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Lockdown sucks (but it's good news for gaming)

Writer's picture: [DGP] Badgers[DGP] Badgers

And I don't just mean more people playing.


I can self-isolate with the best of them. I'm quite content in my own company. But I live alone, and so lockdown during the pandemic could have had a much bigger impact on my mental health and well-being.


So much isolation certainly doesn't bode well for the socialites amongst us. Whilst it is easy to make jokes about isolation, it can have extremely serious, lasting effects. Yet games are here to save the day.

It might not be the same as meeting up, but getting your friends together to play a few games of whatever you all enjoy has been a literal lifeline for some. And with mobile gaming on a meteoric rise, gaming has never been more accessible or relevant.


And yet there are other, deeper meanings for gaming and the gaming community that the Corona virus has brought to light


Back in mid 2018, the World Health Organisation added 'Gaming disorder' to the International Classification of Diseases. Characterised as 'impaired control over gaming', doing so seemingly separates the idea of people with addictive personalities gaming, and gaming itself being an addictive medium.


So it was a surprise when mere weeks into the crisis, Ray Chambers - Ambassador for the WHO - leads their campaign to encourage people to game. It even had its own hashtag #PlayApartTogether

There's more to this than meets the eye. It wasn't just the WHO accepting that gaming has its positives as well as its negative. For me, it is an admission that any such 'gaming disorder' is actually just 'addictive personality'.


I mean, they didn't suggest everyone go buy some cocaine, did they? Though #DoALineTogether does have a certain ring to it.

Extreme, but you get my point - encouraging addictive behaviour seems very strange for a Health organisation to do - unless they don't really believe it is addictive at all. I suspect it was more a case of bowing to popular pressure than an informed medical decision. Does this mean one gaming's demons can be put to bed? I doubt it. But it is yet another point of rebuttal for when the uninformed get all excited and decide to break out pitch forks and torches.


But we get a two-for-one as part of this deal. The 'bUt GaMinG cAuSeS ViOlenCE' crowd will need to sit down and shut the fuck up now, because despite the massive increase in gaming and gamers, there has been no corresponding increase in violence of any type (apart from the peaceful protest type, I suppose, but that has nothing to do with gaming). Yes - too much gaming isn't great. But consuming too much anything isn't great.


Gaming has been, is, and will continue to be a positive force. DGP has always been about the social experience that gaming can be. We keep in contact with friends and even make new ones whilst enjoying experiences only gaming can bring us. Long may that continue.
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