Justin Kemppainen, Minnesota Games Examiner writes:
As trends of video game play increase worldwide, so too do the problems that can be associated with it. When it was created, Everquest was said to be more addictive than crack-cocaine; when health problems began to arise and certain gamers decided to keep playing until they dropped dead, concerns came about that lead to the creation of treatment centers for video game addiction.
One such clinic in Amsterdam, founded by one Keith Bakker in 2006, has discovered through its hundreds of subjects treated that the problems associated with gaming are more of a social problem, as opposed to psychological. They are a compulsion, not an addiction.
The kids in the program tended to come in displaying signs similar to that of chemical dependency, but as they progress it becomes clearer that what they needed was proper social interactions, and the treatment moved towards activity based and communication skills practices.
As sad as it may sound, this makes perfect sense.
Blizzard Entertainment has announced the opening of beta registrations for “World of Warcraft: The War Within,” inviting players to explore new subterranean worlds beneath Azeroth.
Danish from eXputer: "Despite Blizzard's attempt to give a fresh new spin to World of Warcraft, some fans still seem to be stuck in the past."
HG writes: "Blizzard is usually pretty bad at keeping secrets, but the company somehow managed to keep this one under wraps until now. Plunderstorm is a special limited-time event that’s basically World of Warcraft’s take on the Battle Royale genre."
