• Journal of Korea Game Society
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.99-110
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• 2021

WHO passed the ICD-11 amendment in 2019, which included gaming disorder, and there are confronted opinions whether this should be listed in the revision of the KCD in Korea. This study explains the consent and opposition to the listing of gaming disorder, and then investigates the effect of the listing of gaming disorder and the adoption of gaming addiction tax. The results of this study find that the listing of gaming disorder and the adoption of gaming addiction tax could negatively affect the investment value and the global national competitiveness of the Korean game industry.

• Journal of Convergence Korean Medicine
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.25-44
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• 2023

Objectives: Gaming disorder has been viewed as a disease in the DSM-5 and ICD-11. Its essential symptoms are loss of control over gaming, gaming becoming a markedly prioritized activity over other activities of daily living, and continued and excessive use of gaming despite negative problems occurring. Methods: Children and adolescents are especially vulnerable to gaming disorder because the striatal pathways related to reward develop earlier than the control regions of the prefrontal cortex. It is also associated with decreased dopamine D2 receptors. Addiction is related to 'want' and is explained by incentive-sensitization. In addition, allostasis, in which homeostasis is continuously achieved at a new target value, is also related to gaming disorder. In addition, personality causes, unchangeable factors, and external factors can influence on the onset of gaming disorder. Results: Prevention is the best solution for gaming disorder, and the role of parents is important. For gaming disorder, bupropion is used, cognitive-behavioral therapy and family-based therapy are also beneficial. Herbal medicine treatment such as Antler velvet and ginseng can be effective. Electroacupuncture and acupuncture using PC6, SP6, and LR3 has a correlation with relieving Internet craving. Ear-acupuncture was also effective in treating addiction. Conclusion: Psychologically, 'want' is an intense longing for reward and motivation, and is related to addiction. This 'want' may rather be related to avoidance, and game addiction in children and adolescents may be due to wanting to escape from academic stress or avoidance of comparison. Therefore, the importance of 'like', which gives pleasure in itself, increases. It can also be explained with Sasang Constitutional Medicine.

• Journal of Korea Game Society
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.135-146
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• 2019

World Health Organization reveals its plan for listing 'Gaming Disorder' on the 11th International Disease Codes (ICD-11) in 2018 and it opens hot debate among scholars on its validity and timeliness. Korea, however, seems to have avoided the issue without appropriate academic refutation. In this paper, we review past academic studies related to game addiction or disorder focused on their validity of disorder measurement tools, research designs and the effect of neuroimaging studies. This analysis reveals that excessive use of gaming is not sufficient to register it as a disease and there is a risk of stigmatizing healthy gamers.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.19 no.12
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• pp.425-439
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• 2019

This study looks at the social implications of gaming disorder by considering the situation in Korea. Focusing on specificity of game genres, this study analyzed two aspects of the game playing effect-positive(cognitive needs) and negative(game addiction)-and suggested directions for game regulation policies and game addiction studies, since game playing effects are closely related to game regulatory policy. To analyze game effects and attitudes to regulations, this study performed regression analysis based on the online survey. Results show that game playing effects and attitudes toward game regulation differ based on the nature of game genres. While longer gaming increased the effect of addiction, it also increased cognitive needs. Playing roleplaying, Aeon of Strife, and strategy game genres(RAS), which are subject to game regulation, increased game addiction levels but simultaneously contributed to increased cognitive needs. While playing augmented reality genres positively affected cognitive needs, it also showed favorable attitudes to general game regulation.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.277-301
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• 2020

This study surveyed 503 adults to examine the effect of gaming disorder classification, recently announced by World Health Organization(WHO), when it is applied to Korean game market. Considering the difference in respondents' background knowledge on gaming disorder, half of the respondents were randomly assigned to read an informative news article describing WHO's decision and its expected effect on domestic game industry. Based on previous literature of gaming disorder, we categorized respondents into a normal-use group and a potentially problematic-use group. As a result of analyses, it was found that the gaming disorder classification would yield overall reduction of game-related consumption in terms of gaming time(24%), game cost(28%), the number of games(22%), etc. The potentially problematic group showed higher willingness to pay for gaming than the normal group did, even if the game cost presumably increases due to the gaming disorder classification. A similar outcome was observed in those with high stress levels. This implies that the policy to solve game addiction problems may ironically lead to unexpected cost increases to the target group of the policy. Hence, problematic groups, especially, highly stressful people and the people with the lack of self-control, need to be considered when the gaming disorder classification policy is established. Furthermore, the informative news article had the preventive effect on the attitude and the intention of the people with moderate or high self-control capacity, but not to the people with gaming-additive tendencies, Again, this finding confirms the necessity of the tweezers policy to refine target groups by their characteristics and prepare for differentiated policies. When the gaming disorder classification is simply adopted with no consideration of domestic circumstances, irreversible loss could affect Korean game users, game industries, and related companies. This calls for urgent cooperation between academia, government, and industry to set up appropriate measures to deal with the gaming disorder classification.

• Journal of Korea Game Society
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.91-106
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• 2021

This study examined how news has covered games since the decision to include gaming disorder in ICD-11. Data were 694 news article on games in five major newspapers. The results indicated the following: While the proportion of reports on game industry was high, those reports were mainly straight news announcing industry status and corporate management status. Reports on game policy focused on regulations, particularly game addiction or disorder. Reports on game uses and effects showed very low rates, but they have followed the existing practices of reporting games as the cause of extreme crimes and deviant behaviors.

• Asia-pacific Journal of Multimedia Services Convergent with Art, Humanities, and Sociology
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• v.9 no.8
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• pp.199-208
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• 2019

The escape theory is the theory of problem behavior such as suicide. The purpose of this study is to investigate the causes of gaming disorder, which has been attracting attention as a typical youth problem, through escape theory. Suicide theory is a process in which the problem triggered by the negative external environment flows into internal attribution and self-criticism, and this leads to a process leading to problematic behavior with disgust self-awareness. This process was applied to the environment, psychology, and behavior of adolescents. As a result, the lack of affection and consistency of the parents resulted in negative external environment, which affected the self-esteem of children by creating a negative external environment. And low self-esteem caused negative emotions, lowered self control, and confirmed to induce game addiction. The results of this analysis show that game addiction has a structure similar to obsessive behaviors such as binge eating and shopping addiction explained through the escape theory model and it is necessary to concentrate more on the environmental psychological factors for game addiction research.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.17 no.9
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• pp.479-486
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• 2019

This study explored the effects of neurofeedback on electroencephalogram, impulsivity, sensation seeking, game addiction symptoms and game craving of university students with game addiction symptoms. Twelve university students participated in this study, six were assigned to the experimental group, and the rest were assigned to the control group. The experiment group received 20 sessions of neurofeedback, but the control group received any treatment. The neurofeedback group showed more significant improvement in EEG, game addiction symptom severity and impulsivity than control group, and the improvements were maintained at follow up.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.20 no.7
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• pp.653-664
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• 2020

The purpose of this study was to investigate the actual status of Internet gaming disorder in university students, the relationship between perceived stress, social support, lifestyle and Internet gaming disorder, and the medium effect of social support in the relationship between perceived stress and Internet gaming disorder. The main results of the survey and analysis of 1,154 university students located in Gyeonggi Province are as follows. First, the prevalence of Internet gaming disorder among university students was 14.0 percent, which is very high. Second, the perceived stress had a positive correlation with the Internet gaming disorder. The more negatively perceived stress events occurred by university students, the higher the degree of internet gaming disorder was. Third, social support had a negative correlation with perceived stress and internet gaming disorder. The higher the support of parents, friends, and others, the lower the perceived stress and the lower the internet gaming disorder. Fourth, social support partially mediated the relationship between perceived stress and Internet gaming disorder. Even though stress was negatively perceived, the degree of internet gaming disorder was low when social support was high. Fifth, among the lifestyle habits of students, the rate of alcoholism was higher in the Internet gaming disorder group than in the non-disorder group. Finally, the results of the study and ways to prevent Internet gaming disorder among university students were discussed.

• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.136-141
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• 2014

Objectives : The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between internet game addiction and psychiatric symptoms. Methods : A total of 447 adolescents who were recruited from a child and adolescent psychiatric clinic of university hospital completed a self-report questionnaire consisting of Korean Internet Addiction Self-scale (K-scale), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), Korean-Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Rating Scale (K-ARS), and Adolescent Happiness Index (AHI). They were classified into three internet user groups, non-addicted group (below or equal to 94), potential risk group (95 to 107) and high risk group (above or equal to 108) according to K-scale total score. Results : Significant mean differences in BDI, BAI, K-ARS, and AHI scores were observed among the three groups. The BDI, BAI and K-ARS scores showed positive correlation with K-score. The AHI score showed negative correlation with K-score. Conclusion : Findings of this study suggest that depression, anxiety, inattention, hyperactivity/impulsivity, and happiness are associated with internet game addiction.