Game of thorns: Modern day opium (2019)

Med J Armed Forces India. 2019 Apr;75(2):130-133. doi: 10.1016/j.mjafi.2018.12.006..

Bhat PS1, Prakash J2, Srivastava K3.

Abstract

With the advent of internet and mobile communication the virtual space of world wide web has become a playground; people plugged in to it at distant horizon completely unfamiliar to each other are players; keyboard, touchpad and joysticks have become the tools of play; webmaster, app developer are self designated referees of the game; while the virtual media is the largest ever spectators in this amphitheatre of the web. More and more youth are getting hooked onto this and are gradually becoming dependent on these games. World Health Organization has recognized this as a diagnosable medical illness and included as Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD) in its International Classification of Diseases (ICD) -11 released in 2018. Various aspects of this problem are discussed in this article.

KEYWORDS: Addictive behavior; Adverse effects; Internet gaming disorder; Video games; Virtual world

PMID: 31065179

PMCID: PMC6495471

DOI: 10.1016/j.mjafi.2018.12.006