The head of Association for UK Interactive Entertainment (UKIE for short), Jo Twist, says we should stop using the term addictive when it comes to video games, Gamesindustry reports.

„People who know me know that I care about words a lot. Semantics and language matters. I get really annoyed when I see game reviews and they say [this game is addictive], when actually what they mean is, ‘This game is really well designed, this game is good, you should play this game’.

“It’s not f_cking addictive. We need to mind our language when we’re using these words because, unfortunately, what happens is the public sphere, politicians, press, people who don’t understand games, listen to this, and they believe us when we say, instead of this is a really good game or a really well-designed game, it’s addictive.”

We’ve got to just step up and go, ‘Okay, listen, this is a cultural bias you have’ – It’s not necessarily generational, but it is going to evolve. People will understand that this is the way this world works… It’s how people choose to be entertained, as well as watching these things that we call TV. It’s just part of our culture now,” Twist said at Develop:Brighton. She responded to the World Health Organization’s decision to add gaming disorder into the list of addictions. (And a German research group came up with a therapeutic solution – both subjects have been discussed previously.)

Twist is a little biased (she’s the head of a trade group that involves games, as those are also an entertaining medium…), but we can understand her thoughts – even we used the term addictive in a positive connotation. It’s time to accept games as a hobby, she says.

Twist should perhaps step up against loot boxes, which Electronic Arts called „ethical and fun”… (we wrote about this subject, too).

Source: PCGamer