Science!

Is this like when i play games online and tell people to get a fucking life and stop having sex with their own parents?

BTW, The rapists.

$100 bucks says they all get addicted.

"MMO addiction is a hot topic these days, and there are plenty of "experts" out there who want to "help." British Psychiatrist Dr. Richard Graham is among these brave few heroes, and he's so concerned about the wellbeing of so-called game addicts"

For god's sake. Gaming can be just as much an addiction as anything else, and doubly so for World of Warcraft, which is essentially designed to be addictive game.
You'd be a much better writer Jim if you at least tried to be somewhat objective and fair minded rather than baying for blood every time gaming is mentioned by the press or medical authorities.

"For god's sake. Gaming can be just as much an addiction as anything else, and doubly so for World of Warcraft, which is essentially designed to be addictive game. "

Yeah, anything can be addictive. But you can't deny that certain addictions are more trendy and exploited than others. That's what I'm driving at.

This is retarded, wasting time and money on studying video games. Aren't there other pressing issues at hand?

As a psychologist, I think it's a good idea to research video game addictions - anything that tries to understand and help people is OK by me. It IS serious stuff and will get more serious as time goes by and they become more and more popular, because, really, it's a person's 'personality' that indicates his tendency to get addicted (that's why it seems small stuff to someone who doesn't have any addiction tendency) and his interests and life experiences will dictate what kind of addiction he'll have (food, shopping, exercising, sex, gambling, video games and so on...).

In a way, every addiction plays differently and you could say even a specific type has subgroups - would you say that a person that plays the Sims a lot falls in the same category as a WoW player? Halo and Nintendogs? And I'm not talking about casual vs hardcore games, I'm talking about the types of games that attract you - they say much about you, and indicate how you function and what you look for (not only in a game, but in your relationships and your life, ultimately).

I've been playing vgs since Pong, and each generation has different kind of games and gamers - Pac Man is a completely different experience than, say, Bioshock. And it's not only about complexity, you could say Katamari Damacy is a direct heir to Pac Man in it's simplicity, and yet it's another level completely, because both games and gamers have evolved.

That is to say that the human being is very complex, psychology is a very new science (100 years) and it's goal - to understand the human being, what makes him tick, and in a practical way, alleviate his suffering - is very pretentious in scope and results, but should we give up because man's too difficult? I hope not.

And saying that the reasons are depression, long-term unemployment, a relatively small real-life social circle, lack of parental affection from both working parents etc etc is only half the truth - I could blame any other suffering/dysfunction with that, and yet, people with the same issues or background behave and turn out differently. And those are not the roots, the human being is much more complex than any book or theory.

So that's why I think new and creative ways of looking into the problem (and WoW addiction is like digital crack, in my opinion) are valid. But of course, I question the doctor's way of approaching it - inside the game and wanting to get it for free.

1) If he's gaming like everyone else, it's unethical to approach someone with any other intention than...gaming - and to offer any kind of treatment without the people's knowledge or consent (this reminds me of how AMWAY salespersons approached me, back in the day), if that's how he plans to do.

2) I really don't think he's trying to play for free. I think he's trying to make sure Activision/Blizzard acknowledges what's happening, and that really would be admitting guilt, so they'll probably just ignore him. They'll only do it by force of law, as the alcohol and cigarettes industry did - we live in a capitalist society, and those are the rules.

And in the end, I think his good but poorly developed project's intention was to gather media attention, and that it did, my friends.

Sorry for the english, it's not my native language.

Providing therapy through the game? Sounds like a fail.

Nobody is going to listen to some wise ass trying to provide therapy in general chat. Who is this guy? /ignore.

People are too busy having fun ROFLOLOLOL'ing in trade chat. That is why they are there doing it. You don't try to treat the alcoholic AT THE BAR. They are in their "fun element" at the most fun time, they aren't going to listen right then. Try talking to them later when they feel like shit.

If someone came up to me in a video game and tried to give me therapy I would probably PK them and walk away.

My favorite part is when you go to the website to try and cancel your subscription, you have to explain to them why you are, and they try and persuade you not to quit.

For Science!

He's trying to convince Blizzard to let him play for free so that he can convince as many players as possible to stop playing WoW? Something tells me he didn't think that one through.

Now I'm tempted to make a gimmick character named Freud who goes around asking people about their parents and making dick jokes.

Oh wait I already do that, nevermind.