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Poll of 7,000 online gamers shows that 12 percent exhibit at least three signs of uncontrollable habitual behavior.


Massively multiplayer online games such as World of Warcraft, Guild Wars, and Second Life are becoming increasingly popular. All have celebrated milestones in their user numbers recently, with WOW announcing it has 7.5 million subscribers, Guild Wars selling two million copies (including expansions), and Second Life hitting one million users--many of which spend real money in the game.

But games like World of Warcraft are hard to switch off and walk away from, says Professor Mark Griffiths, director of the International Gaming Research Unit at Nottingham Trent University in the UK. That's because they have no end, and there's always someone online somewhere in the world.

A Nottingham Trent research study of 7,000 online gamers showed that 12 percent exhibit at least three of the diagnostic criteria of addiction as outlined by the World Health Organisation. These include: craving, withdrawal symptoms, loss of control, and neglect of other activities.

The survey was filled in by a self-selected sample comprising mainly of males with an average age of 21, and was concerned principally with the potential for addiction to online gaming. Griffiths said, "I'm sure if we'd done this survey looking at non-online players, looking at gamers that play on stand-alone systems, my guess is that the prevalence of addiction-like symptoms would have been much less prevalent."

According to Griffiths, the problem with online games is there will never be a point where the player has battled the final boss, tied up the story, and can turn the computer off with a feeling of satisfaction. "Of course the game never switches off, you can't even pause the game," he told GameSpot. "So if you are really into the gameplay, I can see why a small proportion of people do get hooked and feel like they don't want to leave."

Griffiths was also quick to point out that there are many positive aspects to playing games, and that those who play frequently can boast a number of advantages over the non-gaming population. Those benefits include increased reaction times and better hand-eye coordination.

The professor also told GameSpot that games had many other useful applications, including acting as 'distracter tasks' for those in chemotherapy, physiotherapy, and other painful treatment courses, and as a tool for people learning to drive and those in the military.

Vympel wrote:Worked for me. I wasn't "addicted" per se, but I spent too much time on it, to be sure. When I got back, WoW didn't mean shit to me. I played it once to try and get back into it, and just couldn't see what the big deal was anymore. It seemed so ... silly.

Everyone who plays heaps, then stops for x reason, has trouble getting back 'in'. I guess because it's actually so deeply lame that without the immediate 'involvement' there's nothing there.

Kojiro wrote:I'd love to believe that but I have a friend who went abroad for six months and ended up buying a $3600 laptop to play on. He'd come online and tell us he was in some McDonalds (they have wifi) somewhere at 3 in the morning. It was really sad.

Vympel wrote: Sorry- but what a frakking loser. Six months seeing the world, and instead he was playing fucking WoW on a laptop in McCorporateDemonHouse.

brianeyci wrote:One in nine is not so bad. I am sure if you took anything at all you'd find one in nine people addicted to it. I'm surprised it's not more--there must be a lot of casual gamers in MMORPG's like women, which is good. As for the increased reaction times and better hand-eye coordination, I thought that was debunked years ago?