The question is, do the creators deliberately make them addictive?
It's a matter of fact, not a question. Blizzard's WoW business model is subscription based and it would definitely be in the company's best interests to ensure that its subscribers continue spending as much time as humanly possible in-game. That's already an inherent part of the game mechanics - why, for example, it takes 20+ minutes for one to travel from one end of Azeroth to the other and 3 months of solid levelling to reach lvl 60, at which point there are more months to be spent in high level raids and the accumulation of high level gear.
The designers are counting on the fact that their game's intricacies, social elements and extendability will hook the serious gamers, whom are a demographic already prone to video game addiction. This is an important point to consider because even if there weren't any life sapping MMORPG's to be made scapegoats of, this very group of people would in high probability be hooked on playing other games.
I speak from experience, having quit after 5 months of pure WoW, saving my job and social life, more than a year ago today. The fact that I still occasionally think about reactivating my subscription even now, reinforces the proof that I was and could still be addicted to it, just like so many others.
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The question is, do the creators deliberately make them addictive?
It's a matter of fact, not a question. Blizzard's WoW business model is subscription based and it would definitely be in the company's best interests to ensure that its subscribers continue spending as much time as humanly possible in-game. That's already an inherent part of the game mechanics - why, for example, it takes 20+ minutes for one to travel from one end of Azeroth to the other and 3 months of solid levelling to reach lvl 60, at which point there are more months to be spent in high level raids and the accumulation of high level gear.
The designers are counting on the fact that their game's intricacies, social elements and extendability will hook the serious gamers, whom are a demographic already prone to video game addiction. This is an important point to consider because even if there weren't any life sapping MMORPG's to be made scapegoats of, this very group of people would in high probability be hooked on playing other games.
I speak from experience, having quit after 5 months of pure WoW, saving my job and social life, more than a year ago today. The fact that I still occasionally think about reactivating my subscription even now, reinforces the proof that I was and could still be addicted to it, just like so many others.