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40 Percent of World of Warcraft Players Addicted
Heartless Gamer writes "MMORPGs and game addiction. If you're suffering from dry eyes, headaches, back aches, erratic sleep patterns, it may be more than just your average hangover: according to Dr. Maressa Orzack, you could be suffering from video and computer game addiction. A clinical psychologist, Orzack is founder and coordinator of Computer Addiction Services at McLean Hospital in Newton, Mass., and is also an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School. Computer Addiction Services is one of the few outpatient clinics in the U.S. that provides specific treatment for game addiction." but I'm feelings much better now.
This is news...why? We all know it's addictive, that's kinda the point to these games; To make them as addictive as possible.
So the real story here is that only 40% of the people playing are addicted. This indicates to me that
1) Blizz isn't doing their job correctly if they are capturing under half the population in this way
2) These docs need a new yaht
3) The study is bogus and was carried out incorrectly, invalidating the results.
Guess which one I'm a fan of? ( that's right, all three, for those of you keeping score at home )
Mod me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
Personally I refuse to play games like World Of Warcraft, because I know I would be sucked up in them in no time. It's too risky for me
When I found out that my brother in law bought the game I warned him about the game. He shrugged it off. He's only 14 (my wife is 11 years older) and he clearly has no control. He lives alone with his mother, has done allnighters, has already skipped school because of the game but his grades seem still to be unaffected. His mother has no idea what to do because she has absolutely no idea about anything related to computers. When I suggested she'd take away the DSL router, hell broke loose. I think she gave it back after a mere 2 days because his behaviour became unmanagable. He didn't come to the last BBQ we organized. He spends all his days (and nights, I guess) behind his computer playing WoW.
The thing is: I can't critisize him all that much. When I was his age, I was all the time using my computer. Playing Test Drive (CGA version) for hours, or programming in Pascal. It just depended on my mood. Still, it was much easier to break away from it because there was no social component.
Ahhh...the great dumpster continuum. Many a free computer will be found there. -- sowth (748135)
If you're suffering from dry eyes, headaches, back aches, erratic sleep patterns, it may be more than just your average hangover: according to Dr. Maressa Orzack, you could be suffering from video and computer game addiction.
Or perhaps you're just in need of a new monitor?
While I don't like to see friends suffer any addictions they're getting by just fine. My only concern is that politicians will use these statistics to legislate gaming. There's no direct evidence that violence in games leads to violence in real life. But if they can use the valid label "addiction" and quantify it who knows what kind of crazy legislation they may try to pass. Any negative word they can apply to gaming is fuel for their pointless causes.
Maybe I'm going overboard. But it angers me to no end when I see one of my senators giving BS speeches about how games should be regulated.
Developers: We can use your help.
"RW: What about self control and willpower? Should players take some responsibility for their heavy play? Dr. Orzack: This isn't about willpower or restraint. These games are very elaborately designed to ease you in gently, entice you, and keep you there. And it's a cycle: people begin to spend too much time playing and their careers and personal relationships begin to deteriorate. Then they begin to withdraw more into the game because it's an escape from their real world problems" The part about willpower is completely wrong: If you exercise willpower and self control, then you can keep the addiction under control. Everything in moderation. Orzack is basically saying that no matter how we act, we will get addicted, and that is simply not true. What ever happened to people being responsible for their own actions?
I RTFA, and I didn't see anywhere that they did a poll of WoW players and came up with this statistic. It seems more like a wild assed guess than anything else. Surely there are some people addicted to WoW, but I seriously doubt the number is anywhere near as high as 40%.
Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
The question is, do the creators deliberately make them addictive? I know that there is some argument that Gambling institutions do, by making them noisy, give free food and drinks (so your body doesn't have an excuse to leave) and having lots of flashing lights.
Is there even a difference between making a game enjoyable to play to some people (easy to get learn, fun to continue) and addictive to others?
Yeah, I know that. The problem is: how am I going to convince him to give me his password? Heck, I don't even know his username on WoW. If someone is going to set in place a technical solution it's going to be me, the default you-know-computers-guy. Would you, as a 14 year old, give the guy that is going to block his account overnight willingly your password? I think not. I know I wouldn't.
Ahhh...the great dumpster continuum. Many a free computer will be found there. -- sowth (748135)
First, is it just me or did she seem to pull that 40% number right out of her ass? How many of the 6 million users did she interview. If you work at a place where all you see is people who are addicted then I am pretty sure you are going to think that a lot of people are addicted. Secondly, she seems to be immediately discounting true emotional problems really quickly in her example. Oh there's this 18 year old kid who plays all the time and doesn't get along with his family. Well does he not get along with his family BECAUSE he plays all the time or does he play all the time BECAUSE he doesn't get along with his family. Seems that she is not asking the question. She's an adiction specialist, of course she thinks it's an adiction. When you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
Anything, if taken to extremes, can become an addiction. It is true that MMORPG's (World of Warcraft being far and away the more successful) encourage this. You have monthly fees that (aside from paying for the infrastructure, bandwidth, etc) entice you to play to justify the ongoing and mounting expense. Grouping makes sure you show up at given times, etc. The random rewards of epic loot in advanced dungeons is similar to random reward studies (which show it's the most powerful form of behavior shaping - see slot machines). You have to set limits on it just like anything else, whether it's drinking or TV.
However, there are some differences here to other addictions. There is no physical addiction, and hardly any psychological one. You can put it down, and other than mild obsession (what's going on in Azeroth?), it has no ill effects. Hell, you can discontinue your account, and they keep all of your character info, so you can completely unplug, and return at some point in the future when you're interested again, much like an offline game. There's also a limit - you may play a lot to reach level 60, but then you do stop. Sure, you can join raids, get gear, but the drive to constantly improve falls away (other games, like Disgaea, are far, far worse in this regard).
The most important difference is that if handled well, it can be a positive social tool. I play, but only with people I know in real life. That way we can talk about other things and it allows a set time for us to get together, without having to drive out to each other (I live over an hour away from many of them, and that's just suburban sprawl!).
Mostly, this is a lot of fuss over nothing.
I don't know what kind of crack I was on, but I suspect it was decaf.
You can look forward to these types of stories getting more coverage. Mainly because the major media outlets stand to lose from non-television entertainment.
I feel like I'm reading an article from 1950 about the dangers of Rock and Roll.
Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.
Luxury!
I have to farm flowers for 3 hours, to produce my potions used for the 5 hour raids that I attend to gain better equipment so that I can farm flower more quickly =)
Probable impossibilities are to be preferred to improbable possibilities.
Aristotele
The problem is: how am I going to convince him to give me his password?
"Convince him"? Screw that. Who is the adult here? I know his mom is the ultimate problem here, so this is not necessarily directed at you, but you don't "convince him". You tell him to give up the password or he's not allowed to play. If he starts getting "unmanageable", you start taking away stuff. You ground him. Take away everything he owns (music, etc). If he's still out of control, you take his room door off his hinges so he has no privacy. If that doesn't work, you threaten to follow him around at school to all his classes (in front of his friends, of course).
It's pretty clear that he's used to whining and screaming until he gets his own way. He needs a major attitude adjustment.
Sometimes it's best to just let stupid people be stupid.
Invite the Local Geek to a Date Night...
:: shrug :: Don't blame the games, blame society. And seriously, how different is playing WoW from watching 3+ hours of TV / movies every night like the rest of America that isn't playing games? I don't like TV, it's rediculous for the most part (there are a few comedies and such--insert all the geek flicks). Therefore, I kill. And I enjoy it. What is wrong with that?
If the real women would actually say "yes" I would have something better to do...
I was addicted to WoW. It got to the point where it was interfering with taking care of other things around the house, and occasionally paying attention to my kid. I finally quit cold-turkey a few weeks ago, and I'm glad I did. The game's fun, but it's just a game; I kept looking at it as "gotta accomplish more, gotta get all these characters to 60, etc."
One train of thought that helps kill my desire to play goes like this (it's sort of a mantra I run through every so often):
1. Wouldn't it be cool to play WoW in god mode, and have all the best equipment, skills, be able to kill everything in 1 hit, etc.?
2. Yeah, for about five minutes, but then it would get boring like god mode always does in games. It's better to accomplish things honestly, within the limits of the game.
3. Wait, accomplish? What accomplishment is there, exactly, in manipulating an interface that is essentially flipping bits on a hard drive somewhere? It's a game, it should be for entertainment; not some kind of to-do list.
4. WoW is still a little entertaining, but I've played two characters to level 60, and one each to 57, 55, 50, 48, 46, 33... I've seen pretty much all the content that doesn't require hours of raiding. Okay, I think I'm done.
"Destroy science and religion. Science would re-emerge exactly the same; but not religion." - Penn Jillette, paraphrased
As opposed to 100% of /. readers? ;)
Honestly, I'm thankful for that. The LAST thing I want to be is one of those people who lives and breathes on a videogame. It's scary to think that it's so addicting; I have to wonder why, though? There's nothing physical there to draw you in. It isn't like alcohol or nicotine. Is it the social aspects? Being able to completely control your surroundings, as you can't in real life? What is it about a videogame like WoW or Everquest that sucks people in so completely that it makes them ignore friends, family, and real life?
For some it's competition. If you are familiar with WoW's PvP system, or how end game raiding guilds compete it's easy how someone who is into competition can get hooked. It's a 'fake' type of competition too, as it doesn't rely on the fast twitch skills a counter strike or quake player needs.
For others it's the social aspect. Dealing with people in WoW is much easier for some people then it is in real life.
E-Fame can do it also, if you are known in game by pretty much all of the 12,000 people on your server, it can have a powerful pull on you.
Lastly, some people who are guild leaders or officers think the guild *NEEDS* them to be there. While that may be true in some cases, most end game raiding guilds can survive losing anyone.
You just really like the game a lot.
From TFA -
RW: What about self control and willpower? Should players take some responsibility for their heavy play?
Dr. Orzack: This isn't about willpower or restraint. These games are very elaborately designed to ease you in gently, entice you, and keep you there....
How the hell does this woman stay employed? It is ONLY about willpower and restraint. ANYTHING can become an addiction. Sure, MMORPGs may be easier to become addicted to than say, brocolli, but I'm sure it can happen. However, neither are a problem if you can maintain some restraint. The difference between people like you, and the 14 year old who skips school to play, is that you have the self control to pull yourself away. It is ALL about the self control.
The problem is attitude, the parent is treating the child as an equal. He is not an equal he is a minor child under the complete control of the parent. The parent has forgotten this, they have all the power.
Take away the computer, ground him, give him endless chores when he is problematic. The mother simply doesnt want to put the effort into being in the position of power.
The phrase "more better" is acceptable English. suck it grammar Nazis
It's funny... when my computer is out of order at home I get real nervous, but not because I need the computer per say. The problem is it's become such a vital part of my every day life it's rather indispensible. Paying the bills, email, stuff like that all are net-dependent. I can reserve books and have them delivered to my local library from a library system that is large even on a global scale: http://www.helmet.fi/screens/opacmenu.html Hell, I even plan non regular public transportation trips online: http://aikataulut.ytv.fi/reittiopas/en/
I don't have time to play games. I have two kids, and more babies are on the way. Email is pretty much the only way to deal with stuff sensibly if I don't make calls during working hours. Anything I need to research I use the net for. Being without a connection literally cuts me off from society.
I don't feel it's an addiction. I don't miss the net on a vacation away from home. But at home it's like running water and electricity, it's just expected to be there.
.: Max Romantschuk
FTFA: "I think there needs to be warning labels on MMORPGs like World of Warcraft, similar to warning labels on cigarettes. People should know that these games are potentially harmful."
t m
Comparing a video game to tobacco on any level is one of the most irresponsible analogies I have ever heard anyone in the medical community make. When a video game starts to have even 1/10th the social impact as cigarettes then maybe, just maybe, we should revisit this ridiculous topic. By most estimates tobacco kills approximately 1 million people just in the U.S. per year. And according to the CDC costs about $92 billion in lost productivity. http://www.cdc.gov/od/oc/Media/pressrel/r050630.h
Trust me, I am fully aware of the "dangers" involved with gaming addictions. For me it resulted in C's and D's for two semesters in college while hooked on a MUD back in the early ninety's. But getting a bad GPA because I cannot pull myself away from the monitor to go to class and huffing gasoline or Krylon are two completely different animals.
"All those moments, will be lost in time...like tears in rain..."
It's mainly a psychological addiction, with a reward-based component. It's not unlike being addicted to running. After a while you get an endorphin rush while running, and it can get bad enough for people to cause physical damage from running too much. When playing, you can get a rush from the rewards of successful activities. If you're the type to get addicted, this can be enough.
Then there's the whole "I'm a champion" type thing. For those with unsatisfying lives, this can be more than enough.
Sure I'm paranoid, but am I paranoid enough?
Come on, the "founder and coordinator of Computer Addiction Services" thinks gamers suffer from Video Game addiction? Guess what? If you report those symptoms to a chiropractor he's going to have a different prescription for you! I don't doubt that there are a lot of similarities between addiction to drugs/pills/alcohol and excessive gaming, but this is absurd. I do think that the idea of "video game addiction" is interesting, but I think "addiction" is the wrong word.
Parents are afraid their children will call it child abuse.
I was spending every possible moment I could playing the game. I mostly enjoyed it but like you said I was neglecting everything else so I finally decided it was time to stop and pulled the plug. To prevent any relapse I gave my account to my guild and the toon was butchered to the point of no return.
About 3 months after I quit I started a mage on a friends account which I play maybe 3-4 hours a month. (no raiding)
Blizzard actually help me quit because I got so pissed off that I couldn't progress past rank 10 in a reasonable amount of time. I mean with a full time job and family, how can I compete with the college kids that are skipping class and playing in shifts. I was even in our top pvp group for a couple months.
Using wowguru's calculator it would have taken me 8 weeks of #1 to get to high warlord. I can't imagine how many weeks it would take to get to warlord in the top 15-20 spot.
Anyway, it was a blast, we were 5 capping ab in minutes but on my server pvp competition was fierce and even 200,000+ honor barely moved but a couple percentage points each week.
We'd even 5 cap naked (in-game) just to be idiots.
With no way to pause progression, one can't even go on a vacation without adding weeks or months of "work" to get back to where they were.
The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either. - Benjamin Franklin
Being a college student when the alpha and beta came out, I was easily able to manage life, school, and wow while no raiding content was in the game. Though, the seeds of addiction were already present in the beta. I would stand in the city, with nothing to do in game other than talk or make money, which was certainly going to be wiped upon release. I did not care though, I kept making money in a game instead of taking another shift at work.
At age 20, when retail came out, I found myself the leader of what was going to become a dominate guild on the server. It is not to hard when you and your buddies know everything about the game from beta - so we leveled, as a group, very quickly, drawing attention and interest from all the soon-to-be addicts.
From that point on, almost everything was second to wow. I had an online legacy to solidify and maintain! WoW consumed every free hour of my time and I went as far as to restructure my life around my gaming. Now that is not normal or healthy. I still went to class and passed with good grades, but only because I was able to make the raid times being guild leader. Raids are almost always a nightly occasion, leaving day classes a possibility. Of course, I planned those classes that way - I needed to have my nights 5pm - 3am free for gaming!
While leading this guild which raided every single day (Ony, MC, Rag, outdoor) at the time, I had a legion of 100 addicts in my guild. Addicts. Almost every single one played every day for several hours. The biggest concern in our guild was the hardcore players wanting to cut the casual players so we could "cut the dead weight." I was in favor of having a better environment/community in the guild though, so I let the casual players stay, but we arranged some raiding changes to make sure they did not get priority over an addict.
Having ran this guild for a while, I was exhausted from all the drama and logistics of running it. As a friend said, I flew to close to the sun and got burnt out. True be told, my reluctance to continue the drama was not the main reason for quiting, but the complete collapse of my social life and financial situation. I maintained a girlfriend through all of this, which was not easy for her to do. She was a longtime girlfriend and was with me as I gradually became an addict. She gave me the ultimatum of her or WoW and I never played again.
Since then we have split for completely unrelated issues, but I honestly fear the game. It requires massive time investments to advance in a game which has no end. That is the problem. Millions are playing a game with no end. Since leaving I found I enjoy FPS games much more now. I can join a server and play 5 minutes, 15 minutes, 1 round, 3 maps - whatever I want - There is no requirement to stay for any length of time. Even when on a team and you need to be around for scrims or matches, you have weeks of notice, you can reschedule, have alternates, and they only last an hour.
Invexi - a Phoenix, AZ based web design and web development company.
The problem isn't that they're trying to make their game super-addictive for its own sake. It's that the very things they do to attract the casual players are the things that make it most addictive. There are no "addict-creating-features" as opposed to "casual-features" in their game. (Certain feature probably support addicts, but that's after the fact.) It's the casual features that are the problem for certain types of personalities.
Note that this is "40% showing signs of clinical addiction" not "40% play WoW a lot".
Personally, by these criteria I was addicted to EverQuest for long stretches, but I've never been addicted to WoW. It also says to me that Blizzard has a better business model than EQ; people forget that what a game developer wants is to sell as many subscriptions as possible, not to make people play as many hours as possible. The ideal game would have everyone subscribing and no-one actually playing; players cost you money (bandwidth, server capacity, customer service).
Indeed, Blizzard's master-stroke (from a business point of view) is having compelling instance dungeons which can only be done once per week. WoW is full of "points of diminishing return" in that, it doesn't matter how often you play, your primary toon can only do the current bleeding-edge instance once-per-week. Obviously, the truly addicted max out multiple toons, but their primary toon will only ever be able to get so far so fast. It thus follows that they only need to release one new bleeding edge dungeon every six months to keep a lot of people hooked. This is very bad from my point of view (I hate doing the same content over and over) but it's obviously working well for Blizzard.
There is more than one alternative to absolute permissiveness. Going completely Police State would screw the kid up just as much as allowing him to do anything he wants.
Those who can, do. Those who can't, sue.
Addiction can be physical (the body can't properly function without the artificial chemical) or mental (the brain has gotten used to specific stimulations and requires them to reach certain emotional states). Yes, this is a heavy oversimplification, but that's the basic idea - please feel free to flesh it out if you know the details. Gaming addiction is the latter, and is just as real as heroin addiction (the former). Be happy that you don't have a propensity for mental addiction. I know I have it, and I have skirted disaster on occasion because of it (damn you, Jagged Alliance 2!!!). It's not fun, it requires careful attention and a social network to deal with it, and it is the reason why I don't touch WoW and why I don't gamble.
Those who can, do. Those who can't, sue.
What the hell is wrong with our society? I don't believe that such a thing exists as being addicted to non-narcotics (such as games, sex, your friends, a good book). I think that's just called ENJOYING LIFE.
For example: Would we have called Leonardo DaVinci addicted to science because he spent long 20 hour days cutting up cadavers or studying mechanics?
Would we have called Einstein a hopeless physics junkie?
It's called having a passion. Doing what you love. What's so bad about it?
In this work-obsessed culture we live in, if you aren't working and doing something THE MAN tells you to do, you must be doing something wrong. You don't see clinics popping up for people that work at overtime at McDonalds because they can't pay their bills -- we find it absolutely OK to not see your family most of the week because your job makes you work from 8 till 8, but when a person comes home and wants to spend 3-4 hours doing something *they want to do* you have people thinking its some sort of a disease.
I don't get it. Where are the priorities? I really am an advocate of being a professional idler and trying to get out of wage slavery. What's so bad about playing a game for 40 hours a week (something you CHOOSE to do, and ENJOY)? Compare that to working which is something you HAVE to do or else you get evicted by some property owning assholes and end up living on the streets and going crazy!
My first MMO experience was with FFXI. As painful as that game was, it sucked me in. I got to the point where I had to rely on a lot of other people to get anything done. I really hated to be a burden on others so I just gave it up. I vowed not to play another game like that again because it just sucked me in.
When WoW came along, I just ignored it. That is, until my brother stated playing. It looked like a lot of fun so I decided to join him. He stopped playing but I continued, surpassed him, and joined an end game guild. I made all the raids and was probably the most educated and was made a high ranking officer. I then not only wanted to play the game, I was obligated to be there to help run the raids. But some raids had some timing issues...and it really ticked me off. It is really hard to make me mad (unless you are family). I had to step back and say wow...I am getting pissed off at a video game. I was gaining weight and my mind was infested with thoughts of WoW. I finally had to admit to myself I was addicted (even though I did a fairly good job of keeping it under control). So a few weeks ago I told my guild I was taking a break...but, was actually quitting. I just logged off and never looked back. So, while it is addicting, it isn't as hard to give up. I am much happier now since I quit and I know that I will not touch an MMO ever again.
As much as people want to criticize this article...there is a lot of truth to it. It eases you in and as you build social relationships becomes more and more demanding. But you have to look at what you want out of life. Even if you are great and well loved in WoW, it will eventually go away and you will be left with a few people on your IM list that will fade away. Much better off spending that time on something that is more long term. While WoW is a well done game, you really have to becareful. I'd say most people who are in a raiding guild are addicted and should probably walk away. Not that I want to tell other people how to spend their freetime, just because it isn't healthy. In the same sense that I think people should give up smoking (thankfully dropping WoW is so much easier).
Support a great indie game: http://www.abaddon360.com
WoW is plenty fun played casually. I have a friend who still, to this day, doesn't have a level 60 character. He's close, but not there yet. And he's played since a few months after it opened. He has plenty of fun, just plays at his own pace.
If you can't do that, the problem isn't the game, the problem is you. It would be analogus as if at the gym you felt you had to keep up with everyone sports wise, even the pro or semi-pro athletes that played there. That you couldn't have fun unless you were one of the best.
So if you want to play WoW, or any game for that matter, for a couple hours a night, do it. No big deal. Just turn it off when your time is up and go about your business. Don't get all competitive and act like there's an artifical goal you've got to meet. Do what you like in the game, at the pace you want.
But don't go and blame the game if you can't do that. If you can't control the amount you play and/or if you have a need to meet some atrifical goal, that's your problem you need to figure out. Maybe you deal with it by not playing, that's a fine soltuion, but don't think it's beacuse there's something wrong with the game.
I got in fistfights with my dad for far less than what your recomending.
If you were that screwed up, your parents screwed you up from the beginning. I'd guess you're still screwed up if you think my recommendations are anything out of line.
Sometimes it's best to just let stupid people be stupid.
"Imagine what you could accomplish with your real life if you invested 100 hours a month into it"
Yes, imagine what you could do. Then imagine what you would most likely do. Those 100 hours a month you put into WoW would instead be spent watching TV, or playing offline games, or something along those lines.
If you were going to spend that time doing something "constructive," then you would have been doing it before you picked up WoW, wouldn't you? In fact, you would probably be too busy following those constructive pursuits to have picked up WoW in the first place.
You are playing WoW now becuase what you were doing before was even less meaningful to you, or at least more boring.