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Online Gaming Addictive?

Posted by Zonk on from the pope-catholic? dept.

gihan_ripper writes "The BBC has a discussion on the addictive effects of online gaming. Reports come from Liz Woolley of Online Gamers Anonymous, and a gamer, Lynn Hall. Liz blames EverQuest for the 2002 suicide of her son Shawn, noting that game manufacturers hire employees with psychology degrees in order to make their games more addictive."

3 of 169 comments (clear)

  1. o noes! save us from the psychologys! by truffle · · Score: 2, Informative

    "noting that game manufacturers hire employees with psychology degrees in order to make their games more addictive"

    An undergraduate psychology degree doesn't really qualify you to make games 'addictive'.

    There's a big difference between someone with a psychology degree and a psychologist.

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    I support spreading santorum
  2. Re:It's True by DerWulf · · Score: 2, Informative

    yeah, only once you fought in an instance with a group composed of your friends (not e-friends mind you) against challenging adversaries (elite ones that, in the middle of battle laugh at your puny weapons and go to fetch an even bigger hammer) you will know the 'skill' in WoW. A group only 'auto-attacking' won't last 5 minutes.

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  3. Blizzard never deletes characters by wormbin · · Score: 2, Informative

    Even after I stopped playing, I still havn't worked up the courage to cancel my account yet because I don't want to lose my character.

    Blizzard doesn't delete characters from cancelled accounts. You can cancel, not pay for a year, and then reactivate your account and have all your characters still there.

    This is great for hardcore gamers. Cap in a couple months then cancel until a significant content patch comes out.