware of this tendency, and unhelpful to wave it away with a comparison to some more widespread non-nerd past-time like watching TV or sports.

Re: ‘Gaming disorder’ is officially recognized by the World Health Organization

#54

Post by p3llin0r3 »

Micrococonut wrote: post #48
nickjj wrote: post #18

All 3 of the article's points could be applied to any hobby / passion driven profession. Next up... Guitar disorder Karate disorder Baseball disorder Fast forward 10 years... Someone coins the term "hobby disorder" after detecting numerous patterns of people wasting their life away on doing things they enjoy. Fast forward 20 years... Being passionate about anything is a thing of the past. Everyone works a corporate j…

This is really funny. How much have you "innovated" while gaming? You are living under the thumb of entertainment media already. You're trapped in your time waster instead of innovating.

WE GET IT, you're so smart and great because you don't like video games. We're really impressed over here.

Re: ‘Gaming disorder’ is officially recognized by the World Health Organization

#55

Post by contravariant »

kingbirdy wrote: post #2

I'm curious why this needs its own definition, rather than being part of a larger "addiction disorder".

For what it's worth "Gaming" is broad enough to capture pretty much any 'non-chemical' activity that can be addicting.

There's a somewhat grey area between "Gaming" and "Gambling", but I think it's fair to consider "Gambling" a subset of "Gaming" where the games actually pay out money (or something of monetary value). This probably doesn't match the WHO definition though.

Re: ‘Gaming disorder’ is officially recognized by the World Health Organization

#56

Post by contravariant »

RcouF1uZ4gsC wrote: post #41

This whole thing with trying to place a medical diagnosis on behaviors is too much. This is really no better than the old Greek humors theory where if you were sad, you had an imbalance of melancholy. There are a bunch of human behaviors, many of which are destructive, for which we don't really have insight into the underlying bio-physical explanation. Without that understanding, we should not be turning them into me…

So basically you're against clinical psychology?

Re: ‘Gaming disorder’ is officially recognized by the World Health Organization

#57

Post by loupeabody »

Tycho wrote: post #53

Video games are fine for some people, but for nerd-like personalities they present far too great a temptation to supplant real life goal obtainment with virtual status/achievement. I think its helpful to make people aware of this tendency, and unhelpful to wave it away with a comparison to some more widespread non-nerd past-time like watching TV or sports.

How precisely do you define "nerd-like" personalities and what is it about them that is susceptible to having a "gaming disorder"?

I feel like there's not much that would separate a gaming disorder from addictive behavior in general. So much so, actually, that to grant a special term for a video game related illness comes off as a little ridiculous.

Re: ‘Gaming disorder’ is officially recognized by the World Health Organization

#58

Post by always_good »

loupeabody wrote: post #57
Tycho wrote: post #53

Video games are fine for some people, but for nerd-like personalities they present far too great a temptation to supplant real life goal obtainment with virtual status/achievement. I think its helpful to make people aware of this tendency, and unhelpful to wave it away with a comparison to some more widespread non-nerd past-time like watching TV or sports.

How precisely do you define "nerd-like" personalities and what is it about them that is susceptible to having a "gaming disorder"? I feel like there's not much that would separate a gaming disorder from addictive behavior in general. So much so, actually, that to grant a special term for a video game related illness comes off as a little ridiculous.

I'm not sure. When I look at video game addicts including myself in my late teens, I see someone who is addicted to credentializing in a virtual world. Maybe because everything is measurable unlike real life.

Doesn't seem like "addiction" alone communicates what's happening there.

Re: ‘Gaming disorder’ is officially recognized by the World Health Organization

#59

Post by bcheung »

Tycho wrote: post #53

Video games are fine for some people, but for nerd-like personalities they present far too great a temptation to supplant real life goal obtainment with virtual status/achievement. I think its helpful to make people aware of this tendency, and unhelpful to wave it away with a comparison to some more widespread non-nerd past-time like watching TV or sports.

I understand and agree with part of your point, but there is also benefit to showing how they are all the same.

Showing how this parallels the exact same dopamine addiction patterns as gambling, porn, and social media provides greater insight and understanding.

The addiction research (especially with gambling) is more developed and provides much needed context and background.

People are going to think oh, it's just video games, no big deal. When they understand they are behaving exactly the same as a gambler, that might trigger something in them.

From a chemical / psychology perspective the brain operates the same no matter the domain.

Re: ‘Gaming disorder’ is officially recognized by the World Health Organization

#60

Post by Micrococonut »

p3llin0r3 wrote: post #54
Micrococonut wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is really funny. How much have you "innovated" while gaming? You are living under the thumb of entertainment media already. You're trapped in your time waster instead of innovating.

WE GET IT, you're so smart and great because you don't like video games. We're really impressed over here.

No I'm horribly addicted to them. I'm just honest about the reality.
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