I think that people can make their own decisions. While its true that EQ could, in some way, be thought of as addicting (i.e. you have fun at it, so you continue to play) and its also true that some people are mean, this by no means negates a persons ability to take care of themselves, to be aware of what they\'re doing. For the love of god, thats why we have brains! Think! People seem to want everything decided for them these days, that they must be protected and guaranteed and helped through every step in life. Meanwhile, you are continually bombarded with advertisements, judgements that you are to \'fat\' or \'ugly\' or \'stupid\'. That you are right wing or left wing or whatever. You get hundreds of tiny miniscule bills and fees and rules, all of which carry some penalty if you don\'t meet them. Our society has way more wrong with it then a video game. In my opinion, our society is far more damaging to the human psyche than EQ could ever be. It has simple, static rules. You cannot sustain real harm from it. The opponents lack intellect of any sort. You are not forced to deal with any individual, or stay in any given area. EQ is actually a great deal freer than real life. Is it a wonder that people like to escape?
Personally, I have often felt trapped or any number of other things by real life situations. I can\'t tell you the number of times I\'ve wished I could simply erase all records of myself and start again, new, with no associations and no-one with expectations.
EQ wasn\'t his problem. Real life was his problem. I bet he would have suicided sooner without EQ. When you play 12 hours a day, thats his brains way of trying to escape what must have been a very agonizing time for him. Humans are often very similar to machines (I am not joking) and you shouldn\'t underestimate the power of instinctual behavior. In my psych class, we read about a group of ten year olds. One group was shown a video of a person beating on a giant teddy bear. He beat it in the face, and threw it into the wall. Afterwards, a doctor gave him a plate of cookies. The other group showed the same actions, but a doctor yelled at him afterwards. Then, the children were each individually placed in a featurless room - with the teddy bear. Group A followed the exact same actions as the guy, 100% of them. Group two did interact somewhat, with a few hits, but mostly sat in the corner, waiting for their parents. You see? Robots. Programmable machines made from chemicals.
So you see, people tend to act more and think less. What you do is often driven by experience of good and bad rewards of an action. If his brain found relief playing EQ, and stress in the rest of the world, well, you can see what would happen.
