From Norrath to Northrend: The Realities of Onling Gaming Addiction

With each year, we see a growing number of news stories which chronicle the misadventures of online gaming addicts. These new media dependants participate in video game over-use and obsession, most of them suffering in some form or another. From neglected children to community-assisted suicide, each report becomes more and more farcical. As a campus of 45,000 students, St. George hosts its fair share of gamers, but how many can be considered to be a part of this cultural singularity of gaming addiction. Are video games as innately addictive and destructive as these stories lead the readers to believe? Experts, legislators and gamers each hold their respective opinions concerning the subject...






The disappearance and death of Brandon Crisp, a 15 year old who left his Barrie, Ontario home after his Xbox 360 was taken from him, fueled nation-wide concern towards video game addiction and obsession. Parents across Canada grew fearful that their own children were as dangerously enraptured as Brandon with computer and console games. While members of parliament scattered to pass bills, in an attempt to assuage these fears, the psychology behind video game addiction remains embryonic.







In an interview in 2005, Dr. Maressa Orzack of McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts estimated that 40% of the 10 million (now 12 million) players of the MMORPG World of Warcraft are addicted, a figure she obtained from a survey conducted by the "Daedalus Project". Dr. Brody, head of the media committee at the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, puts forth his beliefs that online gaming addiction stems from a predilection to or affliction from other psychological problems including anti-social personality disorder, depression, social anxiety disorder and other phobias. This notion concludes that the online gaming addiction will, most likely, only affect individuals who possess a predisposition to it.


So do, according to Dr. Orzack’s estimation, 40% of WoW players suffer from or have propensities to suffer from social disorders? Unlikely, and yet this isn’t surprising as the McLean Hospital researcher came under widespread criticism from her peers as a result of this claim. This seems to be the fate associated with doctor’s who claim the ubiquity of online gaming addiction. While most gamers enjoy video games in a healthy and safe manner, the industry comes under constant fire as the severity and preposterousness of stories increases.




This gamer is a "rocket-whoring son of a cock-monger", a colloquial term for a skilled player


With the recent introduction of Blizzard’s newest WoW expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, there have been 10 documented deaths up until this point. While all of these deaths, save for that of a baby whose negligent father was too busy playing to feed him, were secluded to irresponsible gamers, the press has done its fair part in inflating and exaggerating the danger of these games.

Upon my suggestion of playing World of Warcraft to close friends, almost all reply, “I don’t want to get addicted”. This reaction, in fact this entire phenomenon, is the result of misinformation. Video games possess no documented addictive properties outside of those related to any social activity. One is more likely to become addicted to chocolate in fact, due to its chemically enticing properties. It shocks me that most acquaintances are perfectly willing to indulge in a game of Call of Duty 4 (the same game which – indirectly – led to the death of local - Brandon Crisp), while they are opposed to so much as trying the trial which game developer, Blizzard, offers for WoW. Video game addiction can be said to be the result of genetic predisposition, personal characteristics, and in many cases, social context.

Some countries, including Canada, South Korea, China, the Netherlands and the United States, have responded to the observed threat of video games by opening specialized medical institutions. These facilities do their best to acclimate victims of addiction to conventionally accepted social activity. The strategies which they employ, however, are not vastly different from those applied to alcoholics, debtors or over-eaters. In this sense, the psychopharmacology and therapy of video game addicts is not unique.

It might simply be a generational gap which promotes this misunderstanding; while alcoholism has been accepted as a rare and circumstantially afflictive disease, online gaming addiction has not. Hopefully, these media endorsed fallacies can be removed from the public mentality in time. Until then, I hope to see you all in the Eye of Eternity, I can’t kill Malygos the Steward of the Blue Dragonflight by myself!