We hear about them, we have friends who are them, and you may even be one — a video game addict. While it is possible to enjoy the world of online role-playing games on a casual basis, what happens when an electronic pastime turns into obsession is both astonishing and dangerous. Even nonchalant gamers know the names of legendary RPG titles like the "Final Fantasy" series. Since its conception and first release in 1987 for the NES, "Final Fantasy" allowed gamers the pleasure of escaping reality for endless hours of battle-driven bliss. Twelve installments and millions of copies later, the "Final Fantasy" series won't be going anywhere anytime soon, and we are all thankful for that. Yes, I will admit that playing "Final Fantasy" makes me feel like a kid in an electronic candy store, with endless exploratory possibilities and characters that I cannot help but fall in love with or hate. Come on, who didn't shed a tear or two when Aeris got impaled in FFVII? I will even own up to the fact that I logged more than 80 hours on "Final Fantasy VII" when I got my first PlayStation. What can I say? Those were dark times. However, I would hardly say that I am an "FF" addict. With such an exorbitant amount of time required to fully complete the games, I have never been able to play a title more than once. However, I do have friends who have played them completely through several times, which I quite frankly feel is madness. Playing through a "Final Fantasy" from beginning to end may seem like a feat of gaming greatness. But logging 80 hours is child's play to many players of Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games or MMORPGs. Many of these titles feature gameplay that is virtually endless. Players are tasked to build a character by fighting a multitude of battles to gain experience, grow stronger, obtain better equipment and weapons… you get the idea. It does not end with the typical final boss, but just gets more difficult as a player's skill increases. These games, in addition to entertainment, offer a sort of community setting where gamers from all over the globe can communicate and play together. Listen carefully to the news and you will hear many horror stories centered on these games, some of them even ending in death. A game that has become a household name for even non-gaming individuals is "World of Warcraft" ("WoW"). This game is so addictive that it is often dubbed "World of War Crack." The "WoW" community is insanely large, including more than 8 million subscribers worldwide. There are more than 2 million players in the United States and a staggering 3.5 million in China alone. Serious — perhaps overzealous is a better word — players of "WoW" can log upward of 12 hours of play each and every day. What does this kind of time commitment lead to other than an obviously very antisocial attitude? What if I told you that in the most extreme cases, such gaming habits can result in death? In 2005, a "WoW" gamer in Beijing died after playing the game for several days straight with virtually no break. The gamer in question, alias "Snowly," had been preparing for a rather difficult battle for days and told friends that he was feeling very tired, before passing away. It is alarming, to say the least, that gamers can take their hobby to such an extreme level that it actually kills them. You can sometimes expect death in extreme sports like skydiving, but not in the glow of a computer monitor. Other players from the "WoW" community held an in-game online funeral for Snowly. Deaths like this have prompted developers to occasionally implement "anti-obsession" protocols to their online titles. Basically, these impose restrictions on the amount of time players can spend playing in a single sitting and actually penalize their accounts for breaking the rules. The usual time limit was set at three to five hours daily. However, gamers are clever and have been able to slip under the radar by creating multiple user accounts to get their fix. Addiction is actually such a social problem in China that the government intervened, setting its own three-hour restriction on gameplay. Another notable title in the MMORPG genre is "EverQuest." Though it is not as big as "WoW" by any means, "EverQuest" boats a subscriber base of more than 400,000. Of course, gameplay is along the same lines as "WoW" with a similar character development system and online community. Basically, "EverQuest" possesses all the same addictive qualities as "WoW." This can be seen closer to home than you may think, as a Wisconsin man fell victim to the spider's web of networked gaming via "EverQuest." In 2001, a 21-year-old gamer named Shawn Woolley from Hudson shot himself in front of his computer monitor while playing the popular online game. He purportedly had become very depressed when his online alter ego, a character he named "iloveyou" had been robbed of in-game money by an online acquaintance who refused to return it. Before he died, Woolley quit his job to be able to play 12 hours a day, at the same time virtually breaking off ties with his family and purchasing a gun. Sony Online of course refused to acknowledge that "EverQuest" had anything to do with the man's death, since it is merely entertainment, after all. Or at least that's all it's supposed to be. As is plain to see, there are two distinct worlds in the gaming universe. On one hand we have gamers who play for the recreational value that games can offer. On the darker side is a world where gaming has taken on a life all to its own. I myself love gaming, but would certainly not let it replace my family and friends. Regardless of the entertainment value or the friends that I may meet online, ultimately I know that it just isn't real. When the boundary between reality and the virtual world is crossed, however, we see tragic results. So the lesson to be learned here is to be safe, and learn to put down the controls every now and then. There is a whole world outside of the computer den that is not governed by miles of Ethernet cables. It's to your own benefit to go out and enjoy it. Justin Voss is a sophomore majoring in Japanese. E-mail any questions, comments or woeful World of Warcraft tales to [email protected].