MMORPGs How they have changed for the better? or worse?

[Alexandre_Noireau]

I'm sorry but equating MMORPGs to drugs and saying MMORPGs make the diseased even sicker comes across as needlessly alarmist and hyperbolic.

Yet it isn't.

Videogames are confirmed to activate the very same processes and brain interconnections than several kind of drugs. In fact in some cases even physiological effects have been documented, rare occurrence but still there. Let alone what social isolation does to basic brain functions - And guess just what videogames in general do. Social Isolation.
Specially in the case of people who plays for several, several hours. I'm not talking about 2-4 hours. Im talking about teenagers or NEET adults that can spend well over +10 hours daily. That is particularly unhealthy for people with already diagnosed psychological or psychiatric sickness. Last thing you want a person with depression do is to spend his whole life in a room watching a monitor not interacting with anyone. Which a good chuck of populations in several countries are doing.

Again, im not saying videogames provoke depression, anxiety or something like that. Im saying that spending 8 hours of your day in videogames is alarming for an integral biosocial development and psychological health, let alone if you are already diagnosed.

And no, NEETs are not a "minority" playing these MMORPGs. In fact, the issue here is that the whole game design of these kind of videogames revolve on making the games specifically for them. The myth of "grind is part of the design" is just a cheap excuse when you notice that is exactly them the target audience of these kind of games.

Just like whales are for the monetization of these games.

I agree. I've studied just how overworked Japanese students and salary-men can get, or how companies over there hire for life. I will not look down on a NEET for rejecting that lifestyle.
I was pressured into getting a college degree and it made me miserable. I was pressured into my first two jobs and they made me miserable. How can I look down at people who who would rather be happy? Making money for the company I work for certainly isn't bringing me joy and it's not something I'll look back on in 40 years with any pride. If a shut-in wants to play FFXIV and they can afford it, then I say more power to them.

Thats tangent to what im saying.
Of course unhealthy societies generate unhealthy people.
But you cannot justify social/reality escapism, let alone when that escapism is something that is supporting said unhealthy society in the first place (operational conditioning for mass consumption of goods and media - Videogame addicts.)

"More power to them" - You are just supporting a passive form of suicide. Then again, you might even argue that suicide is a personal option that should be supported and of course, we don't hold people to the same standars of health.
I suggest watching a few classes or talks of Robert Sapolsky, specially on depression.

That people needs health care and social support to HEAL from their SICKNESS.

Not "more power to them" to slowly kill themselves, and at the very least, permanently damage their brain functions.