For nylig udgav World Health Organization den seneste udgave af deres "International Classification of Diseases" (eller ICD-11), og her har de tilføjet "gaming disorder" til listen af sygdomme, på linje med ludomani eller spiseforstyrrelser.
Denne klassificering har skabt røre, og er blevet kritiseret af en lang række eksperter, men nu vælger World Health Organization at skyde tilbage. Specifikt er det Dr. Vladimir Poznyak, en koordinator hos WHO's department for mentalt helbred og stofmisbrug. Han har forsvaret klassificeringen med følgende meddelelse til GamesIndustry:
"The inclusion of gaming disorder into classification is that it provides health professionals the possibility to identify this disorder, to diagnose it if it is present, and to link to the client all of the knowledge there is available about gaming disorder. This allows us to predict its cause and to identify the most appropriate prevention and treatment interventions.
Derudover har GamesIndustry også snakket med Oxford-universitetsprofessoren Andrew Przybylski, som er forfatter på "A weak scientific basis for gaming disorder: Let us err on the side of caution". Przybylski mener at det er for tidligt at klassificere "gaming disorder", men mener også at vi nu kan have en debat om disse ting, og at spiludviklere og udgivere bør acceptere den store indflydelse de kan have på folks liv.
"We still obviously think this is premature, but it offers those in the games industry a chance to get realistic about what their role is here."
"As a kid of open, transparent, and robust science... I really think that the people who make games have a role to play here. We really need to collaborate with the industry. Game makers collect and control so much data and the real problem is that this literature is closed."