Here is a
recent article I wrote about a November 2005 news story regarding
the Chinese parents claiming
that video games have become too addictive and
are suing World of Warcraft game developers Blizzard
Entertainment as a result.
World
of Warcraft, could it be killing our teens
The parents of a teenage son who committed
suicide just over a year ago claim that their son become
addicted to the massively multiplayer online role-playing game,
World of Warcraft. They believe that as a result of this
addiction he took his own life. Now these parents are suing
World of WarCraft developers Blizzard Entertainment, blaming
the game developers for the tragic loss of their son.
The details of just how many hours this teen
had been playing World of Warcraft prior to his death has
not yet been published. Just what would constitute an addiction
is hard to quantify. The generally accepted medical definition
of an addiction is; a habitual psychological and physiological
dependence on a substance or practice beyond one's voluntary
control. So using this definition as a guide we could assume he
had no control over how often he sat down to play the online
role playing game.
Looking at a common addiction many people can
relate to, smoking. Nobody would claim that the actual act of
smoking could lead to anybody’s death. Rather it is the
chemicals being inhaled while smoking that have been linked to
various diseases leading to a potential premature death.
Following this same logic we could then say that spending large
amounts of your day playing World of Warcraft could not
kill you. So the real problem in this case most be something
else.
Examining suicide we should look at what
really causes someone to take their own life. While a lot more
research on the subject is still needed, it is believed that
some type of psychiatric disorder, depression being the most
common is the leading cause of suicide. If properly diagnosed
most mental health problems can be treated and controlled. The
difficulty is for people to realize that they have a problem and
to go and seek treatment. The unfortunate stigma still attached
to mental health problems leads many to go without getting
treatment for what could be a highly treatable disease.
Looking back at the case at hand, we can see
that a teen playing World of Warcraft too much could
definitely be a potential sign that something is wrong. People
who have difficulty dealing with reality or interacting with
people are two possible signs of a mental health disease. So
every parent should be aware of this, and if their children are
using computer games as a way to withdraw from friends and
family they should definitely seek profession medical advice, it
just might save their child’s life.
About
the Author of this article:
Hunter Crowell is a researcher, marketer, and an
avid online gamer, including World of Warcraft and also the
creator of the World of Warcraft Gold
Price List Guide, a web
site setup to help World of Warcraft players find the cheapest place to buy
their gold.
http://www.world-of-warcraft-gold.com
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