TOKYO -- Do you "feel isolated from others?" Have you "continued gaming despite the occurrence of negative consequences?" Do you "systematically fail when trying to control or cease your gaming activity?"
These questions were developed by a multinational team of psychologists, led by Halley Pontes at the University of Tasmania, in order to help identify the signs of "gaming disorder," a damaging addiction to video games. Their test, which is available online, was trialed on a group of 560 gamers in the U.K. and China. More than 6% of them met the World Health Organization's criteria for gaming disorder.
