Minecraft Forums

Is gaming really that bad for you? How do you know if you're truly addicted?

I'm a gamer, and a researcher, looking for evidence of the differences between gaming addicts and enthusiasts amongst gamers aged 18+.

Recently, in the last 2 years, the World Health Organization's acknowledged the existence of Internet Gaming Disorder. Although they have produced some guidelines to tell you if you're addicted to gaming, these measures, have difficulty telling a gaming addict, from a gaming enthusiast.

So to better understand why these measures are failing, I have come up with a survey, it is 20 minutes long, and is only for 18+ gamers. It is meant to help clarify the differences between someone who has real problems from gaming, and those that are truly just gaming for fun.

Note: Although this relates to online gaming, offline gaming is fine as well, for this is still in its infancy.

If you are keen, try out this survey!

Additionally, if you want to know more, drop me an e-mail through the link provided.

This is a university generated link:

https://ntupsychology.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_0TzIQ6dB5WRH0Tr

To moderators and administrators:

If this is against the rules, please let me know!

The difference between an enthusiast and an addict is their income.

I used to be a minecraft freak, now I play other realms.

The Survery is quite anoying as questions getting repeating in one way ot another

Like they're corss checking multiple times

But the topic itself is quite fun when i was younger (13-14) i played a lot more, even priorized it more than homework and sometimes friends

then i got into lifting (started when i was 14) and the more results i saw the more energy i spent into that and gaming got like 2nd priority

what's quite strange is that i share the same addition (or today even more) for my body than gaming - but i don't neglect friends or school sine..

How do you know if you're truly addicted?

Addiction and enthusiasm have already been distinguished. An addiction becomes noticeable when one neglects other self-evident things and prefers to play

Typical "symptoms" are:

• positive effects on mood up to euphoria when exercising gaming
• feeling, thinking and acting referring to gaming have a dominating and important place in the life
• withdrawal symptoms
• conflicts in the family, with friends, at work or at school
• withdrawal from other areas of life

I don't thing these measures are failing - you can compare it to gambling, alcohol addiction or even porn addiction.
The basis is the same

I think it depends on how much it affects our daily life. If a person continues the gaming avoiding his daily life activities, life goals, duties & responsibilities, and relationship/friendship, it symbolizes his addiction