Is Gaming Disorder a Thing?

Опубликовано 5 сентября 2018, 17:06

Do you spend too long with your games console? Should you be worried or is it just panic? As newspapers print shock stories, Julia Hardy investigates behind the headlines.

Gaming disorder has joined the World Health Organization's list of mental health conditions. The WHO describe gaming disorder as a pattern of behaviour characterised by a lack of control over gaming, where people play games 'excessively' and prioritise gaming over other activities, causing 'severe negative consequences'.

It seems like everyone has an opinion, from streamers to medical professionals, parents to newspaper journalists. But are things being exaggerated? So far, very little research has been done into the effects of gaming. Is this just the latest example of scare stories? Or is something deeper at play?

At Oxford University, psychologist Professor Andrew Przybylski offers his scientific take on this often sensationalised subject. In Brighton, Julia speaks to Wesley Yin-Poole, a games journalist and self-professed recovered World of Warcraft addict. Aoife Wilson, Inel Tomlinson and Ryan Brown drop in to tell us what they think about mainstream media coverage of their life’s passion, whether they’ve ever been addicted to a game, and how they wish the wider world - and their parents - would more often acknowledge the positives of gaming.

In the UK? Watch the full 11 minute documentary here bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p06h...