WoW > Crack

World Of Warcraft 'more addictive than crack cocaine' as teenager suffers convulsions after 24-hour-long game

An internet computer game has been condemned as being as addictive as cocaine after a teenager who played it 24 hours non-stop had convulsions.

World of Warcraft has been hugely successful in capturing the imagination of players by drawing them into a virtual universe of battles and quests.

However, it is at the centre of a growing problem of computer game addiction.

Highly addictive: World of Warcraft has been described by experts as the crack cocaine of the gaming world

Many players will sit alone in their rooms for hours at a time, immersed in the lives of their fantasy character creations - or Avatars.

Some 11milion around the globe play World of Warcraft - making it the world's most successful 'MMORPG' - massively multi-player online role-playing game.

However, a report from Sweden's Youth Care Foundation describes it as 'the most dangerous game on the market'.

The report's author Sven Rollenhagen said: 'There is not a single case of game addiction that we have worked with in which World of Warcraft has not played a part.

'It is the crack cocaine of the computer game world. Some will play it till they drop.'

The Swedish National Institute of Public Health has backed the report, adding: 'Computer game addiction is becoming more widespread across the world.'

The warning comes after a Swedish boy of 15 collapsed after playing it for for 24 hours earlier this month.

Hospital doctors diagnosed an epileptic-type seizure brought on by sleep deprivation, lack of food, and too long a stretch of concentrated game playing. He has made a full recovery.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no more than one to two hours per day of 'screen time'.

Psychiatrist Dr Richard Graham of London's Tavistock Centre said: 'Some of my clients will discuss playing games for 14, 16 hours a day at times, without breaks and without attending to their physical needs.

'For those, the consequences are potentially severe.

'Such prolonged gaming can produce a sort of socially withdrawn figure who may be connecting with people in the game, but is largely dropping out of education and other social opportunities.'

First, I obviously don't understand addiction. I guess maybe you can be addicted to anything? I dunno, this whole thing is a bit crazy to me. And second, if you let your 15 year-old child play a computer game until they DIE, you are probably not the greatest parent.
Off to play WoW now. ;-)