The World Health Organization proposed that “Gaming Disorder” be classified as an addictive behavior in December 2017, then nailed the definition down—complete with separate online and offline categories—in June 2018. This weekend, as reported by Variety, the WHO will make its final decision on whether to classify gaming addiction as a disorder at the 72nd World Health Assembly, which is currently underway.
The online and offline definitions in the most recent ICD-11 are essentially identical: Both are “characterized by a pattern of persistent or recurring gaming behavior,” with online gaming “primarily conducted over the internet” and offline gaming obviously not. In both cases, the proposed disorder manifests in three ways:
- Impaired control over gaming (e.g., onset, frequency, intensity, duration, termination, context)
- Increasing priority given to gaming to the extent that gaming takes precedence over other life interests and daily activities
- Continuation or escalation of gaming despite the occurrence of negative consequences. The behaviour pattern is of sufficient severity to result in significant impairment in personal, family, social, educational, occupational or other important areas of functioning.
“The pattern of gaming behaviour may be continuous or episodic and recurrent,” the ICD-11 states. “The gaming behaviour and other features are normally evident over a period of at least 12 months in order for a diagnosis to be assigned, although the required duration may be shortened if all diagnostic requirements are met and symptoms are severe.”
Game industry bodies including the ESA and the IGDA, as well as members of the medical community, have pushed back against efforts to categorize gaming addiction as a disorder. “Loving games is not a mental health problem. Making games your hobby of choice is not a disorder,” the IGDA said in a June 2018 statement. “The WHO’s creation of a “gaming disorder” has the potential to do significant and serious harm to people who use games as a coping mechanism for anxiety, depression, and stress-and may encourage doctors to address the symptoms but not the underlying illnesses.”
The Variety report states that if the WHO does recognize gaming addiction as a disorder, member states will be given until 2022 to introduce new treatments and preventative measures. The UK’s National Health Service has already taken steps in that direction, having opened its first publicly-funded internet addiction clinic in June 2018, shortly after the WHO committed to its “gaming disorder” definition.