Spending too much time playing video games could soon be a diagnosed medical condition. In fact, one health organization is comparing video game addictions to heroin addictions.

The American Medical Association is hoping psychiatrists will recognize excessive video game use as a medical disorder. While that organization may see it as a problem gamers say there's so many more benefits than downfalls.

Guitar Hero is one of Sean Duncan's favorite games. "I've been playing games ever since the 70's when I played games on my parents Apple II computer," Duncan explained.

He's not alone. Patrick Bucci has been Playing games ever since he can remember and now he works at Play N Trade, a video game store. "It is a nice escape from day to day. You don't have to do homework in video games, you don't have to pay bills, and they've got fantastic stories to them with characters you get to interact with," said Bucci.

While games continue to evolve, so has our knowledge about the benefits and dangers of the games. The American Medical Association says some people will spend hours couped up playing video games. Some play so much they're considered addicted and that's why they want it to be recognized as a medically diagnosable problem. "The health field knows so little about this they're treating it really like a drug addiction as opposed to a behavioral addiction like shopping or working out or other things," explained Kurt Squire. He's a professor at UW-Madison and he's studied video games and also is a gamer himself. Squire says video games have helped school-aged children become more proficient at language, spelling, and social skills. When used correctly he says they can be powerful tools. Gamers will also tell you video games help with critical thinking skills and eye-hand coordination.
So gamers like Duncan and Bucci consider the 10-20 hours a week they spend playing games a form of entertainment--just like watching movies or television. "It's a hobby and people are always going to take every hobby too seriously... I think most people that play games today realize it's a big world and there's a lot of other stuff to do," smiled Bucci.

The American Medical Association will debate whether or not to make video game addictions a medical disorder this weekend at a meeting in Chicago. The group is also trying to get the American psychiatric Association on board to adopt video game addictions in its official manual.