A teenager recently suffered seizures from playing the MMO World of Warcraft for too long consecutively. Health agency studies say that the game is more addictive than crack cocaine. Danger Will Robinson!

An internet computer game has been condemned as being as addictive as cocaine after a teenager who played it 24 hours non-stop had convulsions.

World of Warcraft has been hugely successful in capturing the imagination of players by drawing them into a virtual universe of battles and quests.

However, it is at the centre of a growing problem of computer game addiction. any players will sit alone in their rooms for hours at a time, immersed in the lives of their fantasy character creations - or Avatars.

Some 11milion around the globe play World of Warcraft - making it the world's most successful 'MMORPG' - massively multi-player online role-playing game.

However, a report from Sweden's Youth Care Foundation describes it as 'the most dangerous game on the market'.

The report's author Sven Rollenhagen said: 'There is not a single case of game addiction that we have worked with in which World of Warcraft has not played a part.

'It is the crack cocaine of the computer game world. Some will play it till they drop.'
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  • 1
    Zerpent Feb 28, 09
    At the same time, one could argue that they aren't really 'alone' when playing the game, as they most likely play it with online friends and stuff.

    Though, the game certainly seems to be very addictive, although I myself never really understood what was so good with that lame excuse for a game.
  • 1
    RabidChinaGirl Feb 28, 09
    quote Zerpent
    ...although I myself never really understood what was so good with that lame excuse for a game.
    It's got some things going for it, I'll give it that much. Sure not worth the monthly fee though.

    I think a few sources have already reported MMOs being as or more addictive than crack. I love Kotaku's headline though:
    quote
    "Boy Has Siezure After WoW Marathon, Daily Mail Has A Fit"
    Remember when the Pokemon cartoon was just starting out years back? Pikachu's lighting attack triggered epileptic seizures in some Japanese children.
    • 0
      Euphoric Feb 28, 09
      Really? I hadn't heard about that one. It'll teach those kids to get into Poke battles they can't win.
      • 0
        kik36 Feb 28, 09
        Oh yeah I remember that episode. I think you can find clips on youtube. But it really does have too much stobe light shit going on.
        • 0
          Dark Arcanine Mar 1, 09
          There's actually a couple of episodes that caused children to have fits when it comes to Pokemon. Porygon was the best, got hundreds of Japanese kids.
  • 1
    SUPREM_KITE Feb 28, 09
    So what the kid had a seizure read the frickin manual of every single game because you know what it says and is required to say by law "may cause seizures" because any number of light patterns may cause seizures in even non-epileptic people.
  • 2
    BANDITO ATTACK Feb 28, 09
    i'd rather be a crackhead than a WoW player.
    • 1
      Euphoric Mar 1, 09
      The alternate source mentions that. It's saying why pay money for something as addictive as WoW where all you get is E-Pride, when you can pay money and get addicted to cocaine and have happy time all round. My thoughts on the dot.
      • 0
        kik36 Mar 2, 09
        LMFAO interesting way to look at it I suppose....though a bit extreme.
        • 0
          Euphoric Mar 3, 09
          Live life on the edge. WoW isn't edgy.

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