Everquest Addiction: story by CBS, your thoughts (link to story included)

[etalns]

Download the video of the story here

As a past everquest addict myself, I have to agree that it is infact addictive.

But I for one, don't believe that Shawn Woolys death was related with Everquest, the guy was depressed, hell; he spent Thanksgiving on his own.

What's your thoughts?

<-- used to play eq 16-18 hours a day sometimes.

 

[frizzlefry]

wasn't there a kid that killed himself?

 

[Valinos]

link = gibberish

 

[klah]

Originally posted by: Valinos
link = gibberish

It is a movie. Need Windows Media codec to view.

 

[Stratum9]

I watched it when it first aired and I think it's bull. Any video game can be addictive. Perhaps Everquest, because of it's open-ended nature, has the potential to be more addictive but that still does not make it responsible for that boys death.

The reporting was also rudimentary in its approach. They said he had previous emotional problems but they failed to elaborate on this. They said that the mother believed that something happened in the game that pushed him over the edge. How does this make EQ and Sony liable? Anything could have pushed an emotional unstable person over the edge. Let's suppose that instead of being obsessed with EQ he was obsessed with becoming an accmpolished trumpet player. One night he has a really bad solo during a championship and loses. Feeling humiliated and believing himself to be a failure because of his fragile emotional state, he shoots himself. Does this mean they should stop having competitions amoung musical talents? Is she going to hold the judges in the competition liable because their scores hurt him and pushed his emotional state over the edge?

This woman needs to find ways of dealing with her grief other than blaming a video game and it's manufacturers.

 

[0roo0roo]

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=38&threadid=893434&highlight_key=y&keyword1=everquest

 

[AvesPKS]

Originally posted by: Qosis
Download the video of the story here

As a past everquest addict myself, I have to agree that it is infact addictive.

But I for one, don't believe that Shawn Woolys death was related with Everquest, the guy was depressed, hell; he spent Thanksgiving on his own.

What's your thoughts?

<-- used to play eq 16-18 hours a day sometimes.

Hehe. Last Thanksgiving, by noon I was the only person left in my house. That doesn't even happen over Summer or Winter Break (there are usually a few guys around). It was thursday at 4 o'clock, me and a friend from the dorms were trying to find a restaurant that was open past 4pm on Thanksgiving. We finally found a Bennigan's downtown, and took the El there. It was kind of depressing; we saw a few families with kids eating there (on Thanksgiving, for goodness sake!).

 

[yellowperil]

I think if you attempt suicide over a game, you have other serious underlying issues. The only person I agreed with in that video was the rep for Sony. They should not have to protect people from themselves. I admit that sometimes a game, take your pick - Everquest, MUDD, Starcraft/Warcraft, Counter-Strike, etc. is addictive because of the multiplayer aspect of it, and at one point about a year and a half ago I was living by myself and playing games day & night. I didn't have much going on during that summer, even though I probably should've been working or something. But eventually you have to take a look around you at the mess, and then look in the mirror and evaluate yourself. Sony can't do it for you. You just have to tell yourself to clean yourself up and get your act together, and focus on your priorities. It was hard for me cuz I felt so far behind a normal life I felt I could never catch up. But you just have to apply yourself a step at a time.

Now if I can only give up internet forums...

 

[Jugernot]

How the hell can anyone play something for that long? I just don't understand it... Dunno if I ever will.

 

[klah]

Originally posted by: yellowperil

Now if I can only give up internet forums...

BLASPHEMY!!

 

[Linflas]

Under today's usage of the word "addictive" almost anything that people do excessively can be termed addictive but somehow I doubt we will see a 48 Hours story on TV addicts or "killing kittens" addicts. They had a clear bias that they set out to prove and only presented in the piece people that would reinforce the notion of EQ players as addicts. The had 0 interest in interviewing and showing on camera the overwhelming majority of players that enjoy the game and have no problem of separating it from reality or pushing back from the PC when real life calls.

 

[Aves]

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=38&threadid=893434&highlight_key=y&keyword1=everquest

I don't see any links to the video of the story in that thread.

 

[Valinos]

Originally posted by: klah

Originally posted by: Valinos
link = gibberish

It is a movie. Need Windows Media codec to view.

I have it, but it still doesn't work. *shrug*

 

[Lucky]

i purposely avoided buying everquest because i knew i'd become addicted.

 

[UNCjigga]

After playing Asheron's Call on and off for about 2 months (melee warrior Lvl 15, warmage Lvl 12), I finally realized that college and MMORPGs don't mix! It was an AWESOME game though!

 

[AkumaX]

Originally posted by: klah

Originally posted by: yellowperil

Now if I can only give up internet forums...

BLASPHEMY!!

NEVER!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[StageLeft]

I don't know if it's technically addictive by the standard definition, but if it isn't it's damn close. I used to play UO and these online RPG games are totally destructive. Some people can handle them but many just get way too into them (like me). It murdered my free time and was all I'd think about. I finally quit it and came back a couple times, but since then I've decided to never play another online massive multiplayer game ever again, and I won't. They just totally destroy one's free time and the rest of their life in many cases.

 

[nord1899]

Originally posted by: Lucky
i purposely avoided buying everquest because i knew i'd become addicted.

Damn straight. And I have a few friends who are addicted, some badly some not, who keep trying to get me to join. But after my experience with CS and now BF1942, I am glad I never bought EQ.

EDIT: At least with online FPS, playing often will increase your personal skill. If you don't play much, its no real big deal unless you are extremely competitive or something. With MMORPG's, you have to play online a lot to get your character up to a high level, get all the goodies, etc... That is why I purposefully stayed away from it. The closest I got was Diablo 1 and 2.

 

[Stark]

Sony may one day become liable (ala the tobacco companies) if they knowingly created and marketed a game designed to "addict" customers.

Personally, I think Everquest is dumb. I doubt I'll ever pay a monthly fee to play games. If I buy the game, I want free servers to play on.

The closest I've come to game "addiction" was the original sim city. I played that game for 20 hours straight one time. But eventually it became boring and I moved on. Same with Rollercoaster Tycoon, CS, and a few other games.

In the TV spot, they never really featured a "normal, well adjusted, somewhat cool" adult. Ben Stein's kid was the only person portrayed who wasn't a complete loser. (Lightning bolt... Lightning bolt... Lightning bolt... and Triumph at the StarWars premiere come to mind)

 

[AaronP]

I played EQ for about a year, and was REALLY addicted for about 6 months, and I thought the news story was pretty accurate.

 

[Linflas]

Originally posted by: Stark
Sony may one day become liable (ala the tobacco companies) if they knowingly created and marketed a game designed to "addict" customers.

Personally, I think Everquest is dumb. I doubt I'll ever pay a monthly fee to play games. If I buy the game, I want free servers to play on.

The closest I've come to game "addiction" was the original sim city. I played that game for 20 hours straight one time. But eventually it became boring and I moved on. Same with Rollercoaster Tycoon, CS, and a few other games.

In the TV spot, they never really featured a "normal, well adjusted, somewhat cool" adult. Ben Stein's kid was the only person portrayed who wasn't a complete loser. (Lightning bolt... Lightning bolt... Lightning bolt... and Triumph at the StarWars premiere come to mind)

Of course it is designed to hook players, to think otherwise is silly. Go to your local software store and see how many of the boxes tout "addictive action" as a feature. Truly addictive gameplay is considered a good review in the gaming industry. The type of addiction being talked about here is a hell of a lot different than true addictions such as alcoholism or drugs.

 

[Darein]

A scapegoat is not going to do any good in a situation like this. The mother needs to realize her son had a problem and stop trying to blame his own problems on other people just to milk some money out of it. Its sad that in our country it is so easy to sue other people for your own mistakes and problems.

 

[glen]

The type of addiction being talked about here is a hell of a lot different than true addictions such as alcoholism or drugs.

That is the whole point.
It is surprisingly similar.
Just like Gambling.

 

[IcePhoenix]

You know, my roommate got a free month of EQ. I had never seen it, but all the hubub about it made us install and play.

I don't know, I thought it was really stupid. The melee fighting (the part where you walk into the enemy multiple times), the eh, not bad graphics. Just didn't look like fun to me. Granted, I was spoiled by Morrowind (those water effects!).

I did play Asheron's Call for awhile, that was a lot of fun.

 

[Parrotheader]

Fortunately for me, this is one area where having a short attention span and no patience pays off. I don't have the patience to sit down and play an online RPG since its very nature requires more time and involvement from your end. The closest I ever came to this was in college when I'd occasionally stay up into the wee hours and play some sort of FPS for 4 hours on end (and that's nothing for most gamers that I know.) Now that I'm out in the "real world" I don't even have enough free time to contemplate that and that's why for me personally I love FPS games. I can jump into a game, play for anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour or two and be completely entertained and then get up and walk away at any point without having any real attachment. Of course, I know plenty of people who seem to have a Counterstrike problem as well, so it's just going to vary from person to person. Heck, you could make this whole addiction argument for Internet usage as a whole if you wanted.