Well, it has been doing the rounds everywhere else, so I figure we might as well at least mention it here. This article from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel entitled "Death of a game addict" details the story of a poor EverQuest gamer who committed suicide.

On Thanksgiving morning last year, Shawn Woolley shot himself to death at his apartment in Hudson. His mother blames the game for her son's suicide. She is angry that Sony Online Entertainment, which owns EverQuest, won't give her the answers she desires. She has hired an attorney who plans to sue the company in an effort to get warning labels put on the games.

While there is no doubting the tragedy of the story, I think it is a bit presumptuous and unfair to heap all the blame on the doorstep of EverQuest. In any case, games and addiction looks like it could become another big thing in the media (if we can all stop killing each other long enough to get addicted, I guess). Keith Austin, a reporter with the Sydney Morning Herald's Icon (their computer/IT section) made this post to the GameArena forums, looking for feedback from gamers about their concepts of addiction.