Word of the proposal for therapy sessions for World of Warcraft addicts (or “over- enthusiasts”) has already reached the 3D virtual world of Azeroth through its official website’s news bulletin. A person, who is probably a player himself, commented, “… If he thinks that a bunch of psychiatrists masquerading as orcs and night elves will a) be able to get out of the n00b zones in less than a week and b) be able to get through to hardcore WoW players in-game, then he’s in for a bit of a surprise.”
That guy has already presented two valid problems. Yet, we believe that Dr. Richard Graham, the one who offered to venture inside Azeroth and heal the addicts one mystic character at a time, will encounter more of them outside the game than in it.
Acceptance. Back in 2007, the American Medical Association has rejected video game addiction as a legitimate mental disorder. Dr. Stuart Gitlow of the American Society of Addiction Medicine and Mt. Sinai School of Medicine in New York explained, “There is nothing here to suggest that this is a complex physiological disease state akin to alcoholism or other substance abuse disorders, and it doesn’t get to have the word addiction attached to it.” The ASAM will convene again in 2012 and the Dr. Graham’s psychiatrist team has until the next diagnostic manual release to further research on the topic.
With the boundaries of game addiction not clearly— and officially— defined, with whom should Dr. Graham and his team start? Should they just randomly pick up case studies? And in the remote chance that a WoW player goes to them for advice, how do they know that the person is a clinically- certified game addict?
Submission to the Higher Power. Or for Dr. Graham’s case, subscription to the game through sponsorship of Blizzard Entertainment. He said that in order to get to the players, he is requesting Blizzard to open the gates of Azeroth to the new character class: the shrink. Now, why would Blizzard let something like that happen?
This is a clear case of conflict of interest. Blizzard is making money out of devoted WoW gamers and Graham expects them to just sign the papers and let him try to talk kids, teens and even adults— the company’s sources of income— out of playing the game. It would be like the company saying, “Hey, our product is addictive. Please heal the addicts. ”
And just imagine how many players in college would shift courses to become Behavioral Sciences majors.
Letting the higher power purge you of sins. You cannot find someone who doesn’t want to be found. The casual players could be easy to sway, but the hardcore types could be “terminally” ill. Should the therapists be allowed to enter the digital realm, the question is how they will be packaged so they can come within range of the ones who “really need professional help”; will it be like a covert operation wherein they infiltrate the cybercrowd using the avatars available, or will it be an all-out, “we’re- available- during- business- hours- from- Monday- to- Friday” kind of approach?
Paying it forward. They plan to use other casual players to act as “peer mentors” to facilitate the sessions inside Azeroth which could be feasible. But it has to be done flawlessly and naturally. The hardcore players may be fixated on the game but they’re not dumb not to know “shrink talk” when they hear it.
What the psychiatrists are proposing is like killing the weed by cutting the leaves and not pulling the roots. The real problem is not an excess of playing but a lack of parental intervention. Maybe a better approach to the problem would be holding parenting seminars and not psychiatric sessions. Perhaps just eating together at the dining table more often or a little more family vacations could pull these souls right back to the real world. If they’re going to push through their plan, then China, with its MMORPG registration scheme, is closer to regulating its players’ activity online.
Amid all this, we can expect that the move will definitely not come from Blizzard to make their game more… boring.
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