Concerns about problematic gaming behaviors deserve our full attention. However, we claim that it is far from clear that these problems can or should be attributed to a new disorder. The empirical basis for a Gaming Disorder proposal, such as in the new ICD-11, suffers from fundamental issues. Our main concerns are the low quality of the research base, the fact that the current operationalization leans too heavily on substance use and gambling criteria, and the lack of consensus on symptomatology and assessment of problematic gaming. The act of formalizing this disorder, even as a proposal, has negative medical, scientific, public-health, societal, and human rights fallout that should be considered. Of particular concern are moral panics around the harm of video gaming. They might result in premature application of diagnosis in the medical community and the treatment of abundant false-positive cases, especially for children and adolescents. Second, research will be locked into a confirmatory approach, rather than an exploration of the boundaries of normal versus pathological. Third, the healthy majority of gamers will be affected negatively. We expect that the premature inclusion of Gaming Disorder as a diagnosis in ICD-11 will cause significant stigma to the millions of children who play video games as a part of a normal, healthy life. At this point, suggesting formal diagnoses and categories is premature: the ICD-11 proposal for Gaming Disorder should be removed to avoid a waste of public health resources as well as to avoid causing harm to healthy video gamers around the world.

We greatly appreciate the care and thought that is evident in the 10 commentaries that discuss our debate paper, the majority of which argued in favor of a formalized ICD-11 gaming disorder. We agree that there are some people whose play of video games is related to life problems. We believe that understanding this population and the nature and severity of the problems they experience should be a focus area for future research. However, moving from research construct to formal disorder requires a much stronger evidence base than we currently have. The burden of evidence and the clinical utility should be extremely high, because there is a genuine risk of abuse of diagnoses. We provide suggestions about the level of evidence that might be required: transparent and preregistered studies, a better demarcation of the subject area that includes a rationale for focusing on gaming particularly versus a more general behavioral addictions concept, the exploration of non-addiction approaches, and the unbiased exploration of clinical approaches that treat potentially underlying issues, such as depressive mood or social anxiety first. We acknowledge there could be benefits to formalizing gaming disorder, many of which were highlighted by colleagues in their commentaries, but we think they do not yet outweigh the wider societal and public health risks involved. Given the gravity of diagnostic classification and its wider societal impact, we urge our colleagues at the WHO to err on the side of caution for now and postpone the formalization.

Espen Aarseth Título original: Playing Research: Methodological approaches to game analysisArtnodes, n.º 7 (2007) I ISSN Revista electrónica impulsada por la UOC ResumenEl estudio de la estética de los juegos es una práctica reciente que abarca menos de dos décadas. A diferencia de las teorías de juegos en matemáticas o ciencias sociales, que son mucho más antiguas, los juegos se convirtieron en objeto de estudio para las humanidades sólo cuando los videojuegos y juegos de ordenador se volvieron populares. Esta falta de interés continuada puede parecer extraña, pero sólo si consideramos que los juegos tradicionales y los juegos de ordenador son intrínsicamente similares, lo cual no es así. Podemos intentar explicar esta carencia señalando que las élites estéticas y teóricas que cultivan el análisis de objetos artísticos de los medios (literatura, artes visuales, teatro, música) suelen considerar los juegos como algo trivial y popular. Pero esto no explica el hecho de que los estudios estéticos sobre juegos sean posibles en la actualidad, e incluso en algunos entornos académicos, se estimulen y apoyen con becas. ¿Qué ha sucedido para provocar este cambio?

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