Posts with tag WoW, Warcraft, addiction

Today has a new podcast from the folks over at Taverncast, and it has my guild a-buzz with talk of WoW Addiction.

We're a casual raiding guild, 3 nights a week, 4 hours a night. Sure, that's 12 hours of commitment a week, but still a low number compared to other raiding guilds. That would be well and fine, but a large number of our members play a lot outside of raiding hours - farming mats, doing daily quests, getting reputation, etc.

So when the Taverncast After Hours #3 came up today, with the gang discussing gaming addiction, and one member going so far as to undertake a little experiment a la Morgan Spurlock, it really got us thinking - are we playing too much WoW?

Some of the things on their list (about an hour in) of questions to ask yourself, I have had to say yes to at one time or another. How about you?

So, go take some time out to listen (while you're playing WoW, of course) and then come back and let us know how much WoW you play each week, and what you think is a reasonable amount of time to commit to the game. Is 15 hours in a row of ANY activity too much? (listen to the whole podcast to get that one)

Each week, Robin Torres contributes Azeroth Interrupted, a column about balancing real life with WoW.

A local Philadelphia news station covered this story yesterday about the dangers of MMO addiction. It is a more responsible article than most because it quotes an actual psychologist as saying that most people have no problem playing WoW, just the people who have problems dealing with reality. On a related note, the always delightful Jack Thompson seems to have sent out another letter, this one to Microsoft, about Halo 3 being marketed to underage gamers. I'm not going to get into a discussion about the merits of Jack's case (cough media slut cough) or the impossible task of marketing to 17 year olds, but not 16 year olds. I also don't want to belittle addiction. Addiction is a real and horrible thing that ruins more lives than just the addict's, whether the addiction is WoW or alcohol or whatever. Often addicts will move from one addiction to another, unable to cope with life without a crutch. I, unfortunately, know somebody like this.

The problem I have with the Internet Addiction news story, all news stories like it and everything having to do with Mr. Virtual Ambulance Chaser is the fact that it is "news" that children don't do well when they are electronically babysat. Well, duh.

More on this topic and some solutions after the jump.

With all the press gaming addiction, and specifically WoW addiction, has been getting lately, it was only a matter of time before even YouTube contained a repository of suggested cures. Though I don't think these guys are entirely serious... (Ouch!)

Previously on Moviewatch...

Here's a nine-minute mini-documentary on MMORPGs in general, with a focus on WoW. It attempts to investigate possibilities of addiction, effects on socialization, and the feeling most of us are familiar with that sometimes WoW is more work than play. This is perhaps not a piece that asks any new questions, but it's a nice summary at any rate. As far as addiction goes, I have to agree with Gamesfirst.com Editor in Chief Shawn Rider that talking about WoW and other MMOs in terms of addiction is generally "a way of hyperbolizing the situation to make it sound much more dramatic than it actually is."

Blizzplanet has a humorous article online about the symptoms...and consequences of WoW addiction. And we're not talking the usual consequences here, like loss of friends, poor eyesight, getting fired from your job...no, some of these folk have created a sort of Darwin awards category for WoW addicts.

Like the surprising number of people who have left a pizza in the oven, only to forget about it in the midst of a WoW session & almost asphyxiate from the smoke (this is apparently now officially known as a "WoW Pizza"). Or kid who almost burned down his parent's house when his TV shorted out & caught fire a few feet behind him but he couldn't hear it for the WoW blasting out of his headphones. Even Blizzard employees apparently aren't safe, as they apparently have a bad habit of letting pastries explode in microwaves wile engrossed in their own game.

If you guys are like me, I know you've done some stupid stuff while playing MMO's. I once managed to spill an entire bowl of boiling-hot soup all over my keyboard while in the midst of a temple fight in Uldaman, rendering it immidiately useless and almost scarring my crotch for life. Fess up; what's the dumbest thing WoW ever made you do?

Somewhere, Boris Badenov is laughing over his dinner of roast moose.

The ever-trusting Chinese government, which last year created legislation to erase the freedom of....er, I mean restrict the playing time of online gamers to less than five hours per week, has recently learned to its dismay that up to 14% of players have taken measures to circumvent the restrictions, such as setting up multiple accounts in games such as WoW.

Slashdot reports today that the next step for the lovable autocratic regime is to launch a massive campaign over the summer to ban minors from internet cafes. I suppose they don't really care if the adults are addicted; you know, the ones who are actually supposed to keep society running as smooth as a sweat shop. In any case, I'm honestly surprised that the percentage of folks bucking the system is so low. If this were a domestic issue, I'd like to think that gamers would be rioting in the streets. But then again, that's never worked out so well in China....

No...not me; I know why I'm addicted...'cus it's a flippin' sweet game. And because I've been an avid RPG'er all my life, and WoW is simply the logical progression of that. No, the person asking that question is in fact the author of this article over at flickrgaming, a relative WoW 'noob' (sorry for using the 'n' word) who has found themselves hopelessly addicted to the game we all know & love.

The atricle gives some insight into just what the appeal of WoW is to a casual gamer, comparing the learning curve & playing experience to the much more demanding world of online RTS's (real-time strategy games) to illustrate just how impressive a job Blizzard has done in making it's flagship product accessible to not only the 40+ hour per week raiding guild member, but the relative newcomer to the genre as well. It's an interesting & well-thought out read; check it out at this link, and let us know just what it is that keeps YOU addicted to WoW....

It looks like the time is coming where we will be forced to view video game addiction as a real disease, instead of just making fun of it. After all, there is now an actual rehab center to deal especially with this particular back-hopping monkey. And where else in the world would be home to a detox center for gamers? Why, Amsterdam, of course! The cradle of recovery & self-control!

As reported in this article from BrettBart.com, the Netherlands' Smith & Jones Addiction Consultants (come on, is that the real name?) are successfully treating a host of patients who have let their virtual lives take over their own, even some who entered treatment for drug problems before realizing that their real trouble was video games...

I'm not sure what to think about this; while I am sure on the one hand that plenty of people have screwed their lives up from wasting too many hours on games, on the other hand, offering a therapudic resident recovery program for people who just can't stop trying to get their Orc to the next level sounds a wee bit...coddling to me. Like, if we say that it's a real problem, we'll actually make it into one, whether it really is or not. In any case, I'm sure we'll be seeing this pop up in the domestic psychology world soon...so I'm just waiting for the first time someone blames his five felony homicides on needing money to deck out his Gnome Warlock.

By now, you've all probably heard the tragic story of a 13-year-old Chinese boy who committed suicide after a marathon session playing Warcraft 3. The parents of the boy have filed a lawsuit against the game's Chinese distributors, but the author of this article from the University of South Florida Oracle makes the case that the boy's parents, rather than the game, are really to blame.

Although the article is short & doesn't give much reasoning to back up the author's point, I have to say that I agree, at least in principle. It is the parent's responsibility to teach their children the difference between fantasty & reality, after all. I have, and have always had, serious doubts about the media's ability to 'corrupt' our children, as long as we're talking about a sane, well-adjusted child to begin with.

As Dennis Miller once said on the subject: "If your kids can be influenced by anything Gene Simmons has to say, then you're not doing your job as a parent somewhere down the line." I don't see where video games are any different. What do you all think?

In the continuing saga of our nation's youth being taken over by evil computer overlords, the San Fransisco Chronicle has jumped into the scene with an article about technology use among teens, and what the consequences might be.

According to research by the Kaiser Foundation (apparently they study more than just rolls), young people spend over 6 hours per day engrossed in some form of media or the other, which is up an hour from five years ago. And yes, of course WoW gets to share a little bit of the blame.

It's hard for me to even imagine growing up today as a kid, with the internet & all the other technology we have available. There's a pretty good chance that if I'd had a modern PC when I was 13 or so, I would have never left the house...especially if my parents were as lax about monitoring it as they were about cable TV.

From today's issue of the Rocky Mountain Collegian, the school paper of Colorado State University, comes another article concerning the addictive properties of WoW and the effects it can have on one's schoolastic life. The article talks with several students who detail the reasons that they just can't break themselves away from the game screen, and touches on numerous other points that we've all heard before, but shouldn't expect to hear the last of any time soon.

One student does have a good quote illustrating why he no longer plays the game, however: "I like to live, breathe and eat, so I don't play that game anymore."

What happens when WoW addiction goes too far? Where does the real responsibility lie? At what point should loved ones & the federal government step in? The burning questions continue...sort of.

Ever seen that show Intevention, where they stick a bunch of cameras in someone's face & confront them with all the ways they're screwing up? This is kind of like that, only without all the care & professionalism. Still, I think they guy seems genuinely concerned about his friend...or else he's just way bored of watching him play WoW all day.