Everyone knows about the problems surrounding online gaming...no...i'm not talking about lag or the 12yr old noob that yells "pwned" when he back-rapes you in CSS. The problem i'm talking about is addiction. The problem is so staggering that apparently, it can kill you too.
One 21-year-old man was discovered to have played a certain game minutes before committing suicide. Elizabeth Woolley, the young man’s mother, insists that “It’s like any other addiction. Either you die, go insane or you quit. My son died.” Sadly, he hasn’t been alone. In August 2005, a 28-year-old South Korean man died – not by committing suicide, but after playing the game Starcraft at an Internet café for 50 hours straight. The man had not slept properly and had eaten very little in that time. He died from heart failure stemming from exhaustion. More recently, a 13-year-old Chinese boy died falling from a building. His parents sued Blizzard Entertainment, makers of World of Warcraft because the boy was re-enacting a scene from the game. In another story that came out of South Korea this year, a couple was arrested when their four-month-old daughter died of suffocation. The couple had left the infant alone in their apartment for several hours while they played World of Warcraft at a nearby Internet café.
The solution to all of this? Well, someone apparently decided to monetize from this situtation by opening a center that charges $14,500 a month for the treatment of...INTERNET ADDICTION. You know how many months of WOW you can pay with that amount of money ? (80 years!) O_O
In July, a British psychiatrist said he plans to assemble fellow therapists to enter the online game World of Warcraft to treat in-game addicts. LOL? Imagine the guild leader orders you for an e-consultation before a raid to see if you show symptoms of group-wipeout or e-suicide!
One 21-year-old man was discovered to have played a certain game minutes before committing suicide. Elizabeth Woolley, the young man’s mother, insists that “It’s like any other addiction. Either you die, go insane or you quit. My son died.” Sadly, he hasn’t been alone. In August 2005, a 28-year-old South Korean man died – not by committing suicide, but after playing the game Starcraft at an Internet café for 50 hours straight. The man had not slept properly and had eaten very little in that time. He died from heart failure stemming from exhaustion. More recently, a 13-year-old Chinese boy died falling from a building. His parents sued Blizzard Entertainment, makers of World of Warcraft because the boy was re-enacting a scene from the game. In another story that came out of South Korea this year, a couple was arrested when their four-month-old daughter died of suffocation. The couple had left the infant alone in their apartment for several hours while they played World of Warcraft at a nearby Internet café.
The solution to all of this? Well, someone apparently decided to monetize from this situtation by opening a center that charges $14,500 a month for the treatment of...INTERNET ADDICTION. You know how many months of WOW you can pay with that amount of money ? (80 years!) O_O
In July, a British psychiatrist said he plans to assemble fellow therapists to enter the online game World of Warcraft to treat in-game addicts. LOL? Imagine the guild leader orders you for an e-consultation before a raid to see if you show symptoms of group-wipeout or e-suicide!
