Carolyn hopes she has rescued her marriage from the World of Warcraft, an
online fantasy game which absorbs her husband, Paul, so completely that in
intense phases she sees him only during meal and toilet breaks.
Carolyn, a 39-year-old Londoner, recently managed to cajole him into playing
less, but still labels herself one of a fast-growing legion of “Warcraft
widows”. Now there is bad news in store for her - and for thousands of
others whose home lives are imperilled by a partner's all-consuming game
obsession. There's a new version of Warcraft out this month - and it's bound
to be even more compelling.
Such is Warcraft's grip on many of its 11 million players worldwide that an
array of self-help groups has emerged to help embattled spouses to save
their relationships - or to gain the strength to leave them. The game's
makers, the American Blizzard Entertainment Corp, won't reveal the average
time that players spend on it, but academic research estimates it as 25
hours a week. An as-yet unpublished study says it may in fact be more than
40 hours.
Carolyn, a PR executive, says that she has lost count: “We've had to enter
into some heavy negotiation to work out the nights and weekends when Paul
can play without me nagging him to stop. Because it's not just the odd half
hour,” she says. “Sometimes if he's locked into a group he'll break only to
eat and visit the loo.”
Players get “locked into groups” because World of Warcraft is a massive
multiplayer online role-playing game (in similar vein to Starcraft and
Second Life) that encourages players to develop fantasy characters and join
tight “guilds”, where they co-operate with unseen colleagues worldwide to
fight Gothic foes and save civilisation - online at least. Although the box
says “ages, 12-plus”, studies indicate the average age of participants to be
around 35, all locked in a virtual world-game that is complex, highly
social, very strategic, extremely competitive - and which never ends.
“If you're not careful the game can take over your life,” Carolyn cautions.
“When Paul's not playing, I know he's wishing he was and I know he's
restless and dissatisfied and desperate to escape to this weird fantasy
world. I can't understand it because it looks to me like something a kid
would play for half an hour. Apparently there's strategy and teamwork
involved and if you're really good you're an asset to your “guild”, but the
whole thing leaves me cold. Paul tells me he's starting to get bored of it
now, but I'm sceptical. It will be just my luck that when he does they'll
bring something out that's evenmore addictive and life-consuming.”
She had better brace herself. November 13 is the release date for the next
“expansion”, called Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King, with ten new gaming
levels and a whole new class of “hero” for players to achieve. This time in
Warcraft world, armies of the undead will threaten to invade the land of
Azeroth. Legions of fans are already pre-paying £29.99 in order to rush to
its defence. Guy Cunis, the European director of public relations for
Blizzard, the company that created and runs the online game, says that about
10.9 million people now play it worldwide, with 2.5 million of them in
Europe.
How many hours do they play? “That's not something we tend to talk about,”
Clunis says. “We like to keep players' habits to themselves. It's for them
to talk about.” But already the situation has prompted Relate, the
relationship-counselling organisation, to introduce a specific training
module for its counsellors on the problems that online gaming-obsession can
cause.
“We are definitely seeing a growth in compulsive online behaviours affecting
relationships,” says Christine Lacy, a senior practice consultant at Relate.
“We don't suggest that people simply go cold turkey because that tends not
to work. It's like any addiction, you have to work out the triggers that
make you start doing the compulsive behaviour again, despite the fact that
you've vowed to give it up.”
Fed-up partners have set up help groups
In the virtual world, desperate partners are joining forces to combat the
problem, through a range of sites such as WoW Widows, Online Gamers
Anonymous (Olganon), Gamer Widow and GamingSucks. At WoW Widows, one poster,
Becca, says that her husband walks in the door after work, runs past her
without a word, puts on his headset and is lost to her for the evening. “He
won't pick up the phone when his mother calls and won't eat unless I make
him something,” she complains. “He says, ‘If I don't get online my guild
will be pissed at me'. His guild? People he doesn't know in real life? What
about his wife? And the worst part is, I'm afraid to say anything to him
about it any more, because it does no good.”
Simone, who contributes to a Yahoo discussion board on the problem, discovered
that her husband had met another woman through playing the game. “I made him
make a choice of me and the kids, or the game and her, so he deleted his
account. A few days later I found out he had another e-mail account,” she
says. “Then I discovered that he was phoning her on my cellphone, which went
missing a couple of months before.”
Elizabeth Woolley founded Olganon in 2002 and says the site is “dedicated to
helping addicted gamers and their families recover from the problems caused
by excessive and obsessive online gameplay”. Woolley claims that her son,
Shawn, committed suicide as a direct result of being addicted to online
games. The site is staffed by volunteers who consider themselves to be
recovering gaming addicts, and the organisation is developing a “healing
programme” based primarily on the 12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous.
But can an online fantasy game actually be addictive? Blizzard will not
discuss the matter, nor will it say whether it is studying the issue. But
Jason Northrup, a PhD student at Texas Tech University who has just finished
a small-scale research study on women whose husbands are consumed by World
of Warcraft, believes that Warcraft can create addiction. “Such games are
not addictive for everyone, but they are addictive for many,” he says. “We
need to do more research into why, but most likely there may be multiple
causes, such as depression, or perhaps it is symptomatic of relationship
difficulties.”
Some partners play for 40 hours a week
However, he stresses, “It would be too easy to say that the players are
entirely to blame, when the games also play a significant role in the
addictive process. They are designed to keep people playing them, and there
is a lot of social pressure within the guilds to play often. The
participants in my study reported that their husbands played an average of
40.8 hours a week, the equivalent of a full-time job. How many other leisure
activities do you know of that consistently command that much attention?”
Blizzard, like any commercial company, is keen to promote its products and
thus very keen to keep gamers gaming. For example, if a Warcraft warrior's
account has been inactive for more than 90 days, Blizzard lets him or her
play free for ten days.
Northrup's arguments are supported by Dr Maressa Orzack, a clinical
psychologist and the co-ordinator of computer-addiction services at the
McLean Hospital in Newton, Massachusetts. She claims that as many as 40 per
cent of World of Warcraft players may be addicted to the game. “A lot of
people are asking me to get help for their children, boyfriends, spouses and
sometimes themselves,” she says.
While Orzack's figure seems astonishingly high, a study by the Charité
University Medicine Berlin, in Germany, already claims to have found
physical evidence of gaming's addictive powers, by using a test called the
“startle reflex” which is used to show whether substances such as drugs can
be addiction-forming. The researchers monitored the response of a muscle in
the eye, to see how much 15 self-confessed heavy players could be startled
while looking at a game-related image. Scientists theorise that the most
pleasing stimuli prompts the smallest of startle reflexes. They told the
American Society for Neuroscience's annual meeting how they found that
excessive game players could not be easily startled, unlike non-gamers.
The American Psychiatric Association is considering adding video game
addiction to its next edition of the standard diagnosis book for mental
health professionals, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental
Disorders. The issue is also being studied by the American Medical
Association, which has called for more formal research into the impact of
video game use. It is seeking a review of America's video-game ratings
system, to see if it can caution against over-playing.
Meanwhile, Carolyn and the world's many other Warcraft widows may find that
the only way to prevent hordes of undead invading their husbands' absent
minds is simply to kick the plug out of the computer.
Names have been changed
OUT OF THIS WORLD
What is World of Warcraft?
Warcraft is a massive multi-player, online role-playing game, in which a large
number of players interact with each other in a virtual world. Players
assume the role of a fictional character (called an avatar), controlling its
actions as it explores a huge landscape, fights monsters, meets orcs and
elves, fufils quests and interacts with other players, who can team together
and form guilds. World of Warcraft is estimated to have 62 per cent of the
global market, with around 11 million monthly subscribers. Subscription fees
in the UK cost £8.99 a month.
Other games in the genre include:
Habbo Hotel It's based in Finland and doesn't involve orc-maiming, but
its maker Sulake claims 7.5 million unique active users a month. Players
create their own characters and decorate their rooms, paying with Habbo
Credits purchased with actual money. Last year, a 17-year-old male was
arrested in the Netherlands, accused of stealing virtual furniture from
other people's virtual rooms
Second Life A parallel social-networking universe in which users,
called “Residents” interact through avatars to socialise, create and trade
virtual items and services, as well as show off their digital genitals.
Command & Conquer A game of strategy and shooting, initially
developed in 1995. Plotlines include the Red Alert series, where Einstein
travels back in time to remove Hitler in an attempt to prevent the Second
World War. This backfires and results in a Soviet invasion of Europe by
Joseph Stalin.
Starcraft A military science fiction strategy game developed by
Blizzard Entertainment, (the maker of World of Warcraft). Set in the 26th
century, the game involves three species, the humanoid Terrans, the
insectoid Zerg and the high-tech Protoss, who just can't seem to get along.
In South Korea, professional teams compete in televised tournaments.
TIPS FOR WARCRAFT WIDOWS
Paula Hall, a Relate counsellor, offers this advice for partners Therapy can
help We all need to switch off after a busy day, but recreational activity
is different from compulsive behaviour. If he can't stop logging on, work
with him, perhaps with a therapist, to untangle what's behind this behaviour.
Find something to share You need to make sure that your life together
is one that he wants to be a part of. Sometimes finding a new passion you
can both share is the way forward.
Compromise Can the gaming be minimised, so that it's three nights a
week rather than seven? Consider, too, that it might be your problem. Should you
be finding other ways to entertain yourself, rather than worrying about how
he is spending his time?
You can always bargain For example, spend less time on the phone if he
spends less time playing World of Warcraft.
Rules If it's having a significant impact on your relationship, point
out the possible consequences if it continues. You need to enable him to
make a choice.
FANTASY FIGURES
11 million subscribers means that if WoW were a country, it would be
larger than Ireland, Denmark or Switzerland
12 minimum age for World of Warcraft players
1,000 game masters oversee the action and can be contacted at any time
£100 million estimated value of subscriptions per month
2.4 million copies were sold worldwide in its first 24 hours
3 hours a day - the time limit placed on players aged 18+ by the
Government of the People's Republic of China
Source: Times Archive
