I just wanted to thank Mr. K. for his courage, and willingness to incur the "Wrath of the Lich King" ... especially since fellow Blank Label cartoonist, Scott Kurtz, not only plays the game, but also created a separate comicstrip called "Ding" to chronicle his in-game adventures.

Out of respect for this forum, I will spare you folks the gorey details of how the love-affair with this game led to the dissolution of my 14 yr. marriage. Not to mention the deterioration of my kids physical and mental health over the last 3 yrs.

Bottom Line: Play the game, do NOT let the game play you ...

People said the same things about Dungeons & Dragons. This is just online D&D, after all. A few geeks/nerds will become addicted because this is the best thing they will ever accomplish in their lives. Others will play it as a release or relief.

I remember when people played Pac-Man with zeal. There were clubs, for cryin' out loud, and tournaments, and magazines devoted to it. Fights over Pac-Man vs Ms Pac-Man. World championships. The cartoon series, the comic book, the merchandising on belts, book bags, lunch boxes, etc. They even made a documentary/movie thing about the top two or three Pac-Man players and the world championships. Compared to the Pac-Man craze, this is mild.

This, too, shall pass. Just another fad.

WoW is a completely different animal from D&D and Pac-Man. It's a MUD (Multi-User Dungeon). MUDs have always been in a different league of life destroyers... D&D can't match them for the 24 hour availability (you don't need your friends or DM around to play) and real time aspects, Pac-Man can't match them for depth of play or the player interaction. Nor can Pac-Man match them for longevity... MUDs have been going strong for more than 20 (I used to MUD on LPMuds, back in 1990... which is why I know better than to get involved with any of these things now, as I've already seen what a simple text adventure version MUD has done to people... Just tabacco? Try "crack") and will no doubt continue for decades to come. WoW is a fad, but only because some new MUD-like product will eventually replace it.

It can get you addicted, sure. But first, I doubt it's comparable to tobacco in the ease with which you get addicted and in the consequences for your health.
Second, I resent the implication that we're talking about something inherently evil here - MMORPGs are great, if you're into that thing. They offer you a chance to improve your English if you're not a native speaker, you get to meet lots of new people or you can maintain contacts with friends from all over the world, and you can improve your teamwork with others.
Third, if you get addicted to a game you may as well get addicted to tobacco, alcohol, drugs, pills, gambling, whatever. It means you probably have psychological issues. Nothing wrong with that, lots of people have them, but don't blame the games for it. If you feel your life slipping away and WoW becomes more important than work, your real life friends, your family or your other hobbies, take a break. If it's a longer period of a time where you seriously cut back on everything in your life to play WoW, see a psychologist and deal with the actual problems you're having.

I can't tell if your poll is intended to be tongue-in-cheek or serious. I really hope it's the former.

Getting addicted to something has nothing to do with having psychological issues. All animals are wired with feedback mechanisms to reward behaviour that's good. The fact that drugs can trigger these rewards directly makes them addictive (some much more than others). You don't have to have a certain psychological problem to get hooked on opiates because you got given morphine in the hospital (which is why they avoid such drugs unless truly necessary).

Things like games and gambling trigger pleasure centres indirectly, but the effect can be the same... perfectly normal people that unwittingly get trapped into a compulsion to play in order to feel good at all. It's easy to say that people should take a break if WoW becomes more important than work and family... but, here's the thing, addicted people don't notice things like that until they're well past that point and things have started falling apart. There doesn't have to be an "actual" psychological problem, addiction can be the entire problem. Sure some personalities are more prone to addiction than others, but being more prone is not a psychological problem in itself, and being less prone is not the same as being immune.

Oh, and I don't think anyone said that WoW was inherently evil. I don't believe anything can be "inherently" good or evil, or that an inanimate object can be good or evil at all. Things can be dangerous, however... and WoW is that. You really need to watch yourself carefully from the start, as you can't count on noticing when things start to get out of hand.

Well I'm sorry, I don't believe it's that simple. Every person has a need for company and a drive to succeed, and if you seek that to an anormal level in a virtual world, chances are you don't have it in real life or you're not satisfied with the ones you have. That's what I mean with having psychological issues.
There's a reason why there's a stereotype of the gamer nerd who lives in his parents' basement. Stereotypes, while being exaggerated, often have a core of truth.

I understand what you are saying. What we are saying is that people who have addictive personalities often don't realize just how much time they are spending on a project. They lack the signal in their head that tell them it's time to take a break. If they could just take a break for fifteen minutes, they wouldn't have as severe a problem.

Also, I'm not sure WOW is a good substitute for a social life. But who knows? Maybe in a hundred years, we'll have people who live in virtual reality simulators and spend all there time living in fictional worlds.

Comparing a video game to drug dependence is just ridiculous. Drugs don't become addictive just because they trigger your reward centers. Addictive drugs alter your body chemistry in such a way that they create a physiological dependence. That's why drug addicts go through major withdrawal symptoms. Your body has been denied a substance that it's come to need for its normal functioning.

I'm not saying that there aren't legitimate reasons that people with addictive personalities get hooked on something like WoW. But to use that as an argument to regulate a consumer product is just ridiculous. It's basically blaming the game for a person's problem.

It's like saying "some people are compulsive eaters, so we should outlaw junk food." It's not the Twinkie's fault that some people need to eat the whole box.

If you remove or somehow limit access to World of Warcraft (or Twinkies), they'll just find something else to get hooked on. The problems that arise are all about the individual, not about the product.