Internet Games and Addiction

"Second Life is a 3-D virtual world entirely built and owned by its residents.Since opening to the public in 2003, it has grown explosively and today is inhabited by a total of 4,625,764 people from around the globe. "



"The Marketplace currently supports millions of US dollars in monthly transactions. This commerce is handled with the in-world unit-of-trade, the Linden dollar, which can be converted to US dollars at several thriving online Linden Dollar exchanges. "

I was listening to a radio station in the car, can't remember which station - probably 101.1 or 96.9 in Kuwait. Anyway I was listening to 2 people talking about Second Life and the side effects of playing for very long hours on a game without any rest.

They talked about how this Korean guy, who told his father that he would go camping, went instead to an internet cafe and played Second Life for 5 days straight without any rest. After 5 days people found him dead lying on his chair.

I realize that games and the internet itself can become addictive. If you know anyone who has an internet addiction, you might want to check out the Center for Internet Addiction Recovery 's blog