Gaming addiction made the news again today. This time it was at The Daily Iowan, the local rag at the University of Iowa, and Fark.com. The news itself isn’t terribly interesting, a gaming junkie ends up at an addiction retreat, but the tone is.

It’s hidden behind overwrought prose about the toll of addiction on family, but the article takes a remarkably even-handed position on games addiction. It points out that researchers are concerned by the proliferation of overly specific addiction disorders, and how treating any old addiction as special gluts diagnostic practice with harmful kludge.

It also points out that the problem with addiction is obsessive behavior, like social withdrawal and neglecting responsibility. The author never goes so far as to defend games, but the article notes that treatment involves a combination of abstinence and addressing the underlying problems that originally drove the obsession. In fact, you might go so far as to say that gaming was largely peripheral to the article’s content.

I wouldn’t recommend reading the excessively long article, but it’s nice to see journalists out there treating gaming addiction as addiction rather than gaming.

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