Online games like Everquest, Ultima Online and Warcraft are addictive, that’s nothing new. This movie tries to connect game mechanics and addiction, even ending in the death of a player. Sure it’s a sad story, but is the game to blame? People can get addicted to many things, and isn’t the game addiction just a symptom of a deeper problem? Getting addicted to online games can be caused by many things, loneliness, lack of social interaction, not feeling valued in real life etc…
These things specifically can be turned around in a virtual world. It’s quite easy to fill these real life gaps, you can be a hero, strong and good looking. You can embed yourself in a social environment, guilds for example, where you can feel important. Especially for kids this can be very tricky, and even adults are not safe for these kind of feelings. I know some examples in my own guild, people that lost their job, failed for their exams etc… But I honestly think it’s to easy to blame it on the games they play, maybe they hate their job or school. Maybe the game just offered them an easy escape route.
