在线电脑游戏可以为玩家们提供娱乐消遣和社交互动，但对某些人来说，它们同样可以成为一种困扰。

《魔兽世界》（World of Warcraft）或是《无尽的任务》（Everquest）等游戏在世界各地拥有数百万甚至数千万玩家群体，但对一些玩家而言，这些游戏已经变成了一种时间杀手。

World of Warcraft

23岁的玩家山姆（Sam）称《最终幻想》（Final Fantasy）把他困了五年之久，“我不想去任何地方或者做任何事，也没有工作。有些时候，我会在那里玩一整天，早上八点起床，一直游戏到凌晨三四点。”山姆最终因此丢了工作，有时他甚至会逃避家庭活动，假装生病，沉溺于网络世界。用他的话来说，“这就像是，这里有我想要的一切，为什么要离开？”

据游戏邦了解，山姆玩的这类游戏就是大型多人在线角色扮演游戏（MMORPG），玩家需要支付月费方能进入游戏，玩家在游戏中可以和世界各地的用户联合作战。

山姆表示，这些游戏的设计，都是以获得更好的装备来刺激玩家继续玩游戏，“他们有意让那些装备难以获取，因此你得每个月不断地向他们付费，保持游戏欲望，这是一个恶性循环。”

在伦敦德里郡从事网络游戏研究的Joshua Hufton认为，这些游戏在本质上就是想让玩家玩得更多、玩得更好。它们的设计初衷就是吸引玩家，很容易让他们混淆了虚拟与现实这两个不同的世界，“在游戏中化身为一个你在现实世界中无法扮演的角色，这对许多人而言都是个令人沉迷的诱惑。”

当山姆在一个有公用无线网络的场地接受采访时，另一个偶然听到访谈的男子则凑过来表示他也游戏成瘾。该男子不想透露自己的身份，仅表示自己是一名40多岁的丈夫和父亲。

“我都两天没刮胡子了，因为我没有时间”据他所说，他每天要花数个小时在社交网站上玩一款名叫《Pets》的游戏。当他无法上网时，他就带着笔记本到附近有公用无线网络的地点继续玩游戏。他认为自己的行为“就像是一个犯了酒瘾的酒鬼。”

有些人认为，当走向这样的极端时，强迫性的游戏就会演变成酗酒一样的病症。在线玩家匿名协会（On-Line Gamers Anonymous）的创始人Elizabeth Woolley称，她的儿子十年前曾沉溺于《无尽的任务》无法自拔，“在挣扎了一年半之后，他最后在电脑前结束了自己的生命。”

在她的儿子去世以后，Woolley创办了在线玩家匿名协会，该网站的单日访问量为1000人次。她建议建立一个与匿名戒酒协会的12个步骤类似的戒网康复模型。她认为，“游戏成瘾与酒瘾或毒瘾并没有太大区别，当它对你的生活产生无法阻止的消极影响时，你就已经处于棘手的麻烦之中。”

这类游戏还形成巨大的经济开支，除去每个月的会员费，有些游戏玩家还要花更多的钱来买点卡或游戏中的装备。山姆和另外那名沉迷游戏的男子均表示他们每个月在游戏上花费数百美元，有时甚至缩减其他开支来支付游戏费用。该男子称，“如果电费账单是200美元，那我就支付180美元，第二天，我又会改成支付150美元。我知道自己的情况很不妙。”

山姆则表示他正在努力克服这个问题，他在去年曾用“火鸡疗法”（游戏邦注：突然完全戒除某物的疗法）摆脱游戏，但在秋天却又故态复萌。他称自己现在已经三个月没有碰过游戏了。

《魔兽世界》是全球最具影响力的大型多人在线角色扮演游戏，该游戏的制造商暴雪娱乐公司曾表示，“日常生活比任何形式的娱乐都更加重要”，他们已经在旗下游戏中内置了自然间隔功能，用以限制玩家的游戏时长。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，转载请注明来源：游戏邦）

Online Games Can Be Addictive To Some

Players Report Losing Jobs, Money While Playing Games

Online computer games can provide entertainment and social interaction for players, but for some, they can become an obsession.

Games like World of Warcraft or Everquest have hundreds of thousands or even tens of millions of players around the world. But for some of those players, the game has become more like an addiction.

“I didn’t want to go anywhere or do anything,” said “Sam,” a 23-year-old gamer. “I wasn’t going to work.”

Sam said Final Fantasy ruled his life for five years.

“Some days, I’d be there all day,” he said. “Get up at 8 in the morning. Be there until 2, 3, 4 in the morning sometimes.”

Sam eventually lost his job. He said he would even skip family outings, pretending he was ill, just to stay in the online world.

“It’s like, why do I want to leave when I have all this stuff here?” he said.

Games like Sam plays are called massively multiplayer online role playing games. Players typically pay a monthly fee for access to the game, in which the player’s character teams up with others around the world.

He said the games are set up to encourage people to keep playing to get better items.

“They purposely make this stuff hard to get so you keep paying them money every month,” he said. “You keep wanting to stay and play. It’s a vicious cycle.”

Joshua Hufton, of Londonderry, studies online games.

“They’re essentially making players want to play more, want to get better,” he said.

Hufton said the games are designed to get players hooked, and it’s easy to replace the real world with the virtual one.

“Projecting into an avatar exactly what you can’t be or do in real life — that is an addictive quality for a lot of people,” he said.

While News 9 was interviewing Sam in a location with public wireless Internet access, another man who overheard the interview said he also feels addicted to online gaming. The man didn’t want to be identified but said he is a husband and father in his late 40s.

“I haven’t shaved in two days, because I didn’t have the time,” he said.

He said he plays a game called Pets on a social networking site for hours a day. When he can’t get an Internet connection, he said, he’ll take his laptop to the nearest public wifi spot.

“It’s almost like wanting a drink, being an alcoholic,” he said.

Some say that when taken to such an extreme, obsessive gaming can be an illness like alcoholism. Elizabeth Woolley, founder of On-Line Gamers Anonymous, said her son got hooked on the game Everquest 10 years ago.

“After struggling with him for a year and half, he ended up committing suicide in front of the computer,” she said.

Woolley created On-Line Gamers Anonymous after her son’s death. She said the site gets about 1,000 inquiries per day. She suggests a rehab model similar to the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous.

“It’s not any different than an addiction to alcohol or drugs, because when it starts affecting your life in a negative way and you can’t stop it, you’ve got a problem,” she said.

Such games can also have a significant financial cost. Aside from the monthly fees many charge, players of some games can spend more money to buy points or items to use in the game. Both Sam and other man who said he felt addicted to gaming said they spent hundreds of dollars each month — sometimes skimping on other bills — to pay for their gaming.

“The light bill is $200, and I’ll pay $180,” said the man at the wifi hotspot. “The next day, I’ll pay $150. I know I have a problem.”

Sam said he is working to beat the problem. He said he quit gaming cold turkey last year, but he relapsed in the fall. He said he hasn’t touched a game in three months.

Blizzard Entertainment, maker of World of Warcraft, the world’s largest MMORPG, said that “day-to-day life should take precedence over any form of entertainment.” The company said it has built in natural breaks to its game and also has features that can set limits on play time. （source:wmur）