All of us have grown up with video games. I started with the Nintendo with those great games like Duck Hunt and Mario. In time I progressed to bigger games take for example Mortal Kombat or Grand Theft Auto. A recent study done by a Michigan State University researcher and colleagues showed that playing violent video games leads to brain activity patterns that may be characteristic for aggressive thoughts. (Video Games Lead To Brain Activity Characteristic of Aggression, 2005) So, since kids are being targeted in modern video ads, this means that violence will reach playgrounds and schools. That's some scary stuff! I know back when I was going through Middle School the worst game out there was Mortal Kombat. Frankly, Call of Duty makes Mortal Kombat look like Bambi. Video games today involve slicing off hooker’s heads, shooting cops, small children, and anything else that crosses the player’s path. Not only are video games taking away kids innocence the video games are also taking away lives. Currently there's two big MMORPGs (Massively Multi player Online Role Playing Game) W.o.W. (World of Warcraft) and Everquest. W.o.W. has 9.3 MILLION players. According to Nannette Richford the psychological field claims that anywhere from 10% to as high as 40% could be hooked. Meaning 930,000 to 3,720,000 people are addicted! (World of Warcraft Addiction: Fact or Fiction, 2009) I visited a website called W.o.W. Detox where people that were once addicted to the game can come and share their stories of addiction. A user that identifies himself as #43536 talks about how playing W.o.W, changed his thoughts on online gaming. 43536 said that he started playing with a buddy while he was in grad school. His buddy almost killed his and his fiancés relationship. He played the game after she had gone to bed at night so he could sneak on and play with online girls. He even made comments about how he would leave his fiancé for girls that he met online. He continues on about how his friend’s fiancé would get avoided due to his buddy's W.o.W. addiction. His fiancé left him due to his addiction. This is not the only story out there like this. In fact, I have a couple friends that are hooked W.o.W. They actually call into work due to the stupid game! In fact yesterday one of them lost their job due to the number of days they called in thanks to W.o.W. The other friend of mine lost his fiancé because he wouldn't stop playing! So think again before pressing that Start button.

Works Cited:

Michigan State University. "Violent Video Games Lead To Brain Activity Characteristic Of Aggression." ScienceDaily 12 October 2005. 9 September 2009 http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/10/051012082710.htm

Nannette Richford.”World of Warcraft Addiction: Fact or Fiction” Associated Content 22 November 2007. 9 September 2009
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/456551/world_of_warcraft_addiction_fact_or.html