A psychiatrist specialising in treating those who worry about spending too time playing videogames has said pornography is more accepted than World of Warcraft.

"People feel a lot of shame around computer games," Dr. Jerald Block told The Boston Globe. "Whereas, it's socially acceptable to have a porn problem.

"As a society we understand that porn is something people do, and you can see a psychiatrist and get treated for it.

"But gaming is hard to describe to anyone else. So these people can't explain their situation to friends."

Block also says that studies incorrectly target youths and adolescents when investigating videogames.

"It's much more acceptable for kids to talk about game use, whereas adults keep it a secret. Rather than having sex, or arguing with their wife or husband, or feeding their children, these adults are playing games."

Brock claims that the question adults have to ask yourself is "How do you deal when your hard drive fails?"

According to the psychiatrist, Virginia Tech shooter Seung-Hui Cho decided against killing additional victims in favour of systematically wiping his hard drive.

"With these shooters," he says, "their last act was to turn against their own computers."

Courtesy of CVG

Jun 9, 2008