Would they make it addictive if they could?

Ophelea brought to my attention an interesting thought experiment on Rock, Paper, Shotgun: If the makers of MMORPGs would have the technical possibility to make their games psychologically or physically addictive, would they do it? Conclusion, quote: "For a game with a monthly fee, of course they would. Or at least, some of them would, and they’ll be the rich and successful ones. In fact, if they were a publicly owned company - or owned by one - they would be legally required to do so, to fulfil their requirement to maximise their shareholder’s revenues."

Of course that isn't proof that lets say World of Warcraft is really addictive, in spite of all the "fell of the wagon" jokes on my return to WoW. I certainly don't believe in single games being addictive, because to some extent they are interchangeable. If I went back to WoW it was more due to a lack of alternatives of a similar quality level. But if in a hypothetical parallel universe WAR would have come out now, in time for christmas 2007, and would be as good as WoW, I'd probably be playing that. Unfortunately in the universe I'm stuck in the year 2007 didn't produce any "WoW killers".

So if anything it is the MMORPG lifestyle that is addictive, not a particular game. Just like you could say watching TV is addictive, although you aren't watching the same show all the time. And even then for a large majority of consumers the TV or MMORPG is only used to fill out their available free time. The number of people who actually give up their job and family to play World of Warcraft 16 hours a day is tiny. That is a lifestyle that isn't sustainable unless you inherited a big bundle of money. I can see how a student could lose a year or so of his studies due to a video game addiction, but sooner or later reality will kick in and force him to make a living or go back to his studies. But such behavior isn't limited to MMORPGs or video games. Escapism existed long before those games, and escaping to a virtual world is just one possibility among many. The problem lies with the losers trying to escape from real life, and not necessarily with an inherent addictiveness of the means they chose to do so.