I am posting this, even though he ends up slamming our organization. This person did not speak to me about our organization or about my son's death, before he wrote this article. The information he has is partial. The way he sees it is inaccurate.
We tell people to do more than just "break their CD's". And if anyone wants to fully recover in their real life, they DO need to address their spirituality.
He also stated:
Quote:However, Shawn Woolley reportedly had been previously diagnosed with depression and a schizoid personality disorder.
This is true. But he failed to state, this personality disorder did not happen to him, until AFTER he started playing Everquest.
www.twitchguru.com/2006/07/24/mmr/
MMR: High on Life, Low on Games
Rob Wright
July 24, 2006 07:59
Addicted To Games?
Video game addiction made headlines last week when a clinic in the Netherlands opened its doors to compulsive gamers who can't seem to pull themselves away from their PCs and consoles. The clinic is run by "addiction consultants" Smith & Jones, a Dutch firm founded in 2004 by Keith Bakker.
"Everyone gets what they want. I wanted a mission, and for my sins they gave me one." -- "Apocalypse Now"
The above quote is featured on the company's Website in the introduction section. According to the site, Bakker suffered from heroin addiction but was unable to find appropriate help in the Netherlands (the company says the government simply offered Bakker free heroin). As a result, he left the Netherlands to get treatment and later returned to create Smith & Jones Addiction Consultancy. Smith & Jones uses actual medical doctors, psychiatrists and psychologists rather than "consultants," and has six treatment centers.
Smith & Jones says its Wild Horses Center is the first outpatient treatment program for video game addiction in Europe. Furthermore, the Website claims "20% of all gamers can develop a dependency on gaming." The addiction consultancy claims compulsive gamers display some of the same characteristics as gambling and drug addicts. As far as treatment options, Smith & Jones advocates that compulsive gamers stop playing completely and, following the "detox" period, replace games with real life activities that can provide the same excitement and exhilaration as games.
I'm not here to claim video games can't be addictive. That would be both wrong and naAfA-ve. And I won't ridicule the efforts of Smith & Jones. While the choice of quoting a Vietnam war movie on its Website is puzzling, the company seems sincere in its purpose. And of course, we've all heard or seen stories of fellow gamers becoming obsessed with a game to the point where they're damaging their careers and relationships. But I'm not ready to believe that 20% of gamers have a clinical addiction. In fact, many experts have question if Internet addiction is even a true medical condition or disorder.
World of Warcraft's passionate following and more than six million subscribers have many people concerned
We throw around the words "addictive" and "addicting" in reference to games all the time. And yes, games are powerful media and are designed to keep people playing and repeating the same scenarios and levels until they get it right. But let's not go overboard and compare games to crack. Illicit drugs like heroin are inherently addictive. They can pretty much get their hooks into anybody. Games are more like an accomplice; if they find the right person who already exhibits compulsive behavior and an addictive personality, then games can facilitate the crime, so to speak.
That said, I don't doubt a small minority of gamers have become addicted to their MMORPGs. Can an "addiction consultancy" like Smith & Jones effectively treat gaming addiction? Perhaps, but they're not the only ones trying to do so; China opened its first Internet and game addiction clinic last year and several doctors and clinical psychologists here in the United States offer to treat computer, Internet and game addiction. In addition, a number of organizations have been endeavoring to raise awareness about the addictiveness of video and computer games, such as the non-profit research group the National Institute on Media and the Family. But are these groups getting ahead of themselves with reactionary advice for something that experts have yet to agree is a diagnosable clinical condition?
I did some research of my own to get a sense of how some of these groups were approaching the problem of habitual gaming and purported game addiction. The National Institute on Media and the Family, which was founded by Dr. David Walsh, has a program called MediaWise that's designed to educate parents and children about the effects of different media, including video games. I downloaded the "MediaWise Video and Computer Game Survey" from the group's site and here is what it read:
"Think about your video game playing. Look at the statements below. If you agree with the statement, check the box.
1. I feel great while playing a video game.
2. I feel unhappy, cranky or irritable when not playing.
3. I feel angry when someone asks me to stop.
4. I crave more playing time.
5. I think about the game when not playing.
6. More and more of my friends are "online friends."
7. More and more of my friends are gamers.
8. I neglect family and friends in order to play video games.
9. I neglect responsibilities at home or at work.
10. I try to cut back on playing time but can't.
11. I play more often than I plan on playing.
12. I play for longer periods than I planned and can't seem to quit.
13. I lie about my playing time.
14. I sometimes sneak in time to play, sometimes late into the night.
15. I spend more than 20 hours a week playing.
16. I continue to play in spite of negative consequences.
17. My family and friends think I play too much.
18. I have arguments with family or friends about how much time I spend playing.
19. I have large phone or credit bills for online games."
The questionnaire seems reasonable enough. I suppose the only question I'd answer yes to is #1. The National Institute on Media and the Family may take the hard line position on video game violence and ESRB ratings (Walsh recently spoke at a Congressional hearing on violent games, which I wrote about last week), but I suppose I can't object to the group's assertion that 10 hours a day of game play is cause for concern.
There are also game addiction support groups out there, such as GamerWidow.com and GamingSucks.com, which mostly comprise of girlfriends and wives of obsessive MMORPG players. GamerWidow.com in particular has some interesting commentary from members who share their frustrating and sometimes tragic experiences with their compulsive gamers (in fact, some of the widows confess to trying World of WarCraft and becoming addicted to the game themselves). Then there are sites like CivilizationAnonymous.com, which attempt to treat the matter with a heavy dose of humor.
But there are other groups out there advocating a more reactionary approach to heavy game playing. One of the first games to be associated with game addiction was of course EverQuest, which was nicknamed "EverCrack" and "NeverRest." The MMORPG become infamous when 21-year-old Shawn Woolley, a heavy EverQuest player, shot and killed himself while he was playing the game. Shawn's mother, Elizabeth Woolley, claimed the game led to her son's death and subsequently created On-Line Gamers Anonymous. However, Shawn Woolley reportedly had been previously diagnosed with depression and a schizoid personality disorder. Again, it seemed in this case that games merely acted as an outlet for troubled behavior rather than the direct cause of it.
In light of Shawn Woolley's death, On-Line Gamers Anonymous (Olganon) takes the issue of game addiction quite seriously. However, some of Olganon's ideas and recommendations are questionable. For example, a section of the group's site called "Break CDs!" which states the following:
"If you've been trying to quit on-line gaming, what's the best way to kick the addiction for good? That's right, break your CDs and send them to us. This symbolic event will help you remember that you once realized you had a problem and you knew you needed to stay away from your addiction."
There's also a section that claims "On-line friends are not real friends" and presents a ****ing description of the nature of virtual friendships. "From our personal experience and from research we preformed with the help of other recovered on-line game addicts, we found that there was never a single instance where on-line gaming friends remain good friends when one of them leaves the game," the Website claims. If that sounds like an extreme blanket statement, then you should read the site's blueprint for leaving guilds and gaming clans.
Then there are the religious overtones. Olganon's site is laced with references to God and prayer, and the religious nature of the group is no more apparent than in its "12 Steps" list. The list starts off reasonably enough with advice like: "We admitted we were powerless over on-line gaming, and that our lives have become unmanageable," and "[We] Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity." Then the 12 steps dives into "We're entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character," and "Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings."
I figured that a 12-step program to correcting game addiction would be recommending things like going without gaming for two weeks, quitting MMORPGs cold turkey or seeking counseling or therapy from a licensed professional. Instead, it seems like Olganon's 12 Steps are merely attempting to replace one crutch - gaming - with another, albeit more social crutch in religion. The sire seems predicated on getting kids and young adults away from their computers and into church instead of a treatment facility.
Personally, I think games like EverQuest and World of Warcraft eventually run their course on most folks. They realize at some point that they spend entirely too much time on the game and gradually cut down their playing or leave the game altogether. Sure, players may fracture real-life relationships and neglect their jobs and families during that span. But it's time that we start asking ourselves if we can really blame the games first before we indict our own lack of will power.
Edited by: lizwool at: 7/25/06 7:02
Liz Woolley