10 Recent Truths About Gaming We've Just Learned

Video games have been around for a good few decades now, and it seems as if we are learning new and interesting things about the medium every year. New consoles are being developed, game engines become more advanced, and online gaming has pretty much taken over.

There's a lot coming out in terms of console and PC gaming in the next 12 months, and it's hard to go a day or two without hearing something new and exciting in the world of gaming. Nintendo's work on a new Switch or Sony's advancements made with the PS5 development are on the horizon, but what else is going on?

Most gamers are plugged into the news enough to know most of what's coming down the pike, but it's impossible to find out everything that's set to release or debut in the coming year. Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft, and now Google are all working diligently to take a dominant share of the marketplace, and they're doing it via innovation never seen before.

Hopefully, you haven't learned al lof these recent gaming truths the industry recently threw at the gaming community, so check them out, and let us know in the comments any new gaming news we didn't cover.

Let's get the negative aspects of the gaming industry out of the way before moving into the gaming truths gamers wouldn't outright dismiss. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared in May of 2019 that gaming is a disease. Specifically, the WHO listed "gaming disorder" as a behavioral addiction.

When the news was released, concerned parents took notice, which isn't surprising given how prevalent gaming has become in our daily lives. According to the Pew Research Center, 97% of teenage boys and 83% of teen girls routinely play video games on one device or another. The problem with gaming disorder isn't so much concerned with casual play, it's with abusive addiction.

There is some merit to the WHO's classification of the disorder. In 2017, a gamer attempted to live-stream a 24-hour gaming session of World of Tanks. Brian Vigneault was 35-year-old when he made the attempt, but 22 hours in, he got up to take a smoke break and never returned.

That's not an isolated incident. In 2015, a 24-year-old man collapsed and died while playing a 19-hour session of World of Warcraft in Shanghai. It doesn't happen often, but people have died. The WHO's classification of the gaming disorder is somewhat offensive to the average gamer, but it does bear some merit when an addiction takes hold.

Like anything else, gaming should be done in moderation.