A sad story from Sky News (by way of The Escapist) details how the dead body of a man in a New Taipei city, China cyber cafe went unnoticed for a full nine hours. The man, who was playing an undisclosed online game, died on Tuesday night according to local reports. The cyber cafe had 30 customers that night, some of which sat next to him, and didn't notice that he was no longer alive.

According to a new study conducted by the Institute for Special Populations Research in New York, some types of games are more addictive than others and have the potential to create "problem gaming" habits in a small percentage of gamers. While the mental health community is not quite ready to make the leap of faith it takes to proclaim that video game addiction is a real mental disorder like gambling and drug addiction, studies like this one are certainly trying to establish causation.

Psychiatrist Philip Tam believes internet addiction should be classified as a disorder. The Sydney, Australia based psychiatrist and some Australian parents think that internet addiction and online game addiction need to be officially classified as addictions so that children can be treated for the so-called disorders.

Researchers at the Charité University Clinic for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy in Berlin, Germany, found that gamers who play "frequently" have greater left striatal gray matter volume compared with those that are considered to be moderate gamers. Researchers say that these findings show the importance of "striatal volume and activity in shaping preference of skills for video gaming."

Young men love Angry Birds and they are willing to lay out the cash to get the full experience - according to a new survey from Ask Your Target Market, a "do-it-yourself" online market research firm. According to the results, men between the age of 18 and 24 are most likely to pay for the full version of Angry Birds. Age aside, men are 35 percent more likely to pay for the game after downloading the free version and 76 percent more likely to buy the game than a female over the age of 25.

A Carlisle, Pennsylvania, lawyer blamed his addiction to video games for sloppy legal work that inevitably resulted in a three-year suspension of his ability to practice law in the state. 43-year-old attorney Mathew Eshelman claimed that he immersed himself in video games to fight job stress and problems at home.

Divorce Online, a website dedicated to getting rid of that dead weight in your marriage, claims that 15 percent of the divorces it has handled can be attributed to spouses that are addicted to online games such as world of Warcraft and Call of Duty.

According to a press release issued by Divorce Online, an examination of 200 unreasonable behavior petitions filed by women using its service between January - April of this year found that 15 percent complained that their husbands were happier playing video games than they were paying attention to them. They called their "gaming addiction" an unreasonable behavior that lead to the divorce they were seeking.

The release also offers comments from one disgruntled 21-year-old wife from London named Jessica Ellis, 24, who married husband Michael in 2008.

It looks like teens in South Korea won't be able to play online games all night long anymore. South Korea's legislation and judiciary committee has unanimously passed a motion to move forward with a law that prevents children under 15 from playing online games between the hours of midnight and 6 a.m. Dubbed the "Cinderella law," the new edict now heads to a vote before South Korea's full national assembly.

Critics of the law argue that that banning late night play affects only a small portion of players, who will probably move their play-time or use a borrowed or pirated registration ID. Others note that the law doesn't go far enough because it doesn't take into account for offline PC games and console games.

As part of an annual BBC project where school kids get to produce their own news reports, William (last name not provided) from Tendring Technology College in Essex decided to research video game addiction.  What did his research entail?  Interviews with:

-His school guidance counselor: “It’s estimated that 3/5 of all under sixteens actually have some sort of addiction to a gaming machine.”

-A classmate: “[I play video games] usually six or seven [hours per day] because there’s so much to do.  That’s what average people do...  It’s not like thirty or forty years ago when people used to play outside.”

-And his mom: “[Game addiction] does effect family life, yes, because it is a struggle to get you out of your room.”

Do you lie awake at night wondering why Professor Douglas Gentile conducted his latest video game addiction study in Singapore?  Well get ready for a good night’s sleep at last because that and other pressing questions have been answered in a recent interview with Gentile by PlayStation LifeStyle.

A bizarre series of photographs show just what Korean children have to go through in specialized military training camps designed to help them kick the habit of gaming. These gaming addiction boot camps (judging by the 15 photos) show some strange exercises such as young boys rubbing snow on their bare bodies, lying on their backs in the mud with their feet in the air, standing in the snow with gas masks and camouflage uniforms, standing outside in the cold with bare upper bodies yelling, lying bare-chested in the snow, and many other cruel and unusual situations.

Where is Amnesty International or other rights groups? Are children not afforded the same rights as prisoners everywhere else around the world?

A Herald-Tribune article details the odd work situation that Ryan Van Cleave finds himself in since writing his book, "Unplugged: My Journey Into the Dark World of Video Game Addiction." The topic of his book, game addiction, does not sit well with some faculty and students at Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota, Fla., where he teaches English and writing, because the school has close ties with the field of video game development.

The article describes him as somewhat heretical, because the school teaches computer animation, comparing him to a Hershey employee warning consumers not to eat chocolate.

A 19 year old South Korean boy died after playing a game for more than 12 hours, according to a Daily News report (citing a Korean Times report). According to the report, a young man identified only by the surname "Moon" arrived at "PC Bang," an Internet cafe in the city of Ulsan, at around 2 a.m. on Dec. 27. He spent eight hours playing an "online action game" then went home to have a meal. Moon returned to PC Bang at 10:30 a.m. and resumed playing the game. At around 12:00 he collapsed and was rushed to a nearby hospital where doctors were unable to save him.

Dr. Stacey Soeldner, a clinical psychologist and "life coach" with Riverhill Psychological Associates in Manitowoc, Wisc., loves to answer reader questions in her column "Ask a Psychologist." Today's question has to do with a wife's angst over her husband's "obsession" with video games. The question:

Q. My husband and I have been having difficulties lately, and I believe it is due to the amount of time he spends playing video games. We are always arguing about this, and he just tells me that I am crazy. I do not understand anything about these games, so maybe I am wrong. I just think that this is an obsession for him. Am I the crazy one?

Her Answer? No, she is not crazy. The good doctor does point out that, while the "American Psychological Association has not identified playing video games as an addiction or obsession, it has been researching it."

A study from earlier this year may motivate parents to throw a toothbrush or two into the gift queue this year alongside those much-coveted video games. According to a necro-posting from Dentalplan.com citing an April 2010 study from the University of Iowa, a tooth brush or two in the stockings or wrapped up with a video game might be a good idea.

In case you do not recall the study from earlier this year, it found that teenagers who spent a significant amount of time playing video games were more likely to develop tooth decay because of the food and drink they consumed.

Teenagers 12 - 19 years old consumed more sugary snacks and soda while playing video games, the study found. Consuming these kinds of foods in large quantities leads to tooth decay and other dental problems if a regular dental hygiene regiment is not followed.

Author James Miller wants you to buy his new book and save your children. The cleverly titled book "Youth Violence An International Crisis: Fighting Violence by and Against Youth (Volume 2)," promises to help parents deal with the trials and tribulations facing children and teens today including school yard bullying, bullying by school staff and teachers, community violence and crime, human trafficking, gangs, video game addiction, assault, violence, bullying, rape, substance abuse, and much more.

At first glance one might think that Mr. Miller is anti-video game, but reading a few paragraphs from the book on Amazon reveals that he puts most of the blame on unengaged parents who are letting children be raised by video games and media. He says that parents need to take responsibility.

Of course, there is this excerpt from a press release promoting the book that did give me pause:

In an interview with GameIndustry.biz Panorama producer and director Emeka Onono, explains why the BBC news program decided to tackle the subject of game addiction. While Onono claims that the program is not "anti-gaming," his comments to GI.biz do not sound game industry friendly.

"What we've said is there's a potential for things in games to be addictive," he explains to GamesIndustry.biz. "There is a potential there. And that's something that the industry's always doggedly denied. The fact is it's there and however small or large that possibility is it needs to be researched and acknowledged."

Onono also accuses a segment of the games industry of being "very defensive" on the issue of addiction:

Even before BBC One airs the Panorama special "Addicted to Games" next Monday, the UK games industry trade group UKIE is sounding off. The Panorama special promises to "reveal the hidden psychological devices in games that are designed to keep us coming back for more," according to a promo for the show.

UKIE director general Michael Rawlinson, who was interviewed for the show according to Computer & Videogames, issued a statement ahead of the broadcast highlighting the fact that there is no "proven link between video games and addiction," adding that opinions among academics on the subject are mixed. More from the UKIE head:

A George Mason University teacher believes that society is blind to the permeation of videogame addiction in college students; a problem so widespread that she believes it is swelling the number of dropouts.

Demonstrating less tactfulness than Rush Limbaugh (yes, that was odd to write), Erica Jacobs kicks off her column by alluding that Virginia Tech shooter Seung-Hui Cho’s addiction to Counter-Strike contributed to his actions, before recounting the tale a student of hers told about a roommate at school that became so addicted to World of Warcraft, he eventually dropped out.

Dr. Jeroen Lemmens is a teacher at the University of Amsterdam and just last week successfully defended his dissertation and received his PhD, which he believes makes him the world’s first possessor of a PhD in game addiction.

Dr.  Lemmens’ dissertation consisted of four articles, which are summarized in a paper entitled Causes and Consequences of Pathological Gaming (PDF). According to the doctor, it’s the first time longitudinal analyses were utilized in order to reveal the causes and consequences of pathological involvement with games.

The paper’s underlying claim is that “adolescent gamers with pre‐existing psychosocial vulnerabilities, such as loneliness, low social competence, and low self‐esteem, are more likely to become pathologically involved with games.”

You might think something as innocuous the American Library Association’s third annual National Gaming Day, held this past Saturday, might be beyond the scope of criticism, but when you have an agenda (and a book) to push, logic, perhaps, goes out the window.

Psychology Today is hosting a column by Ryan Van Cleave, author of Unplugged; My Journey Into the Dark World of Video Game Addiction and the man behind the Video Game Addiction Awareness Week (VGAAW) website.

The Think Feel Play blog has an interesting take on videogame addition, asking “are video games the drug of our generation, or might something else be going on?”

Author Shoshannah Tekofsky (aka Shos) begins by looking at definitions of the term addiction before picking on research, specifically looking at two major issues “plaguing” videogame research: the all important casual link, “They need to find healthy, balanced people whose lives gaming ruined. This is a lot harder than it sounds,” and definition, “Many researchers assume that there is a problem, pick a set of criteria and see who fits into that slot.”

If you happen to live in the Michigan area, the Royal Oak Public Library will be holding a videogame addiction discussion on Thursday, October 28.

The chat will be headed up by Kevin Roberts, author of the book Cyber Junkie: Escaping the Gaming and Internet Trap. Roberts, who states that he has been “both gifted and challenged with ADHD,” is a self-proclaimed recovering “cyber junkie” himself, having “wasted years” of his life in front of a computer screen.

The sad story of a U.K. woman so addicted to an online game that she neglected her kids and let her dogs starve to death has been settled in court, but the details of the game she was involved with still continue to swirl.

Originally reported in the U.K. by the Sun, the game was Small World from Days of Wonder. Other U.K. papers picked up on the story, continuing to hammer on the game and offering detailed descriptions of it. Unfortunately, the information they gathered was on the wrong game.

The Sun reporter pulled the name from court proceedings, and while he got the name right, the other facts of the case did not fit. Small World has no online component and is not a Facebook game. It is a board game. The Daily Mail even reported as much, but failed to make the connection that the board game did not have an online component. The Mail even used a Warhammer Online photo as part of its story.

The real game in question appears to have been SmallWorlds by Outsmart, which indeed is online.

A Lightspeed Research study reveals that 17 percent of respondents who played social networking games believed that they were "addicted" to them. Lightspeed did not define what they meant when they said that they were "addicted" - were they simply overly enthusiastic about playing their favorite social game or actually suffering from a "psychological dependency" to the game? We do not know.

Lightspeed also said that 58 percent of users said they had played a social game, with 68 percent saying they had played a social game in within the last year. 53 percent of social gamers played daily, with the 55 - 64 age bracket proving more frequent players than those age 18 - 34. 17 percent of identified social gamers played on mobile devices as well; 34 percent of social gamers said that they took advantage of marketing-promoted in-game rewards; 18 percent had followed an advertisement to do so, while 3 percent had signed up for a new credit card that offered bonus virtual goods.

Quinn Pitcock, the defensive tackle attempting an NFL comeback following a self-diagnosed bout with videogame addiction, was cut from the Seattle Seahawks on Saturday (thanks sister site GameCulture).

Pitcock managed to survive until the final round of cuts after a preseason in which he appeared in four games, accumulating the same number of tackles.

The Ohio State University alumni recently expanded on his problem with games, saying that in his heyday, he would typically wake up at 3 PM and then play Call of Duty until 6 or 7 AM the next day.

A judge’s ruling earlier last month that Craig Smallwood’s lawsuit against Lineage II maker NCsoft could continue (a suit in which Smallwood claimed he was addicted to the game), could have an impact on End User Licensing Agreements (EULA).

A lawyer at Princeton’s Center for Information Technology Policy named Steven Roosa took to his blog (thanks Slashdot) to discuss the Smallwood case, using the headline “A Software License Agreement Takes it on the Chin.”

Roosa detailed NCsoft’s attempt to stop the lawsuit by using Section 12 of its User Agreement, which is entitled “Limitation of Liability.” The judge eventually only partially granted NCsoft’s motion to dismiss.

Roosa wrote:

Quinn Pitcock, the almost 300-pound defensive tackle attempting a comeback with the Seattle Seahawks following a bout of depression-induced (and self-diagnosed) videogame addiction, has survived the first round of cuts with his NFL team and racked up four tackles in the Seahawk’s first three preseason games.

Pitcock also opened up to the Dayton Daily News (he attended Ohio State University) about his trouble with videogames, labeling Call of Duty as his game of choice. Pitcock indicated that on a “typical day,” he would wake up at 3 PM and then play until 6 or 7 AM the next day.

Playing as Randy the Random 1, Pitcock said, “First-person shooter games were my thing. I was ranked at one point 55th in the world.”

A law blog contributor believes that the Hawaii man suing Lineage II creator NCsoft for making the game so addictive has an uphill battle in order prove his case.

Craig Smallwood sued the game maker after reportedly spending 20,000 hours playing Lineage II between 2004 and 2009. He claimed that NCsoft neglected “to warn or instruct or adequately warn or instruct plaintiff and other players of Lineage II of its dangerous and defective characteristics, and of the safe and proper method of using the game.”

In a column on the blog LegalMatch.com, "Rusty Shackleford" asks if such a case demonstrates the need for tort reform, or if the plaintiff and court are “on to something.”

On Smallwood’s chances:

While videogame addiction still isn’t recognized by the American Medical Association, an article on the subject in the Dayton Daily News features quotes from Iowa State researcher Douglas Gentile in which he continues to make the push that videogame addiction is real.

The article begins with a mention of Quinn Pitcock, the ex-NFL player attempting a comeback with the Seattle Seahawks following a bout with depression, which, he claims, led to excessive videogame play. From there the article evolves into a discussion on the subject of game addiction itself.

Sarah Greenwell, a Pediatric Psychologist from the Children’s Medic l Center of Dayton, kicks off the piece by stating that, throughout her years of service, she has come across only two kids that were genuinely addicted to videogames.