WoW Blamed For College Dropouts

You might believe in an addiction to online gaming, or you might not. Deborah Tate of the Federal Communications Commission certainly does. And she seems to believe one of the worst offenders is World of Warcraft, which she seems to think is partly responsible for the perilous state of the nation’s youth. In a speech she said:

"You might find it alarming that one of the top reasons for college drop-outs in the US is online gaming addiction – such as World of Warcraft – which is played by 11 million individuals worldwide."

The speech from one of the nation’s five communications regulators arrived not long after a University of Minnesota Duluth student advisor, Vince Repesh, had told the Duluth News-Tribune about the gaming addictions problems among students:

"If somebody has a chemical problem, you usually see side-effects from it but you can’t tell for a long time if someone is just sitting in front of a computer. I have seen straight-A students who go to Fs because they think World of Warcraft is more important."

He claimed that at least five students had come to him over the last year with gaming addiction problems. But it seems that a number of people do recognize the WoW problem. According to the Guardian, a media company recruiter has been told to avoid WoW players because they "cannot give 100% because their focus is elsewhere [and] their sleeping patterns are often not great."