WoW Addicts to Receive In-Game Therapy

London-based consultant psychiatrist, Dr. Richard Graham, is planning to give out therapy, in-game, to addicted World of Warcraft players. Hoping to launch his project by the end of this year, Graham and a team of therapists are aiming to provide addiction counselling to ‘˜at-risk players’ by interacting with them within the confines of the game.

Whilst this seems like a nice idea, when you start to think about the logistics, certain problems begin to arise. For example, imagine the stereotypical WoW addict, they are playing for over ten hours a day, unemployed, forgoing social interaction and ignoring basic hygiene. They are also going to have multiple high-level characters. If a therapist approaches them, telling them they are playing too much etc. the immediate reaction will probably be to kill their character, insult them and run away.

This will be helped by the fact that therapists won’t necessarily be avid gamers. Graham has thought of this problem though and is considering the use of ‘˜peer mentors’ to access more addicted players. However, I can easily imagine both the therapists and their affiliates becoming targets for griefing and trolling, constantly being hounded by the ‘˜addicts’ they are trying to help.

Unsurprisingly, Graham seems to be a little naïve, believing most WoW addicts to be teenagers whilst a significant number will probably be much older than this. And he thinks that Activision-Blizzard will waive or discount the subscription fees for his team.

Via: GamePolitics, image source