Patch 5.4 patch notes
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The latest patch 5.4 newsFCC Comissioner: World of Warcraft causes college dropouts
by Mike Schramm 
Dec 11th 2008 at 3:00PM
Oh boy. Deborah Tate is an FCC Commissioner (and will be for another three years at least -- she was appointed for another five year term in 2007), and claimed in a speech about telecom policy and regulation last week that "one of the top reasons for college drop-outs in the U.S. is online gaming addiction -- such as World of Warcraft -- which is played by 11 million individuals worldwide."Never mind that World of Warcraft, is a game, not an addiction, and never mind that most of those 11 million people play it and are completely healthy socially and financially, and never mind even that any evidence you'd find that World of Warcraft causes dropouts is anecdotal at best. Can you really blame a game for someone making the choice to leave college? We, as you might have guessed, think not.
And there's more: Tate's Wikipedia page says that not only has she spoken out strongly in favor of DRM, and not only has she taken talking points directly from Clear Channel in trying to work on the Sirus/XM merger (a government official speaking the words of a corporation, that's just what we need), but she has also blamed television for childhood obesity. Nice one. One more reason why we are thrilled to see that we may finally get some folks in the FCC who actually know what they're talking about when it comes to online gaming.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Fan stuff, Virtual selves, News items
Reader Comments (Page 4 of 9)
Michael Dec 11th 2008 4:42PM
Wanna know how I know your name isn't for real???
You actually had something intelligent to say.
Basic Dec 11th 2008 3:19PM
Blizzard and WoW deserve a great deal of credit for cultivating a monumentally creative environment for our next generation of software development.
I have seen the stars of WoW's addon community (several in college themselves) build up a great body of work and I have no doubt that WoW provided a genuine motivation to produce innovative and high-quality pieces of software.
WoW itself is a wonderful software engineering training ground. It is a microcosm of the software world and the lessons learned here will help everyone involved compete in the future marketplaces. A target market of 11 million customers is a very healthy consumer ecosystem for these developing entrepreneurs and developers to grow. Additionally the community has seen the benefits of colaboration and open vs competing software standards and monolithic vs collaborative development models.
I can only wish that I had matriculated in these years with these future stars rather than during the initial genesis of MMO gaming.
Scott Dec 11th 2008 3:22PM
Yet another person that looks for things or people to blame rather than point the finger where it belongs, on oneself.
if i fail out of college because i play a video game too much, who's fault is it, my own. its not the game, the game did not put a gun to my head and tell me to play or die. i have control over everything i do, and if something bad happens because of something i did, its my own fault.
i am so tired of seeing people pointing fingers saying, oh this made me do that. nothing made you do anything, it was a choice you made yourself, now deal with it and stop blaming something or someone else.
Norm Dec 11th 2008 3:22PM
They should have an MMO degree... can you imagine how complex that would be?
Econ 401: Macro- and micro-econmic implications of fully virtualized ecomonics
Statistics 430: Mathamatical optomization of avatars (the Min-Maxing for Non-dummies class)
Not to mention the Organizational behavior and psychology classes describing guild behavior and PvP interactions, the communications for company-player PR, pricing, distribution of labor for development and operations on the back end, art design, cartography, mob AI, user interface design...
Not to mention the networking, OS and DB skills required to run something like WoW.
That would be one hell of a degree!
Schools at all levels just seem ot have no idea how to motivate their customers, that is, students.
DropOutMorons Dec 11th 2008 3:22PM
To blame games for your inability to take things in moderation shows the weak will that some of you have. NO ONE IS TO BLAME BUT YOURSELF!!!
I passed thru all my courses. L2moderatelife
Quasigriz Dec 11th 2008 3:22PM
In the immortal words of the rapper Lil' John:
"Huuu-WHAT!?!"
DropOutMorons Dec 11th 2008 3:23PM
OKAY!!!!!!
nomadic0ne Dec 11th 2008 3:44PM
YEEE-AAAH-UHH!
Extravadanza Dec 11th 2008 3:23PM
weird, my grades improved after starting WoW
Randal Dec 11th 2008 3:24PM
She's right, I almost got kicked out of college because I didn't go to class because I was staying up way too late.
Oh wait, I was drinking and having sex. Ban those things.
I was also obese as a child. I'm pretty sure it was cause of all the food I was shoving down my throat. I tried to eat a tv once, they taste terrible, so I'm pretty sure tvs don't cause obesity.
Niles Dec 11th 2008 3:27PM
Here's a statement that she might understand. Bureaucrats and politicians are the cause of bad government.
Sheesh, crybabies can never admit that people are thinking beings and make decisions for themselves, not cattle being led around by a nosering.
Amaxe Dec 11th 2008 3:24PM
/yawn
Another "up in arms" gamer article about people "up in arms" over the effects of some games on people.
You do realize of course that these articles sound as asinine to them as their claims do to you, I hope.
Let's avoid the personal insults and other attacks that do nothing but reinforce the gamer stereotype.
Well reasoned defenses may change minds. Calling a person a "giant douche" (as one poster did) may win you some points among fellow gamers, but IRL will cost you all credibility
CavalierX Dec 11th 2008 3:27PM
Huh. I would have attributed more dropouts to drugs, laziness, stupidity and lack of money, all of which are shared by a hell of a lot more college dropouts than WoW will ever be.
TD Dec 11th 2008 3:28PM
Ok...This is a dumb statement. You can't specficaly blame one thing on a problem. Yes we as a people are very, very willing to do so. I mean it's very and comforting. Oh look! A reason for the problem lets entirely shift it to that!! Honestly as a current college student. I have failed Chemestry 3 times in a row???? is that because I play video games to much?? Nope, it's because college is SO drasticly different from high school. I mean how many of you reading or posting here have went from HS to College without taking an AP class?? What was it like for you??? I know I was kind of in shock a little. I mean my grades really suffered just taking the entry level classes that now are easy by comparison. I just finished up retaking my precal class. The problem they like to blame all is wrapped up in the individual. I myslef play wow and other games ALOT. I am not socially strained or ruined either. All i know is. Don't pick PC get me re-elected reasons. Just fix the freaking problem already. The school system! The whole reason people drop out to begin with has more to do with the individuals capabilities and will power than anything else. I mean if you don't take responsiblities for your own actions then who will????? Come on people start looking at the real cause before you find something to easily blame.
Stravo Dec 11th 2008 3:29PM
I don't think it's fair to single out any one cause, be it a video game, girlfriend or any other thing that might distract a college student.
That said, I still think that WoW is an addictive game. It's often said that anything you enjoy can be addictive, and that's true, but WoW does it really effectively by using diminishing returns. Each reward progressively gets smaller and smaller and becomes more difficult or time consuming to obtain. You keep needing to work harder and longer (that's what she said) to get a progressively smaller reward. Most people can easily get over this with barely any will power but for someone prone to addiction or going through some stressful times (like college) it can be just as addictive as gambling.
Of course, millions of people could still play the game and never feel the effects, just like millions of people can drink and gamble but never become an alcoholic or a gambling addict.
Reality Dec 11th 2008 3:31PM
Two Words: Personal Responsiblity
Oh wait, practically no one in the world knows the meaning of those anymore.
SnippyMcPhail Dec 11th 2008 3:32PM
**gasp**
what is this personal responsibility you speak of!?
mensrea Dec 11th 2008 3:29PM
I'm a little surprised that, on a site known for sloppy writing and verbiage, there's this degree of word parsing. I'm not surprised, however, that the parsing is being done incorrectly.
Here's what she didn't say: "WoW causes drop-outs." Here's what she said: "Gaming addiction is causing drop-outs, and one game to which many people are addicted is WoW."
Me thinks the lady (in this case, Mike) doth protest too much.
Cranky Old Gamer Dec 11th 2008 3:31PM
Back in my day, it was MUD addiction. Knew several students who failed out of college due to MUDding. I'm sure if WoW (or any other descendant of MUDs) were around then, they'd have done the same thing. It's a personality and control problem, not a gaming problem.
Ilnara Dec 11th 2008 3:31PM
Maybe the people dropping out are doing so because they finally realized that our institutions of higher learning are little more than money siphons and wage slave creators for those in power.