Video Game Addiction By Design

In a recent guest essay in the New York Times, mobile video gaming developer William Sui reported on steps China has taken to reduce gaming addiction among kids. China has prohibited minors from playing video games on school days. China also legislated no more than an hour of video game playing or weekend and holiday nights. When kids then began flocking to livestreaming platforms to watch others play video games, China barred kids from watching livestreams after ten pm. The Chinese government refers to video games as spiritual opium because of how they harm mental health and academic study. Sui, the developer of over fifty mobile games himself, went on to say that as a developer, he knows that game addiction is by design, for the simple reason that it meant success for his business. Sui says their ultimate goal was to build habit-forming games that have players coming back every day. Parents, our calling and goal is to keep our kids from addictions of all types.