Let's be clear - these instances of wrecked lives, ruined relationships, and lost jobs are few and far between. We hear about them all the time because they're shocking. Why? Not simply because someone lost their job, or girlfriend, or gained 70 pounds from pizza binges - We hear about these cases because it's shocking to see these hardships we would normally attribute to something like alcoholism stemming from a video game. It's new, it's shocking, and the media is getting their money's worth out of it.
I personally have experienced the farthest depths of MMO addiction. Playing my part in a end-tier raiding guild in World of Warcraft, I needed to be online at 8 o'clock 5 nights a week for a 4 hour raid. That's 20 hours a week in just raiding. Then I gave a good 10-20 matches a week to each of my 3 arena teams (2v2, 3v3, and 5v5 brackets) - collecting another 20 hours likely. Then you can include all the time spent farming reputation for various factions, grinding out honor when not doing arena or raiding, leveling alts, or playing the auction house. Even if I wasn't doing these things, I'd probably find something to do with my guildmates or other friends. Collectively, this was probably another 40 hours. I would cancel plans with my friends in order to make certain raids where I knew items I wanted would be dropping, or if I knew that we'd be vying for a server first on a given boss.
So I was playing WoW 70-80 hours a week, more than a full time job. My main character alone has 220 days of accumulated logged-in time, mostly from raiding for over 2 years. I have over a year of played time logged on my account. So yes - WoW took up a lot of my time. Did it ever ruin my life though? Not really. I passed my classes, I hung out with my friends, I even started going out with a girl. Eventually I ended up leaving my hardcore lifestyle to more be more active in my relationship, and get a job. It wasn't impossible to leave WoW. I just stopped playing one day, started doing other things. MMOs are fun, they're wonderful escapes from the daily grind of reality, but when it comes down to it, they're still only one distraction in a world of billions. No matter how awesome something is, how multifaceted it is, it is still limited to stimulating you in only so many ways. MMOs are alluring, no doubt. They offer not only an escape from reality - they offer you an alternate reality. A fully persistent world with a many of the necessary elements of a real social life. You can set and strive for goals. You can fight monsters or players on varying levels to vent aggression. They offer much in the way of what we as human beings require from society.
But saying that you shouldn't play MMOs because they're addictive is the same thing as saying that you shouldn't drink, or watch family guy, or eat cheesecake - all very alluring and wonderful things that can potentially become addictive. I guess my point here, assuming there even is one, is that MMOs are not to blame. People are. All things in moderation, right? You can become addicted to anything you derive enjoyment from really, and if you don't want to become addicted to an MMO, don't allow it to become more than just a game.
