Academics create the first psychological test for gaming disorder

Academics in the UK, China and Australia have created the first psychological test for gaming disorder.

Hot on the heels of the World Health Organisation’s decision to classify gaming disorder as a disease, researchers created an online test, dubbed Do I play too much videogames?. It’s designed to let gamers benchmark their gaming habits and behaviours and compare them with others, then tell participants whether they meet the WHO criteria for gaming disorder.

The test, available online now, is described as the largest study ever of gaming addiction, and looks at how socioeconomic factors and personality traits may contribute to the development of gaming disorders.

At the end of the test, which takes about 20 minutes, you’re given a score out of 20. Five or more indicates higher tendencies towards gaming disorder. You see your score compared to others on the Gaming Disorder Scale, and you also get a list of motivations, each with its own score out of 20. There’s a social motivation, for example, and a competition motivation.

Lead researcher Dr Bruno Schivinski, lecturer in marketing at Birkbeck, University of London, said: “We want to understand the point at which gaming becomes a health problem, and which factors contribute to the development of gaming disorders, exploring sociodemographic variables, personality and motivations. We hope there will be thousands of participants in the next phase of the study.”