Gawd... For one, it was a good article, but I don't really agree with the wording.
This whole article is choke-full of things like addiction, going cold turkey, irresponsible, wasted life/years, coming off of [substance]...ect. You treat video games like it's cocaine or heroin or something, and I don't like the comparison.
First of, I belong to the same generation and same general setup. 56k->college->broadband->"wow, awesome"->long nights of gaming...etc. But I still don't consider my gaming a life-braking, threatening addiction. Sure, I play my games whenever I can, and it does chip away at my responsibilities a fair bit (I myself flunked out of college once, but that had other reasons involved too). In the sense of devoting very much time to gaming and related activities, I'm an addict. I'm a fucking video game whore, in fact. I can't get enough of the stuff. Still, I built my life around it fair and square. I have a (part-time) job reviewing PC games (and I'm soon gonna start working full-time at network maintenance at the university). I'm majoring in Computer Sciences and learning stuff about games, I'm here at the Escapist reading and socializing with other gamers...etc. Games are an integral part of my life, and I refuse to let go. Why should I? I have a job that I enjoy doing and is also my hobby, unlike 90% of people working today. I have many friends IRL and even more friends I never even saw in real life, still, I'm happy to have them. And yes, I spend most of my free (and not free) time sitting in front of my computer... playing games mostly. Am an addict? Guess so. Am I happy? Hell, yes I am.
I refuse to believe the ancient wisdom, that "life has to suck to have a meaning", that anything remotely fun or entertaining must be inherently bad, addictive, sinful, unhealthy...etc and has to be kept under guard. I refuse to believe that having fun is just a mere illusion because life inherently sucks and we are here to suffer, because that gives life meaning. Bullshit! If it means giving up games and related stuff to have a "normal" life, I don't want normal. I won't go cold turkey because some people consider it laughable, childish, counter-productive and not suited for an adult. Tell ya what: I don't care. I accomplished more in my 24 years of living, than most of these die-hard traditionalists and sceptics (realists) will in their entire life. I defeated a fucking dragon today, right before finishing my college assignment with a friend on MSN, and right after I went back to build my factory complex in X3:TC.
Gaming is a form of life, and NOT AN ADDICTION. Deal with it...