ITT Pokket says, "I can stop whenever I want, just one more run," while furiously clutching her gaming keyboard in her well-manicured hands while multi-boxing a new MMO Beta.

Jk.

Srsly though about half of MMO gamers are addicted. It's unsurprising, these games are literally designed to be that way. In truth, MMOs lie somewhere in between a hobby and a recreational drug, kind of like gambling. It's why some of the games have Behavioral Psychologists on staff.

Btw, just because you're "functional" doesn't mean you're not addicted, either even though interference with daily life means you are.

I actually new this guy when I played swg. He worked police department in North Carolina.  He was the leader of our guild.  He gamed at work, surfed the forums emailed all while he was at a desk in the police department.  Then they elected a new sheriff, and that was the end of that gig.  The new sheriff walked buy saw this guy in the middle of a death watch bunker run.   Mind you he did not fire our guild leader he done much worse.  He took him off desk duty, put him in uniform and transferred him out of the jail and onto the street writing parking tickets.  So he was never allowed to use the computers at work ever again.  I lost touch with our guild leader, parted ways on a bitter note. I have no clue what he does for a living now, I can say he no longer works for the jail, or that police department.  So swg eventually did cost him his job.

The funny thing is I see folks all the time nowadays using facebook, and forums at work and they are instantly terminated for misuse of work computers.  Nobody puts up with that nowadays. 

Most companies now have it security scan for games and stuff, at least where I was at last. I can tell you more than 30 folks the last year I worked at that location were fired for misuse of company computers.

I liked this editorial a lot.

I think in today's day and age, people are far more prone to video game addiction. With growing economic disparities affecting people on a global scale, one of the few mediums of entertainment that hasn't really fluctuated in price too dramatically has been the video game industry.

A good night out can cost you hundreds of dollars. For a lot of folks, especially the younger demographics (who typically can only work minimum wage-jobs), spending hundreds of dollars going out can be daunting. However, for $59.99, possibly less given the free-to-play popularity surge in the past few years, you have access to a game/games that have near-endless replay value. Couple that with a serious digitalization of social interaction (Facebook, Twitter, Skype, etc), some people essentially PREFER interacting with people via the comfort of their own homes and via headset to socializing. When you take all that into mind, I think it's a lot easier to get really passionately involved in games, especially those as time-consuming as MMORPG's.

While I would say I'm far from an addict, I definitely do use video games as a social medium. I met several friends via games over the years, many of whom I've ultimately met up with in real life! Most of us have grown out of certain genres and play styles, and we've kept in touch. But there have been a handful who ultimately just got enveloped by games/a certain game. A regular person who used to play Diablo 3 with me many years ago got so obsessed with trading and gold-selling and MFing that he'd be playing legitimately 14 hours a day. He failed out of school,quit his job, and essentially doesn't even eat sometimes. It's sad because you can't communicate to these people that "it's just a game dude..."

I suspect there will be studies on this more in the coming years as well, especially given the rising popularity of competitive gaming (such as the LoL tourneys, DotA2 tourneys, etc)

Is it wrong that I find the rhetorical mud-slinging here more compelling than most of the games?

Incidentally, if you want to quit (anything, really), I recommend a 4-week hospital stay without access to the {anything}.

I broke several addictive habits all at once, this past January.  Even lost most of the spare tire, because hospital food sucks arse.