Geez man, didn't think people would actually put their own life off for video games. This is very interesting and informative article you have written here. I think it's ridiculous to throw your life away for pixels? or gaming respect? I guess. I'm not sure really what they get out of it. Besides to one day wake up a realize they have nothing. I mean come on, they actually skipped school and WORK? Just to play some stupid online game. This could be a serious issue. And needs to be resolved.

You are also correct on the kids thing. More kids ARE starting to play more and more complicated games at a younger age. I remember super mario for the NES/ That was what I played when I was little and it was simple and I wasn't to good. But now there are 5 year olds on halo 3 and other online games and such that are much better than me. Its out of control. Thanks for writing this. It was interesting to read and respond to.

-James

A Children's MMO? MADNESS.

meh, mostly people who get addicted to anything are mentally weak, well exept for chrystal meth and all those things

Oh, and I like option 1 best

I think I saw a documentary on tv about this once, people die pretty often in Korea because of video games.

I think your article points out the darker side of games getting more immersive. People have this idea of game addiction as a parody of nerds being nerds and laugh it off, but it is a serious problem that needs to be dealt with seriously. I think sheltering kids from it is a bad idea, simply because sheltering is never a good idea. Sheltering or simply taking away will just lead to kids finding other means and other people to help them fulfill that curiosity and that addiction. It's a basic lesson the united states learned with prohibition and we're learning with abstinence education today. It's always better to allow and educate about how to make an informed decision.

That said, how to do that? Well, you could make the characters need rest just like people, increasing the realism in ways other than better graphics or better blood spatter. You'd need to put some sort of immersive limitation on the length of time a player could spend playing a game, without it seeming to interrupt anything. You could make it so in world of warcraft, the player will slowly lose energy on a meter that con only be recharged by not running the application that will slowly drain as you play, and your character will slowly lose speed and strength as it goes down, so a player won't have a quest interrupted because they'll understand their character (and in combination, they themselves) need rest and time away from the computer before they can take on another quest.

But that's just an idea.

Great article.

the xbox 9000: it can only be attributable to human error.

see? the problem here is the parents! they give their children too much time on the internet! (this is why nick jr.com has the time thingy on it) or did! now all they think a good time is spending 3 hours killing chickens on runescape! the parnets should ONLY give their children 1 hour on saturday and maybe sunday! make them spend the rest of their day outside in fact i would be outside just walkin up and down ze street but i has a bad ass sunburn right now from doing just that!

also after u r done helping Bomtoons help me out by leaving a comment on my post

Damn...last summer i spent about 10-12 hours (a day) playing RUNESCAPE....wtf!!!...Stupid internet..i admit that im a n addict...

Kids? I got a five year old cousin that plays WOW and he's a level 69 troll i mean WTF he spends like 14 hours a day on the computer....he eats alot (only) fast food...wtf he is only 5!!!!

And by the way i agree with assassinrabbit....im mentally weak....=P

I see your point

Part of me thinks its really all up to the person to have the willpower to have an actual life. I consider myself slightly addicted to the internet but I can easily pull myself away if I feel it's necessary.

True I've never been suckered into MMOs so I can't say I've been there, but people have told me how horrible it can be.

I do enjoy video games though and I have had a few moments playing games that I "just had to finish" but never to the point of causing social harm...

I dunno, I think it comes down to the willpower of the user and the state of their life.

First off, excellent article you've written; this is a serious subject and I'm glad someone has taken his time to give it some thought. Addiction, we are used to the traditional causes such as alcohol or narcotics. But with the coming of the Information Age, human kind of plagued themselves with virtual addiction. This begs the question, what causes Video Game Addiction? Like you've mentioned, in the case of your friend, social problems may cause one to immerse themselves in a virtual world where they are accepted, praised, and perhaps even desired.

I wonder, would these "Video Game Addicts" be dependent on another form of superficial entertainment. For example, would a World of Warcraft "guru" be hooked on, let's say, Dungeons and Dragons if he had no access to WoW? Again, there are some correlation between anti-socialites and gaming addicts, albeit not strong ones. What can we, as a self-concious society do to help ourselves? Is it in the parenting that this problem spawns from, or the ways we treat each other that drives some to virtual madness?

I know first hand how dangerous video games can be. I am a third year university student and am happy to say I play no more than a couple hours of games a week. This is a giant improvement from my high school days of . . . approximately a few hours everyday. Those were dark times in my poorly lit room; the only light source being the PC screen in front of me. How did I "recover" I do not know. I think it may be the introduction of good friends that promoted "going out". But I digress.

Once again, very thoughtful article you've written and hopefully I'll read more from you.

And to add on to Jame's comment below me . . .
These kids really are good at FPS. I played Half Life with my 8 year old cousin a while back and he absolutely whipped my butt. THAT was a giant blow to my ego . . .

well, I'm still in my teens so I wouldn't exactly know much about parenting anywho.

And to think some people think I spend to long on the computer... Looking at these stories, I can't help but wonder whether these people weren't already 'unhinged,' so to speak.

I played World of Warcraft with my ex-girlfriend. As a social game it can be rather fun.. Solo it's just a pile of shit. To quote a kid I teach... "It's just a game where you click on lots of stuff".

They're terribly addictive.. That's why I just stick to things like my DS and games with actual endings.

I think that's stupid.
When I play a Video Game for a really long time, I get tired & go do something else.

There's no way I'd play for 86 hours, even if I wanted too.

i for myself spent 2 years with world of warcraft and there were times when i just played too much ... but i still managed to go to school make my exams and meet friends ... i recently stopped playing world of warcraft cause it got pretty boring ^^ but i experienced that its not the game you get addicted too its the other players you made contact with. I played wow with a couple of real friends which is a factor too but when you're in a guild or whatever its called you just keep playin not to dissapoint your class or guild leaders or just your guild mates and i have to notice that it is fun indeed to achieve difficult things with your common gaming partners.

At last my guild was disbanded and most of my friends stopped playing wow and so did i ... there was just no more motivation to hang into it. Additionally one cant play one and the same game over and over for 2 years ... it just gets boring as hell.
Well you still would call me a nerd couse im still playing lotsa games like nowadays im playing often battlefield and my wii (my friends like the wii very much ) and watchin animes and im not good with girls but somehow i have to spend my time, dont I ?

But when playing wow i always made myself up a priority list and above wow there were my real life mates who are very cool and my school grades.
And even after the 2 years of wow i would consider playing a new mmo ... like eve but i always would take care of that the game would not consume my life ... thats important because its just an entertainment thingy

When I was younger, I used to play non- stop. I admit it, it even feels weird that I'm on the internet, saying this to someone that I don't know. I used to play runescape and warcraft lll all the time. Now, It's all changed. I had good grades all around, before and now, but I'm more responsible. I go outside, don't just sit around, a lot. This reminded me about it. I feel good comparing how I've changed. Thanks. No seriously, I mean it.

It's also good of how you see this and know to be careful on having kids addicted. In my book, that's a thumbs up!

thanks for addressing a pretty serious issu BoMtoons. i respect that.

it is pretty strange how people ca be so addicted to this kinda stuff. I think in some way addiction proned people (for the internet at least) start off with a pretty low self esteem, then is just shrivles upon the constant use. why wouldn't they be training themselves to hate the jobless pitiful REAL exterior they could work on that takes all that effort to change when they could easily level up and be stronger then thousands in the online fantasy worlds?

it's strange, but somehow these fake characters BECOME their identitiy and their real like befome their second life, and WoW, EQ, and second life, become their first!! lol.

i stumbled on this a few days ago and pretty much LOL'ed:

http://www.getafirstlife.com/

anyhow, again thanks man.
(still working on my call man, i'll email you when i get it... i expect 4 months is, just working out some crap atm)

Wiiporter says:

A Children's MMO? MADNESS.
THIS IS SPARTA!!!
Also I don't think kids should be sheltered from this problem I think 1# they should be educated.

im immune to internet addiction

i got it all out of my system at age 13 when i played runescape for 5 hours aday , Ive actualy tried mmos for the purpose of becoming addicted and I cant do it, games like world of warcraft are just too god damn boring for me.

Yeah... Im kind of an addict there. I was Addicted to NewGrounds for a long time. Then I discovered Kongregate. I was addicted to that untill I was banned. During that week, I was sort of cold turkey, and I now control myself better. I think the main solution to dealing with this kinda stuff is to shut off the source. If you want to stop, (not like that guy who re-bought everthingy), then get rid of your source. Now, I do other things. I work out more, I study more, play more (and I have rebuilt a sort-of life from the shattered remains of a 2 year internet binge, ever since I got a laptop). Anyways, I think this important. Thanks for bringin the topic up, it made me think.

oh wi-woogi world... man... I wish I was as good a coder as I am now when I entered the competition... not only would I not cry when I look at it but I'd also be a REALLY great coder now.... ah well... luck is the convergence of opportunity and preparation... guess I just flunked out on the whole preparation part...

Yup you are right more young kids are being addicted.I can finish the halo3 game in say a week, my 7 yr old sister finished it in 4 hrs. Please note when i say a week i had intervals went to school etc. She could actully win me! a 7YR OLD COME ON! I could not even play mario properly at that age.

It's always good to have some people shedding the light on internet addiction. I'm not very proud to say that I myself am one of those addicts. I play World of warcraft at least 12 hours a day. I've gone through several clean phases without WoW but have always lapsed back into it. School, work and social life have suffered extremely. I have absolutely no social life, I actually haven't left my house in a month. You could say i'm an extreme case.

I think if you wait until the kids get older to determine if it's safe or not, it won't even make a difference since all the older kids are addicted to it any ways.

I think it would be better if you get to them while their young. Teach them that games are good, but too much of them is bad. Although parents should be monitoring their kids, it's still not enough to stop addiction.

Hmm. This must be tough for you. It will be a hard but very rewarding journey for you to make a MMO that teaches kids these things.

GOOD LUCK AND GOD SPEED
-lindsay

this reminds me of "The more you know

MMO's have never caught my eye. They just seem to be too slow and too boring but hey here is a interesting fact. Your life and literally your dreams will become what you frequently do. For example I used to play garry's mod 10 non stop and I actually dreamed about it. Seriously man I dreamed the same procedure every day.
Games should be limited BY parents but they often give into their demands quite easily. A kid cries his mother gets him the toy. A teenager asks for extra money to by a new game and he/she will almost always get it.
quite a few parents are weak willed so is it the child's fault for what they do...or should you blame the parents for letting it happen in the first place.

I stay away from MMOs and such just because I rather not risk getting obsessed with it. I am for sure semi addicted to gaming in general though, but I wouldn't skip out on work or sleeping for it. It seems stupid to me to skip out on something that affects your life and your physical & financial well-being to play some game or even be on the internet. Maybe people just don't have that sense or just don't care about any of that.

To me when addiction becomes obsession is when it can lead to destructive behavior.

I think you gotta be a dumbass by dying in your computer.. I mean, take a break man.. don't you go to the bathroom or something? no you just die by playing the stupid counter strike or whatever

I remember when i used to spend ages infront of mmo's. I used to play runescape for about that long when i was younger, but I dont any more as when you get older you realise it isnt actually doing anything for you. There is no skill to mmo's its just how long you spend playing it. Mainly now i just spend a lot of time mucking around on flash, and on newgrounds. I do occasionally play CSS but i havnt even played that in a few days, at least games like CSS is down to pure skill. Basically i have gone through phrases of having hours of playing mmo's but i would never skip sleep over it.

Anyway good luck on your kids, educational MMO game. My only problem, is that dont you need to be 13 or over to play MMO's legaly? or are you going to make it somehow that people will be able to play before this age?

Semi-reminescent of my little brother. He's addicted to the Xbox 360. CoD4, Halo 3, rock band, the works. He's pretty good at singing Hier Kommt Alex though =P And yeah, good luck with your MMO. You're inspirational, Bom.

i dont know, but somehow i think if the games wouldnt be endless or shorter people would care more for there lives. actually i remember the time when i got in touch with games quite well. i had a pc with sam & max and later rayman and stuff.

but later i got a mega drive with sonic and phantasy star 4 and some other
games. the point is, actually i enjoyed these games as much as i enjoyed counter strike, final fantasy and some other titles everyone knows off. i know i cant compare final fantasy 9 or 7 with some old sonic games, but iam trying to say that one reason why people cant stop playing is because games from today never end.

i mean they get longer and longer, some games like wow or everquest are real poisen because they have no goal at all. i think you should stay away from games that are endless or have no goal. the reason why people play more and more is because they need to invest more time to get the same fun when they started playing it.

actually some dude that played maple story and some other mmorpg´s said that it is really hard work to level up youre character and not fun at all. i dont know what it is that makes you wanna slap 100 monsters to receive a quest prize or to slap even more to get a level up.

most online mmo´s are like poisen and grinders, for example like i already said maple story. its ok if you play a few hours a day, but the big problem is that the game is made so that you dont make any progress at all when you play 1 or 2 hours a day. its kinda like a trap and not like, "look iam freeware and fun to play".
the only ascpect that makes these games fun is when youre new to it or when you play it with friends.

dont get me wrong, i dont want to blame the games nor the addicted people.
actually there are some decent mmorpgs out there better than wow, because this one doesnt suck up youre time.

guild wars was pretty the only online game i ever played that didnt focus on grinding/leveling or stuff that steals youre time.
i didnt have monthly cost, only the game costed once. the best about it was that the level cap was 20 in the first installment and that you never had to worry about to get to lvl 20, because you got to lvl 20 automaticly after beating all the mission (following the storyline). the almost ultimative best aspect of the game was that you had to do the mission in groups and the mission even followed a decent storyline, unlike in every other mmorpg where you hunt down monsters alone or in a group without any meaning to do this.

i dont know how wow is, i never played it, only once on a ripped server and didnt like it at all lol. but its not good when you need 5 hours to make these so called
instance dungeons.

well im trying to say, games just get to complex and people who can get or are addicted are most likely helpless and cant stop untile they experienced everything in the game.

i dont know but it kinda feels like that kids totally forget about books if they didnt have them in school to learn from. actually i never read any books on my own, only one, but i failed to read to the end. iam not a fan of books because i cant imagine and read at the same time. its kinda like blank letters and nothing else, only sometimes there are pictures and people in my head.

i guess thats the main reason why i sticked to computer games in the first place, because i needed input, and visual stuff and i was fascinated to all this kind of stuff games would offer.

watching animes was or lets say it still is, also one of my favorite time killers.
but at least they have an end and are more fun than slashing monsters all day.

i guess the best thing you can do if you think or other people thing that youre addicted to computer games, is to stop playing mmorpgs at first. really, trust me you dont need these kind of games to have fun. actually there is so much stuff in the world out there that is equal as fun or more than sitting in front of a pc and playing wow straught 5 hours. but the problem is that people dont even realize that they are addicted nor do they want to change it until its to late.

let me state that people slowly awake and accept addiction to online games or internet/media as a real disease and threat it as one. i mean its a real serious problem that needs medical attention. people just take it to lightly, one doctor said it is like abusing drugs and i think basicly hes right.

people need to play more and more and cant stop, yet they play for the sake to play and not actually to have fun.

well let me add that you have to get youre live into a pattern and to have work, friends, a girlfriend/boyfriend and all the stuff normaly teenagers would experience. its ok if you play alot if you have at least the terms i said, because a game wont go anywere but youre lifetime is limited and so is social life, because people wont wait for you all day till you finish the damn game...

i guess iam one of the worser cases, because all began when i dropped my education...
i guess its to personal to say this, but its anonymous so i go for it to prevent people from doing the same fault as me.

i dont know why but iam really a lazy bum and that was from the beginning of my life and it didnt change. there was only one time when i really learned for school
and work payed of. i guess the main reason why people dont learn is because they arent interessted in the subject. at least learn for youre graduation to be able to have a job later, i dont know how it is elsewere, but it is kinda hard to get a job you will like, in germany, if you have bad marks.

i dont even know what to learn, the only thing iam interessted in is computers and a lot more stuff, but you cant make money with interesst in watching animes :/

at least iam lucky that i left the school with a education, because you have 3 possible chances to get an education in germany, at class 9, 10 and 12.
the problem is that you wont get any jobs with the one from class 9, because everyone gets this one. this one is kinda for people that have problems in learning and math and are kinda like handicapped. class 10 and 12 is the ones you want to aim for, i got class 10, because youre are forced to do all the 3 if you visit the school that goes to class 12.

there are 3 kind schools you can select from, when you leave the elementary school that goes from class 1 to 4 in germany (age 7 to 10 i guess). the problem is that german schools are the "worst" and you have to make a hard decision.

from class 5 on you either join one of the schools called haupt, real or gym.

haupt = till class 9 and thats it.
you wont get a decent job and only receive dirt work for this education.

real = till class 10 and is harder than haupt-school. also you have to do kind of a exam at end of class 10.

the one i was on was the "gymnasium" and it is indeed the hardest one, this one goes till class 12. you receive on youre way to class 12 the eduaction for haupt and real, because you are forced to do the exam for class 10. class 9 exam for haupt is only on a hauptschool and you get it for "free" if you pass from class 9 to 10 on gym.

well now that all this is explained i gonna come to myself, i got as far as class 11 on gym, after that i had to reapet cause of bad notes and i left after the reapeting attempt. so i got a education from class 10 on a gym, which is higher than one of real school from class 10.

yeah whatever, iam running out of space to write, so basicly i tried to find a job and got one, but i left this one after 2 months because i was really depressed, i dont know but i kinda got somehow a depression and until now i didnt meet a doctor for this case. the reason why iam so sure that it is a depression is because i took pills after i left the job to...you know what for. but iam glad that iam alive and iam 20 as of today.

i kinda had a hard time, because i was scared of other people and groups, so i fleed into games...i dont know but somehow i got more self confident, when i was in school i was kinda a whimp.

addicition to video games has more deeper reasons than anyone would think.
make sure to take care of youre real problems instead of hiding in front of youre pc.

"I think you're addicted to rambling."

i dont want to spam you´re comment box, but what you mean by that?

...and yeah thanks that you read the whole thing, iam kinda sorry for the bad english and grammar, iam not really good at this word order thingy also :S

and i lost my ability to tell when to write words in lowercase or in uppercase, all thanks to the chat in games were people dont care about uppercase letters.

at last i might add that there is always hope, it may sound strange, but i guess i was never really hardcore addicted to games, because i never played or would even be able to play a single game 10 hours straight without a break. lets say it is kinda funny in the first place if you have no job and so much time on you´re hands, but it gets boring so fast that i want to have a job no matter what.

everything is ok, if you still have a life but dont play 10 hours straight. i dont know how i got depressions, but the reason i didnt want to go out and face life was not because i wanted to play games.

i chatted with some kid in an online game and he said that he skipped school sometimes, he also had depressions and played lots of WoW and other online games. he got from his doctor anti-depressants....i guess he will get a grip in his life.

almost everyone that is "addicted" to games, has had depressions. at least with all the people i spoke about it or people i saw on the internet in videos or forums.

this one guy that played everquest 2 and shot himself in front of his pc some day had a clinical depression. i saw that on youtube, but the reason why he played games all day is not because of his addiction, it was because he was afraid of facing the reality. i remember when i was depressive and played a lot, but after some time the depression was gone and for some reason the same games i played all day became boring and timekillers for me.

this is the last thing i add, maybe to help understanding things a little, i dont know how you get depressive or if you can get it from playing games, but i guess this is also one of the reasons people stay in there rooms and play all day.

I was addicted to WoW until I got to level 41 and got my mount. And then I thought, "Now what?", I mean, I could've gotten up to 70 and gotten Tier 7 gear or whatever. But what would be the point? And then I thought about how long it would take. I tried playing on private servers. And that was okay. But truthfully, most MMOs are pointless. Unless you have social gatherings on there with your friends. I thought this was a really insightful article on MMOing. Hope you write more. :)
-Kra