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WHO considers Video Game Addiction a Mental Disorder. What happens next?

WHO (World Health Organization) is considering to add Video Game addiction to the list of mental disorders in 2018. It would be known as a mental disorder. As stated by WHO, excessive gaming addiction can determined by:

impaired control in playing or quitting games
Prioritizing video games over anything else
Continuing to play games despite the negative effects affecting you

Like all mental disorder affects, it would considered to have an affect on your personal, family, social, educational, occupational or other important areas of functioning. It would take about 12 months to diagnose game addiction as a mental disorder. ICD-WHO

What does that mean?

Medical:

The first effect for gaming addiction would be medical based. Gaming addiction falls under the substance abuse/addictive behavior category. This would include drugs and gambling. More funding and research towards creating drugs/medicine to “reduce” the effects of playing video games similarly to anxiety or bi-polar disorder. Although Gaming addiction falls within the category for substance abuse, the body doesn’t need to detox from gaming sessions. Treatment would be similar to gambling addictions such as therapy groups.

Business:

If the change passes then there may be more warnings in games to suggest to players to stop playing after certain hours. The message comes often in MMOs (Massive Multiplayer Online) such as World of Warcraft or Final Fantasy XIV. While parents and adults can find information regarding game addiction online, they have never been shown in game. Gaming stores may face new regulations. Selling a object that falls under substance abuse would have stores need licenses to sell similar to cannabis. There could also be a age restriction for buying video games similar to alcohol.

bird break — Legend of Zelda: Link Between Worlds (3DS)

Opinion:

Everything is negative when done in excess. Video games are no different. While I agree that playing video games too much can be negative, considering it a mental disorder sounds a bit extreme. There are obvious pros and cons to video games. The effect it could have on introducing video games to all people is negative. If games are considered a cause for mental illness, it would make it difficult to grow the medium and introduce it to new people.

Sources:

WHO

Mental Disorder Definition – WHO

Gambling Addiction Treatment

Video Game Growth and The Need for Transparency

Recently, fans of video games have become less confident in video game companies on delivering complete content. As one of the fastest growing business industry, there is a larger focus on revenue due to more investment in sales. The global video game industry is valued at $100 billion. There is expected to be 2.2 billion gamers throughout the world by 2018 based on Newzoo‘s analytics. With a larger focus on mobile game revenue, triple-A games have to find alternative methods of continuous revenue to meet investor demands.

The biggest game companies, Electronic Arts and Activision Blizzard have consistent in publishing huge games and the largest revenue generators. They are also infamous for the micro-transaction that they have added to their games such as Destiny 2 and Star Wars Battlefront 2. Their infamy has made many gamers view them as greedy companies. We want to believe that the industry is more focused on delivering good games rather than money because it is considered a unique medium and product. More gaming companies are trying to disguise their MTX methods in triple-A games but the trend has continued on for so long that it is very obvious.

Destiny 2 and Star Wars Battlefront 2 are both recent games by Activision and EA that were known for influencing players to rely on micro-transactions to unlock more of the game’s content. The games received harsh reviews from players (mainly Star Wars Battlefront 2) and the uncertainty of the companies response leave players angry. Whether its the drop rate of exotics in Destiny 2 or the difficulty of unlocking heroes in Star Wars Battlefront 2, gaming companies need to be more transparent with its audience. The concept of DLC content is still negatively viewed but when developers create quality downloadable content or are more upfront about what is on it, gamers would be more accepting.

Popular games such as Titanfall 2 and The Witcher 3 were upfront about their downloadable content to their fans. Respawn created payable cosmetics while CD Projekt spent time on creating immense side stories. While we shouldn’t expect all games or companies to create similar quality content, both companies announced their plans prior to the release of the game. As a company, you should treat your potential audience with the idea that they are aware of the current paterns of the industry. You can still cater to a casual audience while also maintaining a better image to a more “hardcore” audience.

Newzoo

Kotaku

Investors.com

The Game Awards: “Fuck the Oscars” explained

The Game Awards this year was a spectacular showcase of how an awards show should be for the video game industry. Great performances, focus on the actual industry, actual speakers from the video game industry and not a celebrity forced to speak from a cringe-worthy script. The best part of the show was the real passion from the speakers; especially from Indie developer, Josef Fares, who flipped off the cameras and shouted “Fuck the Oscars!” Fares is the co-founder of Swedish indie team Hazelight Studios and the writer and director of its first project, A Way Out.

His 3-minute rant went viral. Fares was suppose to announce the release date of March, the game-play and story of his cooperative game: A Way Out which gave fans interest based off earlier trailers this year.

Despite his rant, Fares added that he would probably say the same thing even if it wasn’t at the Game Awards. When asked why he was correlating it to the Academy Awards, Fares stated it was because so many people had compared The Game Awards to the Oscars. Fares has directed multiple feature length films and said his outburst was an instance of himself failing to explain. He wanted to say that The Game Awards always felt as though they were an inferior version of the Oscars or other art award shows for films and television shows.

Fares stated that “it’s time for people to understand that games are, like, a serious art.” Often, video games are treated and shown as an inferior form of art and Fares and many other video game developers and fans (myself included) that games are a unique medium. Fares previous developed game, 2013’s Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, which was praised for its heartfelt story and unique gameplay. Brothers had two different brothers that were controlled with individual analog sticks. Hazelight Studios is attempting to create an even better version of this with A Way Out. The game revolves around two different personality characters: Leo and Vincent. It can only be played cooperatively and there’s split screen only so that players can see how the other is moving or interacting with the environment and characters. You can even play it with a friend who doesn’t even own the game. (As long as one person owns a copy and they have the same game system).

A Way Out is scheduled to be released March 23, 2018, on PlayStation 4, Windows PC and Xbox One.

Sources:

Polygon

Epic Games and Fortnite cheaters Lawsuit finished

Epic Games, creators of Fortnite: Battle Royal, settles their lawsuit with one of its cheater: Charles Vraspir. If you’re curious on reading more about the allegation, you can read my previous article here. The lawsuit was from Epic Games regarding Charles Vraspir‘s usage of using aimbots and using cheats the game to deliberating targeting Twitch streamers in the game. He was also banned numerous times before the lawsuit. Vraspir was agreed to delete all software related to Addicted Cheats from his computer. He is forbidden from cheating on Fortnite and any Epic Games in the future. If he were to violate the policy, he would be charge a minimum of $5,000. The cheats affected the game code which was against the company’s policy: Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Link to the injunction from Torrent Freak here.

In regards to the 14-year-old, Caleb “Sky Orbit” Rogers, his case is still being discussed. He was also caught using the same cheating software in the game but also creating tutorial guides on how to utilize cheats in Fortnite: Battle Royale. Epic issued a DMCA takedown on the video which Rogers contested. This led to legal action by Epic. However, they were unaware that Rogers was 14. Rogers’ mother contested the lawsuit based on his age that Rogers was not affected the sales of the game because it is free and the EULA was not binding because of his age. As of December 7, the lawsuit is still active against Rogers and the protection of anonymity is void because his mother put his name on her letter.

What do you think of Gaming companies taking legal action against cheaters? Do you feel that it crosses the line or that they have the legal right? Does making the game free affect your opinion on potential lawsuits?

Opinion:

I personally think suing the players is quite extreme. While I agree cheaters should be punished, I think permanently banning them or their IP address similar to Blizzard is more effective.

Sources:

Rolling Stones

Polygon