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Markkula Center for Applied Ethics

The Big Q Blog

man playing a video game

man playing a video game

World of Warren

Warren is addicted to video games.

Warren is an Orc. In fact, he's a level-60 Orc, a feat he has achieved by playing a lot of World of Warcraft. He belongs to a successful guild, whose members he considers friends. He spent last summer at home playing about eight hours a day--basically until his parents nagged him to come to dinner.

Now that he's in college, there's no one to nag him, and he devotes every minute he can to WoW. He usually manages to go to class, but he's behind on his homework, and there are days he doesn't get around to showering.

At the beginning of the term, his suitemates invited him to join them at various activities, but now they pretty much avoid him. Warren sometimes thinks his gaming is out of hand, but nothing seems as interesting as WoW and the people he's met playing it.

Does Warren need to join the real world now that he's in college? Should his suitemates push him to do so?

RESOURCES

WoW Detox

A Framework for Ethical Decision Making

 

Photo by Rebecca Pollard available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial License.

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