Everquest , the scapegoat for the new millenium!!

[flibulzbuth]

It's true that EQ has a lot of addictive features. Camping for hours to get cool stuff, slow and studied leveling scheme etc... all for the sake of achievement(sp?). That would not be a problem if there wasn't the online community who can become an alternative to your real world relationship.

What can be done about that? All of these were requested by players. Should it be outlawed, like gambling in some places? Surely not, most players are decent, reational adults.

On the other side, Sony has the means to detect abusive players. They know how much time everyone stays online. They could do something about it... be it a pop-up once every 4 hours (you should rest) and temporarily blocking the account after an overdose of gaming (12 hours in a row, or "n" hours in a week), or even an email reminding people about their problematic behavior and the possible consequences.

But no way, that would mean Sony would lose costumers and cash. They hardly acknowlegde that mmorpg is the source of a new social problem.

People suiciding because of a game, D&D or EQ, already have social/psychological problems in the real world. But it is much tougher to get someone back on the right track if he's always alone living in an imaginary world where everyone else can't have a clue about his problems.