Swedes say WoW is as addictive as crack
by Mike Schramm 
Feb 26th 2009 at 8:00PM
We've heard a few horror stories from Sweden already about excessive WoW-playing there -- we've reported on a 15-year-old collapsing after not taking any breaks, and we've even heard from a teacher in that country who's targeted World of Warcraft as a challenge to her students' attention. But now one group up there is claiming it's an epidemic -- the Youth Group Foundation has released a report comparing the game itself to cocaine, and says that of all the game addiction cases they've encountered, World of Warcraft has played a part in every one.Obviously, here at WoW Insider, we're fans of the game, and it's hard to blame an inanimate object like a computer for serious problems in someone's life -- while World of Warcraft is one of the easiest ways an addictive personality can manifest itself, millions of people around the world are able to play it and maintain healthy lives and relationships.
Still, if you're playing World of Warcraft (or doing anything else) so much that it's affecting your health or social life, it's time to stop and/or get help from an organization like this. We won't blame the game for causing someone to pass out (common sense says that doing anything for 15 hours straight isn't good for you) or do poorly in school, but if either of those things are happening to you, in Sweden or anywhere else, because you're playing the game, then cut it out.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Fan stuff, Virtual selves
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Vassal Feb 26th 2009 8:06PM
Hahahaha Sweden. I'm sure it's just another complaint filed by Kungen of Ensidia because his WotLK raids aren't hard enough.
Vendrill Feb 27th 2009 12:18AM
C'mon. It IS addicting. WE ALL KNOW THIS. Let's at least be honest with ourselves and each other. Seriously.
I am addicted. I love the game. I really do.
I do not want to stop playing. Even when I'm completely bored with the game, I find it hard to stop playing.
It's not that we're addicted to a "game" or our computers... We're addicted to the possibilty of being something greater than ourselves in a virtual world.
The beautiful environments, the creative landscapes, the haunting music...
... and of course the ever-present dangling carrot in front of us: the elusive raid drop, the rare pet, the unique mount...
I'm not speaking for any of you, but most of you understand what I'm talking about.
Michael Feb 27th 2009 8:24AM
Addiction is only a mental disorder. If you can realize that you don't need something, then you won't. Addiction is a made up excuse to keep doing something. The same as alot of the so called medical conditions, they are just a reason to pump drugs into people and make profits in the medical insdustry.
Narlic Feb 27th 2009 10:13AM
Strong escapist yearnings aren't really the same as an addiction. To borrow a line from Bob Saget, "I sucked dick for coke. Have you ever heard anyone suck dick for Warcraft? I don't think so."
(I wonder if that should have been paraphrased as "performed fellatio" for forum rules?)
Cogzwell Feb 26th 2009 8:10PM
it is addicting but not at all like crack... actually it is kinda like crack in a way..... but still video game 'addiction' is fake and it's 'addicting' because it's fun infact i quit 2 months ago and am suffering withdrawl because it's CRACK! yeah... really.....
Dightkuz Feb 27th 2009 8:07AM
I play because I have nothing else to do.
When I go into a swedish internet café, which doesn't happen alot, all I see on the computer screens are WoW, WoW and WoW. Before it used to CS but now there is a new epidemic it town, and we're playing it.
Hoggersbud Feb 26th 2009 8:12PM
Yeah, as addicting as crack. And think of all the babies...wait, most WOW players won't reproduce. Ok, what about the crimes people commit to pay for their WOW addiction...
Oh wait...
Jack Feb 26th 2009 8:26PM
If WoW is as addictive as crack, maybe I should take up cocaine. I mean, I'm managing my WoW time pretty well, so if cocaine is no worse, I should be fine, right? That's what this means, right?
Rob Feb 27th 2009 4:35AM
They said its as addictive as crack not as damaging to society as crack addiction, thats a subtlet but very distinctive difference. Wow is legal and cheal so its addiction juts manifests itself as a person who doesnt work or socialize much , but not really a threat to anyone. If wow suddenley becamce outlawed and the only way to play it was in 10 minute chunks of time and each 10 minute time costs say about 10 euro to play , you would see what addiction can do to a society.
I have an addictive personality no doubt and have done drugs like crak for a long time before i quit ,a nd this game can be as addictive as crack, i kid you not , its just not as damaging so noone cares.
Jagoex Feb 26th 2009 8:13PM
Items such as this have been cropping up here and there with more frequency as of late. One may think that it is because of the game's increasing popularity, but it is more than that. The game IS addictive, and it is designed to be so in the same way that gambling is addictive through temporal reinforcement, albeit with less risk involved.
As gamers, I think our community is quick to shun the idea that we are not in control of our gaming habits, but the more and more gaming addiction is studied, and WoW in particular, the more readily we must accept that such a thing may in-fact be a problem. Everything about WoW triggers the dopamine reward pathway, which is where addiction in behavior begins. Crack also happens to work upon the same pathway, except more directly, obviously.
I would love to see "real" research and cognitive muscle put behind studies that try to get to the dopamine-gaming connection. That, I believe, is where the meat of the issue lies.
Btw, I'm a therapist IRL (Hence the name of the blog I used to author: Warlock Therapy). =)
thief425 Feb 26th 2009 8:24PM
Then, if the problem lies in how it's designed to stimulate the release and reuptake of dopamine, should we study why WoW, to quote you, "IS" so addicting, or should we study why we are so needy for dopamine in our lives? What is it about the human species that makes us so driven by dopamine and it's pleasure inducing properties? I would venture to say that is the root of the issue. Do we criticize marathon runners for their endorphin "addiction"? Skydivers for their adrenaline "addiciton"? I mean, hell, I think it's a lot more personally destructive to jump out of a plane or off a bridge with a little 'chute on your back than it is to get excited because you've spent 3 hours wiping on Sartharion with 3 drakes up and finally got him.
Isn't the last criterion for every DSM-IV disorder that it interferes with normal functioning? As long as people are not crossing that line, there is no downfall to playing a game that you enjoy or having sex 5 times a day with your new girlfriend. When it crosses that line, it's not the games fault, but instead, a symptom of a larger disorder at work within the individual. That disorder is what we must treat in order to heal the individual - blaming the game isn't going to help. You don't give someone cough suppressant if they have tuberculosis. You don't blame a game for someone who has a problem with addiction.
Eternauta Feb 26th 2009 8:31PM
*Everything about WoW triggers the dopamine reward pathway, which is where addiction in behavior begins.*
I can live without WoW, but I can't live without continuous doses of dopamine. (I guess that's why I love to get drunk).
Isn't dopamine where happiness comes from?
(it's not a joke, I don't know much about these psycologic things..)
Jagoex Feb 26th 2009 8:45PM
I think it depends on the motivation, thief, but you bring up some very good points.
The reward circuits of our nervous system function, in theory, in the preservation of the species by rewarding things that increase our fitness -- eating, reproducing, etc. The great problem, however, is that the dopamine reward pathway, while rewarding all of these things, also rewards risk-taking and chance-encounters. TIME magazine recently published an article on just this same issue. This strange characteristic of our circuitry is why items like gambling and WoW may introduce addiction into a behavior that many others can control just fine.
But should we blame WoW and Blizzard for it? Well, again, I think this comes down to the motivation behind the game's design. Is it meant to stimulate the reward circuits of the brain, in the same way slot machines stimulate the senses? If so, and such is a primary motivating factor, is the game at fault?
Needless to say, Blizzard wants us to continue playing this game for as long as possible, and I personally see the fingerprint of a psychologist's influence everywhere in-game.
That said, I have a hard time considering the direct link between the game's experience and the DRC. And even with DSM-IV standards and their regular application (indeed, we have seen the daily function of individuals impeded by this game and many others like it), it still does not fully explain the huge question mark that is vide0 game addiction.
Someone really, really needs to turn in that quest. Hopefully we will see it done soon. =)
Jagoex Feb 26th 2009 8:55PM
Eternauta, you're right, kinda. =P
Dopamine is where "happiness" comes from in the sense that it relays positive feelings tied into a specific act or behavior. This is in the hope that you will engage in that behavior again -- a basic reinforcement principle: if something feels good, you do it again.
Where dopamine gets us into trouble is the ease with which it can be manipulated through drug use, and hence, controlled. Also, the sheer fact that the neurotransmitter gets released when we engage in risk-laden tasks gets many of us into trouble, much of which may be (as thief mentioned) an issue of how we are biologically wired.
Some people get a stronger dopamine fix when engaging in risk; others don't. It's based upon the receptors in the synaptic gap and also within the axons that line the spaces themselves -- receptors that trigger the release and re-uptake of neurotransmitters and that exist to dictate our behavior.
Pretty interesting stuff, ya? =)
E.G. Feb 26th 2009 8:14PM
They never said that WoW had the same properties as crack, they just said that WoW was as addictive as crack. Also, anything that gives you pleasure has the potential to addict you, whether it be sex, reading, eating, playing ping-pong, anything.
E.G. Feb 26th 2009 8:16PM
This was supposed to be a reply to Cogzwell. damn this comment system.
Hoggersbud Feb 26th 2009 8:20PM
Saying "anything that has the potential to addict you" kinda means that you have no meaningful definition of addiction.
thief425 Feb 26th 2009 8:15PM
I always love these. Prepare for the onslaught of "this game is not addicting" and "You're in denial" responses. Now, for once, the author of this article has stated that an addictive personality will manifest itself in any number of ways. What I don't understand is the lack of studies that show a relatively similar number of hours that people spend watching television, building and racing RC cars, reading, or hunting and fishing. Human beings of the last 100 years are consumers of entertainment far beyond the scope of our entire existence. However, even in the years long ago, we have always sought or created forms of entertainment and socialization. Hell, we've even erected colleseums for gladiators and arenas for football teams.
What I don't understand is the criticism and sharp eyes that are aimed at electronic entertainment, specifically video games. When I was a child, my stepfather would take a sick day for the first day of the hunting season, and go out for 2-3 hours every morning or evening for the entire season. And he sat in the woods alone waiting to actually kill something. Some sports fans never miss a game, shave their heads till the winning streak is over and paint their naked bodies to display in 15 degree weather. Do we equate them to crack addicts? I mean....seriously....CRACK?!?
It's a form of entertainment that millions of people enjoy. If 11 million people are into any one singly identifiable thing, I'm sure you're going to find some bad apples in there that would suck a dick to buy the latest expansion. The era of personal accountability is so low in the world today that we would rather blame the thing we don't understand than risk offending someone by saying that they're maladjusted and psychologically distressed. Stop saying it's the game's fault that a relative small proportion of its players can't control themselves.
Now, I gotta go steal a TV to pay for my next month's sub.
Jamesisgreat Feb 26th 2009 10:27PM
Very well written post.
"Choose life... But why would I want to do a thing like that? I chose not to choose life. I chose somethin' else. And the reasons? There are no reasons. Who needs reasons when you've got World of Warcraft? "
;)
thief425 Feb 27th 2009 12:04AM
Trainspotting...nice. I need to watch that again, such a great film.