This is a touchy subject, but on my mind a lot lately because of my job developing a children's educational MMO.
First off, some stories to get you interested:
My experience:
"In 1999 in my freshman dorm, before MMOs really made a splash, guys who, for the first time, had no one telling them what to do, would spend hours on starcraft, warcraft, worms, and other games, all through the Local Area Network playing with their friends in the dorm. I saw many a friend fail out of school, lose scholarships or lose girlfriends because of his addiction to video gaming.
Next came in 2001, I had a roommate who played "Everquest." He too seemed normal at first-meeting, but then revealed that he was skipping classes and work to play the online game. He went through swells of resistance though, once even bundling everything up and throwing it in the dumpster swearing never to play again. 2 weeks later he had bought a fresh copy and re-installed it on his comp. He too had trouble with girls, whether caused by the game or as a catalyst for driving him into the game I'm not sure."
The experience of a friend:
"I remember meeting my roommate two years ago. He was sitting behind his computer with a headset, journeying with his comrades through a lava-filled cave. We chatted superficially while he played. He was a really cool guy and seemed completely normal at first.
Days passed, however, and I realized that my roommate spent all his time playing this game. He wasn't taking any classes and wasn't working. He played the minute he awoke until he was physically exhausted and forced (by his human frailty) to go to bed. He seldom took showers and ate mostly cold cereal for all his meals, all while playing. This continued until the semester was over.
Now I have new roommates in a new place. But the story doesn't end here. One of my new roommates is a World of Warcraft guru (aka, addict). He too -without exaggeration- puts in eight-to-ten hour days of playing! From Monday to Sunday, the moment he awakes he fires up his computer and enters the matrix. From what I understand, inside this world of 'ones and zeros' he dominates with power unmatched -inside he is as Achilles or Hercules. Outside, however, he is a hygienically challenged, cereal eating, one-class taking, jobless, single gamer."
Here are some extreme outcomes illustrating this problem:
1) Guy dies after playing for 86 hours straight
2) Another death from Internet Gaming
3) Starcraft addiction causes death
My real question, though, is about the encroachment of these problems into the childrens' gaming arena. These kinds of addiction are being seen in increasingly younger kids. Last year, a report from the China National Children's Center, a government think-tank, said that 13 percent of China's 18 million Internet users under 18 were Internet addicts.
In my opinion, there are 2 (responsible) extremes to the issue:
1) Harness and embrace the appeal of online gaming to educate kids about the dangers and teach them that anything that dominates their time at the expense of other good things can lead to an unhealthy balance in their lives.
2) Shelter them completely from the problem until they are old enough to make informed and responsible decisions on their own and are less likely to fall prey to the glitz and glamour of the industry.
What do you think?
