 "Photo: Kat Hilsabeck")
A few extra seats may be empty today in classrooms all over the world.
The latest expansion of "World of Warcraft" - dubbed "Wrath of the Lich King" - was released at midnight in gaming stores across the nation.
The growing popularity of WoW and similar massive multi-player online role-playing games has caused a generational phenomenon that has researchers scrambling to understand.
And some research goes as far as to associate video-game abuse with the same portion of the brain that causes substance dependence.
"I believe it's an escape for a straight-jacketed generation," said Andreas Schneider, a sociology professor at Texas Tech. "They use it as a way to act out social frustrations."
People unfamiliar with the expansive digital warcraft world often blame gamers for retreating into fantasy, he said, but it may be the outside world that causes gamers to retreat.
It can be tempting for users to become completely immersed in the game, Schneider said. Certain characteristics of excessive video game usage match those of similar addictions, such as gambling or sex.
Chris Barbour, a senior geophysics major from San Antonio, said he has experienced both the positive and negative impact of WoW.
Barbour said he was introduced to the game by a student gaming group his freshman year at Tech.
"You're so caught up in it that you don't realize what you're missing," Barbour said.
He soon found himself at a point where he played between 12 and 14 hours per day, he said, which caused him to miss classes and exclude his friends.
According to a report by the American Medical Association examining video game studies, researchers have attempted to examine the type of individual most likely to play MMORPGs.
The data suggests players at one point in their lives may have experienced emotional loneliness or difficulty with real life social interactions. Some WoW - and other highly addictive role-playing game - fanatics find more control and success in virtual-reality social relationships than they do in reality.
Barbour said his addiction stemmed from the game's immersive nature, not an un-met psychological need.
"When you spend a good number of hours playing the game with someone and talking to them through (a real-time voice chat)," he said in an e-mail, players become a part of a community.
The game's social aspect is one of the reasons he still plays, Barbour said. Although the game is fantasy, its friendships are real.
In October 2007, Barbour said, he drove 24 hours to Ohio to be the groomsman of a long-time friend he met playing the game - a friend who met his wife through WoW.
So, Barbour said, the social aspect of the game has had a positive impact. It was the competitiveness of the game with layers of components that did not.
"When you kill a boss for the first time or when you get a specific arena rating, you feel good about yourself and have a feeling of accomplishment," Barbour said. "I think this effect is felt in many games and I think that's what video game developers try to fixate in on so as to keep you wanting more."
About 9 percent of polled video gamers reported playing MMORPGs in 2005, according to the American Medical Association report.
The report found that these games are simultaneously competitive, highly social and provide interactive, real-time services.
Console games differ from MMORPGs, Barbour said, because they only offer a finite, concrete platform that can be beat.
But, with MMORPGs, the game never ends.
The American Psychiatric Association does not recognize video game addiction as a disorder, but it is examining whether or not video game addiction will be added to its revised diagnostic manual due for release in 2012, according to the association's Web site.
Although it has not been recognized in the manual, Schneider said, most professionals do not doubt its existence.
A study published in the November edition of the Journal of Psychiatric Research found links between video game addiction and substance dependence.
Chih-Hung Ko of Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital in Taiwan and colleagues scanned the brains of 20 individuals - 10 who had been diagnosed with video game addiction and 10 non-addicts - as they watched video game scenes.
According to the study, researchers found the areas of the brain stimulated by video game images are the same areas that have been reported to contribute to cravings associated with substance dependence.
Barbour said it took a "hard crash" for him to realize the price he would pay for completely ignoring his friends, his girlfriend and his schoolwork.
"I wish I could go back and fix my grades," Barbour said, "but I learned the hard way you can't."
George Comiskey, associate director at the Center for the Study of Addiction Recovery at Tech, said the "tricky" piece is to be able to identify when your gaming starts to impact the major areas of the player's life and to avoid rationalizing the unhealthy behavior.
"There's a huge justification level for games these days," he said. "Twenty years ago, gamers were the minority of people. Now there's people growing up with [games] that it's a part of their life. It's like anything else that's been normalized - easy to justify. It's a hobby when it's something fun that gives you an outlet. When it moves into an addiction, it becomes something the player obsesses about and turns into a major part of his or her life.
"Recreational users knows when to get off and get back to their life. They're able to balance needs with school, work or other relationships. They don't neglect important parts of their life. With addiction, people let those areas of their life go."
MMORPG can suck you in, Barbour said, and players must realize when to stop.
"Some people can play 10 hours a day and still be OK," he said. "It's when you'd rather do that than enjoy life that you need to look at yourself."
Barbour said he has learned to balance his game play with other aspects of his life.
But, in his spare time, he still becomes Jordaina, a human mage decked out in Tempest Regalia gear, and joins million of users in an epic battle of Alliance vs. Horde.
"I don't want people to think I'm some guy who sits in his room and plays WoW all day," he said, laughing. "I'm not. It's just one of the things I enjoy."
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