I should have posted on this yesterday, but just in case you missed it, experts at an annual meeting of the American Medical Association have opposed a suggestion that videogame addiction should be catagorised alongside alcoholism and similar disorders.
Dr. Stuart Gitlow of the American Society of Addiction Medicine and Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, had this to say on the proposal:
"There is nothing here to suggest that this is a complex physiological disease state akin to alcoholism or other substance abuse disorders, and it doesn't get to have the word addiction attached to it"
Notice the language here - 'doesn't get to' - it sounds as though the ruling would provide some sort of validation. Lord help us, it's another academic attempting to put the boot in to the videogame industry. Now it seems, games aren't even important enough to qualify as addictive agents.
To be honest, I very much doubt that games are capable of wreaking the sort of psychological or indeed physical damage familiar to addicts of drinks, drugs or gambling. There have doubtless been lost jobs, failed relationships, sudden acts of frustrated violence and, more disturbingly, a handful or reported deaths from extended MMORPG sessions, but nothing to pin a major mental disorder on.
Just in case, though, the psychiatrist group is monitoring the situations and, according to Reuters, has said if the science warrants, it could be considered for inclusion in the next diagnostic manual to be published in 2012.
We've asked this before no doubt, but has gaming caused you any trouble? Once, I smashed a new PlayStation controller after failing to beat Tekken 2. I think I've also claimed to be working late a few times when I was actually playing Battlefield. Small time stuff...
