在Dr. Hilarie Cash看来，上百万美国人每天沈溺于社交游戏是因为“这些游戏本身就是为了让玩家上瘾而设计的”。华盛顿网络癖瘾项目Fall City的创办者Cash在Daily Beast谈论了社交游戏成瘾的危险性，并指出Zynga等社交游戏公司故意在游戏中融入了诸如积分、等级、礼品等令人上瘾的游戏元素。

对此，Cash表示，很多视频游戏开发商都承认这类元素是被有意添加到游戏中的。

一直以来，这类免费，而单凭玩家自愿购买虚拟商品的盈利维持经营的社交游戏一直被认为是低智能含量的游戏。但是，当某个游戏工作室真的以此创造出巨大利润时，人们对其原有的同情就烟消云散了。

在Daily Beast看来，热衷于社交游戏和沉溺于令人妻离子散的毒品或酒精是不同的。有时，一些热衷于Mafia Wars的家庭主妇会带领全家畅享帮派械斗的刺激和快乐。当然，有些时候社交游戏也能引发悲剧，譬如上个月报导的：某位沉溺于游戏的母亲将自己的三个孩子弃之不顾。（本文由游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译）

Social Game Addiction

Millions of Americans play social games daily because, according to Dr. Hilarie Cash, “these games are designed to be extremely addictive.” Cash, founder of Fall City, Wash.-based Internet addiction program reSTART, spoke with The Daily Beast about the dangers of social gaming addiction and how studios like Zynga intentionally design social games with addictive elements like points, levels and gifts.

“That’s absolutely consciously built into the games,” Cash said, “I’ve talked to video-games developers who acknowledge this.”

Ya don’t say? When a game that’s free to play relies on players’ PayPal accounts attention span to stay afloat, that seems like a no-brainer. However, when certain studios appear to enable the behavior, it becomes much tougher to sympathize.

According to the Daily Beast, unlike addictions to drugs and alcohol that can tear families apart, some Mafia Wars-addicted mothers have brought the whole family into the gang busting glee. This is much unlike last month’s case of the game-addled mother of three who shut her children out of her Internet life. It’s all in the approach, I guess. （Source: Games.com）