The studio says their games are ”designed to be fun” but that ”day-to-day life” - aka real life - should always ”take precedence.” WoW has tools for play time.
”Our games are designed to be fun… but like all forms of entertainment… day-to-day life should always take precedence,” Blizzard told the BBC. ”World of Warcraft contains practical tools that assist players and parents in monitoring playing time.”
The investigative reporter behind tonight’s episode of Panorama says gamers should ”judge after” they’ve watched it, not before. Raphael Rowe spoke with numerous young videogamers about their ‘addiction’ to the medium.
”Unlike substance addictions such as alcohol or heroin, or compulsive addictions such as gambling where professional help is widely available, gaming addiction is not a recognised medical condition,” said Rowe. He claims a videogame designer explained some of the ‘invisible psychological devices’ used to keep us hooked.
”If you give people a lever or a button to press and give them random rewards, they will press it all the time. In computer games… players are randomly rewarded with extra lives or extra in-game features. The idea is to create a compulsion loop that keeps them wanting to play on,” said SixToStart’s chief creative officer Adrian Hon.
Panorama: Addicted to Games? airs on BBC One tonight at 8:30pm.
