World of Warcraft and a number of other leading MMOs have come under fire recently from the University of Minnesota Duluth, where college students are allegedly letting their work slip thanks to one too many late night raids.
UMD academic adviser Vince Rapesh apparently accused one student of smoking dope thanks to how shattered he looked. It later transpired that he had, in fact, spent all night on his computer playing WoW. Three students that Rapesh spoke to even admitted to seeking counseling for their gaming habits, one of whom was apparently "too competitive" to stop. "
"I tell parents during talks, I believe it’s one of the hidden causes for kids to fail that nobody knows about it," Rapesh states.
World of Warcraft has a powerful hold over many people, although ultimately it's up to the individual to have the self control to stop. I don't think it's unfair for Rapesh to say that failing grades can be attributed to videogames, but it's obviously the student's fault for getting "addicted" to MMOs in the first place.
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Contest:
1:25 PM on 12.09.2008
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is allways the same.
When one of the biggest Harry Potter books. A professor told that the Harry Potter Books were to bad for kids, because the books were long and... reading... is bad...
Sure blame the game
Shit gets real serious right after an expansion... I give it 6 months and it'll cooldown (lol get it... cooldown)
I can't say I haven't been there... been up a few too many nights far too late than I'm supposed to be, I wouldn't say my GPA slipped as a result.
What the fuck? How many times during your lives have you said/heard 'Man, I totally fucked up [a test, whatever] because I was playing [Mario/Star Control/Quake/Civilization/etc] all of last night!'
This has been around for ages. It's nothing new, and not even relegated to just video games.
Seriously, is this shit still newsworthy?
I'm 27-years-old
I'm happily married and have two kids
I've graduated with my bachelors' in accounting and I'm halfway through getting my M.B.A.
I have a full-time job
I am in the process of starting a business with a partner
...and I play video games, including World of Warcraft, in a controlled manner. Granted, I'm not the epic of the epic, but I do have a level 80 Shadow Priest, 70 pally, and a 61 warlock (over a three-year span of playing WoW, mind you). I'm also heavily into Left 4 Dead and Team Fortress 2, right now.
So, I guess my point is, you can play video games and still be as successful in life and/or your career as you want to be. I commend anyone for trying to seek help to control their addictions...but, at the end of the day, if you have an addiction...it's your fault. Sorry, if that hurts, but it's true.
Have any of you guys ever heard of doing your homework and/or work first then playing? It works out pretty well for your life...
Where I'm at now I have two buddies that play WoW and they seem to be doing alright with classes, so I guess it's all just how much you can control your addiction.
First, World of Warcaft is one of the few very successful MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) that has over 12 million people playing everyday. This game helps people who are shy to socialize in a different way, a way that they can be comfortable with. Second people meet with people, but through there characters instead of themselves. In the real world people obviously don’t have super powers and such, but in the game people can be whoever they want to be and that lets them use there imagination.
So rather than, saying World of Warcraft is not a healthy game, let’s thank the creators for making a game that brings people together with a common interest.