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PhilGoetz comments on Should I play World of Warcraft? - Less Wrong Discussion

12 Post author: PhilGoetz 07 October 2011 04:25AM

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Comment author: PhilGoetz 07 October 2011 04:50:02AM 3 points [-]

So I should avoid tobacco, alcohol, fast cars, and hamburgers; and stay with safer things, like cocaine.

Comment author: Prismattic 08 October 2011 01:18:35AM 3 points [-]

I'm mildly curious (but not quite enough to go spend 20 minutes doing web research) how much of cocaine's harmfulness is intrinsic and how much is due to the fact that the underground nature of its production means it is often cut with rat poison and the like.

Many people on LW seem to think highly of caffeine and nicotine, both of which are also addictive stimulants, but which differ from cocaine in being legal and therefore normally produced in a "safe" form.

Comment author: arundelo 08 October 2011 02:59:40AM *  3 points [-]

Anecdote! -- George H. Smith (author of Atheism: The Case Against God) talks about his experiences with cocaine (generally positive) and heroin (generally negative) in several posts here and several email messages (quoted by another user) here. He used it "on a regular basis for nearly 15 years".

A few quotes:

[...] my years of cocaine use were the most productive, intellectually and financially, of my life.

With cocaine, this problem [of knowing when to stop] is exacerbated by its illegality, which means you have to use a product that has been cut many times -- sometimes with a benign substance like baby laxative but more often with something to give it a punch, especially "crank" (i.e., speed).

To this day I remain convinced that if I had been living in a civilized country and been able to go into a drug store and purchase valium (or something similar) over the counter, I would never have touched heroin.

Comment author: RobertLumley 07 October 2011 04:53:47AM 0 points [-]

My point was more that the video game is so addictive that it kills people...

Comment author: ArisKatsaris 07 October 2011 05:00:22AM 5 points [-]

If it's the addictiveness that's your true objection to the game, then talking about (the ridiculously small amount of) deaths that have occurred in relation to the game is a complete distraction.

Comment author: RobertLumley 07 October 2011 05:20:19AM *  3 points [-]

Sorry, I guess this is illusion of transparency. I thought I was being obvious.

Tobacco, alcohol, fast cars, hamburgers etc. all have direct medical damages. The addiction is a contributing factor, not the cause. WoW is addictive enough in and of itself that it has the potential to make you keep pressing the lever until you die. That is not true, to my knowledge, of chess.

Comment author: Prismattic 08 October 2011 03:19:33AM 3 points [-]

That is not true, to my knowledge, of chess.

Not so fast...

But chess, precisely because the abstract challenges on the board can be so absorbing, can also derail a kid. Listen to Shawn, who's ranked third on the Murrow team and constantly skips school to play blitz games in the park. In an interview with the New York Times before the high-school championships, the foundering student lashed out at his mentors. "I became addicted to chess. They think they did something for me, but they didn't. Chess didn't save my life. They want to make it like I'm a kid from the ghetto and I can play chess and that's special. Why does it have to be like that? It's embarrassing."

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