Last week CNN ran an editorial story about online game addictions. Its the typical story about how bad online games can be, and how this addiction can destroy a person's life. The article itself has some good examples of this, from both Final Fantasy and World of Warcraft. In particular, a specialist at the Illinois Institute for Addiction Recovery at Proctor Hospital, talks about a young man in his twenties. This poor fellow has lost numerous jobs, his girlfriend, and is quite the recluse since he became addicted to World of Warcraft. It's quite the unfortunate tale, and I'm sure we're all sympathetic to his plight.
Many of us have someone in our family, or otherwise know someone who has dealt with an addiction. They can be a difficult period in everyone's life to deal with. Addictions to WoW and other games in the genera can be no less serious than an addiction to gambling. The results are all the same: people loose their jobs, their families, and can become severely depressed. When that happens disastrous things take place, such as the young man that lost his life in South Korea last year.
The article on CNN doesn't go into any great detail about what you can do if you think you or a loved one has an addiction to WoW. It does give some tips to family members, but CNN is hardly the place to go to for medical advice. Instead, don't bother with anything else then going right to your doctor. Any doctor, at any clinic, anywhere, can at least point you in the right direction.
I'm sure a few of our readers out there have dealt with this in the past, either directly or indirectly. What have you done? What stories do you have to tell?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
2-09-2008 @ 6:09PM
Furl said...
Final Fantasy is dangerous because it induces more mental problems than addiction...
Depression,
Fatigue,
Nausea,
Willingness to kill one's self,
&c.
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2-09-2008 @ 6:39PM
TotalBiscuit said...
"It's quite the unfortunate tale, and I'm sure we're all sympathetic to his plight."
Now, we really aren't. These people with addictive personalities are a smear on the vast majority who are able to manage their time and play in healthy amounts. I'm waiting for some concrete research that shows that WoW can become an addiction in the classic sense and not simply a compulsion, pushed on by poor time-management skills and messed up priorities.
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2-09-2008 @ 6:41PM
Liel said...
Post your total /played plus the date you started your subscription. When I ask this question on the official forums people get all defensive. Reason being many would show a seriously messed up hours per day total that they are ashamed of.
2-09-2008 @ 7:50PM
TotalBiscuit said...
How could I possibly do this when I haven't had an active account in months?
2-09-2008 @ 8:01PM
John said...
Total biscut?
You havnt had an active account in months? Why are you reading a WoW blog? Addicted?
2-09-2008 @ 8:03PM
TotalBiscuit said...
You have no idea what you're talking about do you?
2-09-2008 @ 6:52PM
mattarin said...
i admit that im addicted to the game but not an addict. I still quit playing to find something constructive to do. i do make time to do my homework and don't rush thru it, i make time to hang out with friends and family and to do my usual other activities. i have never skipped work or school to play or forget to pay bills. i kind of count it has my hobby or something to do when i am bored. the past 6 months i only get to play every other weekend since i am living at school now so that sort of broke my habit of playing but i had withdrawls for a few weeks but i made friends at college so now the withdrawls are gone.
bored visit my blog
http://mattarin-worldofwarcraftblogging.blogspot.com/
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2-09-2008 @ 7:51PM
TotalBiscuit said...
"i admit that im addicted to the game but not an addict."
Then you're not addicted.
Next patient.
2-09-2008 @ 7:10PM
Delta said...
@3
Started in May of 2006, total time on all of my active characters is 38 days 21 hours 37 minutes, with probably a day or so unaccounted for deleted alts. My main is 26d 19:40 by itself. So really that is probably pretty small compared to many for a span of almost two years, but that's mainly because I took several hiatuses for real life. It really is all about time management, I hold down a full time job, a part time job, and upkeep on my apartment, and still play WoW.
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2-09-2008 @ 7:23PM
Zengon said...
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5327497459334792260&q=totalbiscuit&total=11&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0
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2-09-2008 @ 8:20PM
TotalBiscuit said...
Always freaks me out when people post my vid, will never get used to it.
2-09-2008 @ 7:30PM
ChefCK said...
I have to agree with TotalBiscuit about the poor time-management and messed up priorities.
Liel, since you want a /played and account creation date:
Account created and started playing: 3 Jan 05
I have two characters I play the most:
70 Tauren Druid (made on 3 Jan 05):
48 days, 10 hours, 9 minutes, 18 secs
67 BE Rogue (made day of BC launch):
19 days, 5 hours, 22 mins, 47 secs
Factor in logging in and walkng away from comp for whatever reason (family, phone calls, etc) and finally auto-logging from being AFK (a lot).
I work 50-60 hours a week, raise a four y/o son as a single parent, and take three classes a semester towards a B.S. in Education and M.A. in History.
I play in between semesters and later evenings over holiday breaks and weekends.
My ex husband on the other hand, lost his wife and child due to his inability to step away from the computer and hold a job due to Ultima Online and WoW.
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2-09-2008 @ 7:55PM
TotalBiscuit said...
Indeed. There is always a choice when dealing with someone who does not have a psychological addictive personality (and such people can get addicted to almost anything). You make the choice to ruin your own life by spending too much time on a given activity, and it can apply to anything. WoW is a compelling game, that is for sure, but so are many other things, bother online and offline, and that doesn't mean they're actually addictive. Where are the classic symptoms of addiction? Where is the chemical dependency? Adrenaline? Dopamine? Endorphins? How many other activities produce these things? Do we consider them addictive?
I call BS on the whole damn thing to be honest. Calling yourself addicted is a cop-out, it's an excuse. If you have a problem, it's YOUR problem. The game didn't make you this way, you did. Find out where your time-management, priorities and motivation went and fix it, and please do it quietly, without yelling and screaming about how addicted you are. Gamers get enough negative press as it is.
2-09-2008 @ 7:52PM
Liel said...
wow you guys are slacking j/k. Actually you all play pretty small time compared to a lot I have met.
i know when I was raiding pre expansion 20 hours a week just for raiding was "casual" compared to some. And that did not even count farming and crap for raid consumables or pvp.
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2-09-2008 @ 7:53PM
PeeWee said...
If I spend 3 hours a day passively watching television, one hour reading today's newspapers and a chapter in my novel, and then another two hours watching a movie on a daily basis, no one would react. Some would say that's completely normal.
If I spend 6 hours a day playing World of Warcraft, I'm a freak of nature, I live in my mom's basement, I have no life and I should be ashamed of what I'm doing.
TotalBiscuit is right on the spot, the problem is not the game itself, it lies with poor managment skills and priorities. Another problem is the people who cannot grasp what the people playing are in fact doing; taking part in advanced social interaction using a new media.
And in reply to an above post, I have 161 days playtime since release (11th feb 2005, 1126 days ago)
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2-09-2008 @ 10:58PM
Liel said...
no if you spend 6 hours in front of your computer playing a video game you are a bit of a freak.
9-5 get home make dinner and then immediately sit in front of the computer.
Vs get home make dinner spend time with your family watching television, walk the dog with your wife, play outside with your kids, etc etc.
Bit of a difference.
2-09-2008 @ 8:39PM
ruffknuckles said...
This subject is interesting to me, see I'm a single father that has had female trouble alot. 2 kids, 2 different females, and alot inbetween females with issues of me having "baggage". I was stressing out, and would go out a drink alot. Then a friend introduced me to WOW. I started to play, gave me a positive out for my stress. I spent more time at home with my kids, saved alot of money, ie, babysitters, club entrance fees, liquer, and DUI fines (that $3,000 hurt). Got my head on straight, stopped messing with deadbeat females that only looked good on the outside. Chilled with my daughters and played WOW for eight months, took me that long to hit 70 in between coloring, going to the park, and watching lilo and stich 9,000,000 times :D Then I got a part time job as a bouncer in a club my friend opened. Then I met the baddest girl I could imagine, she worked there too taking door cover charges. And she is cool on the inside too. Loves spending all her free time with me and loves my kids. Then she got interested in what on the computer was keeping my attention (arena battle night). So I let her start her own character, and play. GAME OVER, she was hooked. Now my life is perfect. Kids happy, she happy, me happy. I owe my happy life to WOW and all the online friends I could talk to, and give me feedback on problems in my life. And i thank all the Alliance that helped me with my anger management, by letting me take my aggression out on them and give me honor points :D FOR THE HORDE!!! Thaurissan BOH FTW
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2-09-2008 @ 9:30PM
Baendratalon-Firetree said...
see, thats the kind of story that CNN should be showing, not the deadbeat losers who do spend 16 hours a day playing wow from their parent's basement. The vast majority of players don't have a problem. Admittedly, i've been called a noob and a casual player for playing 3-4 hours a night, and 7-8 a day on the weekends which is a little sad... but I just got the game for christmas 2007, and I have almost 2 weeks of play time (14 days)
2-09-2008 @ 9:32PM
Baendratalon-Firetree said...
see, thats the kind of story that CNN should be showing, not the deadbeat losers who do spend 16 hours a day playing wow from their parent's basement. The vast majority of players don't have a problem. Admittedly, i've been called a noob and a casual player for playing 3-4 hours a night, and 7-8 a day on the weekends which is a little sad... but I just got the game for christmas 2007, and I have almost 2 weeks of play time (14 days)
2-09-2008 @ 9:25PM
Fel said...
I'm probably more likely to kill myself playing Diablo, just out of sheer boredom.
If anything, WoW is one of the better games for making friends and socializing, ingame and out.
And putting in a lot of hours in WoW doesn't necessarily mean you're addicted. I'm 19 and work a fulltime job, 36-46 hours, 6-7 days a week, and still get 20-30 hours a week for gaming. Sure I might not go to bed until 2am most nights, but I also don't have to go to work until about noon most of the time. As stated above, it's just about managing your time, and knowing when to call it a day.
re: played time -- xfire tells me I've played 428 hours since I joined WoW, which was November 25, 2007.
77 days, 5.6 hours a day, including the time my little brother's been playing while I'm working.
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