THE UNIVERSITY DADY KANSAN
TUESDAY, MAY 6, 2008
NEWS
5A
Photo illustration by Rachel Anne Seymour/KANSAN
Plavina video games is a hobby many students participate in. However, some lose sight of their priorities, letting their homework or studies go ignored. The addiction can also lead to more serious consequences, as was the case with Shawn Woolley, who committed suicide in front of his computer.
the last I heard from him." Woolley said. "He disconnected his phone, and he quit seeing the doctor."
On Thanksgiving Day 2001, Woolley went to Shawn's apartment and found him dead in front of the computer. With "Everquest" still on the computer screen, he had shot himself to death. He was 21.
"I said, 'it has to do with the game. Otherwise why would he do it like this?' " she said.
Woolley said she planned to talk to the American Psychiatric Association this year and encourage them to recognize video game addiction as a disorder and problem, and push to have it recognized in the next edition of the DSM.
One game company that has shown some concern for the
"It's just becoming child's play to see how many people they can get to become addicted because the more people they get addicted, the more money goes in their pockets," Woolley said.
"When they find out what it's doing to people, they're going to be shocked." Woody said.
She also hopes to pressure game producers to make their products less addictive.
impact of excessive gaming on users is Nintendo, which has loading screens in some of its games that remind users to pause the game, take a break and go outside. ArenaNet also reminds "Guild Wars" players to take a break with a reminder that shows up on a user's screen during every hour of game play after the user has played for two consecutive hours.
GETTING HELP
After Shawn's death, Woolley filed a lawsuit against Sony Online, creators of "Everquest"
"The only way I could get anyone to listen to me was to threaten with a lawsuit," she said.
Soon news outlets were contacting her to talk about Shawn's story and the lawsuit.
Woolley said when she saw thousands of families going through the same struggles she went through with Shawn, she responded by starting OLGA at www.olganonboard.org. Woolley and a volunteer staff field daily requests for help from gamers, some of whom suffer from depression and suicidal thoughts.
"Almost every gamer I've talked
to has said they've thought about it," Wooley said.
BREAKING THE HABIT
Although many gamers have come to OLGA's Web site or professionals like Camacho for help, others have kicked the habit on their own. Josh Decker, Uniontown junior, said he has reduced his hours of play significantly since his freshman year.
"I was up pretty late into the night a lot of the time playing games with friends," Decker said. "It was more of a social thing for me, though. I wasn't playing if I wasn't with friends."
"I know that school comes before games," Decker said.
Decker said his friends would play "Halo 2" against each other on the X-Box from 7 p.m. to midnight at least once a week.
He said he got low grades in classes his freshman year when he spent his time playing video games with friends instead of working on homework.
He started playing less during his sophomore year, he said, and his hours of game play have gone down even more this year.
Decker said when he would feel that he might slip back into the habit of gaming too much, he would set an alarm on his cell phone to remind him that it was time to quit playing.
"The alarm goes off, and I find a stopping point, and work on my homework or go to sleep." Decker said.
David Smith, Leawood senior, said his friends helped him quit playing games excessively. He admitted he had gaming stints that lasted as long as 12 hours, but he always knew that schoolwork came first. Smith said that he left his video games at a friend's apartment when he needed to avoid playing them.
John Stockemer, Wichita senior, said he considered himself an "average" gamer, playing video games for three or four hours every day. However, he said he had a few marathon binges last semester.
Stockemer and friends bought "Halo 3" at midnight the night it came out and played it until 6 a.m. He skipped all of his classes the next day, and missed more classes than usual that semester. His grades reflected the gaming trend. In the
fall, Stockemer, who said he typically received Bs in classes, received two Ds and a C, dropping his grade point average from 3.4 to 3.25. He said his time spent shooting virtual aliens played a significant role in shooting himself in the foot in the academic world.
"I was up pretty late — until three or four sometimes — playing with my roommates or friends from back home," Stockemer said. "On top of my job, that didn't leave me much time for studying or homework."
Stockemer said he's strengthened his commitment to academics. He now finishes his homework before he starts playing video games. Now in his last semester, he hopes to finish his college career with a semester of mostly Bs. He said he's likely to meet that goal and achieve a victory more important than prevailing in any video game — a B.S. in psychology.
"I've got my priorities straight again," Stockemer said. "I want to graduate."
IMPROVED FOCUS
Tony Lewis, whose video game obsession ended his KU career.
now knows his priorities. Gaming is no longer a problem.
As he enters his last week of classes at Coffeyville Community College, he is in a good position to pass all his courses.
"I've got another year to finish up my juco degree, and then I want to go into music education," Lewis said. He plans to attend Emporia State University.
His daily routine is now to return home from work and sit at his wobbly wooden desk. The missing computer opens a convenient spot for doing homework. It is 6:30 p.m.
He opens up a book and highlights important lines in it. He finishes reading 80 pages for tomorrow's classes, watches sports on ESPN and goes to bed at 11:30. His first class is at 8 the next morning.
When the alarm sounds at 6:30, he gets up, turns off the alarm and takes a shower. The former pupeteer of a healer druid in "World of Warcraft," who at one time would still be playing as the sun came up, gets in his car and drives to class. Game over.
— Edited by Rachel Bock
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If the numbers are accurate, the death toll would be the highest from a natural disaster in southeast Asia since the tsunami of December 2004, which killed 229,866 people as it devastated coastlines in Indonesia, Thailand and other parts of southeast and south Asia.
A Myanmar state radio station said 3,939 people perished as high winds and huge storm surges battered coastal areas, with another 2,879 people reported missing in a single delta town, Bogalay, 60 miles south of Yangon.
However, Foreign Minister Nyan Win told Yangon-based diplomats the death toll could rise to more than 10.000 in the region, which
Hundreds of thousands were left homeless and without clean drinking water, said Richard Horsey, a spokesman in Bangkok for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
sits barely above sea level, according to Asian diplomats who attended the meeting.
The diplomats said they were told Myanmar welcomed international humanitarian aid, including urgently needed roofing materials, medicine, water purifying tablets and mosquito nets. The first 10-ton shipment was scheduled to arrive from Thailand on Tuesday.
The appeal for outside assistance was unusual for Myanmar's ruling
generals, who have long been suspicious of international organizations and closely controlled their activities. Several agencies, including the International Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders, have limited their presence as a consequence.
However, keeping out international aid would focus blame squarely on the military should it fail to restore peoples' livelihoods.
Allowing any major influx of foreigners could carry risks for the military, injecting unwanted outside influence and giving the aid givers rather than the junta credit for a recovery.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
A Myanmar Buddhist Monk makes his way past a fallen tree following a devastating cyclone, Sunday, in Yangon. The death toll from the cyclone has risen to almost 4,000, a Myanmar state radio station has said.