FCC Says Online Games A Leading Cause of College Dropouts

[Keane Ng]

FCC Says Online Games A Leading Cause of College Dropouts

Citing FCC commissioner [http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/splash-wrathlaunch2.htm] said that online gaming addiction is one of the top reasons for college dropouts in the US.

Remarking on the increasingly hazardous nature of the Internet, Federal Communications Commissioner Deborah Tate said [http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-287221A1.pdf] that "one of the top reasons for college drop-outs in the U.S. is online gaming addiction - such as World of Warcraft - which is played by 11 million individuals worldwide."

Tate's remarks come on the heels of reports [http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/?event=login] from the University of Minnesota Duluth that World of Warcraft habits are dramatically affecting student grades. UMD academic adviser Vince Repesh claimed that he has seen multiple students drop from straight-A's to F's after months of regular WoW play. "I tell parents during talks, I believe it's one of the hidden causes for kids to fail that nobody knows about it," Repesh said. The UMD chancellor has taken action by ramping up awareness of the risks of WoW addiction among freshmen and advisors.

Tate never backs her claim up with numbers, but most WoW players should have first-hand knowledge of how easy it is to get your priorities messed up when you're caught up in it all. Even if we take Tate's word for it, though, are the games really completely at fault here? If game addiction is the result of social problems above all else (as some would argue [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/87683-Videogame-Addiction-Is-Social-Not-Psychological-Says-Clinic-Founder]), isn't the problem the state of life in American colleges as much as anything else?

[Via GamePolitics [http://www.gamepolitics.com/2008/12/10/fcc-commissioner-terms-wow-leading-cause-college-dropouts]]

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[sirdanrhodes]

Basically, make crap games to help students in the future? Yeah... That is stupid...

 

[Zac_Dai]

They have a good point but at the end of the day its up to the student to show self-control.

 

[xitel]

So, if people aren't smart enough to stop playing the game and go to class, they obviously don't have more problems to deal with. Nope. It's all the games' fault. Absolutely.

/sarcasm

 

[Dectilon]

Yup. This is true. But people with bad self-control will play any old shit. I know I do

 

[Skrapt]

Students who let those things affect their grades are looking for an escape, so you can't really pin it on one genre of games or even games. As if a student drops grades while playing WoW, without WoW they'll just find something else they find fun/interesting to invest their time in.

I know, as it happened to me, my GCSE grades turned out pretty badly (well they weren't bad, just not good enough considering I am planning on studying medicine). Now my parents were pretty quick to blame it on my online gaming habits. But when I decided I wanted to go into medicine (after I'd got the results back) I've gotten my act together at A levels, throughout all this my online gaming habits have remained exactly the same, the only thing that has changed is my will to work and I'm now getting straight A's in Chemistry, Biology and Maths and decent results in Art.

Blaming bad grades on a hobby/interest is a scapegoat, if a student wants good results they'll work for them regardless of their other interests, and if they allow themselves to be sidetracked so easily it's usually because they want to be.

 

[Samah]

Don't blame the game, blame the addiction. It doesn't have to be WoW or any other game, it could just as easily be drugs or alcohol, but that wouldn't draw as much media attention because it's much more common and therefore not a sensational story.
This woman needs to play WoW, do drugs, and become an alcoholic for a month each, then tell us which she'd rather students have an addiction to.

 

[Chickenlittle]

Well, it is the addiction, but it's also the convenience. I know just how easy it is to get sidetracked with games, and these only being X-Box Original and Flash games.

 

[RebelRising]

Of COURSE!

Holy crap, it all makes sense now!

Thank you for showing me the way, Little Miss Reagan.

 

[Lord_Ascendant]

Maybe if people prioritized their work that wouldn't happen

Don't punish the many becuase of the transgression of the few

 

[mokes310]

Students who let those things affect their grades are looking for an escape, so you can't really pin it on one genre of games or even games. As if a student drops grades while playing WoW, without WoW they'll just find something else they find fun/interesting to invest their time in.

I know, as it happened to me, my GCSE grades turned out pretty badly (well they weren't bad, just not good enough considering I am planning on studying medicine). Now my parents were pretty quick to blame it on my online gaming habits. But when I decided I wanted to go into medicine (after I'd got the results back) I've gotten my act together at A levels, throughout all this my online gaming habits have remained exactly the same, the only thing that has changed is my will to work and I'm now getting straight A's in Chemistry, Biology and Maths and decent results in Art.

Blaming bad grades on a hobby/interest is a scapegoat, if a student wants good results they'll work for them regardless of their other interests, and if they allow themselves to be sidetracked so easily it's usually because they want to be.

Agreed. I think that many of the students here in America are pushed into college so they can stay on their parents health insurance. By doing so, I believe that you push a lot of kids into situations that their not quite ready for, I know I wasn't. I started college right after high school, wasn't mature or focused enough, and my grades suffered. I left halfway during my sophomore year and now, after six years of being out, I'm going back to finish up.

 

[Aardvark]

Isn't Blizzard rich enough now to buy the US government? I'm pretty sure they could have bought Wall Street by now, then instituted some common goddamn sense in them. I doubt an appointed body will have them quaking in their boots when they have huge underground vaults, filled with cash.

 

[Brokkr]

Everyone likes to blame video games for everything. Now it's people dropping out of college. It is really just the fault of the addictive personality of the person. If it weren't for WoW or other video games, these people would just be addicted to something else and then that thing would get blamed for dropouts.

 

[fix-the-spade]

Yup. This is true. But people with bad self-control will play any old shit. I know I do

Nevermind that, what if the course you are doing is fine, but the people you live with are amorral twats and you spend all night playing games just drown out their drunken swearing?

 

[Bored Tomatoe]

My intelligent and well thought out response: Fuck you FCC, you overly controlling pricks.

 

[Dommyboy]

The FCC says a lot of things. They make a good point but some teachers, schools and companies expect students to be entirely focused on the work available and devote most of their time to it. When it comes down to it though, most students just want to have fun.

 

[Ronmarru]

I hate how they take two events and draw these connections. a)Student drops out. b)Student plays games. Therefore, student drops out because he plays games. Did these people ever stop to think about why they were playing? Is it possible that they were looking for something fun to do/kill time with/escape with? Wouldn't they just pick up something else if games were unavailable?

Is it wrong to think "Too bad" for these kids? If they don't care enough about their education to stop playing then would it not be fair to say that if they didn't play and continued through their careers, they'd do a crappy job?

 

[TsunamiWombat]

Isn't there a Doctor in Canada treating gaming addiction as a social disorder, not a substance addiction? Therefore the issue is SOCIAL and not games? The Escapist had a story on this.