South Korea Considers Classifying Video Games as an Addiction

I honestly don't believe anything is an "addiction", more like some people have addictive personalities. What are you going to do; govern people's personalities? This is absolutely ludicrous.

Idk about you guys but im playing a game atm

As a very much addictive gamer I can vouch that it should be classified as an addiction in many cases. People who say otherwise are likely more casual with it, have come into it at an older age with a lifestyle already adapted before hand or are in denial. There are sure to be exceptions to this but From me, and many of my friends who started gaming before we hit puberty competing on ring runs in sonic 2 at 2am on a thursday night, it can and if you aren't cautious will become an addiction. It's the perfect escape from troubles in reality and when you make a lot of mistakes you turn to games more and more. I've known people who lost jobs and fell out of touch with family over mmos so there's no denying that it can consume people. And by default that would classify as an addiction. As for how to treat it? Unless the world becomes a perfect place over night or nuclear fallout or some other catastrophe occurs cutting electricity for a really long time good luck with that. You can't prescribe a happy home and a good job.

I wonder why TV isn't being blamed anymore

Why you make such nice games Korea ? Then complain about them being addictive -.-

What a good idea, shooting your country's cash cow between the eyes. Apparently they don't just make crazy in North Korea, the water finally trickled down into the South. Worse yet, it might actually have repercussions over here. Remember stamina? That lil Korean thing where you could only play so long till the game kicked you out? We never had any of that until South Korea started poking it's nose around... now every mobile game/facebook app/game ported over here demands more money from you if you want to continue playing...

well, i do have to agree that videogames played in excess cause addiction.

Video games are the nicotin i need to past the day,i play 24h video games so i kinda cant imagine to spend the day whitout playing some games :P~

That backward ass country also forces mandatory military service after and during highschool.

Sure, videogames are addictiing. No more addicting than shugar, TV-shows and books. And Koreans... Their government should probably consider making their real lives better so that virtual ones won't be so alluring.

old news mmobomb..

I would love to have that baby... i want a daughter so bad. .>

I hate to say this but in the USA all of our media is also pointing out video games are making people into murderers. Look at all of the bad press about FPS games & the ones who played them that committed hideous acts of murder. That kid who murdered his whole family because of Halo. Columbine, all those shit heads played video games.That ass hole at the bat man movie, that dude was whacked & gamed all the time. & what about that young kid who stole his dad’s gun & murdered all those kids in that preschool because he played grand theft auto & wanted to see what would would happen if he shot someone for real. & what about that US mail clerk that chopped up his coworkers with a Katana & the police found out he played WOW & Diablo. The list goes on & on. I knew a few people who were totally addicted to Ever Quest & WOW, They would even piss in a bottle just so they didn’t have to get up from their PC when gaming, Their places of living became utterly revolting. They would lock themselves in a room for weeks at a time & play games. They totally alienated themselves from our circle of friends because they had 6 raids to do that day & loose their very well paying jobs for a game. I have seen it with my own eyes & I could never understand why. So I would have to say yes they can be addicting for the weak minded & are definitely up there with gambling. But the fact remains that it is a million dollar industry & the gaming train will keep on moving until governments decide to make it illegal. I am 43 & I love my games & I do spend like 15 to 20 hours a week PC gaming & I play table top D&D with my friends on Sundays. That might sound like a lot to others but if you asked me sometimes gaming can keep you out of trouble & when you are board with everything else It’s fun to escape from reality every once in a while to blow shit up or go on an epic quest to slay a Demon or a Dragon. The media can point the finger at anything they want & make it seem really bad to the masses. It is the same as blaming Ozzy Osbourn for killing that kid because of his song suicide solution. For the people of the world that are totally whacked in the head should not play games but who’s to stop them. No one can & the media of the world is going to say Games made me do it or my son died because he didn’t eat for days because of WOW. It’s not the games fault it’s the fault of the person that is whacked in the head & can’t get his/her priorities straight & are all ready mentally challenged. As for parents That are blaming games making their kids whacked in the head well maybe your kid was all ready whacked & you never took notice &/or didn’t care to notice it & maybe it’s the parents fault?
I say Blame the media for blowing crap out of proportion & blame parents for not giving a damn or not helping their mentally challenged children. If your child comes home with a string of dead lizards form the needle & thread from your sewing kit at the age of 5 you better take notice! LOL. XD

i dont know about others but for me personaly it is the hardest thing for me to quit so i can see why they want to label it as so

Wow, this is ridiculous, I doubt the kid really died because of the parent's gaming, that sounds more like neglect, as for the other guy again i doubt he died from playing as well, maybe he was high/drunk as shit, or sick, it's not like the games choked them in their sleep out of jealousy.
Some people need to get smacked in their face though, i love video games but i never spent so much time in them, that i just ignored everything else in my life. and I've played a lot.

You can tell this was typed by a Human and not pasted, cause of the typos.

Nah, the darn politicians just want a percentages of what the gaming industries are earning.

Talk about a stupid bill. Prohibition didn't work, fda marijuana control doesn't work. It is impossible to restrict something so massive like gaming in a free market society. Politicians like to put the blame on nonsense things like video games, in order to draw away attention from actually 'addictive' things that kill like alcohol and tobacco.

...... this world is getting more weird... O -O

Korean MMOs are a cancer to the F2P industry anyway. Good riddance, I say.

The likelihood of this affecting us in the west is slim to none, considering how previous anti video game legislation attempts have ended in the past.

this is only because people cant set their darn priorities straight...

I mean, I won't deny the fact that video games are addicting. They honestly have every right to do it. Video games can in fact ruin peoples lives. Sure did ruin mine. Haha.

Videogames are my heroin.