Believe it or not, it seems like World of Warcraft is starting to get a heck of a lot more attention from suits than I would have originally thought.
News like this does not do much for the world of videogames but the truth is that it may actually be a scary fact that we all need to accept.
During a speech on telecom policy and regulation that was given to the Practicing Law Institute on the 5th of December, Federal Communications Commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate commented on World of Warcraft’s effects on students, saying that:
You might find it alarming that one of the top reasons for college drop-outs in the U.S. is online gaming addiction – such as World of Warcraft – which is played by 11 million individuals worldwide.
[Source: Gamepolitics ]
I have got to be really honest and say that I am so happy that the world of online gaming only really arrived after I had already left college, sure I used to play online with my PC here and there and there were also single player games. The thing is, if I had Xbox Live (substitute for PSN if necessary) back then and played it the way that I play it now, I am almost certain that I would have struggled to hell and gone to get any of my college projects done.
What about you guys? How is gaming effecting your life (good and bad) and do you think that it’s actually going to cause major issues for students? More on the college dropouts as well as technologies affect on our lives, after the jump.
At first, you want to shrug this off and call BS on the whole thing but I think she may really be onto something. She is not the only one either, similar concerns have been brought up by the the University of Minnesota Duluth in the United States.
This makes me wonder, how much less productive are we all due to technology? MSN, Yahoo and Skype all day at work? Games all weekend and in the evenings. Some of the time we spend on gaming is time that we are free to use as we wish but what about those times when you could and should rather be doing something else?
While technology has done wonders to speed up the way that we live, one must wonder how much it is actually been slowing us down.
Last Updated: December 12, 2008
SlippyMadFrog
December 12, 2008 at 13:47
Is chocolate going to make everyone fat?
Is McDonalds going to give everyone heart attacks?
Is smoking going to give everyone lung cancer?
Is drinking going to kill everyone.
If people are unresponsible, they will always find something to abuse wether it’s video games or drinking or whatever. If you want to play WOW instead of studying, good, less people to compete with getting a job. 🙂
NBT
December 12, 2008 at 13:51
I picked up a rather nasty case of internet addiction at university, which meant I ended up scraping through. If I’d had a gaming addiction I probably wouldn’t have managed.
I also had a nasty beer addiction which didn’t help either.
Sigh.
Scotty777
December 12, 2008 at 13:53
this is bs, people drop out because they want to… it’s not the games fault that people are addicted… I’m still a student(high school) and honestly, gaming doesn’t get in the way of my studying or projects… I completely gave up playing warcraft 3 online during exams (I’m scotty_kill :D)
all it is, is people don’t want to work, that’s just it… there’s a whole generation of lazy people being bread
Goose ZA
December 12, 2008 at 13:54
WoW hooked me in good and proper. That game is like CRACK man…. seriously. Thankfully I’ve been clean for over a year now and still get my gaming fix with Live.
Macethy
December 12, 2008 at 17:07
You cannot be serious!?!
“one of the top reasons for college drop-outs in the U.S. is online gaming addiction” Oh please!Like lack of funding and poor results could have nothing to do with it,to name a few.Come on Lazygamer,start thinking about what you are publishing as it just makes this site seem like a college drop-out with its sensationalist articles and fan-boy bait 🙄
Nick
December 12, 2008 at 17:15
I doubt that someone in her position would make a statement like that for the fun of it.
LazySAGamer
December 12, 2008 at 23:54
Gamepolitics is a very well respected site so I don’t think reporting on what they say is irresponsible. Obviously there are other things at play here but we are not a socio-economic site and are obviously just focusing on the gaming aspect.
PillsburyDeeBoy
December 13, 2008 at 00:23
…and my word do you have some militant readers who don’t need much incentive to take swipes at you over the nature of the content you cover…
LazySAGamer
December 13, 2008 at 00:33
It’s because they are passionate.. we support that 😉
We’re all big people here, we can take the knocks… most of the time