Top 5 Dangerously Addictive Games

5. Magic, The Gathering

It’s Friday night and just down the street at the local gamer store a crew of men and women (mostly men) between the ages of 12 and 65 are assembled at ping pong tables which have been covered by animated playing cards depicting fantastic fictional characters and beasts. The men slap the cards on the table, talk, jeer, laugh, and occasionally raise their voices at one another.
Why aren’t these guys out chasing women? Why aren’t they at home with their wives? Why aren’t they writing their Congressman? What brings them back to this same place night after night, month after month, and year after year? The answer: Magic.
Online articles like Jason Alam’s I Won’t Lose My Second Wife: Quitting Magic quickly illuminate this game’s addictive and utterly destructive impact on the human mind. I would suggest reading it to fully understand the scope of this game’s addiction. And trust me, the list only gets worse from here.
4. World of Warcraft


The World of Warcraft series, aptly named because of its capability to totally immerse gamers into an alternative reality, has shot down countless young men who would have otherwise been experiencing the thrilling heights of their late-teens and early-20s sexual prime.
A strategic war game based in a fantasy landscape equipped with all sorts of outlandish weapons, monsters, heroic characters, and animals is just the beginning. The game eventually takes over the life of the individual- so much so that it becomes a part of the brain. Warcraft players will be cutting the lawn and thinking to themselves, what would I do if an army invaded over that sidewalk? Or, how many soldiers could I fit—if they were real, life-sized entities—into a kingdom the size of Lincoln, Nebraska (where I am pointlessly living out my pale and shattered existence in my brother’s spare bedroom while “getting my degree” from the local computer technology institute).
3. Starcraft

Starcraft is the bane of the online strategy gaming world. It is strikingly similar to Warcraft. The setting of the Starcraft strategy game is composed of an unrealistic intergalactic array of atmospheres and space stations set up specifically for unique battle strategy implementation. Players war against one another online by building armies in real time, massing attacking, and choosing a “race” of species that best fits their fighting style and personality.
There are two generations of Starcraft player: The Original Disc Junkies and The Brood War Edition Psychopaths. These two divisions are based on different releases of the game, neither of which has pulled away from the other in terms of popularity amongst online gamers.
Starcraft is a smashing success. When it comes to how many people actively play the game, which was originally released 12 years ago by Blizzard Entertainment, the numbers are astronomical. (Yes, 12 years ago means 1998… and yes, the original version is still being gobbled up with mind-numbing frequency.)
A group for Starcraft addicts exists on Facebook, and if you look around online there are plenty of stories (bogus or real, who knows) of Starcraft addicts committing various insane or illogical acts in the real world “as a result of playing too much.” Obsession with the Starcraft videogame is likened to alcoholism, drug abuse, or power addiction. It is impossible to overcome without a true life altering experience or change in mental perspective.
2. Call of Duty

Call of Duty, is a first-person “shooter” (a game in which the gun and the hands are the only visible parts of your character) Xbox game depicting the lives (and deaths) of American and British special forces soldiers as they combat a worldwide network of terrorist regimes who threaten to overthrow the United States of America and its allies.
The game itself lasts a mere 10 hours of playing time (give or take, depending on skill), but the real addiction begins when players register the game online. According to some less experienced players it is “impossible to stay alive against some of these [Call of Duty] internet gamers. They play for five or ten hours a day—and I’m not kidding.”
Rumors of addiction to Call of Duty include the story of a young man who, after winning the lottery for somewhere in the neighborhood of $100k, holed up in a beach house near San Diego with a crew of his friends and pissed winnings away on candy, soda, the occasional stripper, customized Xbox consoles, and an unbelievable flat-screen TV network which would allow the team of the gamers to play in unison. It is because of this story, told to me by a firsthand witness, that the Call of Duty gaming addiction ranks so highly on this list.
1. Halo

Obsession with this galactic first-person shooter is a serious condition amongst the young people of the United States. While at first the game brought people together in groups to play against one another, it has ultimately forged a society of predominately young males (along with games like Medal of Honor or Call of Duty) who live behind a flat screen television and communicate to other gamers via a headset.
While this communication is a positive thing for some people (those with disabilities who cannot leave the home, etc.) it is a dangerous addition to the already broad array of technological inventions which have severed person-to-person societal bonds by connecting human beings through virtual interaction instead of face-to-face communication.
And the addiction does not stop with playing the game. Check out geekswithblogs.net, where individuals spend extra “non-gaming” hours recounting the highlights (most of the time quite dry) of their daily adventures in cyberspace. This link also doubles as an “I’m addicted to Halo” blog. It’s like sitting through an AA meeting with a bunch of 14-year-old kids that you can laugh at or feel sorry for… your choice.
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