40 Percent of World of Warcraft Players Addicted 525
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.
And? (Score:5, Insightful)
So the real story here is that only 40% of the people playing are addicted. This indicates to me that
1) Blizz isn't doing their job correctly if they are capturing under half the population in this way
2) These docs need a new yaht
3) The study is bogus and was carried out incorrectly, invalidating the results.
Guess which one I'm a fan of? ( that's right, all three, for those of you keeping score at home )
I'm not surprised. (Score:5, Insightful)
Personally I refuse to play games like World Of Warcraft, because I know I would be sucked up in them in no time. It's too risky for me
When I found out that my brother in law bought the game I warned him about the game. He shrugged it off. He's only 14 (my wife is 11 years older) and he clearly has no control. He lives alone with his mother, has done allnighters, has already skipped school because of the game but his grades seem still to be unaffected. His mother has no idea what to do because she has absolutely no idea about anything related to computers. When I suggested she'd take away the DSL router, hell broke loose. I think she gave it back after a mere 2 days because his behaviour became unmanagable. He didn't come to the last BBQ we organized. He spends all his days (and nights, I guess) behind his computer playing WoW.
The thing is: I can't critisize him all that much. When I was his age, I was all the time using my computer. Playing Test Drive (CGA version) for hours, or programming in Pascal. It just depended on my mood. Still, it was much easier to break away from it because there was no social component.
Dry eyes? (Score:3, Insightful)
Or perhaps you're just in need of a new monitor?
Re:I'm not surprised. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Dry eyes? (Score:5, Insightful)
Along those same lines I guess you would have to conclude I am addicted to Excel and analyzing gas chromatography results as I feel like this at work constantly
Politics (Score:5, Insightful)
Maybe I'm going overboard. But it angers me to no end when I see one of my senators giving BS speeches about how games should be regulated.
Re:I'm not surprised. (Score:5, Insightful)
the prevalence of ventrilo/teamspeak allows playing the game to be a much more social environment where everyone shares a big common interest.
Re:And? (Score:5, Insightful)
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. I've seen this happen with people who were definitely addicts, who have eventually quit to play another MMO.
On the other hand, enthusiasts will play when they have free time, rather than quitting their jobs or skipping classes. They'll get through the content slower, probably enjoy more time roleplaying and whatnot, and this means Blizzard can count on their monthly fees for a longer period of time. Blizzard can also take more time to develop new content, since their audience can wait. And that audience, the players who genuinely enjoy the game and haven't gotten through everything yet, will most likely stick around until they have. So long as Blizzard is relatively quick about adding content, they can extend this audience out for a long time.
Blizzard makes more money the less time you spend in their game each month. It's like Netflix, they want you to keep that one DVD on your coffee table for years at a time.
Moderation (Score:5, Insightful)
Where does 40% come from? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:I'm not surprised. (Score:5, Insightful)
To be fair, when I was 14, the last thing on Earth I wanted to do would be go to a family event. Heck... When I went to family re-unions, I'd either bring my NES or old school Gameboy and hide somewhere.
Considering the amount of time playing Doom and BBS games and then later MUDs I can see where he is coming from though. But if its affecting school or he's going crazy and threatining someone's life because they stole his cloud song... Well...
Re:In the future this will be bigger (Score:5, Insightful)
Is there even a difference between making a game enjoyable to play to some people (easy to get learn, fun to continue) and addictive to others?
Re:WoW allows Parental Control (Score:3, Insightful)
Yeah, I know that. The problem is: how am I going to convince him to give me his password? Heck, I don't even know his username on WoW. If someone is going to set in place a technical solution it's going to be me, the default you-know-computers-guy. Would you, as a 14 year old, give the guy that is going to block his account overnight willingly your password? I think not. I know I wouldn't.
A couple of things (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:And? (Score:5, Insightful)
Anything can become an addiction (Score:5, Insightful)
However, there are some differences here to other addictions. There is no physical addiction, and hardly any psychological one. You can put it down, and other than mild obsession (what's going on in Azeroth?), it has no ill effects. Hell, you can discontinue your account, and they keep all of your character info, so you can completely unplug, and return at some point in the future when you're interested again, much like an offline game. There's also a limit - you may play a lot to reach level 60, but then you do stop. Sure, you can join raids, get gear, but the drive to constantly improve falls away (other games, like Disgaea, are far, far worse in this regard).
The most important difference is that if handled well, it can be a positive social tool. I play, but only with people I know in real life. That way we can talk about other things and it allows a set time for us to get together, without having to drive out to each other (I live over an hour away from many of them, and that's just suburban sprawl!).
Mostly, this is a lot of fuss over nothing.
Look Forward (Score:3, Insightful)
I feel like I'm reading an article from 1950 about the dangers of Rock and Roll.
Re:I'm not addicted, I can quit anytime I want (Score:3, Insightful)
I have to farm flowers for 3 hours, to produce my potions used for the 5 hour raids that I attend to gain better equipment so that I can farm flower more quickly =)
Re:WoW allows Parental Control (Score:5, Insightful)
The problem is: how am I going to convince him to give me his password?
"Convince him"? Screw that. Who is the adult here? I know his mom is the ultimate problem here, so this is not necessarily directed at you, but you don't "convince him". You tell him to give up the password or he's not allowed to play. If he starts getting "unmanageable", you start taking away stuff. You ground him. Take away everything he owns (music, etc). If he's still out of control, you take his room door off his hinges so he has no privacy. If that doesn't work, you threaten to follow him around at school to all his classes (in front of his friends, of course).
It's pretty clear that he's used to whining and screaming until he gets his own way. He needs a major attitude adjustment.
Simple Solution (Score:0, Insightful)
If the real women would actually say "yes" I would have something better to do...
Re:And? (Score:2, Insightful)
1) Blizz isn't doing their job correctly if they are capturing under half the population in this way
2) These docs need a new yaht
3) The study is bogus and was carried out incorrectly, invalidating the results.
4) Your definition of addiction is less strict than the medical one.
A "proper" addiction means you get physiological signs of stress during withdrawal (nausea, loss of cognitive functions, sweating, 'twitchy' movement and the like) besides the complaining. It is on par with a disease, albeit a treatable one. The condensed message of this article is that WoW doesn't only make people pale and fat (an idea most here seem rather accustomed to), but adds a heavy psychological problem.
From all we know about addiction, WoW may well cause suicides. The social cost incurred by this - as well as failed exams, divorces, firings etc. - may well exceed Blizzard's positive contribution to society through the taxes it is paying.
I was addicted (Score:5, Insightful)
One train of thought that helps kill my desire to play goes like this (it's sort of a mantra I run through every so often):
1. Wouldn't it be cool to play WoW in god mode, and have all the best equipment, skills, be able to kill everything in 1 hit, etc.?
2. Yeah, for about five minutes, but then it would get boring like god mode always does in games. It's better to accomplish things honestly, within the limits of the game.
3. Wait, accomplish? What accomplishment is there, exactly, in manipulating an interface that is essentially flipping bits on a hard drive somewhere? It's a game, it should be for entertainment; not some kind of to-do list.
4. WoW is still a little entertaining, but I've played two characters to level 60, and one each to 57, 55, 50, 48, 46, 33... I've seen pretty much all the content that doesn't require hours of raiding. Okay, I think I'm done.
Re:Headline imcomplete. (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Shiny and new! (Score:5, Insightful)
For some it's competition. If you are familiar with WoW's PvP system, or how end game raiding guilds compete it's easy how someone who is into competition can get hooked. It's a 'fake' type of competition too, as it doesn't rely on the fast twitch skills a counter strike or quake player needs.
For others it's the social aspect. Dealing with people in WoW is much easier for some people then it is in real life.
E-Fame can do it also, if you are known in game by pretty much all of the 12,000 people on your server, it can have a powerful pull on you.
Lastly, some people who are guild leaders or officers think the guild *NEEDS* them to be there. While that may be true in some cases, most end game raiding guilds can survive losing anyone.
You're not addicted... (Score:2, Insightful)
From TFA -
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....
How the hell does this woman stay employed? It is ONLY about willpower and restraint. ANYTHING can become an addiction. Sure, MMORPGs may be easier to become addicted to than say, brocolli, but I'm sure it can happen. However, neither are a problem if you can maintain some restraint. The difference between people like you, and the 14 year old who skips school to play, is that you have the self control to pull yourself away. It is ALL about the self control.
Re:WoW allows Parental Control (Score:3, Insightful)
Take away the computer, ground him, give him endless chores when he is problematic. The mother simply doesnt want to put the effort into being in the position of power.
Re:Shiny and new! (Score:5, Insightful)
It's funny... when my computer is out of order at home I get real nervous, but not because I need the computer per say. The problem is it's become such a vital part of my every day life it's rather indispensible. Paying the bills, email, stuff like that all are net-dependent. I can reserve books and have them delivered to my local library from a library system that is large even on a global scale: http://www.helmet.fi/screens/opacmenu.html [helmet.fi] Hell, I even plan non regular public transportation trips online: http://aikataulut.ytv.fi/reittiopas/en/ [aikataulut.ytv.fi]
I don't have time to play games. I have two kids, and more babies are on the way. Email is pretty much the only way to deal with stuff sensibly if I don't make calls during working hours. Anything I need to research I use the net for. Being without a connection literally cuts me off from society.
I don't feel it's an addiction. I don't miss the net on a vacation away from home. But at home it's like running water and electricity, it's just expected to be there.
OMFG BBQ (Score:2, Insightful)
Comparing a video game to tobacco on any level is one of the most irresponsible analogies I have ever heard anyone in the medical community make. When a video game starts to have even 1/10th the social impact as cigarettes then maybe, just maybe, we should revisit this ridiculous topic. By most estimates tobacco kills approximately 1 million people just in the U.S. per year. And according to the CDC costs about $92 billion in lost productivity. http://www.cdc.gov/od/oc/Media/pressrel/r050630.h
Trust me, I am fully aware of the "dangers" involved with gaming addictions. For me it resulted in C's and D's for two semesters in college while hooked on a MUD back in the early ninety's. But getting a bad GPA because I cannot pull myself away from the monitor to go to class and huffing gasoline or Krylon are two completely different animals.
Re:And? (Score:1, Insightful)
In the end Warcraft NEEDS it's community of addicts to keep the game going. Without them to complain about a lack of lvl 60 content and spend free time building a solid online "community", the game would have folded completely by now. I don't disagree that WoW needs to do slightly more to attract more casual players (shorter dungeons for mid/high level players), but if Blizzard were to abandon support for the addicts, they'd find themselves with FAR FAR less money. The costs of maintaining servers to support the load are well thought out and profitable. The 5 cents they save on bandwith that is not being used by casual players is pale in comparison to the loss of a $15 subscription fee because they pissed of a hardcore fan.
Re:Shiny and new! (Score:3, Insightful)
Then there's the whole "I'm a champion" type thing. For those with unsatisfying lives, this can be more than enough.
Man with a Hammer! (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:WoW allows Parental Control (Score:2, Insightful)
I was too and I quit cold-turkey also (Score:3, Insightful)
About 3 months after I quit I started a mage on a friends account which I play maybe 3-4 hours a month. (no raiding)
Blizzard actually help me quit because I got so pissed off that I couldn't progress past rank 10 in a reasonable amount of time. I mean with a full time job and family, how can I compete with the college kids that are skipping class and playing in shifts. I was even in our top pvp group for a couple months.
Using wowguru's calculator it would have taken me 8 weeks of #1 to get to high warlord. I can't imagine how many weeks it would take to get to warlord in the top 15-20 spot.
Anyway, it was a blast, we were 5 capping ab in minutes but on my server pvp competition was fierce and even 200,000+ honor barely moved but a couple percentage points each week.
We'd even 5 cap naked (in-game) just to be idiots.
With no way to pause progression, one can't even go on a vacation without adding weeks or months of "work" to get back to where they were.
Well I believe the made up number (Score:2, Insightful)
Being a college student when the alpha and beta came out, I was easily able to manage life, school, and wow while no raiding content was in the game. Though, the seeds of addiction were already present in the beta. I would stand in the city, with nothing to do in game other than talk or make money, which was certainly going to be wiped upon release. I did not care though, I kept making money in a game instead of taking another shift at work.
At age 20, when retail came out, I found myself the leader of what was going to become a dominate guild on the server. It is not to hard when you and your buddies know everything about the game from beta - so we leveled, as a group, very quickly, drawing attention and interest from all the soon-to-be addicts.
From that point on, almost everything was second to wow. I had an online legacy to solidify and maintain! WoW consumed every free hour of my time and I went as far as to restructure my life around my gaming. Now that is not normal or healthy. I still went to class and passed with good grades, but only because I was able to make the raid times being guild leader. Raids are almost always a nightly occasion, leaving day classes a possibility. Of course, I planned those classes that way - I needed to have my nights 5pm - 3am free for gaming!
While leading this guild which raided every single day (Ony, MC, Rag, outdoor) at the time, I had a legion of 100 addicts in my guild. Addicts. Almost every single one played every day for several hours. The biggest concern in our guild was the hardcore players wanting to cut the casual players so we could "cut the dead weight." I was in favor of having a better environment/community in the guild though, so I let the casual players stay, but we arranged some raiding changes to make sure they did not get priority over an addict.
Having ran this guild for a while, I was exhausted from all the drama and logistics of running it. As a friend said, I flew to close to the sun and got burnt out. True be told, my reluctance to continue the drama was not the main reason for quiting, but the complete collapse of my social life and financial situation. I maintained a girlfriend through all of this, which was not easy for her to do. She was a longtime girlfriend and was with me as I gradually became an addict. She gave me the ultimatum of her or WoW and I never played again.
Since then we have split for completely unrelated issues, but I honestly fear the game. It requires massive time investments to advance in a game which has no end. That is the problem. Millions are playing a game with no end. Since leaving I found I enjoy FPS games much more now. I can join a server and play 5 minutes, 15 minutes, 1 round, 3 maps - whatever I want - There is no requirement to stay for any length of time. Even when on a team and you need to be around for scrims or matches, you have weeks of notice, you can reschedule, have alternates, and they only last an hour.
Re:In the future this will be bigger (Score:3, Insightful)
Clinical Addiction, not just playing a lot (Score:4, Insightful)
Personally, by these criteria I was addicted to EverQuest for long stretches, but I've never been addicted to WoW. It also says to me that Blizzard has a better business model than EQ; people forget that what a game developer wants is to sell as many subscriptions as possible, not to make people play as many hours as possible. The ideal game would have everyone subscribing and no-one actually playing; players cost you money (bandwidth, server capacity, customer service).
Indeed, Blizzard's master-stroke (from a business point of view) is having compelling instance dungeons which can only be done once per week. WoW is full of "points of diminishing return" in that, it doesn't matter how often you play, your primary toon can only do the current bleeding-edge instance once-per-week. Obviously, the truly addicted max out multiple toons, but their primary toon will only ever be able to get so far so fast. It thus follows that they only need to release one new bleeding edge dungeon every six months to keep a lot of people hooked. This is very bad from my point of view (I hate doing the same content over and over) but it's obviously working well for Blizzard.
Re:WoW allows Parental Control (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Shiny and new! (Score:3, Insightful)
Enjoyable hobby, NOT addiction! (Score:4, Insightful)
For example: Would we have called Leonardo DaVinci addicted to science because he spent long 20 hour days cutting up cadavers or studying mechanics?
Would we have called Einstein a hopeless physics junkie?
It's called having a passion. Doing what you love. What's so bad about it?
In this work-obsessed culture we live in, if you aren't working and doing something THE MAN tells you to do, you must be doing something wrong. You don't see clinics popping up for people that work at overtime at McDonalds because they can't pay their bills -- we find it absolutely OK to not see your family most of the week because your job makes you work from 8 till 8, but when a person comes home and wants to spend 3-4 hours doing something *they want to do* you have people thinking its some sort of a disease.
I don't get it. Where are the priorities? I really am an advocate of being a professional idler and trying to get out of wage slavery. What's so bad about playing a game for 40 hours a week (something you CHOOSE to do, and ENJOY)? Compare that to working which is something you HAVE to do or else you get evicted by some property owning assholes and end up living on the streets and going crazy!
I quit (Score:4, Insightful)
When WoW came along, I just ignored it. That is, until my brother stated playing. It looked like a lot of fun so I decided to join him. He stopped playing but I continued, surpassed him, and joined an end game guild. I made all the raids and was probably the most educated and was made a high ranking officer. I then not only wanted to play the game, I was obligated to be there to help run the raids. But some raids had some timing issues...and it really ticked me off. It is really hard to make me mad (unless you are family). I had to step back and say wow...I am getting pissed off at a video game. I was gaining weight and my mind was infested with thoughts of WoW. I finally had to admit to myself I was addicted (even though I did a fairly good job of keeping it under control). So a few weeks ago I told my guild I was taking a break...but, was actually quitting. I just logged off and never looked back. So, while it is addicting, it isn't as hard to give up. I am much happier now since I quit and I know that I will not touch an MMO ever again.
As much as people want to criticize this article...there is a lot of truth to it. It eases you in and as you build social relationships becomes more and more demanding. But you have to look at what you want out of life. Even if you are great and well loved in WoW, it will eventually go away and you will be left with a few people on your IM list that will fade away. Much better off spending that time on something that is more long term. While WoW is a well done game, you really have to becareful. I'd say most people who are in a raiding guild are addicted and should probably walk away. Not that I want to tell other people how to spend their freetime, just because it isn't healthy. In the same sense that I think people should give up smoking (thankfully dropping WoW is so much easier).
Here's a hint: You can do that (Score:5, Insightful)
If you can't do that, the problem isn't the game, the problem is you. It would be analogus as if at the gym you felt you had to keep up with everyone sports wise, even the pro or semi-pro athletes that played there. That you couldn't have fun unless you were one of the best.
So if you want to play WoW, or any game for that matter, for a couple hours a night, do it. No big deal. Just turn it off when your time is up and go about your business. Don't get all competitive and act like there's an artifical goal you've got to meet. Do what you like in the game, at the pace you want.
But don't go and blame the game if you can't do that. If you can't control the amount you play and/or if you have a need to meet some atrifical goal, that's your problem you need to figure out. Maybe you deal with it by not playing, that's a fine soltuion, but don't think it's beacuse there's something wrong with the game.
Re:Enjoyable hobby, NOT addiction! (Score:5, Insightful)
People can and are addicted to non-chemical substances. They exhibit the same behavioral patterns as an addict, they have the same neural-chemistry as an addict, and they suffer the same kinds of withdrawal symptoms as an addict. We're not talking about what people enjoy. If somebody's still enjoying the game, they probably don't have a problem. It's when they have to play it, when they experience extreme discomfort when they aren't playing, when they turn their backs on everything else in life to play it, it's not about enjoyment, and that's why we talk about addictions to things other than drugs. This sort of thing is very well documented, you may want to do some research before you claim that this type of addiction doesn't exist.
On the other hand, you've got people thinking that enjoyment of games automatically means addiction. This is untrue. But so is saying addiction to games doens't exist.
Re:WoW allows Parental Control (Score:2, Insightful)
I got in fistfights with my dad for far less than what your recomending.
If you were that screwed up, your parents screwed you up from the beginning. I'd guess you're still screwed up if you think my recommendations are anything out of line.
Re:This is very true (Score:3, Insightful)
Yes, imagine what you could do. Then imagine what you would most likely do. Those 100 hours a month you put into WoW would instead be spent watching TV, or playing offline games, or something along those lines.
If you were going to spend that time doing something "constructive," then you would have been doing it before you picked up WoW, wouldn't you? In fact, you would probably be too busy following those constructive pursuits to have picked up WoW in the first place.
You are playing WoW now becuase what you were doing before was even less meaningful to you, or at least more boring.