"Online Games can be addictive to some"

So, the other night, my local news channel caught my attention with an article that I'm no stranger to.

Check it here

Quote :

MANCHESTER, N.H. -- Online computer games can provide entertainment and social interaction for players, but for some, they can become an obsession.

Really? I didn't notice. I was kind of busy wishing how I was raiding Icecrown Citadel about now.

Quote :

Games like World of Warcraft or Everquest have hundreds of thousands or even tens of millions of players around the world. But for some of those players, the game has become more like an addiction.

"I didn't want to go anywhere or do anything," said "Sam," a 23-year-old gamer. "I wasn't going to work."

The problem with this is Everquest sucks and World of Warcraft gives people a chance to take a break from it.

Quote :

Sam eventually lost his job. He said he would even skip family outings, pretending he was ill, just to stay in the online world.

"It's like, why do I want to leave when I have all this stuff here?" he said.

This just tells me it's not the game that's the problem, it's the person playing it.

Quote :

Games like Sam plays are called massively multiplayer online role playing games. Players typically pay a monthly fee for access to the game, in which the player's character teams up with others around the world.

He said the games are set up to encourage people to keep playing to get better items.

"They purposely make this stuff hard to get so you keep paying them money every month," he said. "You keep wanting to stay and play. It's a vicious cycle."

Way to rule out the players that don't have a sufficient means to pay for a monthly subscription.

Quote :

"They're essentially making players want to play more, want to get better," he said.

Hufton said the games are designed to get players hooked, and it's easy to replace the real world with the virtual one.

"Projecting into an avatar exactly what you can't be or do in real life -- that is an addictive quality for a lot of people," he said

It could also mean you're crazy.

Quote :

"I haven't shaved in two days, because I didn't have the time," he said.

Quote :

Blizzard Entertainment, maker of World of Warcraft, the world's largest MMORPG, said that "day-to-day life should take precedence over any form of entertainment." The company said it has built in natural breaks to its game and also has features that can set limits on play time.

That seems to be the only good highlight of this article.

[quote="Nihil Fit's like the one time the local news informed me that Pokemon cards were corrupting our youth and that vampire RAPPers were killing each other while high on cloves.[/quote]

Sounds like a self solving problem, really.

The problem is that in most areas, nothing fucking happens. So the local news has to make up shit to cover. When they cover the Hackers Open at the local municipal dust farm golf course, you know the only other thing they could have reported on was paint drying.