neglect
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Californian WoW players imprisoned for neglect
A story has emerged today about a WoW-playing couple, who have been imprisoned in Southern California. The Albany Tribune states that the couple, both 41, were charged with two counts of child abuse, and two of false imprisonment, relating to the ten-year-old and five-year-old girls who were in their care. This is according to a statement from the Orange County District Attorney's office. It is reported that the two girls were locked in the couple's mobile home while said couple played World of Warcraft. The home was highly unsanitary. When police arrived, they reported that it was covered in mold, cobwebs, trash and even feces, and lacked a working toilet. The girls themselves were malnourished, with matted hair, rotted teeth and dirt crusted on their feet. The girls, who were related to the couple, were not permitted to leave the mobile home for any reason, including school. While mass media may be quick to hop on the bandwagon of blaming World of Warcraft for tragic events such as these, it is an unfortunate truth that abuse happens with or without video games as part of the equation. World of Warcraft is not to blame for this couple's neglect of these children. Parenting and World of Warcraft can actually work really well together, in the right hands.
The Soapbox: The raid can wait; your kids can't
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. No, seriously. When I'm on voice chat and I hear a child in the background asking for his mommy's or daddy's help with something, it breaks my heart when the parent responds with frustration. "Not now, honey, Mommy's busy." "Go ask your Mommy -- Daddy's very busy right now." "Can it wait?!" Sure, it can wait, but if you've ever found yourself saying something like that, look into that child's eyes next time. All a child wants is your guidance, attention and love. When you take any of those away from him for the sake of a potential loot drop, you might want to re-evaluate your priorities.
Dr. Phil solves our online gaming addiction problems
On this past Monday's episode, the Dr. Phil Show explored online gaming addiction with some special guests who have lived through some nightmare situations. As is expected with a daytime TV show like this, the focus was on the negative effects of online gaming on families, finances and a person's well-being. Maybe they need to do a show on the dangers of watching daytime TV all day?We'd imagine you could guess our views on something like this, and we'd assume that most of you share this same opinion. Sure, genuine addiction that leads to a total neglect of responsibilities is a serious issue, but when non-gamers see something like this, they jump to conclusions about how all online gamers are addicts. As someone once pointed out in the comments section of a previous post on this same issue, anything can become an addiction. You can become addicted to exercise with the exact same results as we see on this show. Regardless, this issue will continue to be showcased by the major media as online gaming's popularity grows. Check out an interesting post-show development from one of that episode's guests, and share with us some of your thoughts on the subject.
Neglecting kids isn't videogame addiction-- it's bad parenting
The AP is reporting on the story of a couple in Nevada who claim they were so addicted to "the Internet and video games" that they neglected the health and well-being of their two children, a 22-month old girl and an 11-month old boy. I won't go into the details, although you can read them in the article, but it's a horrific story. WoW isn't mentioned-- "the fantasy role-playing Dungeons & Dragons series" is, but does that mean DDO or does the reporter just, as usual, have no idea what they're talking about?At any rate, (also as usual) the report eventually turns to videogame addiction and what a "serious issue" it is. Exactly zero mention is made of the hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of parents who play WoW and other online games right alongside their children, happily and healthily. A few of my guildies are parents and often play with their kids, and our own Robin Torres writes Azeroth Interrupted, a column about doing exactly that and how to handle issues like playing with your kids. You'll also note that almost no attention is paid to the other problems with this couple-- they gained $50,000 in inheritance, and spend it on computer equipment and a plasma screen rather than anything for their two children. This isn't "abuse rooted in videogame addiction"-- it's abuse rooted in bad parenting.Kayholder over on WoW Ladies says she gets attacked for playing the game with young children at home-- people automatically say that having children around to take care of should automatically exempt you from playing a game like World of Warcraft.That's just plain wrong. Any game can be played responsibly by anyone of age, World of Warcraft included. Kay even says that she doesn't raid because she doesn't think she has the time (which is fine as well), but one of my guildies who just had yet another kid is actually our main healer. Good parenting and videogames aren't mutually exclusive-- in fact, in some situations, they're better together.
