British media article: From now on, "game addiction" is a disease

The British "Economist" weekly website published a january 1 article titled "Are Video Games Really Addictive?" The full text of the article is excerpted as follows:

China believes that video games are addictive. This concern is not new. 20 years ago, early online game EverQuest players said pitifully that they were "unable to extricate themselves." Clinics for treating gaming addiction have also spread from China and South Korea to the West.

Today, WHO supports China's position. On 1 January 2022, the latest edition of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD), widely used by physicians and health insurers, came into force. For the first time, it included "game addiction" in the category of disease.

Dutch NewZur Game Market Consulting Firm estimates that global video game revenue will be $170 billion in 2020, far more than music and movies, and it is growing rapidly.

The definition of "addiction" has changed

The idea that video games can be addictive stems from the fact that psychologists have changed how they understand addiction. For many years, the premise of addiction was that there was something that could fascinate patients, such as nicotine or morphine, according to Rooney Nelson, a psychologist at the University of Copenhagen. That began to change in the late 1990s, when the perception was that people were addicted to both drugs and pleasurable behaviors.

For one of these acts, this definition is completely uncontroversial. Mark Griffiths, a psychologist at Nottingham Trent University in the UK, said: "Nowadays, not many people question the idea that you will be addicted to gambling. But the line of thinking, he said, also "opens the floodgates of theory" and defines various other recreational activities as "addiction," thereby broadening most people's understanding of the term.

In addition to gaming, Dr. Griffith has studied exercise, sex, and work addiction. A paper published in 2013 surveyed tango enthusiasts and found that under the new definition, about 40 percent of people may meet the criteria of "addict."

In addition to gambling addiction, which has been classified as a disease, video games are the only addictive behaviors on the WHO list. Diagnosis is based on compulsive use and negative consequences. Like other addicts, those with "gaming addiction" will think that playing games is a higher priority than most other activities, even if it can cause harm to other parts of their lives.

Some players have developed unhealthy relationships with their gaming pastimes, which seems hard to refute. Psychologists describe gamers who give up sleep, offline relationships, and work. It is common to quarrel with family members. Many people call themselves addicts and try to quit their habits. Hillary Clinton Cash, medical director of "Restart" at the gaming addiction clinic near Seattle, USA, said many of her patients who came to her were expelled from school or college because they didn't have time to do their homework because of games. The vast majority are men, she said.

Dr Griffith said the evidence for video games is much more pronounced than for other addictive behaviors, such as work addiction.

But the concept of gaming addiction remains murky. Even researchers who admit that games are addictive in a medical sense disagree on the prevalence of game addiction. Cash estimates that 10 percent of Americans may meet certain diagnostic criteria. But Griffiths says even a 1 percent ratio is certainly too high.

One possibility is that addiction to play is a symptom or coping mechanism, not a disease in itself. Andrew Przyberski of the Oxford Internet Institute said: "At least half of those with gaming addiction problems suffer from depression; another third suffer from anxiety disorders. ”

"Free games" fuel addiction

Buying video games used to be a one-time transaction. Game developers don't know how customers play the game, or even whether they play the game. But today, many of the most popular games rely on a "freemium" business model in which the game itself is cheap or free, and instead makes money by buying extra life or virtual gear in the game. Nuzu estimates that 73% of the industry's revenue in 2020 will come from free-to-play games.

This model directly links revenue to game time. As a result, the designs of many of these games — often with the help of a professional psychologist — are as appealing as possible. Designers talk about building games by nesting and breaking into smaller "game rings." These are consecutive missions — such as shooting at an enemy or building a new building — rewarding players with points, in-game items, and even a fleeting sense of satisfaction. A more public strategy is to punish players who log in irregularly. For example, in Farm Country, players who don't log in very often will find that the "crops" in their fields have withered.

There are also tricks designed to convince players to convert game time into purchases. Virtual items are purchased using in-game currency, such as gold, crystals, or Fortnite V coins. Research on those who use foreign currencies shows that unfamiliarity with currencies makes people spend money more casually. In Candy Legends, players who run out of "life" either wait half an hour to continue playing or charge money to return to the game immediately.

The analogy with gambling is most evident in the "loot chest", a treasure chest that can burst out random virtual items. For example, in the FIFA series, players can build a soccer team by purchasing card packs to randomly draw player cards. Dr. Ruener Menzone of the University of Bergen in Norway said it could cost $12,000 to assemble the best team in the 2018 edition of FIFA if he was a mediocre person.

In addition, all of these features can be adjusted by analyzing the data that is collected from the gamer. Game developers can conduct a variety of experiments (from the hardship curve to the prices of various in-house shopping items) to see how these adjustments affect user stickiness and revenue.

Of course, most players of freemium games don't spend a penny. A recent lawsuit file shows that 70 percent of Apple's App Store revenue comes from games, and much of that revenue comes from a small group of people who spend a lot of money.

The government began to tighten regulation

Still, politicians are starting to worry. Belgium and the Netherlands announced that loot boxes should be regulated as gambling. New rules in the UK, the world's fifth-largest market, require protection for players under the age of 18. Regardless of the true prevalence of gaming addiction, WHO's approval has the potential to improve diagnostic rates. Because this gives the doctor a formal diagnostic code to record the game addiction.

A handful of game developers will quietly admit that they are uneasy about how their product works. Speaking at the 2019 Game Developers Conference, Oxford Internet Research's Priziberski was concerned about the defensiveness of the industry and warned developers to prepare for new regulations, sin taxes and fines. He believes that game companies should give academics access to internal data, hoping that this will solve the problem of whether games can really be "addictive" in the medical sense.

At the same time, the gaming industry is experimenting with self-regulation. The Entertainment Software Association notes that parental controls offered by smartphone companies such as Apple and Google can limit gaming time and expenses. Another industry body, the British Interactive Entertainment Association, has launched an educational campaign called "Play Smart". The problem with self-regulation, of course, is that it could be interpreted as the game industry acknowledging that at least a handful of customers do have problems.

Source: Reference News Network