Brave new (computer)world.

Is this really anything new? People were addicted to space invaders, cybering on aol chat and imploding playing Muds/EQ/etc years ago. The medium has changed somewhat thats all. Also, that articles tips are dumb as hell and nothing really to do with the opening part. Update you AV and keep your passwords?

Its hilarious the effect WOW has on people though, such a ugly boring game that turns them into savages. I know a woman whos married to a big time-investment banker, giant house/cars, kids and all. He started WOW last year and played in all his spare time, day and night, ignoring everyone and they were barely sleeping together. Shit nearly ended in divorce before he quit. Of course, its probably just a symptom of deeper issues in people/relationships but still. He would have had way more fun with heroin.

What happens when World of Warcraft accounts get cancelled:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YersIyzsOpc[/youtube]

i've got a bunch of friends & family members who are fanatic wow players and i can understand the frustration of watching them play so much and losing contact with the real world. it's sad in many ways... but like others said before i don't think the game itself is to blame for this. before wow they played other games. and after wow they will probably play something else. a student in this town played until he dropped. he was eating nothing but pasta for a long time until he died of malnutrition. i don't know who's to blame for this... the company behind the game? his parents for not teaching him that you can't live on pasta alone? himself?
maybe the possibility to be king in a virtual world instead of peasant in the real world is too much to handle for some people. but it feels very typical for a 'swedish researcher' to point out what is the new crack. proving that things can be harmful so that they can be regulated. making sure people don't get drunk at the wrong time of the day or week. but still you see kids melting their brains away on toilet spray. it's obvious to say, but they should be spending their time telling people to take responsibility for their own lives instead of trying to take away all possible dangers.

that video is an obvious fake by some kids looking for e-fame. nice touch trying to stick the remote up his ass though

So not real? They got me there for a short time... I imagine this extreme reactions could happen in real life , no? I remember seeing on TV (for real?) a kid that didn't want to talk to his parents anymore and was playing computergames all the time which is saying perhaps more about the relationship between them than the addiction to the computergame.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSjk0mHJNr0[/youtube]