Oh Blizzard, you've corrupted our chillens with your MMO! Or should we be thankful that they have massively exposed a global problem in lazy parenting? Would you let your kid develop these habits under your watch? Let's discuss this case study. Ron sent in this segment of A Current Affair which focuses mother's woes with her Warcraft-addicted son who has reportedly changed his personality since he began playing the game. The symptoms described are his tendency to become antisocial, get violent, change his accent, masturbate to dark elves, etc. But here's my problem with this mockumentary: they focus on the brat, not the lady that let him get to this point. All of them just pass the buck to the 16 year old's life choices as they watch him burn away 16 hours a day uninterrupted in his sticky room. Why we should look at this and point the finger at the weak parent: she keeps paying the DSL bill, hired a psychologist to dance around the problem, and brought in a TV crew to document them, not solve the problem. Even the TV guy just stands there while he burns out. Why didn't she call a drill sergeant instead? Tough love people, that's what I'm talking about. "Honey, get my belt. Yeah, the one with +3 sting." Its easy to point the finger at Blizzard, but what is clear to me is that the true problem lies in crap new age parenting or general slacking. My proposal? Good ol' fashion parenting of rewards and punishment, the simplified microcosm of "shit happens" when you slack in the real world. If Warcraft had been around during WW2, parents would have beat their addicted kid's asses. None of this tree-hugging be-your-child's-best-friend-shit. Be a parent. Some examples:

You did what -- quit school? Whack! Computer - gone. You're playing Wow and not at the dinner table? Whack! (and the DSL modem is now my necklace - I'll give it back when your homework is done) Your eyebrow moved slightly upward when I walked into the hallway? FWAKATA - belt to the eyeball. Oh you punched a hole in the wall? You just lost your PC rights for the month and we're going to Home Depot. Why? For mana supplies to cast Cure on the wall pronto, you undeserving little shit.

The solution seems obvious to me, but many parents say no -- it's Blizzard's fault that their kids are addicted, just its Rockstar's fault that kids shoot other kids, Miyamoto's fault that kids have A.D.D., and so on. Personally, I think it's all crap, but lets open this up to debate. What do you guys think, am I an old fashioned hoot or is this kid overdue for an epic level 60 asswhopping?