Many gamers are by now aware that the World Health Organization (WHO) has officially decided to recognize video game addiction as a mental disorder.
Beginning January of 2022, video game addiction will join the ranks of cocaine, opioid, and alcohol dependency in the Internationall Classification of Diseases as disorders due to addictive behavior. It will mark the first occassion since gambling that a non-substance related disorder has been classified.
The team over at Clutch, which is described as "Instagram for Gaming" and a community where gamers can share clips with each other and to ultimately bond over community, recently did a study on nearly 1600 gamers to discover more about video game addiction, which you may remember seeing us cover a couple weeks back,
here.
Clutch was willing to answer any questions that we had regarding the survey, so we managed to catch up with the team and dig a little deeper into their methods and exactly how it works to help us get a better understanding of the video game addiction results their test has provided. Check out the interview below!
Joe: Clutch is described as a platform aimed at helping gamers find community, but could you go into a bit more detail for readers who haven’t heard of it?
Clutch: Definitely. Clutch is like the "Instagram for Gaming". It's where gamers go to share and watch gameplay clips with each other. Also, this press release should give you a really good rundown of details.
Joe: Did it come as a surprise that the World Health Organization chose to recognize video game addiction as a mental disorder, or is this something your team has expected and been gearing up for?
Clutch: We weren't surprised. We've been aware of the issue for some time, especially considering how toxic some gaming communities can be. It's one of the reasons why we're dedicated to creating a community of positive gamers who support each other.
Joe: Was there a specific age range for the gamers you studied? I noticed that some of the fields were marked “Gamers 18+” such as the one regarding financial support, and I read that the average age was 20.55 years, but were there younger gamers involved in any of the other portions of the study, or was everything based on “adult” players?
Clutch: Younger gamers were included in other portions of the study, but to protect their privacy as much as possible, we're not able to share more information about that.
Joe: The study concluded that women are more susceptible to gaming addiction than men, mentioning that they spend more minutes per gaming session than their male partners and are also more likely to play games on an everyday basis. Was there any data gathered to show which games women are most addicted to, or do those numbers hold across the board?
Clutch: There was, but the population of female gamers we surveyed was not large enough for us to make inferences about how gender is a factor at the individual game level.
Joe: With over 1600 Clutch users taking your survey, how long did it take to compile the data?
Clutch: The responses were collected over a 12-day period.
Joe: I know that your team utilized the Greenfield Video Game Addiction Test to monitor the addiction levels of the gamers during the study. Could you explain what that is and how it works exactly?
Clutch: It's an assessment designed by Dr. David Greenfield, Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, University of Connecticut School of Medicine. The assessment is published by the Center for Internet and Technology Addiction, and it's meant to help people understand if they may be suffering from video game addiction. According to the CITA, "It should be noted that no medical or psychiatric diagnosis can be made solely by a written test or screening instrument alone; this survey is intended for educational and informational purposes only."
Joe: Lastly, do you guys agree with the decision that video game addiction should be classified and treated as a mental health disorder?
Clutch: We're not healthcare professionals so it wouldn't be responsible for us to publish an opinion on this.
What do you guys think? Should video game addiction be treated as a mental health disorder, or do you feel like there is still inconclusive data regarding the matter? Either way, let us know your thoughts in the comments! In the meantime take a look at the data compiled below and feel free to check out the trailers for Minecraft and Red Dead Redemption 2, which topped the list of most addictive games!