WoW addiction therapy guild!
An addiction therapist is forming a WoW guild so that he can reach the addicted where they live: on raids.
He has called on Blizzard Entertainment, the company that makes World of Warcraft, to waive or discount the costs associated with joining the game so that therapists can more easily communicate with at-risk players in their preferred environment.
“We will be launching this project by the end of the year. I think it’s already clear that psychiatrists will have to stay within the parameters of the game. They certainly wouldn’t be wandering around the game in white coats and would have to use the same characters available to other players,” said Dr Graham.
“Of course one problem we’re going to have to overcome is that while a psychiatrist may excel in what they do in the real world, they’re probably not going to be very good at playing World of Warcraft.
“We may have to work at that if we are going to get through to those who play this game for hours at end.”
via Addiction therapists signing up to World of Warcraft – Telegraph.
Gosh, I hope they don’t get addicted.
18 Responses to “WoW addiction therapy guild!”
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Um, I think anyone with an MD can afford 15 bucks a month.
It might be a trick…maybe they ARE addicted, and this is their cover story.
totally a cover. those guys are raging addicts.
I wonder what class the psychiatrists will play? I’m guessing shadow priests, because they have mind control.
Hmm, there’s probably a long thread on what classes different real-world professionals would play somewhere in here…
Richard
No doubt we can expect to see them PKing at meeting stones in about 2 months time 🙂
Blizzard would be wise to make a point of giving these guys everything they ask for and more. It will be good for addicts, and it will prevent or forestall an expensive regulatory apparatus.
@Stabs I lol’d 😀
If I remember my course notes from Bartle correctly, MMOs are NOT addictive. Just really enjoyable.
…
There’s been research that suggests otherwise though, right?
Huh. I can’t imagine therapists trying out other addictive substances for the purposes of relating to their patients.
“No, your honor, you don’t understand. I was only purchasing and smoking the crack to find and better to relate to other crack addicts.”
and on top of that, they want it for free. wow.
Sebastian>There’s been research that suggests otherwise though, right?
For sufficiently lax definitions of “addictive”, yes.
See this and then this.
Richard
Blizzard should charge them by the hour and give them special titles over there characters so people can avoid them. You think a company would give free time to someone trying to convince players to stop playing?
Obsessive people can become “addicted” to video games. Then again, obsessive people can become “addicted” to hand washing.
But it might not be a bad thing to have a therapist handy in the game. Maybe they could have a little chat with certain players about anger issues and poor impulse [LEEEEEROY!] control.
Sebastian & Richard – there’s been some research to suggest otherwise. =P
Rock, Paper, Shotgun just did a pretty awesome review of my book.
Neils>there’s been some research to suggest otherwise
And there’s been some to suggest otherwise than your otherwise.
Oh well, I guess I’d better buy your book…
Richard
Where there is business to do, there are psy to go!
It’s funny how addiction became a fancy concept shaping parents supply to educate their children. And of course how psy developed the cure offer (books on vieogames is a big business as said crawford in 87).
Wow, my copy of Game Addiction arrived this morning. Amazon must have perfected teleportation techniques or something.
Richard
@Yukon: Everybody can be obsessive from time to time… Heck, programmers, scholars and gamers have to be somewhat obsessive in order to get to the end of the trail. (debugging, grind, whatever long line of obstacles you have to wade through in order to reach the imagined end-point).
Ola, I’m thinking more of folks with a diagnosis of impulse-control or obsessive disorder, which is a different kettle of fish than focusing in at crunch time and forgetting to eat, bathe, or blink. The point is, the object of the obsession is immaterial; it’s the personality doing the obsessing. As long as a therapist keeps that in mind, that MMOs are about as “addictive” as collecting lunch boxes or watching ESPN, I’ve got no beef with them chatting up a client in game… well, as long as it’s not just a flimsy pretext to power-level their Shaman on the client’s dime, in which their character name should be changed to Dr. Twink.
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2007/11/12/what-is-the-truth-about-gaming-addiction/
Not surprisingly, one side blames the game and the other side blames the players while both are simultaneously denying there is much blame in the act itself.
This area of research needs fresh eyes.