Getting the Blog Underway

An avid gamer for the past twenty years, I've played them all. From Zelda to Everquest, from Mario Kart to Donkey Kong, from Halo to Q-bert, from Resident Evil to Grand Theft Auto, I have invested hundreds and hundreds of hours staring at video screens and computer monitors. Then I found MMOs (Massively Multiplayer Online games) and really started playing. The World of Warcraft (with 10 million players worldwide according to a January 22, 2008 press release from Blizzard), the big daddy of the them all, hooked me. At one point, I was playing WoW 40+ hours a week and trying to find ways to snatch an extra few hours beyond that from my already overtaxed life.

There are articles and blog posts online about video game addiction, but the stories and claims about video game addiction are quickly pooh-poohed by gamers who say "addicts" simply lack willpower and that video games aren't cocaine or Johnny Walker Red no matter how you look at it. Having witnessed first-hand how a dedication (let's call it what it was--an obsession) to MMOs can take absolute control of your life, I'm writing a memoir on video game addiction that takes a hard look at why it was so difficult for me to stop. Apparently I'm not the only who experienced a problem quitting a MMO. Check out http://www.wowdetox.com/, a "volunteer-run web site aimed at people with a gaming addiction to World of Warcraft." The tens of thousands of testimonials range from disconcerting to, in some cases, horrifying.

I intend to blog at least twice a week on both the writing of this memoir as well as to report on my ongoing research into video game addiction and game culture. In The Kids Are Alright: How the Gamer Generation Is Changing the Workplace, Beck and Wade claim: "Some 92 percent of American kids from age two to seventeen have regular access to video games." They add that "Americans now spend more money on video games each year than they do on going to the movies, and more time at home playing video games than watching rented videos." With the proliferation of new, better-designed games into the marketplace, the idea of video game addiction is becoming more relevant than ever before.

I welcome your feedback and comments.