40 Percent of World of Warcraft Players Addicted

Heartless Gamer writes "MMORPGs and game addiction. If you're suffering from dry eyes, headaches, back aches, erratic sleep patterns, it may be more than just your average hangover: according to Dr. Maressa Orzack, you could be suffering from video and computer game addiction. A clinical psychologist, Orzack is founder and coordinator of Computer Addiction Services at McLean Hospital in Newton, Mass., and is also an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School. Computer Addiction Services is one of the few outpatient clinics in the U.S. that provides specific treatment for game addiction." but I'm feelings much better now.

In the future this will be bigger

[Henry V .009]

The woman is in one of the silly sciences, and almost all of what she says can be discounted, but this was interesting:

RW: A lot of comparisons have been made between video game addiction and gambling addiction. Are the two similar?

Dr. Orzack: They are pretty much the same. They have many of the same symptoms: neglecting work and severing personal relationships, for example. People get the same type of excitement from gambling and playing video games. It's called variable ratio reinforcement, which basically means that you keep playing or gambling and failing until you reach your intended goal, but once you reach that goal, you still keep playing.

RW: What about self control and willpower? Should players take some responsibility for their heavy play?

Dr. Orzack: This isn't about willpower or restraint. These games are very elaborately designed to ease you in gently, entice you, and keep you there. And it's a cycle: people begin to spend too much time playing and their careers and personal relationships begin to deteriorate. Then they begin to withdraw more into the game because it's an escape from their real world problems.

The bit about variable ratio reinforcement is the important part. Video game designers haven't perfected this with MMORPGs—they're just starting to get it right. In the future games will be more addictive, more damaging to life outside the game. They'll be better at making you play, but be less satisfying a part of your life.

Re:I'm not surprised.

[jawtheshark]

AFAIK he uses prepaid cards [blizzard.com] which are available.... I guess he pays it with his allowance. I never asked, but I don't think his mom gave him her credit card. Heck, I don't think she has a credit card. He certainly doesn't.

Re:I'm not addicted, I can quit anytime I want

[Austerity Empowers]

Worse, if you really only want to raid 2 nights a week, it's very, very hard to find a guild and keep it together. You either get people who will leave you for the 5 night/week guild, or people who are so casual that they either don't play correctly or show up very inconsistently.

WoW allows Parental Control

[Karoshi]

In WoW it's possible to set a schedule for the playtime.
So it's easy to prevent the kids from playing at schooltime or during the night.
Check the FAQ [worldofwarcraft.com] at their site for more information.

You are ABSOLUTELY RIGHT

[Anonymous Coward]

Considering this video [google.com]. I completely agree with you...

Re:In the future this will be bigger

[staeiou]

The woman is in one of the silly sciences, and almost all of what she says can be discounted, but this was interesting:

What? From the article:

A clinical psychologist, Orzack is founder and coordinator of Computer Addiction Services at McLean Hospital in Newton, Mass., and is also an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School.

I don't even think that needs explaining, but I'll do it anyway: Clinical psychologists are probably the most pragmatic people in the social sciences (what you call the silly sciences). Her work has absolutly nothing to do with Freudian psychoanalysis (there was nothing in there about gaming addictions meaning that you want to have sex with you mother and kill your father), but instead on the scientific method.

Re:Shiny and new!

[HaloZero]

Boobs are a myth. They don't actually exist.

40 Percent...

[JavaLord]

That 40% number was ripped from the daedalus project [nickyee.com]. I also doubt it's accurate since people who fill out that survey or seek help are more likely to be addicted then those who don't.

MMO addiction is nothing like a Gambling addiction. In MMO addiction you may have issues of identifying with your character, but you don't have the same harmful financial damage that a gambling addiction will cause.

Quitting MMO's is fairly easy, or at least it was for me. I just deleted WoW, and that was it. I still keep in touch with my guild via their website, which was really my only reason for playing twards the end, along with e-fame.

Addicition

[Vexorian]

All games are supposed to be addictive. The symptoms stated by the article sound more like the result of overdose. I would say that what makes WoW player play the game more than they should, even when their eyes are tired for example. Is the DARN MONTHLY FEE! . I met online guys that have the need to play WoW really frequently otherwise they feel like they are wasting their money. You have to accept that 12 $us for just a few hours per week is not worth it so you better extract all the juice of it.

I hope next "service" games have an hourly fee instead of monthly, I really do

Re:Micah

[ElleyKitten]

That sounds kinda like what I went through with Everquest. I was 19, failed out of college, had no job and didn't care. Fortunately, my parents wouldn't stand for that shit. They helped me find an apartment and a job that would barely cover rent and food and that was that. No more freeloading off them. Without enough money to afford Everquest or even internet at first, I realized that I didn't need it. The best thing you can do for your brother is not give him money. Eventually, he'll realize that food is more important than WoW, and he'll pull himself out of it. Once he wants to quit, you can help him, but 12 steps or anything else will never work until he wants to quit.

Re:Headline imcomplete.

[ThJ]

Goes to show how WoW-centered some people are. It's actually a song from a Broadway show. The people singing are various muppets (or lookalikes). I've been trying to find that video I saw of it for ages but all I can find is that dumb WoW video which isn't half as funny. I have several friends who've disappeared into WoW to never return. If I didn't like that game before, I hate it now. One of my friends play it because her boyfriend is addicted, and thus the bad spiral continues...

Re:WoW allows Parental Control

[lundbergaj]

Ah, my poor kids have much less control than yours. I have sons 13 and 10, and I've been letting them start playing WOW recently. However, as you might guess from me being here, I know more about computers than they do, and so far we can tightly control computer use.

While I do know the WOW usernames and passwords, that's not how we limit computer use. We have login passwords for the computers and the kids aren't permitted know what they are. When we logoff the computer they don't can't use that machine until we log it back on. We also have all the computers in a public computer room (as well as one for handy access in the kitchen). We've done this for over a year now, so the kids don't even think about telling us to remove accout passwords. They merely beg to have us leave the computers logged in at the end of the day (especially on weekends) so they can play in the morning. We're also rather controlling about bedtimes. Past 9pm or so, the kids can read in their room, but can't be playing video games.

Is this too controlling? It's hard for me to judge, there weren't similar computers when I was growing up. So there weren't similar stay-up-all-night entertainment choices my parents had to deal with.

So far, my sons have been a little more eager to get their karate lessons and such in on weekday nights so their weekend days are more free (for WOW, though they've only been playing for a week or two). I personally think the common computer room is better for their actual enjoyment while playing, as they can play together and talk to each other easily.

I am keeping an watch on addictive behavior. They'll certainly be more restricted if they show less interest in their school friends than online games.

Andrew

Yea, I am a major sicko

[fatmacman]

I started WoW on November 17, 2005. That is 265 days ago now. A quick look at my three main characters will show that I have played 75, 24 and 14 days for a total of 113 out of the last 265 days of my life spent online, in that game, and that is all I do and all I think about most of the time. I spend my vacations at home doing marathon WoW sessions. My weekends consist of all night sessions separated by a few hours of sleep. The sad part is that I probably would play less if it was not for Blizzard's horible constraints on items such as mana potions and basic manufacturing materials. I spend half of my life farming the materials I need to help me be a viable member of my guild. Take away 20+ hours of material farming each week and I might actually have time for a walk. Yea right!

Not Really

[johnashby]

I have been a player of WoW since it came out, and I have to disagree with the parent poster. Particularly, this statement:

With addicts, they're going to be playing all the time. ALL the time. They'll get through the content very quickly, and complain loudly about not having more of it pumped out in each new patch. They'll also use a lot of bandwidth and server time, which Blizzard has to pay for. Chances are these addictive personalities will eventually cause them to jump ship to another MMO to get addicted to, which means less monthly fees.

There are two flaws with this argument. First, the game has built-in timesinks, grinds, and other time traps. These tasks are specifically tailored to increase the time in-game artifically. Despite all this, the addicts grind away...and when they hit the wall, they just start a new character. From scratch they do it all over again. I should know...I have 5 level 60 characters. I consider myself an enthusiast with a cyncial mindset, and I can tell you from playing the game that Blizzard is not angling towards casual gamers at ALL. Quite the opposite...their development philosophy seems to be "be hardcore, or be gone".

The second objection I have regards those level 60 characters. It takes around 240 hours to level a character to 60. Multiply that times 5 (such as in my case) and you have a HUGE investment of time. To leave the game is to lose those characters, forever. All those hours, all that time...and it's gone. I ask you, how does an addict handle this? Quite simply, they don't. They'll be signing over their Social Security to Blizzard in 40 years to keep those characters "alive". The single greatest hook that Blizzard has developed is that attachment. Every person I have spoken to that has thought of quitting has used a variant of this argument to justify continuing. Some even go so far as to continue paying the fees even though they stop playing, just in case they want to come back...and they always do. Netflix can't touch that.

And that is the perspective of a genuine WoW enthusiast. Don't get me started on their development focus...

Re:I'm not surprised.

[UziBeatle]

Nylathotep inacurately blurted :"Even if you use a gamecard you are required to sign up with a credit card. I......:"

    Bzzzt. WRONG.
    WoW does not require a CC to sign up and play. Period. I had no CC and all I had was the prepay card. You DO need a prepay card OR a CC to sign up when you pull the game out of the box and sign up. After you sign up with either method you get your 'free' 30 days out of the game box. Woo.
    Anyone can go to the local store that sells prepay cards and toss down cash for them. 29 bucks a pop for 60 days of sucker play.

  Now, with some other online pay for games it is true they require a CC to play. It is for that reason those games suffer too, IMO. I'd have tried some but they make it so hard to pay for them I did not bother. I tore up all my credit cards.

  P.S. I'm a ex WoW player that lasted six months with the game.