Ninja Gives Criticism on WHO Classifying Gaming Disorder as a Disease

Nicholas Barth,

June 19, 2018 7:49 PM

World famous gamer Tyler "Ninja" Belvins recently made his opinions on the decision by the World Health Organization to classify Gaming Disorder as a mental illness known on his stream.

Gaming Disorder, the mental illness consisting of gaming addiction, was officially recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO) on Monday, June 18th and sparked a massive debate in the video game community. The decision was met with a great deal of negativity from members of the video game community, as they believed that it targets video game playing in general and doesn't provide enough detail regarding how much time spent gaming is considered excessive. 

The official description of Gaming Disorder by WHO describes excessive playing over a 12 month period that significantly impairs a person's "personal, family, social, educational, occupational or other important areas of functioning". 

During a recent stream, popular Fortnite player Tyler "Ninja" Belvins was asked his opinion on the news of the WHO adding Gaming Disorder as a mental illness. 

"So when you watch ten hours, or twenty hours of TV a week, is that a mental illness? Is that a disorder? I guess the world's a little crazy. If you were to watch two to three hours of news a day, every day for the entire week, that's more than ten hours. That's more than ten hours a week. Do you have a 'watching the news mental disorder?' Oh no, watching the news is all good," said Ninja.

Ninja later went on to state in his stream that time playing video games should not be factored into the diagnosis of Gaming Disorder if the person in question is living healthy in other areas of their life, such as performing well in school. Well known Fortnite player Ninja also explained how anything in life can become an addiction for someone if left unchecked.

"Everything can be addictive, you could be addicted to taking shits. The brain is so complex," Ninja continued. "Should kids be playing 50, 60 hours of video games every week? I don't know are they getting straight A's? If they're doing well in school, in every aspect of their life , they're coming for dinner saying Hi, doing their chores, and they come home and play video games all day with their friends after, are you really going to be mad about that? If they are failing, then it's the parents job to limit what they're doing, because of course at that point ya it's not good. That's common sense, which 99% of parents don't have."

Ninja has not been the only well known member of the Fortnite community to speak their mind on the classification of Gaming Disorder as a mental illness by the WHO, as Team SoloMid Fortnite player and streamer Ali "Myth" Kabbani recently took to Twitter to explain how he believes the jokes about Gaming Disorder need to stop. 

With video games as popular and part of mainstream culture as they have ever have been before currently, the news of Gaming Disorder being recognized has quickly become one of the most discussed topics in the world at the moment with many opinions on the matter being made public from huge figures in the industry, such as Ninja and Myth.

(cover photo courtesy of Red Bull)



Discussion

You need to be logged in to post a comment.

Join us