Leipzig Speaks Out Against Gaming Addiction

02 Sep 2008 at 10:05:47 by Bill Vaughan

A study carried out by scientists at Leipzig university, the same town that hosts one of the biggest Gaming Conventions in Europe, has indicated that game designers are more to blame for gaming addiction than the players themselves.

In an article on dw-world.de, some interesting statistics were shown as a result of Leipzig's study:

• 80% of youths prefer social games, like Guitar Hero, over single-player ones, and the MMO market is also on the rise.
• Approximately 10 percent of online gamers boast about being addicted
• Around 78% of users regularly meet up with their friends in MMOs
• Around 48% have made new friends in MMOs

However, MMOs, which require huge amounts of revenue from the developers to maintain so therefore usually have some sort of subscription (like WoW), need people to play them and bring money in, so are sometimes designed to be addictive. Bernd Schorb, expert for media education at the University of Leipzig, gave an example:

"When World of Warcraft costs 11 euros a month, those who market it have a great deal of interest in not losing anyone. Therefore they construct their game so that people stay with it,"
But reassuringly, the last statistic of the article is a good one:

"no matter how computer game culture develops, online gamers are and will remain mostly normal teenagers, explained Bernd Schorb."

“Through the survey we found a lot of cases of players, who have been playing 12 or 13 hours, and have just totally given it up,” he said. “What usually causes this? Normally it’s the one thing that can make a teenage life beautiful: finally having a girlfriend.”

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