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Not surprisingly, anecdotal evidence of video game addictions often comes from concerned parents; as a result they might be the movement’s torch-bearers. The web is populated with forums where they can commiserate with other parents about their children wasting long hours online as grades and hygiene plummet. They also appear to be a place where parents swap addiction criteria like neighbors in the real world might borrow an egg or sugar.
Terminology
An additional issue regards the term ‘video game’ since hardly all games are created, or played, equally. Single player and online games are substantially different from so-called Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) games, which might include hundreds of thousands of people active worldwide. World of Warcraft, Second Life, Entropia and There.com differ in their approach but equally are charged as being play-worlds where unhappy people escape the doldrums of reality.
Those who oppose the use of addiction with video games represent the usual suspects—credible health associations with standards and methodologies to uphold.
A Redeeming Quality
However, one aspect of video game involvement seems to bucks its consideration as an addiction in one shot. Unlike its common comparatives—gambling or drugs—there is some reason to think that video games might actually have a few redeeming qualities, notably that the virtual world operates in much the same way as any community, and here people can meet and interact with others in a social format in ways they can’t in the real world. Sometimes, friendships develop that extend into the real world.
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