George Mason Teacher Lectures on Game Addiction

Her trying to link video games to violence is onerous, but her overall point about accepting video game "addiction" as a potential issue that people may need help with is valid.

Hello, my name is Arell, and I... was addicted to World of Warcraft.  *sob

No seriously.  Back when I tried college for the second time, I was also playing the brand new game called WoW.  A year into the game, I was playing 3-4 hours a night weekdays, and more than 6 hours a day weekends.  But I was also reading and posting on forums for hours at a time, dealing with Guild business as the GL, and working to maintain a website for the guild.  I'd use Computer Labs on campus to go over instance strategies on the official forums, and doodle talent builds in class.  Did this effect my grades?  Oh hell yeah.  Was it why I eventually dropped out... again?  No.

I was actually trying to cope with my mother's cancer that year, and then her death.  I retreated to an MMO to shut out the pain, and to have control over my character's life where I felt I didn't have any in my real life.  I finally realized that this was stupid and that it was hurting me, and I actually forced myself to quit cold turkey.  Even then, I had a kind of phychological withdraw for about 2 weeks.  I thought about WoW, I dreamt about WoW, I'd catch myself starting to open WoW websites when I sat down at the computer, and then paced the hallway outside my computer room when I tried not using the computer.  I did get back to normal, and my grades and social life did improve.  Of course, I eventually dropped out of college when I realized I didn't have any real goal in mind and was just blowing a shitload of money to learn things I couldn't use to get a better job.

The biggest thing is, I never blamed the video game.  It was all my own fucking fault!  But that doesn't mean I didn't have a problem that I could have used help to end sooner.  Gamers often get defensive when the topic of "game addiction" comes up, because gamers are used to people blaming their hobby for everything.  But just because the person's compulsion is video games, does not make gaming inherently bad.  And GOOD psychologists don't demonize video games, either.  Just as they don't demonize gambling, sex, food, shopping, or Justin Beber for other forms of obsessive behavior.

I didn't bother reading her column, the whole Virginia Tech thing sort of soured her opinion for me.  But people with obsessive problems need help.  Sometimes just family and friends, sometimes professional therapy.  But just because their obsession is a video game, doesn't mean it should reflect badly on games as a whole, or that the person's problem can be dismissed as not real.  It's not wrong to recognize that a large number of people are dropping out because they can't lay off the video games.  We just need to figure out how to help them, without making the video games the villan in all this.

Do we get a link to the column in question? I would like to read the whole thing.

Nevermind, I found it myself:

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/local/Erica-Jacobs-Video-game-addictio...

E. Zachary Knight
Oklahoma City Chapter of the ECA
http://www.theeca.com/chapters_oklahoma

"Seung-Hui Cho’s addiction to Counter-Strike contributed to his actions"

If I remember correctly didnt Cho play in his early youth and his roomate confirm that he hadnt seen him play anything?

Maybe I'm remembering that wrong but that came to mind.

Now on to this comment: "We cope with addictions to alcohol and drugs more readily than addictions to video games, and that blindness has put many college students in jeopardy of failing school."

Is this guy really claiming that mental addiction is worse than physical addiction? Comical.

This guy has a firm grip on his soapbox.