Gaming addiction...

Said to be more dangerous than alcohol,smoking and drugs...

Gaming addiction,ladies and gents,is considered most dangerous outta all 4 mentioned above.

It all started all the way back in 2004...

World of Warcraft was realeased and in just a span of few months it became extremely popular.WoW was something of an old MMORPG genre but presented in a great shiny light.Blizzard maked sure that the game is distributed to every corner of USA and Europe so that everyone could have access to it.Now,as a player that isn't for paying to play something (at least not every month) you ask yourself how come that WoW is THAT popular?Well it's because of it being something totally diffrent than the MMO market has ever seen.

Of course there were MMOs before WoW,but when we look at those MMOs now in 2009 we are laughing comparing them to WoW,mostly because of the graphics,and if we by any chance played them,then it's because of the gameplay system itself.

Because of being "diffrent" WoW became the macro of Online Gaming with more than 11 MILLION players around Europe and USA.

Now,how come that there are those "WoW addicts".

Simple.By paying a fee for playing during a month,people have a "need" to acomplish something,to reach a level,kill a mob,get a piece of equipment.In the mind of a rational gamer,there are some things to be done when playing a game.Especially when you like the game,you pay for the game every month and you are a gamer with talent.

It's easy to transform a person that never played an MMO into 2 kinds of persons:

1. The "addict"

2. The "Passionate MMO lover"

Now then,there is a diffrence that must be realized before concluding something else:

The "addict" is someone that devotes a lot of his free time (Sometimes even neglecting his duties such as going to school and going to work,thus turning them into his "free time") to an MMO he loves.

As I said here,the gamer must set a border between the MMO and his real life.

The gamer must never think that time spent doing something else than playing a game you PAY for is time spent in vain.

As a full fledged gamer that understands the dangers and the good things of playing an MMO there's only left for me to wish you luck at maintaining that level of control you have.Speaking statisticaly,you should always sort out what you should do in a day,how much will you play,and what do you think of doing after that.Playing over 12 hours is considered addiction but it all depends on how much you do it.

It's normal of playing over 12h 5 or 6 times a year,but doing that every day 6 months in a row is really dangerous and hurts your eyesight >_O.

The last thing you would want to do (as a parent) is to password your kid's computer in order to "save" him from the evil addicting game.As a true parent it's the right decision to talk with your child about it.Try asking him what is it that he finds in MMOs attractive,does he know about the dangers of playing it,of dangers of meeting strangers on the internet and other things concerning the topic at hand.Never punish him/her for playing the game because the child will hate you even more.

Even if you do password the computer,the child will probably figure out the password and password it himself.

All in all...

It's not the games' fault.It's the players themselves that must put a border between the game and the real world,no matter if you pay for the game,you are willing to pay,or you like playing the game or not.

As long there's control,there is joy in games.Which,in my opinion is the most important thing in MMOing.