World of Warcraft is a virtual Skinner Box.

It provides a virtual 'reward' that fulfills some of our most basic needs;

- companionship
- victory in competition
- social status
- financial status
- a sense of accomplishment that you have worked hard for
- the need to 'be somebody'

It provides just enough of these things that it removes motivation to seek them out in the real world. Why work hard for years to achieve something when I can join a 2 hour raid and feel like a hero? To clarify, the feeling of being a hero doesn't come from completing the game objectives. It comes from knowing that you're 'good' at it, from doing something that many other people in the game can't do, because once you get below the superficial surface of the game, achieving it's final objectives requires a certain level of skill and teamwork that only the best of the best achieve. So the sense of accomplishment a child receives from it can be quite deep, far beyond the simple 'I won' rush of beating the videogames their parents grew up with.

And the further you progress in the game, like any good Skinner Box, the interval between the rewards grows longer and longer, at a scientifically designed rate, intended to keep the child playing and playing and playing, and more importantly, to keep paying the monthly subscription fee.

I've known friends who were addicted to drugs, and friends who were addicted to World of Warcraft (and to a lesser extent, Everquest II), and almost 10 years later I can say with full confidence that the people 'on' WoW had their lives ruined far more than the people on drugs. They became shells of human beings. All relationships severed, all ambition dissolved, jobs lost, educations abandoned. at least the people on drugs had life experiences while they were pressing their 'button'.



If you let your child start playing World of Warcraft, they will spend the next 5-10 years pushing a button for happiness pellets.