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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

#141

Post by nvarsj »

icebraining wrote: post #111
announcerman wrote: post #107

Is obsessing over things related to real life like social ties, money, career, or anything else that will surely pass after you die a disorder? If it isn't then why not?

"experts in psychology and financial planning say the number of professionals offering to treat money disorders has multiplied in the last few years." https://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/25/health/25iht-25money.1647... As for career, workaholism is certainly considered a dysfunction.

> As for career, workaholism is certainly considered a dysfunction.

Workaholism is praised by our culture. In fact, it's probably necessary for capitalism to function at all. Without that societal impetus I imagine everything would crumble.

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

#142

Post by vectorEQ »

Increasing priority given to gaming to the extent that gaming takes precedence over other life interests and daily activities

So, we all have a code and/or computer disorder. gg guys, lets get on dem zombie pillz ...

'gaming addiction' would be better term. and then even ,the problem is being addicted, not gaming.. people get addicted to all kinds of shit. having a interest in something more than other things is normal. and call that a disorder is criminal.

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

#143

Post by WhompingWindows »

ericdykstra wrote: post #134
Synaesthesia wrote: post #85

I started playing Starcraft and watching it about 2 years ago. I’ve always had an obsessive mind and had stopped playing games since high school. It’s reached a point where I almost dedicate every free moment to playing. Games are incredibly addictive and it can be hard to stop. Back when I didn’t play I never understood why people play games so much. Games used to be only for geeks and boys but now everybody plays t…

Starcraft and RTS is general is a great game that rewards higher-level strategy thinking, attention management, and a number of other skills. Becoming proficient is no joke, and pros need to spend more of their time practicing than traditional sports because there is less of a physical tax from practice. But it's just like any hobby. If it's not your profession, you need to make sure you're not putting your long-term…

For Starcraft specifically, I've probably played 2k hours of SC:BW and maybe 3-4k of SC2, so I'd agree it is no joke and practicing is quite important. I managed to reach the top 2% of MMR by grinding out numerous games (as Zerg, FWIW), averaging 2.5 h/daily at my peak. I would practice economy/production (macro) and build orders outside of my matches, then bring those in to the competitive 1v1 ladder and figure out all the weird rush builds that needed to be scouted for/prevented.

I actually am trying to cut out games, however, since I find the stress on the wrists/hands that comes with coding + piano + gaming to be too much. So, when push comes to shove, I just end up watching some SC pro matches these days, as opposed to putting my wrist health in jeopardy.

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

#144

Post by SeanMacConMara »

ericdykstra wrote: post #137
mattlondon wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're single-player in that you play on your own, but you play on your own with a lot of other people playing on their own. So you could be on a server doing your own thing, and if you see another character whilst playing, that could be a human person doing their own thing, or it could be a NPC doing their own thing (but with the option of interacting with other human players - chat/trade/fighting etc) It is essent…

Let's say your in a game with PVP, are you saying you should just be able to "safely despawn" to avoid a fight that you think you're going to lose? Just because you personally have a problem with the way some games work doesn't mean every single game designer needs to shape their programs to your preference. If you don't like it, play a different game.

Elite Dangerous doesn't have that excuse. You can play in a "NPCs only" mode but still cannot pause/quit at will.

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

#145

Post by tw1010 »

mattlondon wrote: post #109

This is made worse in my mind for games that are essentially single-player yet have some sort of online element that means you cant just hit pause or save & exit whenever you want. You have to keep on going for longer than you want until it is "safe" for you to stop. In the old days you could just exit out to the pause menu or save so you could go to the toilet or answer the phone or talk to your family and your in-g…

Game companies optimize for sustained gameplay, often without ever thinking about the people that lie behind the bits. What you described is one of the best strategies there are. I see no counter force, other than regulation, that would prevent this process from just keep getting worse and worse.

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

#147

Post by zer0faith »

mmjaa wrote: post #88

I stopped playing mainstream video games last century when, after a 'quick network game of Starcraft and maybe a bit of Quake on a Friday afternoon at the end of the work week', I emerged from the dungeon we'd made at work for the purpose, only to discover it was Sunday morning, and more than 24 hours had gone by since any of us had even thought about what we were doing. That was my personal wake-up call. Now I only…

Something similar happened to me...I stopped playing games when my girlfriend at the time cut the power breaker off to the computer room to stop my WOW binge. I had been playing for 36hrs straight.

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

#148

Post by piva00 »

vectorEQ wrote: post #142

Increasing priority given to gaming to the extent that gaming takes precedence over other life interests and daily activities So, we all have a code and/or computer disorder. gg guys, lets get on dem zombie pillz ... 'gaming addiction' would be better term. and then even ,the problem is being addicted, not gaming.. people get addicted to all kinds of shit. having a interest in something more than other things is norm…

It's vague because it's an individual case-by-case assessment, it's not something easy to simplify to a checklist, it's a spectrum.

Yes, if the increasing priority begins to affect other aspects of your life negatively it's a disorder, like any other addiction, don't get defensive because you can relate to the description of the symptom.

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

#149

Post by mattbrewsbytes »

srrge wrote: post #146

As a 43 year old with two jobs and two kids, I found myself playing 500 hours of PlayerUnknown's Battleground in a few months. I had to uninstall the game. The addiction was very real.

Did you lose your job, destroy relationships with your family and friends?

Or did this merely replace 500 hours that would have been spent watching TV, Netflix or other types of entertainment?

The word addiction has a real meaning with some clinical ways for a trained person to diagnose somebody as having it.

I think of addiction more like alcoholism. Sure video games are engineered these days to be huge time sinks but that doesn't make it an addiction. If you can drop it (like you did) and it doesn't impact your life, its not an addiction.

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