Are you a games addict?

A new study claims that one in twelve gamers aged between eight and eighteen show worrying signs of addiction.

This latest research was undertaken by Iowa State University in conjunction with the National Institute on Media and the Family, both in the USA. The playing habits of young gamers were compared to the symptoms displayed by hardened gamblers, as listed by the American Psychiatric Association. The results were not exactly encouraging, with one in twelve (or 8.5%) of those tested displaying such addictive behaviours as:

- Lying to family and friends about video game usage.
- Using video games to escape from problems or bad feelings.
- Becoming restless or irritable when attempting to stop playing video games.
- Skipping homework in order to play video games.
- Doing poorly on a school assignment or test because of too much time spent playing video games.

No doubt there were plenty of others too, like shouting at Mum when she tells you it’s time for tea or lying awake at night reliving key gaming triumphs and disasters or, as this writer can shamefully attest, seeing Tetris-blocks form into neat lines behind his eyelids after a particularly lengthy session.

“Many parents have been worried about their children being addicted to video games,” Iowa State’s Professor Douglas Gentile tells gamepolitics.com.

“While the medical community currently does not recognise video games addiction as a mental disorder, hopefully this study will be one of many that allow us to have an educated conversation on the positive and negative effects of video games.”

Okay, you heard the good doctor. So do any of the above listed symptoms ring a guilty bell of recognition with you or any of your young relatives? Is it simply a case that too much of anything is rarely a good thing? Or is this just something else for the anti-games brigade to get worked up about? Let the educated debate commence...