The World of Warcrack
By Ally Andriolas
Sam Bowyer usually wakes up at 12pm, everyday. He eats a bowl of cereal, grabs a glass of orange juice, and makes himself comfortable in his computer chair. Like most people, Mr. Bowyer enjoys checking his email and surfing the internet in the morning. What makes Mr. Bowyer different is that he doesn’t then go to work, or school. Instead, he plays World of Warcraft for hours.
Here is some background behind the game:
Mr. Bowyer started playing World of Warcraft three years ago. It was his senior year of high school, and he started playing because of ads that he kept seeing on the internet. “They kept advertising for a free 10 day trial,” Mr. Bowyer explains, “and it looked like a good game, so I wanted to play it.” After playing the 10 day trial, Mr. Bowyer says he was “hooked.” As a result, he bought the full game for $30 and has been buying game time at $15 a month, ever since. “I don’t think I’ve ever taken a break from playing,” he said.
Typically, Mr. Bowyer plays World of Warcraft for 12 hours a day. He does not have a full time job, and he dropped out of college in the first semester of school because it inhibited on his game time. “I couldn’t do both, and I loved the game, so wow prevailed.”
Despite the fact that Mr. Bowyer plays 12 hours a day, he doesn’t feel that this has impeded on his social life. “All of my friends play wow. So I don’t have to see them. I hear them on Vent everyday. And I live at home so I still see my family everyday. Plus I mean really, I just don’t like people. This gives me an escape from society.”And in fact, many people feel this way. Dr. Maressa Hecht Orzack, a clinical psychologist at McLean Hospital in Massachusetts, believes that up to 40% of World of Warcraft players may be addicted. Since so many people play this game, this number is believed to be slightly exaggerated. In an interview with Ars Technia, Dr. Orzack addressed this issue stating that, "Even if the percentage is 5 to 10 percent which is standard for most addictive behaviors, it is a huge number of people who are out of control."
And indeed it is. Even if 10% of players were addicted to World of Warcraft, this would mean that 1,100,000 players are addicted to the game.
After doing a quick search online, it is easy to believe that such a large percentage of people are addicted to World of Warcraft. WowDetox is a volunteer run website aimed at helping people with World of Warcraft addictions. On the website, there are more than 44,000 anonymous testimonies from people who are addicted, have been addicted, or know someone who has been lost to the game.
Ask Padawe is another webisite of compiled testimonies of addicted World of Warcraft gamers. The testimonies on Padawe are longer and display how World of Warcraft has destroyed lives and marriages due to addiction and jealousy:
Those who have lost their spouses due to excessive gaming call themselves World of Warcraft Widows. This term applies to both males and females who have lost their spouses due to game addiction. Jealousy tends to be a main problem that emerges when one becomes “addicted” to the game. Danielle Sidoti, a 21-year-old hairdresser who is an avid World of Warcraft player, believes that the jealousy issue is ridiculous. “Honestly, I started playing wow because my boyfriend played. I wanted to know what it was that he and his friends were so into and so I tried it out. I didn’t like it at first, but then I realized how much my boyfriend loved that I was playing with him and it made me happy. Now we play together and what might’ve been a problem now isn’t.
Aside from destroying relationships, World of Warcraft has also been the root cause of many students dropping out of college. Deborah Taylor Tate, Federal Communications Commissioner, said in a speech given last year that, “One of the top reasons for college drop-outs in the U.S. is online gaming addiction - such as World of Warcraft - which is played by 11 million individuals worldwide.”
In Asia, World of Warcraft has also been to blame for some deaths. According to Joystiq, a 28 year old man died from exhaustion after playing excessively. A 12 year old boy also died after playing for 12 hours, which caused him to suffer from a hemorrhage. And in South Korea, a four month old baby died after parents left their daughter to die while they were playing wow
So what is being done to help all of these addicted gamers? ReStart is an internet addiction program that is designed to help those with gaming problems. Their 45 day program costs $14,000 and this doesn't include numerous application and interview fees. They also take in approximately 1-6 clients at a time, so the wait list can be excessive. So while the program may be helpful, it is very expensive and the chances of actually being accepted are very small.
China has taken actions into their own hands and have limited the amount of time anyone can spend playing massive multiplayer online games. If gamers go over the five straight hours of permitted game time, they will no longer receive credit and in game achievements will not be earned. The Chinese government also makes players register, so the government can easily have tabs on all online gamers. Earlier this month, the Chinese government tried to shut down World of Warcraft, for they argued that they weren't complying with their extensive rules and regulations. The Ministry of Culture struck back though, and said that, “In regards to the World of Warcraft incident, the General Administration of Press and Publication has clearly overstepped its authority. They do not have the authority to penalize online gaming.”
Another option which has been proposed by Dr. Orzack is to have all massive multiplayer online games come with a warning, like a surgeon general warning on cigarette boxes. The warning would ideally warn of the dangers of online gaming and state that they may cause addictive behaviors. While this seems nice, how many people actually pay attention to cigarette warnings, or care enough to pay attention?
Dr. Orzack also feels that online gaming should be a legitimate mental disorder, so that treatment would be covered by insurance (for it currently isn't). In 2007 the American Medical Society Association proposed the idea that online gaming be a mental disorder, but it was rejected on the basis that there wasn't enough information or studies conducted to prove it to be an actual disorder.
So where does this leave gamers? What are they to do if they are in fact addicted? The future appears to be bleak, and with paid subscriptions on the rise, who knows how many addicted gamers there will be in the future...
Comments