Sharma Howard: ‘World of Warcraft’ sheds new light on gaming addiction
In Sharma Howard’s last solo column on parenting teens that focuses upon the effect of media and technology she looks at the parental side of the World of Warcraft, virtual gaming addiction. She reports to parents to look out for the signs of game addiction as she has seen firsthand from dealing with her own sons and video games: Howard warns of the crankiness, the clouded look in their eyes, and their disengagement type behavior.
She makes a strong proclamation against Blizzard Entertainment’s best seller, World of Warcraft, in particular. Howard quotes her source, un-named recovering addict’s parent, “The World of Warcraft,” a multi-player role-playing game should be dubbed the crack cocaine of video games. “Howard states that parents should be leery about the game crossing the threshold of their homes.
This comes on the heels Howard refers to of a 15-year-old Swedish player who couldn’t detach himself from the game and suffered an epileptic-type seizure after 24 hours of nonstop playing. Solidifying her claim she recommends parents have their suspected addicted kid’s to visit the website, www.wowdetox.com; acknowledging that playing anything nonstop for 24 hours could cause health problems.
Per her column, there are more than 11 million players worldwide, causing the need for such a website. (Howard’s estimates are low). Referring to the postings on the site she mentions college students who have flunked out of college, young housewives whose marriages are suffering, and countless other testimonies about how they shunned the real world to prowl around WOW (World of Warcraft),
For those unfamiliar with the game, World of Warcraft account players step into avatars: alternate identities such as wizards, dwarves, and warriors, all battling it out in an epic landscape to hunt for gold. Gaming addiction has gotten plenty of publicity as of late, and doctors have given plenty of warnings on what is appropriate in terms of hours on the computer or on a gaming system.
Reportedly, but not confirmed by WOW, in England, psychiatrists, concerned for the lost youth of WOW, will be infiltrating the game by adopting avatars and interacting with other players in the hope of injecting some semblance of normal social contact. Howard refers to published articles that describe the government-funded program that make it unclear if the psychiatrists will only be “saving” English youth, or will be gravitating to any kid they see as playing for inordinate amounts of time on WOW accounts.
Howard openly speaks out about the program being non-consensual for teens or adults playing the game, not only in England, but all over the world. “It’s one thing for the English to intervene with their own citizens, but how can they target only their own in this worldwide game? Further, what about the consent from the parents of underage players?”
It’s her understanding that the psychiatrists goal is to blend in, and not stand out as “white coats,” so to speak. There is the thought that they will need more experienced players to help them create support groups for teens within the game, and let these players be “peer mentors.” The psychiatrists would also like to set up a WOW Anonymous, which would be a weekly, in-game meeting.
Encourage schools
Howard states that she fully supports parents in regulating their children’s time on the Internet, as well as playing video games and TV watching. She also encourages schools to become more aggressive in educating children about time management and why monitoring time spent on video games is healthy.
Sharma believes that this approach is one where psychiatrists will have more to gain here than kids. They will emerge with a bevy of information and compelling stories to help them write research papers that excavate a new territory of human behavior. It is also her belief that the hard-to-reach players will more than likely just toy with the psychiatrists — and remain elusive. In 2001, the American Medical Association rejected video game addiction as a legitimate mental disorder 2012.
Howard’s article sums up her opinion on gaming addiction in general: “I believe extreme addictions to games such as WOW are best sorted out by parents and friends who can help players change their habits when playing their wow account — or enforce a bit of tough love — even setting counseling as a condition.”
The stories about World of Warcraft account addiction continue to arise. If the United States will implement a similar program that of the United Kingdom is not yet known.