Horror stories and growing alarm that kids are becoming gaming addicts are pressuring experts to make it a medical diagnosis. But some specialists—and a billion-dollar industry—are pushing back.
Blizzard Entertainment has announced the opening of beta registrations for “World of Warcraft: The War Within,” inviting players to explore new subterranean worlds beneath Azeroth.
Danish from eXputer: "Despite Blizzard's attempt to give a fresh new spin to World of Warcraft, some fans still seem to be stuck in the past."
HG writes: "Blizzard is usually pretty bad at keeping secrets, but the company somehow managed to keep this one under wraps until now. Plunderstorm is a special limited-time event that’s basically World of Warcraft’s take on the Battle Royale genre."
Won't make it into this edition, but maybe someday. More research will have to be done, but when you think about it for some people games can become a serious addiction.
Games can be as addicting as any narcotic to people in vulnerable situations. They offer what any drug does, an escape from difficult reality and instant fulfillment of psychological needs.
Just skim the comments here in N4G, and you tell me if these are the writings of well balanced individuals with their sh*t together.
The new DSMV basically has every (normal too!) human emotion listed in such a way that literally every human being alive could be labelled with some sort of mental illness. Gaming addiction is simply listed under other forms of addiction without specifically stating "gaming addiction". I live and breath this book for a living so I know first hand that this is the case.
Quite an interesting article. That youtube link about operant conditioning was an eye opener as well.
Although I doubt it would get into DSM-5, I can see how people might start paying a bit more attention to cultivating better gaming habits if it indeed was part of it. At the least it might motivate people into thinking about a set of guidelines which both the young and old can follow to make sure gaming is not disruptive and/or destructive.
That said, from my own experience gaming has been quite a pick me up as well. Both AC:Revelations and Persona 4 had a huge impact on me during a very dark and depressing period in my university life. Not to mention I learned to speak English, a second language, primarily with the help of games. So... Yeah, games aren't all detrimental.
I suppose it remains to be seen whether the benefits outweigh the detriments. With the rise of gaming though, we definitely need to look at the issue seriously.