摘要：

Introduction: A highly-debated subject among the public during recent years has been the possibility of becoming addicted to online games. A common response from game researchers is to describe this as unlikely by referring to the complexity of the games in question. Nick Yee, for instance, has stated that: Online games are social worlds with their own geography, culture, dialect, and social rules … They are places where people meet and then get married face-to-face. And to the extent that they are social places, asking whether someone can be addicted to an MMO is like asking whether someone can be addicted to the United States. (Yee 2006) Edward Castronova uses a similar argument, and, in this case, he contrasts computer game playing with being an alcoholic, as, allegedly, his mother was: Now suppose she instead had been addicted to EverQuest. To me, that sentence, in comparison to alcohol addiction, sounds like someone suggesting: What if your mother was addicted to France instead of alcohol? I would reply, Fine! She likes France. Let's move to France. End of problem. (Castronova 2005: 65) The basis for this argument is a view of online games as complex spaces where the player has a vast number of avenues of exploration available. In their arguments , Yee and Castronova seem to imply that the many possibilities that exist in the game universe will automatically generate an equally varied form of use. An interesting aspect of this argument is that, in contrast to more traditional media types where the complex social and cultural context of the user is seen as mitigating the impact of the media, the complexity has now moved inside the medium itself. It is unclear what kind of empirical support Yee and Castronova have for their arguments, and it might be pertinent to ask whether

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