Abstract:

There are three aspects of controversy disputing whether Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD) should be defined as an independent psychiatric disorder. Conceptually, it is difficult to clarify the differences between IGD and normal gaming behavior or other mental disorders, and it is not clear that the object of addiction is restricted to online games only, or contained offline games at the same time. With respect to the identification standards, the 9 criteria summarized by DSM-5 failed to depict the essential characteristics of IGD, and with inconsistent levels on content, diagnostic threshold etc. based on existing 18 diagnostic tools. Further, the research methods lack theoretical support, relaying too much on questionnaire data and ignoring the positive effects of video games. The contents of the controversies reveal that researchers lack an understanding of online gaming behavior. Therefore, it is difficult to distinguish normal and abnormal gaming behavior. Research in future should consider stepping back to study the online gaming behavior, exploring the characteristics of different types of internet games and analyzing factors which affect the behavior of Internet gaming and digging the positive contribution of video games, so as to define a clear description of the nature of Internet Gaming Disorder.

Key words: Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD), gaming disorder, behavioral addiction, DSM-5 diagnose criteria, mental disorder