World of Warcraft players might be enlisted to stop addiction to the game if a psychologist in London has his way.
Dr. Richard Graham wants to provide online therapy for people who've been spending too much time in the fantasy world of Azeroth, the Telegraph reports. He's concerned about stories of people who play WoW and other massive multiplayer online games for 12-hour sessions or more, and wants publisher Activision-Blizzard to let addiction therapists in at discounted rates.
Still, he acknowledges that a therapist might have trouble reaching an addict, especially because they'll be starting off as total noobs. "Of course one problem we’re going to have to overcome is that while a psychiatrist may excel in what they do in the real world, they’re probably not going to be very good at playing World of Warcraft," he told the Telegraph.
To get around this, Graham is hoping to enlist experienced players in the therapy process. I don't buy his claim that WoW addicts "don’t exhibit the same outward warning signs ... because they’re in their bedrooms most of the time, seemingly out of trouble." I would think that if someone disappeared behind a computer for 16 hours at a time, friends and family would notice.
I do get the idea of reaching out to people who are perhaps playing too much, but it may be an unsolvable problem. A person who doesn't play World of Warcraft will surely have trouble relating to an addict, while an in-game friend won't have the real-world connections to convince a person to cut down. In any case, I don't expect Activision-Blizzard to play ball with this idea, because the publisher would essentially be admitting that its game is addictive.
And in case anyone argues, I do think WoW can be addictive in a damaging way, but only to a very small group of people. That's true with many activities, even if they're a positive experience for most people. As a game designer once said to me: "Some people have food addictions, but that doesn't mean food is bad."
