Take a hit from Nintendo's crack pipe

So some doctors want to create a formal classification for video game addiction.

In fact, they suggest sufferers of this addiction - those who show severe dependence on games such as World of Warcraft - be able to access insurance in the U.S. to pay for treatment.

No, you didn't pass out due to lack of sleep from playing too much Xbox. This is a true story.

A leading council of the nation's largest doctors' group wants to have this behavior officially classified as a psychiatric disorder, to raise awareness and enable sufferers to get insurance coverage for treatment.

In a report prepared for the American Medical Association's annual policy meeting starting Saturday in Chicago, the council asks the group to lobby for the disorder to be included in a widely used mental illness manual created and published by the American Psychiatric Association. (Associated Press)

Video games have had their detractors for many, many years, naysayers which include religious organizations, special interest groups, politicians and perhaps millions of moms and dads wondering why their kids aren't out throwing a baseball around. They've been labeled a waste of time, bad for your eyes, bad for your character, bad for your morality.

But let's be honest with ourselves: everything in moderation. Only the most extreme cases have been used to "prove" that video games are as addictive as crack cocaine. Take this entertaining excerpt, for example, from the AP story:

Joyce Protopapas of Frisco, Texas, said her 17-year-old son, Michael, was a video addict. Over nearly two years, video and Internet games transformed him from an outgoing, academically gifted teen into a reclusive manipulator who flunked two 10th grade classes and spent several hours day and night playing a popular online video game called World of Warcraft.

"My father was an alcoholic ... and I saw exactly the same thing" in Michael, Protopapas said (of her 17-year-old son). "We battled him until October of last year," she said. "We went to therapists, we tried taking the game away.

"He would threaten us physically. He would curse and call us every name imaginable," she said. "It was as if he was possessed."

In another example, one poor guilt-stricken mother lamented buying her son a video game system, saying she felt like she'd bought him his first bottle of Jack Daniels.

These are rare scenarios. Few people are holed-up in their parents basement, forsaking food and friendship so they can reach level 30 in Halo. Of course, some people will become addicted to video games, just as others become addicted to e-mail, MSN, Facebook ... or how about junk food, porn, TV, etc. Other fortunate souls get addicted to things such as exercise or reading. Extreme cases of such "addictions" already have a name: obsessive compulsive disorder.

The difference is video games are easy to slag, and saying they lead to a disorder further stereotypes the average gamer.

Let's paint a picture of the average gamer (and it's not a pimply teenager who's never talked to a girl):

A huge portion of gamers are in their 20s and 30s, with an increasing number entering their 40s and 50s. They lead productive lives in every industry. They are married. They have children. They play in sports leagues. They are both men and women. These are not people who are playing hookey from work for one more hit from the Nintendo crack pipe. And, likely, some resent the idea that maybe they should enroll in some Gamers' Anonymous because they have an addiction that needs be be broken.

Gaming has become a massive industry, challenging blockbuster films in earning power. They are interactive works of art, with the ability to bring people together from all over the world to laugh and play. They are a hobby. Not a stigma that needs to be treated.