Game On: Psychologists of Warcraft

By Daniel Taxy, Spring 2010

Imagine a small, bearded man with a bald head and thick glasses. His hair is white. He speaks in a thick German accent. He is an accomplished writer, a student of medicine, and has a slightly disturbing tendency to relate everything to sex. He stands with his foot planted on the corpse of Ragnaros the Firelord. His words? “A cigar may just be a cigar, but a legendary battleaxe is a metaphor for 300 hours of play time.”

Sigmund Freud has entered the World of Warcraft.

More precisely, therapists have entered the World of Warcraft. Psychology as a whole is starting to pick up on the idea that the Internet is the next frontier for therapy, and as a result clinical practice has moved into some unusual venues. A recent article in The Daily Telegraph highlights an effort by Dr. Richard Graham to reach out to game addicts by meeting them on their own turf, as an in-game avatar. He is particularly focused on World of Warcraft, the dominant online game with over 11.5 million subscribers as of 2008.

The biggest issue is that video game addiction doesn’t appear as dangerous as other forms of addiction. Most game addicts aren’t boosting cars to fund their habit, and they’re rarely involved in violent crime. In fact, videogame addicts rarely leave the house at all, and often lead relatively quiet lives. A game addict can remain largely insulated from the outside world.

Notwithstanding the occasional report of a gamer starving to death due to hyper-extended play session, they don’t lead the same hazardous lifestyle that other types of addicts do, which is one reason why the American Medical Association (AMA) doesn’t consider game addiction to be a legitimate disorder.

But the very idea of using the Internet to help socially isolated individuals is complex. It certainly expands the audience of individuals that a therapist can reach, particularly since many addicts aren’t inclined to leaving the house for a therapy session. But should psychologists really be meeting addicts in the environment where the addict feeds the addiction? It seems that a psychologist could inadvertently act as an enabler.

Dr. Graham certainly disagrees with this suggestion, and has called for Blizzard Entertainment, the company that owns World of Warcraft, to subsidize the therapists who wish to virtually treat clients. This seems unlikely, as attempting to cure the addiction of a dedicated subscriber will likely create losses for Blizzard on two ends, by reducing the number of paid subscriptions while at the same time also paying for the treatment aimed at helping people quit playing.

Still, what constitutes a proper therapeutic medium appears to change with each generation, and practicing therapy over the Internet seems unlikely to disappear. Dr. Graham has, however, warned those who want to help: “…One problem we’re going to have to overcome is that while a psychiatrist may excel in what they do in the real world, they’re probably not going to be very good at playing World of Warcraft. We may have to work at that if we are going to get through to those who play this game for hours at end.”

Not a problem, Dr. Graham. My paladin will be waiting.