Most people nowaday do think game addiction exist((According to a poll on MMORPG.com with 4500+ votes it have <= 3% margin of error). As the game industry expands so rapidly (According to this thread), game addiction will be more and more of a problem to society, as it can "paralyze" your mind like opium. According to research, an average gamer spend 3-6 hours each day on playing games, and shows a normal distribution from 0 to 10 hours. My point...is that it is only a matter of time before the government starting hunting down the game industry like they done to the tobacco companies.

Games are really not much more addicting than lots of other things: Drugs, Porn, dieting, sex, TV, drinking, driving, nature, work, collecting.

You think the goverment is going to have to step in and limit how many times young men can think about sex?

thoughts cannot be enforced, but the releases of game can be...

Law enforcements on games are already beginning. The anti-addiction system enforced on all MMORPGs released in China, and the anti-violent game laws in U.S.

The US government will not be enforcing any laws on video games based on the small percentage of people who have addictive personalities. It's a known mental illness, and the person who gets addicted to a video game does so due to something in themselves. They have a tendency to get addicted to many things: TV shows, certain foods, etc.

The only current regulations in progress are dealing with the level of graphic violence and sex as far as being sold to minors goes. And even those are having a difficult time being passed. So, no, unless something goes hideously wrong in the United States, they won't be doing it. And, if they do, you will see a crackdown on fast food chains and television viewing, as well.

If anything, the goverment will just make it illegal to advertise games on Tv not stagger release dates. I doubt they will step in at all on this market, though. Besides, the internet is much more addicting than games...

Here is something to reinforce my statement

"In a study of approximately 4,000 EverQuest (EQ) players, over half (62 percent) said they would consider themselves addicted to EQ (Yee, 2001)."

Quoted from this page
http://www.mediafamily.org/research/report_vgrc_2002-2.shtml

and another...

"They found that more of the neurotransmitter dopamine was produced while they were playing." (depamine is a neurotransmitter related to addiction)
http://www.hammersmithresearch.com/specialty/article.asp?Specialty=Brain&art_id=101

62% is not a small number, and I'm sure this percentage is higher for WoW

ADD: Another quote

Quote:

Original post by Talroth Games are really not much more addicting than lots of other things: Drugs, Porn, dieting, sex, TV, drinking, driving, nature, work, collecting. You think the goverment is going to have to step in and limit how many times young men can think about sex?

I wouldn't put them all in the same category, but I do agree.

First, we have the case of physical mental issues. Some thoughts and actions induce chemical reactions in the brain (dopamine?) that cause an actual physical addiction. Some people have an addictive personality -- it doesn't matter what they do they end up getting addicted to it. Other people have other issues (OCD, for instance) where the brain just latches on to the event as a convenient hook.

Way back in human psychology we studied how reward systems can alter behavior. Games often follow the most influential model by randomly rewarding based on good behavior and randomly removing rewards from bad behavior. It's something I've studied out to help make elements more compelling. These aren't always chemical, but learned behaviors.

Quote:

Original post by lightblade Here is something to reinforce my statement "In a study of approximately 4,000 EverQuest (EQ) players, over half (62 percent) said they would consider themselves addicted to EQ (Yee, 2001)." Quoted from this page http://www.mediafamily.org/research/report_vgrc_2002-2.shtml 62% is not a small number, and I'm sure this percentage is higher for WoW

Depends on who took the survey. There could be five thousand players on a certain game and if you post a survey and only thousand answer, but they all answer they're addicted that doesn't mean 100% of the players are addicted.

But, granted, online games are addicting. Espesicaily in china, it seeems.

Everything in moderation (including moderation), nothing to excess. Now I'm off for another 70 billion hour stint on WoW (me? play a MMORPG? I think not kind sir. chortle.) and a 15-foot joint.

Quote:

Original post by lightblade "In a study of approximately 4,000 EverQuest (EQ) players, over half (62 percent) said they would consider themselves addicted to EQ (Yee, 2001)." Quoted from this page http://www.mediafamily.org/research/report_vgrc_2002-2.shtml

I wonder what percentage of EverQuest players are psychologists qualified to self-diagnose addiction?