Here's a sobering thought: two in five World of Warcraft players is clinically addicted to the game. Believe it? You shouldn't. Recently,Dr. Maressa Hecht Orzack, a psychologist who specializes in computer addiction, alleged that 40% of WoW players were addicted in the proper clinical definition of the term. Hearing suggestions for cigarette-style warning labels on games and actual drug prescriptions for players as possible remedies to the problem sounded more than a little extreme to anybody who's actually taken up arms for the Alliance or the Horde.
Never ones to stand by and let misinformation and injustice run rampant, our pals atPC Gamermagazine invited Dr. Orzack to be a guest on thePC Gamer podcast, and surprise - those numbers didn't hold up. Suddenly, it became just 15%, and even that number is called into question over the course of the conversation.
The whole podcast is worth hearing of course, but the face-off starts at around 21 minutes in, and only gets better from there.Download and listen to the podcast here.
August 22, 2006
