From the "parents without nuts, literal or otherwise" department comes the harrowing Current Affairs report on a child lost to the dregs of addiction. His smack of choice? A "violent computer game" known as World of Warcraft.

This video makes me hate the whole world.

But it gives me an opportunity to speak on the "game addiction" fad. The thing you always hear from the "addicts" in question is that this is their life, they are meeting people and exploring and hanging out with their friends. They're just doing it in Azeroth.

Before we dismiss this retort as the gibberings of a game-addled teen, we may want to stop and weigh its meaning. I was essentially raised inside a computer tower, spending hours at a time on games, and BBSes, and eventually the internet which is mother to all things. I'm not sure it's fair to say that the "real world" is any better or more fulfilling than an MMO.

Even now, I go to work every day on the internet, I spend much of my money online, I create digital art and writing which is used in digital display spaces, and yet I live in my own apartment in a major city and I'm healthy. The constant scathing glances cast at online pursuits by luddites is just ignorant. Who are they to say what is "real"?

I do assert that this haggard mother should inform her son that he is responsible for paying his subscription and internet fees, but if he is able to provide these things without criminal activity, and he is happy and fulfilled in his guild with his in-game achievements, then who are we to say he should stop?

Honestly, my biggest objection to the hardcore gamers is that they make the playing field steep for the more casual players. Servers should probably be divided based on playtime as well as play style. It'd be fun to be on a server that wasn't full of 12-hour-per-day teenagers with all epic gear and an encyclopedic memory of every map. Eliza Gauger

[via Joystiq]

Contact information for this author is not available.