British shrinks want to treat addiction to World of Warcraft. OK, fine. I've never played WoW or any other online RPG, but I understand that people get sucked into it pretty hard and cognitive-behavior therapy can be helpful for changing compulsive behaviors. Where they lose me is the part where they want to do it inside the game itself. Also, they want free accounts to do it with.
Look, I'm certainly not an addiction specialist, but I know that when you're treating someone, you probably don't want to use a method that requires them to be in continued or increased contact with the thing they're addicted to. And you definitely don't want to use a method that requires you to model the addictive behavior itself while performing the treatment. Assuming that Blizzard is willing to front free accounts to a group of people who are comparing their cash cow to crack cocaine (or the cheap bastards pony up for their own accounts), this "therapy" is the equivalent of choosing to treat alcoholics in a bar, while you yourself are knocking back shot after shot of Jim Beam.
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