PTSD patients might be convinced to stop staring into space for a minute, alcoholics could be weaned off the bottle, burn victims could try out re-entry into society by practicing in a virtual society…but I don’t know. Just an idea.

Within a week of her getting it, I was playing. It hasn’t harmed my work, but it’s definitely my default leisure time activity if I have enough energy/attention remaining to do anything but collapse and zombify.

This is a long one, so here’s the one-sentence version: As someone who’s personally been on both sides of the coin, I can confidently say that people only play these games to excess when there’s something deeply wrong in the rest of their life.

Okay, now the really long version, for those who might like to see my reasoning.

As a current college senior, BoingBoing reader and also an avid player of WoW, I now drag myself out of faceless lurkerage to deposit my two cents in this pile of many. Please be gentle. ._.

I agree more with RAJ77 than with any of the other comments here. My heart goes out to JESNOW; I believe that I truly do know how you – and he – must feel. But more to the point:

In my high school days I was an A student and accomplished in wushu and activist projects within the public sector. None of these accomplishments held a candle towards what I really wanted: mostly, the freedom to make my own decisions in life. It was only after the fact that I was able to define this void in my life this way.

That along with other issues back then caused my avoidant immersion in MUDs, which caused a huge amount of problems – like your son, JESNOW, my grades went in the tank and generally stayed there, and my early college years (in a major of my father’s choosing) were equally as dismal.

The solution to all this was drastic and I won’t get into it, but all’s said and done I’m now finishing off my degree in a field I enjoy, have a high major GPA, have marriage prospects, etc. I -still- play games like WoW. I enjoy it greatly. But unlike before, they take a back seat to other priorities.

My point is that people only play these games to excess when there’s something they want to run away from. JESNOW, I would never presume that your or your son’s situations or motives are similar my experience, but I would like to suggest that his problem is not WoW, but rather of something severely lacking in his life which causes him to run away to that virtual world.

Instead of berating him for his misdeeds or blaming the game, I urge you to seek help for your son. He might have to be diagnosed by a proper, /supportive/ therapist (not a rote textbook therapist, I don’t have enough venom to spew about /those/ monsters), but either way in the meantime you might risk deepening his wounds.

I had a period where I played far too much WoW. I’d just lost my job, and I threw myself into WoW the way a lot of unemployed people throw themselves into tv, or other things to ignore that losing one’s job sucks.

Then, I got a new job, and I play WoW an average of 10-12 hours a week now. I am certain people are going to jump on that number as a sign I’m playing far too much, but I ask this: How much time do you spend watching tv? I watch none.

I work out on a regular basis, I read books avidly. I go to concerts with and without friends, and I have a job I truly adore. WoW is simply another thing I do in my spare time.

The majority of my guild in the game is also employed gainfully, and the under 18s in the guild all (to the best of my knowledge) keep up on their homework and grades and most of them also play sports.

Just because the people who don’t know how to moderate their lives make the headlines doesn’t mean the game is a cancer on all who play it.

My opinion on the whole thing: people really need to learn to take personal responsiblity and take care of themselves. And if the problem is depression or some other mental disorder, it IS possible to get treatment. Through a good 8 years of off-and-on therapy and various anti-depressants (some helpful, some not) I have my depression controlled and my life on track.

If you cannot do that, or if your loved one cannot do that, don’t blame the thing they have surrendered themself to.

Wow is simply a game that offers positive reinforcement as mentioned by many people above me.

I’m not a very social person. I suffer from serious depression because of my lack of social connections, and I cannot afford treatment, nor do I trust medication.

All that being said, I am a MMORPG addict. In the first college I went to, I played Everquest (like wow, just a little more crude and time-demanding). The college freshman described by SAMSAM above could have very easily been me. That description is almost precisely what happened to me except the game was Everquest, and not WoW. After that experience, I quit Everquest, and did not play any games like that for several years. In those several years, I got a job, finished college elsewhere, dated a few girls, and moved forward with my life. While I can’t say that I ever craved to be back on that game, I can say that life turned into a living hell. One heartbreak after another, no real friends, job description being altered to something I didn’t apply for. Not getting accepted to other jobs, the life goes on. Everything in this country is so negative, and everyone is so self-centered and greedy and competitive. Sure I’m self-centered too, but I don’t really care about everyone’s stupid rat race, I just want to have something in my life that’s going in a positive direction for once.

Anyway, that’s why I turned to WoW. It’s the only positive reinforcement I can get. $15 a month for hours of enjoyment on end. I can positively say that without wow, I probably would have committed suicide by now.

I still work in the same job, and do it dutifully. I still function as a useful member of society. I give to charities. I do volunteer work, and I exercise a few days a week. I also spend over 40 hours a week playing WoW. Am I still depressed? heck yes. But at least I feel alive when I’m in Azeroth.

I would trade it all to have a successful social life, but after so many failures, I’ve given up on that goal.

My sophomore year of college I decided to spend the summer there to take an extra class. I ended up being super lonely and very depressed. (I have a history of depression and usually take medication, but sometimes I lapse.) I ended up playing another MMORPG most of the day until my night class, then stayed up until around 3am to keep playing.
Once I finally got over my depression, I stopped playing so much. I had no need to distract myself from my loneliness and socialize online because I had my friends back for the semester.

JESNOW, I encourage you to seek help for your son. And, like other people, recommend you not blame the game, because more than likely it’s his attempt to solve his problem on his own. He needs your love and support, and I hope you both can find a solution and repair your relationship. :)

Here’s an article from 2002 talking about the same problem. (WoW came out 2 years after this article)
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0BTR/is_4_22/ai_84599442

The kid described in this article is pretty typical – blame everyone but yourself for failure. That’s what I did when I first got to college, too. My demise was hacky-sack. Spent hours upon hours doing that instead of studying, instead of going to class. It could have been anything – video games, partying, etc — WoW is not unique. I finally got my ass in gear when I started seeing failing grades, though.

That is the funniest thing I’ve ever heard! Though to blame a lack of impulse control on a video game for being too damn good is probably the best PR this game can get.

College drop-outs are playing world of warcraft. I can see that to be true… College drop outs have a lot of free time and you can waste a lot of free time playing WoW, but to say world of warcraft is the cause?
What about drugs? or Alcohol abuse? seriously you want me to believe a video game is the source of it all? It’s a damn good game but… c’mon be realistic.

for the record:
A Correlation does NOT imply cause and effect.
Go buy an economics text book and study some.

I can look at the decline in support for the current President Bush and say that it corresponds to the trend of people dropping out of college which also inversely corresponds with the population of WoW “Users”

Does that mean a loss of faith in our President caused everyone to play WoW to distract them from the sad state of our country and then go on to ruin their lives after Wrath of the Lich King was released?

OH MY GOD VIDEO GAMES ATE MY BABY!

Seriously this is the dumbest sh!t I’ve ever heard.

I went to university, worked 36 hours a week and still managed to log 20 plus hours in on WoW.
I graduated on time and got a decent job overseas.
2 years out of college now I work and play when I’m away from my wife ( I travel a lot in my job) I haven’t lost my life or my soul.

I’m not saying it isn’t a time eater because it is. But to call it an addiction? Video games? Seriously? College drop outs are college drop outs. They dropped out because they couldnt cut it. Frankly if they cant cut it in Uni then who cares? For me it just means less competition for higher paying positions.

Not that I think it really matters though, looking at how the war on drugs is progressing I have to say video games have nothing to worry about.

and on a side note… anyone notice how well Japan is doing economically? almost EVERYONE there plays video games… must just be a genetic difference?

This is but a symptom of a much deeper and widespread problem.

Doesn’t really matter if people pick a different poison. It’s really their choice, and life is about choices.

oh, i also say this as a WoW player.

Like any other activity that offers immediate positive reinforcement, yes, it can be addicting, and yes, there are some people that are self-medicating, in effect, with it. Right after I graduated from college, in the mid-eighties, I had a hard time finding a job, and my idea of a fun evening was playing Gauntlet (the original arcade game) for hours, which was possible on one quarter if you knew the trick of waiting for three minutes until all the dungeon walls turned into exits. Kind of sad, I know, but it got me out of the scuzzy rooming house that I was living in and gave me the feeling that I was halfway decent at something. Better that than drinking generic mouthwash.

I’m amazed MMORPG designers haven’t already done this (while giving away access to the game to maximize market exposure), but then again they all still utterly fail to prevent mudflation too. Maybe this will improve as designers rely more and more on procedural synthesis to generate content instead of central planning.

c.f. Progress Quest

“Addicted”, as the headline recognizes, is a *completely* value-laden word. The use of it always seems to generate a shower of psychobabble.

Sometimes people become obsessed with a goal that most people feel is meaningful. Sometimes people become obsessed with goals that few people can understand. So what, that makes them wrong?

“You have no responsibility to live up to what other people think you ought to accomplish.” – Richard Feynman

World of Warcraft costs $14.99 a month to play. You claim your son has no job, no money, who is paying for his subscription?

I know I like class better when I’m stoned!

Say no to WoW.