Blizzard comments on video games addiction documentary

And yet they created the "insane in the membrane" achievement...

Does Chris Dandos have parents?

A classic mentality... Don't bother taking care of yourself or taking responsibility for how you or your children act. Blame someone else....

Airing the night Cataclysm launches? Is there anyone left to watch it at that rate? :P

Yeah, you can't really blame Blizzard. The same like you can't blame alcohol makers or cigarette makers... they just supply it, and as long as they aren't underhanded about their practices (like everything with gambling has the hotline for compulsive gambling, alcohol and tobacco have the warnings clearly labeled right across them and they don't advertise to minors, etc), they still have the right to belong. Blizzard offers stuff like rest experience for not playing, and plenty of parental restrictions, GW offers statements that basically plead you to take breaks, etc. They understand that a percentage of the population has addictive personalities, but how can you blame them for letting that small percentage become addicted?

I wish someone would do a documentary on journalists/documentarians and how they LOVE to pass the blame in the wrong direction.

I'm not going to say that Blizzard is the reason why kids stop going to school, although I WILL say that game designers aren't stupid.

This article really nails it:

http://www.cracked.com/article_18461_5-creepy-ways-video-games-are-trying-to-get-you-addicted.html

Also, Horizon is much better than Panorama anyway. Just sayin'.

It would be naive to think that blizzard AND OTHER GAME COMPANIES are employing a lot of psychology in the design of games, but these documentaries usually turn out to be trashy, overly dramatic and sensationalistic. Irrelevant. Blizzards response is okay.

Though, i wanted to link the cracked.com article too. :)

*sigh* You people.

Guess you guys would say the same about voters voting against their own vested interests because the politicians are corrupt. Not the politicians fault. Not their fault.

I agree people should be accountable for their own addictions but don't act like such lazy thinking fan boys in the process.

How the hell does a kid spend 20 hours a day in front of a computer, skipping school in the process, without the parents knowing about it???

They really enjoy pushing this argument -.-

It's the fault of the player for addiction if they know they have an addictive personality and realize that the game they're playing is quite addictive. Yes, games like WoW -do- toss in a lot of elements to keep someone interested in the game, because that's what they have to do with a game that runs on monthly fees.

They could always toss in a fatigue system or something like in Dungeon Fighter Online or FusionFall, but then they would be hurting the hardcore gamers if they did it wrong.

Besides, if it's a teenager doing it, why haven't the parents stopped him? -_- If he were an adult on his own he wouldn't be able to get by at all with playing WoW 20 hours a day. I'm a college student and am lucky if I get like three or four hours. In that case it's not just the player's fault, but the fault of the parents of the player for not effing doing anything.

Blaming a video game/video games in general is not the way to solve the problem, because there'll just be some other addictive escape/form of entertainment for people to flock to.

-.- *sigh* Stuff like this just riles me up when the logic is faulty or one-sided.

The main arguments here seem to be that 1) People become addicted to all sorts of things, and much weaker argument that 2) Blizzard makes a token effort to discourage addiction.
1) There are any number of harmful things that people become addicted to that frankly, shouldn't be legal. And whether or not they are legal, a lot of things should be intolerable. For example; cigarettes. What possible good do they do anyone? Help them to relax from a hard day at work by giving them a nicotine addiction and more health problems than you can shake a stick at? There's lots of wholesome ways to help people deal with stress. Smoking cigarettes is about as smart as choking a baby unconscious to stop it from crying, both will solve the problem and deprive someone of oxygen. I won't even bother to talk about alcohol because that is also so clearly unneccesary for proper functioning of an adult and just as harmful as smoking. Foolish people do both and you can't fix that.
2) While WoW and other games might provide parental controls they certainly don't do anything to discourage abuse. If they were even slightly serious about it they would only allow an account to be active 12 hours out of a day. That's more than enough for adults or children. Of course players would counter this by having multiple accounts but this would only line Blizzard's pockets with more cash so I'm surprised they don't do it. But companies love to look pious and say that they remind people to practice moderation while meanwhile laughing their butts off thinking of more ways to keep players hooked.
Ultimately you can never legislate morality. Do players get addicted to games? Of course some do. Does WoW tie into the exact same part of your brain gambling does? Of course it does. (Ooooo, my piece of gear didn't drop off the boss this time, gotta try again next week and hope I get lucky!) Does watching violent images desensitize us? Of course it does. Does WoW MAKE people addicted, no. Does watching violent images MAKE someone more violent, not necessarily. But is it okay to excuse the addictive nature of WoW because other things are addictive too? No.

You would have to be pretty weak minded to get addicted to a video game.

It's not like anyone that weak would do anything better with their life than reaching level cap or just offing themselves so they don't waist resources.

Disgusting.