Us, not them.

Here, look: http://cbc.ca/consumers/market/media/everquest_qt_021015.html
So, a solitary man in his early 20's, lacking any sort of social life outside his home, blows his head off with a rifle. Shawn Woolley a depressed 21 year old is found dead in his apartment after an apparently shitty session of EverQuest. People collect the obvious clues, and Sony is in for a lynching. This is an OLD story, but one that was recently rekindled in my memory by the above link, helpfully posted in our IRC channel. So, being bored and somewhat curious, I opened IE and set out across the web to learn what I could... And I stopped after a few articles when I realized I don't care about Shawn Woolley at all. Which is where I think this whole problem started.

In one of the articles I read, Elizabeth Woolley states, "It's [EQ] like any other addiction," Elizabeth Woolley said last week. "Either you die, go insane or you quit. My son died."
So, the vengeful mother finds an attorney and sets out to play a round of America's favorite pass time. So what's she going to sue for? Well the obvious! Have warning labels stuck on video games, warning of their addictive nature, and explaining to consumers in bold fonts that playing these games can lead to lung cancer and impotency.

Here's where I had problems with the articles, and the whole story in general. Sure, your son was probably add-- Ahh, hell with it, Shawn was completely enthralled with the game. He would skip family events, disconnect his phone, and ignore his doorbell when playing the game. He'd not go to work, and stay up all night, sitting at his machine, playing Everquest. So, it's pretty obvious the guy was completely addicted. An alcoholic, a chain smoker, a mainliner. The guy was frying himself at a keyboard.

So I said to myself, "Self, people can get addicted to anything. Really. So should we start putting warning labels on everything?" To which my self responded, "Hell no, you idiot." So I figured the discussion was over, the debate resolved, Mrs. Woolley is full of shit. Then I remembered the aforelinked video saying that the Montreal Neurological Institute found that the same dopamine levels squirt through the brains of certain MMOG players, as through the skulls of heroin addicts when the shoot up. So they're basically getting high on the game. They're depressed and cranky when they're not playing, and are happy when they are. This allowed the Sony executives to line their pockets with pseudo-drug money.

HEY HEY HEY, WAIT A DAMN MINUTE. Are you, Landslide, seriously insinuating that MMOG developers are drug dealers? Or more specifically drug manufacturers?
No, not at all. I just threw that last line up there to get most of you in a state of agitation. However, that mentality is far from absent in the minds of many anti-gaming missionaries. EQ is addictive. That's pretty much a fact. So is UO, DAoC, Quake2, Age of Empires 2, Twinkies, back massages, exercise... You get hooked. You find something that you enjoy doing. It distracts you from the things you don't enjoy doing. You become addicted. The thing that separates a lust for back massages from a need to login and kill a few trolls is minimal. Yet Mrs. Woolley's statement (see above) doesn't refer to benign addictions. It refers to cocaine, heroin, LSD, alcohol, smoking and Russian roulette. Some addictions are absolutely fine. I'm addicted to reading. If I don't read something, after awhile I feel dim, unimaginative and dull. Same if I don't create something in Lightwave, or with my paints.

The reason I'm saying all of this, is because I honestly thing Mrs. Woolley, and an asston of other rabid bandwagoners are poking their noses down the wrong rabbit hole. The problem isn't with the addictiveness of the product, it's with the susceptibility of the consumer. NEWSFLASH: PEOPLE ARE FALLABLE. We all have something wrong with us. Sometimes, in some instances our negative qualities are dominant over our positive ones. Non-social and reclusive people with low self-esteem are probably much more likely to seek escape in a virtual world (and lose themselves in it) than most other people. Even then, I'm betting a large percentage of those depressed recluses are aware enough to realize that it's just a game. I believe that there's something in some people that doesn't allow them to understand when enough is enough. I believe that's what led Shawn Woolley to blow his head off. It's what causes people to quit their jobs and get divorces simply to spend more time in-game.

It's a fault in us. Say it with me: IT'S A FAULT IN US. WE'RE HUMAN.
I imagine:
Shawn Woolley, being human, doesn't find the care and attention he craves for in his real life. He finds it online. Online he is someone else. He can care for others there, he can protect them from monsters and demons. He's a hero to many, and a companion to some. Then he logs off and heads out for a 9 to 5 at the local pizza joint. Customers complain about the food, his boss is angry because he's late and not wearing regulation shoes. The girl he's been meaning to talk to doesn't come in for lunch today. He goes home. His landlord has left a message in his mailbox, demanding his late rent, and he has a message on his machine from his mother wondering if he'll be on time for his brother's wedding tomorrow. He looks down at his untied sneakers and greasy apron and for a brief moment everything becomes hopeless and worthless. He blinks a tear, rips off the apron, grabs a soda and logs into EQ. His problems fall away. The hero has returned.

So what drove him to commit suicide? It's believed that something traumatic in the game caused him so much grief, that he decided living wasn't that much fun anymore. A newly created character on his account was named "I Love You". From this, many conclusions have been drawn, but most believe that someone, somewhere broke his heart, and probably didn't realize how badly. His refuge from reality became imperfect, or perhaps was shattered. His happy place was gone, and he had no more places to run to. So he shot himself to get out.

Life today can absolutely crush people. MMOGs are false solutions to despair, but they are not the root of the problem. We are.

-Landslide