addiction
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Editorial: I can never play Diablo 3
This is an editorial based on Dave Hinkle's personal experiences with 2000's Diablo 2. Joystiq's review of Diablo 3 is still forthcoming. It's not because I lack the requisite memory blocks and quantum computers to run Blizzard's latest, Diablo 3 – it's personal. You see, I'm genetically predisposed to Diablo. It's something I think about each and every day.Diablo is a proper addiction to me. Diablo 2 is something I associate with the darkest moments of my life, when I skipped showers and seriously lived on Pop Tarts. My only comfort back then was the dim glow of the monitor and the random piece of treasure the game would occasionally drop for me as I toiled away hours doing nightmare-level Meph runs.I have an addictive personality, as many of those who have met me in real life can attest. I eat horribly, can't seem to quit smoking cigarettes and have drunk to excess on occasion. The Diablo experience is like some kind of magical talisman created by the wizards of southern California that is meant to poke and prod that dark place inside me I actively ignore and deny every day of my life. Diablo brings out my greed and disdain for everything other than myself in the worst way.But again, these are just words. They don't mean anything without examples, so I'm going to take you back to when I was in college and Diablo 2 ruined my life.
Blizzard admits to 'grossly underestimating demand' for World of Warcraft in 2004
If World of Warcraft is credited with a smooth initial launch, that's only because time tends to smooth over the growing pains that come with every MMO. Blizzard co-founder Frank Pearce was quite up-front with the studio's stumbles in 2004 as WoW launched to unprecedented demand; he's admitted that Blizzard execs "grossly underestimated" how many people wanted to play the game, forcing the company to cease shipping boxes to stores while tech was improved to deal with the influx. "I don't think we had any idea what we were getting ourselves into," Pearce said at the recent DICE executive summit. The studio quickly ramped up from its 500-employee taskforce to 4,700 people in 11 cities across the world. Pearce also addressed the issue of addiction in MMOs, saying that Blizzard "think[s] about it all of the time. If there's something that you're really passionate about, whether it's video games, a book, a TV series [or something else]... we have to consume it in moderation."
Study links MMOs to 'problem' game-playing
Despite the fact that video game addiction lacks both a definition and a diagnosis, "researchers around the world continue to investigate methods of determining, treating, and preventing" it, according to Gamespot. The American Psychiatric Association recently rejected a movement to incorporate game addiction into its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, but that hasn't stopped folks at the National Development and Research Institute from publishing the findings from a survey conducted with 3,380 adult gamers. The study found that five percent of participants reported "moderate to extreme problem game-playing." Commonly reported problem titles included Call of Duty, the Grand Theft Auto series, online poker games, and World of Warcraft. The team concluded that "there is evidence to suggest that problem game-playing is linked to particular kinds of game genres" and that further research is needed.
Player documents the two-headed monster of his own WoW addiction
The slow, viscous slide into a life consumed by gaming has become a media tale standard, usually including a bleary-eyed shot of the player blinking in the thin light of the computer monitor. Penned by journalists unfamiliar with the enveloping nature of MMOs, these stories skitter across the surface of a passion turned fixation. Without an understanding of the many positive forces of games like World of Warcraft, writers are unable to do more than entwine readers within a Lovecraftian tangle of gaming's most mind-numbing temptations, pushing them back into the light at the end with a complete, triumphant rebuke of the game in question. The tale of Sevrin's descent into and return from Azeroth takes a different turn. A third-year film production student from the United Kingdom, Sevrin hasn't blocked World of Warcraft from his every thought -- instead, he spent months poring over his experiences to create a documentary of his experience. IRL: In Real Life, a short film featured last week on WoW Moviewatch (watch it again after the break), takes a frank look at how incessant gaming nearly pulled a young man's life off track -- and then provided the fuel for the creative project that's helping him move on. If anyone could understand this kind of rise and fall, this dance with the glamors that wetly suck players into the virtual vortex, only to spit them out coughing and gasping with a renewed appreciation for life, it's fellow WoW Insider reader Keelhaul, aka The Mogfather, the player who racked up an incredible 1 million gold only to turn around and give it all away. "Brilliant," he commented simply on last week's Moviewatch showing of Sevrin's video. "Change a bit of the storyline and that's me as well." We suspect it's many of us, to some degree. Let's look inside at Sevrin's take.
Amateur documentary tackles online game addiction
Countless documentaries have investigated gaming addiction and the supposed dangers lurking in massively multiplayer titles, but it's not often that someone who's experienced an addiction talks about it himself. Third year film student and ex World of Warcraft junkie Anthony Rosner looks back on his six years in the game in a new short documentary on the effects of MMO addiction. With help from friends Dave Novis and Arron Amo, Anthony produced, directed, wrote, and edited the film himself, ensuring that he had the opportunity to tell his whole story and tell it from his own perspective. Titled IRL - In Real Life, the film takes a largely light-hearted look at Anthony's past but still manages to tackle the big issues. "I used to wake up early, log on, play all day, and then go to sleep," Anthony recalls, adding the sobering note that this was his routine "for over 400 days of my life." Most of us can sympathise with people who feel isolated in the most social type of game there is, or who feel like running a guild is a full-time job. Anthony tackles these issues and talks about how he dragged himself out of them. The film's high production quality and authentic voice offer a glimpse into a world to which we can all relate. Check out the full video after the cut.
South Korea puts the 'Cinderella Law' into effect
South Korea's burgeoning online gaming market has brought the country a great deal of business success, but it's also brought the dread specter of video game addiction to the forefront of public awareness. Hoping to curb addiction before it starts, the country has brought into effect a new law requiring all online games to block players under age 16 from playing between midnight and 6 a.m. Dubbed the "Cinderella Law," it also affects online services such as PlayStation Network and XBox Live. As expected, the law has several vocal critics, who assert that the law infringes upon the civil rights of children. The Korea Association of Game Industry, a group including companies such as Nexon and NCsoft, is in the midst of preparing a lawsuit based on its claim that the law is excessively prohibitive. Of course, many gamers have been trying to circumvent the ban already by connecting to Western servers, which have no such restriction... although it could be argued that connecting to another country's servers just to play for a six-hour period sort of reinforces the whole argument about addiction.
Addicted gamer shares his struggle to find balance between the real world and the virtual world
While Tucson's KVOA may not be so well-versed in MMOs as to distinguish between Gears of War and Dark Age of Camelot, the local news station put together an interesting little piece on online game addiction nevertheless. The brief report highlights the story of Elijah Oster, a father and husband who got so pulled into MMOs that he began to neglect his family and suffer from insomnia. He admits that he failed to "budget enough time" for his loved ones, and would grow irritable when his wife interrupted his play sessions. Behavioral health counselor Jeffrey Friedman was brought in to comment on game addiction, which he says is similar to most forms of addition in that people's actions are dictated by what will cause them the least emotional pain. In this case, it's becoming overly dependent on an online world instead of the real one. Friedman works at the Cottonwood Tucson center. The report concludes with Oster sharing what he realized after treatment: "I started understanding the concept of balance."
The Soapbox: MMO slot machines
Disclaimer: The Soapbox column is entirely the opinion of this week's writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of Massively as a whole. If you're afraid of opinions other than your own, you might want to skip this column. We are beginning to drown in a sea of MMOs that are shedding variety to mimic simplified slot machines. The danger in this is that MMO gameplay is becoming akin to gambling. Enjoyment of minute-to-minute gameplay is being replaced by hours of frustration unless we manage to match three-of-a-kind to get our loot drops. The success of the games isn't resting on the shoulders of enjoyable content but on the prizes to be won by schlepping through that content. We're letting developers know this not just by playing these games but by literally asking for more of the same. The result is that money flies into developers' hands while they skirt the boundaries of ethics by supplying "gameplay" soaked in habitual greed, delivering to players only the barest skeleton of an MMO.
Chinese couple sell their kids to pay for online gaming
It's time for the omg-that's-bloody-awful story of the week (and no we're not talking about the price of Star Wars: The Old Republic's collector's edition). According to ABC News, a Chinese couple has been apprehended for selling three children to bankroll their online gaming activities. Li Lin and Li Juan sold their baby daughter for approximately $500 as well as two sons for $4,600 each. The Sanxiang City News reported that the couple were turned over to authorities by Li Lin's mother. The newspaper also stated that the couple were unaware that they were breaking any laws, and said that "we don't want to raise them, we just want to sell them for some money."
Divorce Online highlights cases caused by "gaming addiction"
Divorce Online, a do-it-yourself website that facilitates the filing of separation proceedings sans lawyers, says that a significant percentage of its "unreasonable behavior" petitions stem from cases of gaming addiction. The website highlights the fact that out of the 200 women who filed petitions between January and April of 2011, 15 percent featured complaints relating to spousal neglect in favor of titles like World of Warcraft and the Call of Duty series. Despite the fact that gaming addiction is not currently considered an actual addiction by the medical community, Game Politics notes Divorce Online's use of author Ryan Van Cleave in its press release. "A lot of the problem spouses encounter with video game addiction is that the non-gamer doesn't appreciate that it's an addiction. This means it's not a choice to spend so much time in a virtual environment versus time with the spouse and family. It's a compulsion," he says.
Shocker! Media addicts suffer withdrawal symptoms, just like real addicts
...and we're all media addicts, aren't we? A recent study conducted by the International Center for Media & the Public Agenda (ICMPA) certainly seems to indicate that this is indeed the case. The premise was pretty straightforward: students at twelve universities around the world were instructed to abstain from using all media for twenty-four hours. The results were somewhat predictable: across the board, going without television was somewhat easy to do, while abstaining from text messaging and instant messaging brought on withdrawal symptoms: "When I did not have those two luxuries," wrote one student, "I felt quite alone and secluded from my life. Although I go to a school with thousands of students, the fact that I was not able to communicate with anyone via technology was almost unbearable." According to Dr. Roman Gerodimos of the University of Portsmouth both psychological and physical symptoms were reported by the young techno-junkies.
Blizzard comments on video games addiction documentary
Video game addiction is hardly a new subject around these here parts, but it still remains a much-discussed and controversial topic even so. Today, BBC investigative journalism program Panorama will add to the conversation with an in-depth look into the causes of gaming addiction and the consequences of players who become a little too hooked. The episode, titled "Addicted to gaming?", is expected to come down harshly against the practices of video game studios. According to CVG, it's no surprise that the documentary is airing the very night that World of Warcraft: Cataclysm launches, as Panorama uses WoW as one of its key examples. One of the stories follows the tale of Chris Dandos, a teenager who stopped going to school to play WoW for up to 20 hours a day. In response to the episode's focus, Blizzard released the following comment: "Our games are designed to be fun... but like all forms of entertainment... day-to-day life should always take precedence. World of Warcraft contains practical tools that assist players and parents in monitoring playing time."
The Lawbringer: This MMO is too addictive! I'm suing!
Welcome to The Lawbringer, WoW.com's weekly guide to the intersection between law and the World of Warcraft. I'm Amy Schley, newly graduated law student and your tour guide through the quirky world of copyrights, contracts and crazy lawsuits. One of the many joys of going to law school is that you know every lawyer joke known to man, and your friends and family feel a need to inform you of the latest crazy lawsuit. While nothing will ever top Mayo v. Satan and His Staff for sheer silliness (by both plaintiff and judge), a new case making the rounds comes close. Someone is suing an MMORPG for being addictive. That's right. A Mr. Craig Smallwood, former player of Lineage II, is suing NCsoft for negligently creating an addictive game, for failing to warn him that the game was addictive and for blocking him from the game, causing him to suffer severe withdrawal symptoms that prompted hospitalization and thrice-weekly counseling sessions. More facts and analysis after the break; all information comes from the judge's recent opinion.
South Korean psychiatrists treating StarCraft 'addiction' with drugs
A study recently conducted by the Department of Psychiatry at South Korea's Chung Ang University has found that StarCraft "addiction" can be treated with Bupropion, an antidepressant and anti-smoking aid. According to Wired, the study found that individuals who took the drug for six weeks saw their average StarCraft playtime decrease by 35.5 percent. Also -- we swear we're not making this up -- MRI scans showed that participant's brains reacted less strongly to pictures of Zerglings after the treatment. Treating someone's obsessive behavior towards a video game with real-life pharmaceuticals is a fairly heavy prescription. Then again, out of the survey's eleven participants, six had dropped out of school for two months due to the amount of time they put into StarCraft every day. Two participants were divorced due to their demanding StarCraft schedules. Isn't it possible these people are suffering from depression because of their obsession with a video game? Or, rather, couldn't they have become obsessed with a video game because they were depressed? In either case, doesn't it kind of make sense to treat them with antidepressants?
NCsoft sued for making Lineage II too darned addictive
reddit_url='http://massively.joystiq.com/2010/08/20/ncsoft-sued-for-making-lineage-ii-too-darned-addicting/'; reddit_target='gaming' Tweet var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/pc_games/NCsoft_sued_for_making_Lineage_II_too_addicting'; Can a video game publisher be successfully sued for releasing a game that makes players want to play it compulsively? That's the question of the hour in the USA, as Lineage II player Craig Smallwood levied a $3 million negligence suit against NCsoft for making the game too addictive. Smallwood found himself playing the MMO for over 20,000 hours in the last five years, to the point where he is unable to function normally in real life -- and he claims it's NCsoft's fault for not warning him in advance. Smallwood's gameplay averaged around 11 hours per day during that period. Surprisingly, a federal judge has allowed the suit to proceed against the South Korean publisher, stating that "the court finds that plaintiff has stated a claim for both negligence and gross negligence." NCsoft has appealed and asked the judge to dismiss the case. The situation gets more interesting when you consider that Smallwood had his Lineage II accounts banned for alleged grey market RMT activity, although he claims that was a ploy by NCsoft to force players like himself to move over to Aion. Video game addiction is no new issue, to be sure, but it's interesting that this case seeks to shift the blame from the player to the game company itself. This raises a whole host of new questions. Should publishers be required to slap their products with warning labels? Is there no personal responsibility when it comes to playing MMORPGs? We will have to wait and see if Smallwood's suit succeeds, and what, if any, fallout may occur from the attempt.
Study claims internet addicted teens more likely to suffer depression (sigh)
1,041 Chinese teenagers got a clean bill of health; nine months later, 84 were diagnosed with depression. The cause? Why, internet addiction, of course. Dr. Lawrence Lam of the Sydney School of Medicine points the finger at "pathological use of the internet" as a major risk factor for depression, stating that those teens whose eyeballs were most glued to the screen were 2.5 times more likely to suffer from mental health problems. While Lam did guess the actual injuries were sustained from a lack of sleep due to late-night surfing and the ever-popular scapegoat online gaming rather than the direct effect of Hypnotoad, the good doctor reportedly didn't hesitate to call for school screenings and subsequent treatment for internet overuse as a result. It's perhaps worth noting this study comes from the same man who claimed (in 2009) that internet addicts were twice as likely to maim themselves.
Has iPad addiction contributed to its growth?
There's a short post over at the Business Insider about the author's view of the success of the iPad, based on how interested (e.g., addicted) his kids are in the device. It got me thinking -- is the fact that kids love the iPad a good measure of its success? Well, yes and no. In my gaming experience, technology of this kind can get outdated pretty quickly if something new comes to market. The minute something new and more interesting hits the stores -- and kids are speaking of the wonder of these new devices to their friends -- the older devices are suddenly not so hip and cool anymore. I do wonder, though, how many iPad purchasers have found that other family members have stolen away with the device enough times, that they've just gone out and bought another iPad? Or maybe even two? While kids might be addicted to the fun an iPad can provide, their addiction is just taking the fun (and work) away from us adults! Have you bought more than one iPad because of the addiction it's brought to the rest of your family? %Poll-50401%
15 Minutes of Fame: Psychologist and games researcher John Hopson
From Hollywood celebrities to the guy next door, millions of people have made World of Warcraft a part of their lives. How do you play WoW? We're giving each approach its own 15 Minutes of Fame. What keeps gamers hooked on their game of choice? Chances are, it's an element of the gameplay that was teased out with the help of games researcher John Hopson. The experimental psychologist and beta program head for Microsoft Game Studios examines what makes gamers do the things they do and then designs ways to keep them happily doing just that -- most recently, in titles such as Shadow Complex, Halo 3: ODST and Halo: Reach. All that, and he's a WoW player to the core. "I mostly play in the two semi-official Microsoft WoW guilds, and lately I've been a hardcore player in a casual's body," he notes. "My wife and I had our first child a few months ago, so we've both dropped raiding and have been levelling alts instead since that doesn't require a fixed schedule. So far, we're both up to 5 level 80s apiece. :)" We thought it was time to turn the tables on Hopson, a loyal reader and occasional commenter at WoW.com, and ask him for his perspectives on WoW from the inside out.
Study finds that 75% of online gamers purchase virtual goods
Are you one of the steadfast, stalwart gamers who absolutely refuses to shell out money on cash shops, microtransactions and virtual services apart from subscriptions? If so, you're in the minority -- a study by VGMarket showed that three out of every four online gamers purchased a virtual good in the past year. This shouldn't come as a surprise, however. The survey isn't strictly indicative of MMORPG gamers; it was taken from over 2,200 players who were either part of PlaySpan Marketplace, Facebook, or purchasers of Ultimate Game Cards. Still, the results are fascinating, as a whopping 64% admitted to spending money on cash-shop items at least once a month, with 9% going so far as paying for virtual goods on a daily basis. Other statistics from the survey are equally interesting. PC gamers spent an average of $37 a year on virtual goods, and PayPal is by far the most popular method of payment. Oh, and the most-purchased good? In-game currency. (There, that shouldn't be too controversial, right? Right?) You can read the full survey results over at VentureBeat!
Chinese addicts escape from Internet 'boot camp,' invade Farmville
Is the internet an addiction? Absolutely not, we can totally quit whenever we like, and so we honor the spunk and spirit of 14 dedicated World of Warcraft grinders, Starcraft APM masters, and social networking gurus who escaped from their "rehabilitation center" in China's Jiangsu province. These so-called boot camps have been described by various outlets as being a little too close to torture camps, and while shock therapy has been banned, this 14 had still had enough. They captured their supervisor, tied him to his bed, and then hopped a (presumably large) taxi to get out of Dodge. But, there was one problem: none had any money to cover the fare. The police were called, all were apprehended, and they're presumably back to the "monotonous work and intensive training" they came so close escaping. Don't give up, kids. Let Andy Williams be your inspiration.
