Gaming Disorder: WHO decision could affect design of video games

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In South Korea, the multi-billion-dollar industry is fighting back. And the government is setting up a team of experts to assess the decision. Jack Barton reports from Seoul.

Hoping to turn pro, 18-year-old South Korean Kim Seo-jin plays online at least six hours every day. Under the U.N. World Health Organization's new classification, he might be considered to be suffering from a mental health disease.

KIM SEO-JIN GAMER "I couldn't understand it. Games are played for fun. I think it is bad to judge the game itself as bad."

It's not just players who are outraged.

JACK BARTON SEOUL "Almost 90 game companies, trade unions and other organizations have now come together to fight the WHO's classification of gaming as a mental disorder along with any attempt by the government to adopt the ruling."

The industry generates more than five and a half billion dollars a year in South Korea, the world's fourth largest online game industry.

HAN TAE-HEE, DIRECTOR SEOUL INSTITUTE OF GAME ACADEMY EDUCATION "We are worried that it will certainly lead to a decline in sales, job insecurity and investment in the gaming industry."

But some Korean mental health experts warn the dangers are real. Games that have no end are one alleged cause of over immersion. Then there is paying real money in a lottery like system for prizes offering game advantage, encouraging gamers to spend more to recoup losses, just like a real gambling addict.

TACK WOO DIGITAL ART DESIGN DEPARTMENT, KYUNG HEE UNIVERSITY "Almost every game company uses that gambling element in the game design and because of that, without doubt, they earn lots of money, but because of that element, the WHO can argue the game is a disease, the game is an addiction, because that element is the same as gambling."

Even some game developers strongly opposed to the WHO decision acknowledge some good may come of it.

TACK WOO DIGITAL ART DESIGN DEPARTMENT, KYUNG HEE UNIVERSITY "In this situation, I think, it will make us much stronger in a rightful way and a standard way, compared to before, so I think this will be our new opportunity."

The Ministry of Culture is opposed to the U.N.'s designation of excessive gaming as a disease. But the government is gathering health experts, civil groups and industry officials to consult on what is expected to be inevitable change to the way games are designed. Jack Barton, CGTN, Seoul.