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.

Comments

This is very true

[Nutcase]

This is very true. I played in a small raiding guild. When I quit, I had been playing that character for 9 months. I had 7/8 tier 2 gear. For about 2 months prior to quitting, I wasn't even enjoying it. I was showing up because we had a schedule and we had to make it. Systems are in place in major guilds to perpetuate that (DKP/Loot Priority/etc). So I was spending 20-30 hours a week playing a game I was bored of.

Now I've quit. But I still read all the WoW news, I read my guild's website and forums regularly, and I still have the account. I even consider if I'm going to play again when the expansion hits. I haven't played for over 2 months, and I'm still thinking about it many times a week.

That alone is probably enough reason to never play it again.

Re:This is very true

[Nutcase]

"WoW is more economical"

I used to make that argument, when I played. "Wow, look how many games I don't have to buy or play to fill in my free time" "I would be spending so much more on other stuff if I didn't spend time playing WoW... I'm saving money"

But the opportunity cost of playing wow 100 hours a month is FAR higher than the savings. Imagine what you could accomplish with your real life if you invested 100 hours a month into it. In one month you could broaden your knowledge, learn new skills, or experience many different stories (books, movies, going out and living them). A plethora of experiences instead of running the same instance over and over again, living out the same story over and over again, hoping for a random drop of a fake item that gives you a fake feeling of accomplishment.

Micah

[skammie]

My brother lost his job 5 weeks ago. He's been playing WoW for about a year prior to his layoff, and his addiction to game did not cause him to lose his job.
He has no motivation to go and look for a job, he only eats maybe once a day, and his house is pig sty.
He came by yesterday asking for $150 to pay his rent or he was going to be kicked out. I loaned him $40 two weeks ago, and I am sure that he used that towards his cable bill or his WoW account.
He looks like a crack or meth addict (having been around those types of people myself), and he doesn't care about anything but playing that damn game.
I almost got into to playing that game shortly after he started a year or so ago. I am glad I have not purchased the game, and I have no interest in WoW after seeing my brother play the game for three days straight with no sleep (yellow jackets were used to keep himself awake!).

I know it's not the game that is the problem, it's the person with the addictive personality. How can we recognize, and then treat video game addiction? Is it recognized as a real problem, or are they told to just grow up? 12 steps have been proven to NOT work for ALL people, and my brother is one of them.

Re:Micah

[Lispy]

I honestly feel for you. A friend of mine who was playing Everquest looked and behaved the same way until he got kicked out of the university, got kicked out of his flat by his roommates, had hair to the shoulders (not because it was cool but because there was no money/time/incentive to trim it) ate raw sugar if anything at all, smoked cigarettes made of newspapers and old tobacco from the roommates ashtrays etc...

Shall I go on?? He was about the smartest person I ever knew and now he is working as a facility manager in a small appartment building.
Its a fucking tragedy. If you want my advice break it to your brother that he either quits playing or should no longer rely on you helping him out. Its like alcoholics. As long as you help them out of their mess they wont change their behaviour pattern...

Personally I cant afford playing these games although I would love to because of this exact problem.
Its my retirement plan however locking up in a room and lvl away. How sad is that? ;-)

Shiny and new!

[ari{Dal}]

I play WoW (yes, a real girl with boobs and everything playing WoW! Who'da thunk it!), and at first, it was kind of addicting. There was so much to explore, so many things to see and do. I think that first weekend, I played til 4 or 5 AM both nights. When I realised how unhealthy that was, I stopped, and vowed that if I EVER refused a social engagement in real life to play WoW, or neglected my real life duties for it, I'd uninstall it immediately. I'm now in a casual raiding guild (we raid once a week on Fridays), and log in at other times only to play with (local) people I know if they need some help.

But I'm one of those people who's lucky enough to not have an addictive personality. I didn't get addicted to IRC or the 'net. I can go weeks without logging into a computer outside of work without any problem. When my laptop (my only computer) crashed at home two months ago, I puttered for a few weeks before even bothering to reinstall the OS; WoW got reinstalled a few days later when I felt like it. I can even go without coffee for days on end if I choose to.

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?

I think, as someone who's not an addict, I'll never really understand it.

Re:And?

[DrXym]

I thought the point of MMPORGs was for people to have fun, not to spend every waking hour performing menial, repetitive tasks over and over again to nudge an exp bar a few pixels. That is what WOW & EQ do. The locations might change but the game is ultra repetitive slog. It starts off easy, but then begins to take, hours, days and then weeks to progress. The only way to progress is to play for longer and longer periods. Why do people put up with it? Because the game conditions them to expect random rewards from persistent play. And the longer they play, the more they invest emotionally in the game and the harder it is to stop. That's not fun, that's an addiction.

I went through all this shit with EQ. I wouldn't say I was hardcore, but I did feel like I had to play 2 hours a day just to feel like I was making any progress. Once you got beyond level 18 or so, the game was almost impossible to play without extensive periods of camping in groups. Fortunately Verant snapped me out of it during the Shadows of Luclin launch debacle when the game crashed on an almost nightly basis. Thanks to their own ineptitude I canceled my account and I'm so glad I did.

I've played MMPORGs since and I enjoy some. But in general I think for anyone thinking of playing an MMPORG, they should play the free trial period or the initial 30 days included with the retail box and realise that that's as good as it's probably going to get. Give me something like Oblivion any day.

Re:You can't NOT be addicted.

[YahoKa]

Why can't they make raids scale to the number of people in them? So if 20 people show up, the difficulty is 20. If 40 people show up, the difficulty is 40. That way, there is no requirement for people to stay in the raid, and no requirement that people HAVE to show up. Whoever has free time can join in, and whoever doesn't have free time doesn't have to join in. There is no way that that is too difficult to impliment.

Re:WoW allows Parental Control

[syukton]

I don't know exactly how it works, but my youngest brother fucked up enough that he got put on a sort of system where, if he starts acting up, my parents just call the sheriff to come pick him up and take him to the juvenile detention center. Threatens to run away? Locked up. Runs away? Locked up. Threatens suicide? Locked up, solitary, on suicide watch, evaluated by psychiatrist. My brother, since being put into this system, has drastically altered his behavior for the better and the sheriff hasn't actually ever been called. If a kid threatens to kill anyone, that is waaaay illegal and grounds for a longer-term lockup.

If a kid is going to play with fire, (s)he should get burned.