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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)
Along those same lines I guess you would have to conclude I am addicted to Excel and analyzing gas chromatography results as I feel like this at work constantly
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?
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?
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.
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.
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
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.
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
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.
People can and are addicted to non-chemical substances. They exhibit the same behavioral patterns as an addict, they have the same neural-chemistry as an addict, and they suffer the same kinds of withdrawal symptoms as an addict. We're not talking about what people enjoy. If somebody's still enjoying the game, they probably don't have a problem. It's when they have to play it, when they experience extreme discomfort when they aren't playing, when they turn their backs on everything else in life to play it, it's not about enjoyment, and that's why we talk about addictions to things other than drugs. This sort of thing is very well documented, you may want to do some research before you claim that this type of addiction doesn't exist.
On the other hand, you've got people thinking that enjoyment of games automatically means addiction. This is untrue. But so is saying addiction to games doens't exist.
-mrxak
Onions Will Kill You