Words of Warcraft
December 8, 2010 3:18 PM   Subscribe

This week the BBC broadcast a Panorama special (UK only link, YouTube links here and here) on what it presented as the alarming rise of game addiction. Thoughtful responses from Rock, Paper, Shotgun and EDGE, both of whom point out a number of problems with it.
posted by Artw (20 comments total) 8 users marked this as a favorite
 
Horrifying images of "Warcraft mouth" coming to a billboard near you.
posted by clarknova at 3:22 PM on December 8, 2010


Thanks clarknova, I'll check it out just as soon as I've got loremaster on my worgen mage...
posted by londonmark at 3:28 PM on December 8, 2010


Panorama's being going downhill for years, even its own journos think so. Top comment about buying a farm below the article at Rock, Paper, Shotgun.
posted by Abiezer at 3:31 PM on December 8, 2010


Panorama has been the prime example of the dumbing down of the BBC for years... but that program was particularly risible.

Though the quote at the end gave me the best laugh in ages "Put the controller down, get up, ring a friend. Ring a friend and get smashed. Get smashed off your face because there's more to life out there than games"
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 3:35 PM on December 8, 2010 [6 favorites]


I think this is a trivial issue when compared to the horrifying revelation that FaceBook gives your kids brain damage.

This one is science... 'cause a famous scientist lady said so. Who needs proof when there's so much surplus conjecture?
posted by JustAsItSounds at 3:44 PM on December 8, 2010 [1 favorite]


Given that it's an article in the Daily Mail it's a surprise that Facebook doesn't cause or cure cancer, though the writer does helpfully point out "when someone first linked smoking and lung cancer, people didn't like that idea".
posted by Artw at 3:48 PM on December 8, 2010


clarknova: "Horrifying images of "Warcraft mouth" coming to a billboard near you"

"Warcraft sock".
posted by boo_radley at 3:55 PM on December 8, 2010


Espen Aarseth in Gamasutra on Gaming Addiction. He revisited the topic here in Cambridge at Anglia Ruskin University a year ago.
posted by honest knave at 4:25 PM on December 8, 2010


Did Panorama cost England the World Cup? Now they're going to cost me my level 72 Frost Mage?
posted by robocop is bleeding at 4:39 PM on December 8, 2010


I'm not addicted. I can stop whenever my wife yells at me to come to bed.
posted by Nanukthedog at 4:44 PM on December 8, 2010 [2 favorites]


Now they're going to cost me my level 72 Frost Mage?

Ganked by Panorama. Not the end I imagined for Branwen Icebeard.
posted by DNye at 4:49 PM on December 8, 2010


Was about to watch Panorama in iPayer, but diverted by the Paxman Hitchens interview.

Fascinating.
posted by marvin at 10:23 PM on December 8, 2010


For all the "left-wing bias" accusations of Panorama it's heart actually belongs to the middle-class. "If only Diana Tony was alive"
posted by fullerine at 12:25 AM on December 9, 2010


Previously on Panorama: 'Wi-Fi: Threat or Menace?'
posted by SyntacticSugar at 4:12 AM on December 9, 2010


"Though the quote at the end gave me the best laugh in ages "Put the controller down, get up, ring a friend. Ring a friend and get smashed. Get smashed off your face because there's more to life out there than games"

Why entertain yourself for $15 a month at home, when you could spend hundreds on alcohol and a chance to win acute cirrhosis of the liver! But wait, there's more!

If you act now, we'll also throw in this free voucher for an STD you might contract from all the unprotected sex you'll be having in your inebriated haze of socially acceptable irresponsibility!
posted by unigolyn at 4:46 AM on December 9, 2010 [2 favorites]


It gets worse! Going to the pub sometimes leads to people coming home and playing videogames! I've seen it happen!
posted by Artw at 7:14 AM on December 9, 2010


Some pubs even have videogames INSIDE THEM! Arrgh!
posted by Artw at 7:16 AM on December 9, 2010


So wait... I should get addicted to Warcraft to help curb my alcohol intake?
posted by Theta States at 7:45 AM on December 9, 2010


yah Theta, I thought that too at the end of the first YT video. Going out for a drink on a Saturday is better for you than playing video games?

Oh yah it's wrong because they're NEEERDS!
posted by kakarott999 at 10:44 AM on December 9, 2010


...and now we reach the point where Panorama being weird about videogames collides with Americans being weird about pubs...
posted by Artw at 11:02 AM on December 9, 2010


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