Dr. Phil's credentials should come on a cocktail napkin. . .

Phil deserves to be a doctor about as much as I deserve to be Dr. Fish. I actually may deserve to be a doctor more, I am not under sanctions by any states against practicing pscychology due to inappropriate conduct (check out this link for details). This guy is seriously the John Madden of psychology (minus the "boom").

I am, of course, referring to this post on his website.

Wow phil, trying to say it may be an addictive behavior but want to sound official? I have no doubts that there are people who are "addicted" to Wow. But seriously man, get a life. I have 6 cats, I am allergic to cats, but me and my fiance love our babies. I wouldn't give them up for anything, I just need to take Xyrtec-D twice a day to function. Might interfere with my productiveness at work, I guess I'm addicted to cats. I've played sports in some form or another most of my adult life. I've had 6 concussions, torn my rotator cuff, torn my hamstring, and thats only major injuries. It has caused me to lose horrible amounts of productivity over the years, both in my college years and now in the "real world". I guess I must be addicted to sports. There is also his referrence to "community". Which community are you referring to phil? I don't like my neighbors. The house to the left has yappy dogs who poop in our yard, the house to the right blocks my car in routinely. I don't think my Wow habits are affecting our interactions. On the other hand my guildmates always say hi when I log in, they are happy to see me, and despite the fact that I have yet to do anything productive at all, besides run their lowbie alts through low level stuff for gear, they are encouraging and motivate me to improve.

I am of course being horribly sarcastic. Phil obviously thinks gaming as a whole is unhealthy or he wouldn't have brought this up. Sports is on his list of acceptable "goals" that gaming may interfere with. Gaming is a LEISURE ACTIVITY. It is no different than playing sports, learning the guitar, or engaging in arts and crafts. When was the last time you heard of someone having an intervention because their scrapbooking was interferring with their life.

Apart from my guild, about 1/4 of whom I know in "real life" and a few people I know who play Wow, I don't know what the Wow population looks like, but I'm assuming it is pretty varied. Yes, there are people truly addicted to it. But why not focus on something that is actually a problem in society? Oh yes, I forgot, you're not really a doctor, phil, you can't do anything that would actually be of benefit to anyone.