Interesting reading in Gamasutra about gaming and addiction. It includes the best headline so far in 2007: "Where can I learn more about ignorance?"
New technologies and new forms of entertainment both tend to provoke reactionary fear. Videogames have been especially demonized as dangerous to both the gamer and society at large. Don't get me wrong. Like most of you I too know a person who became a greasy-haired, hollow-eyed WOW zombie, and I know first-hand how much time can be spent on an engrossing game. But I also know people consumed by such pursuits as ballroom dancing and gardening, both of which can cause injuries and deadly dull monologues full of weird lingo. Let's see some good science applied to the question.