Welcome to Gaia! ::

i do a Games Design course at college and one of the things we had to do ages ago was have a mass debate (in b4 masturbate ._.) to discuss the effects of Game Addiction and whether it really exists. we concluded it doesn't, as there is nothing physically hooking you to keep going back to it (unlike nicotine, etc) it is a want, not a need, therefore not addicted, with the exception of some extreme cases, but each of those people (we did research into some people who claimed to have had Game Addiction and had psycological therepy to clear it) had some sort of problem anyway beforehand and were just using the game as a method of escapism (which is what all gamers do really. some of us might argue that we play games for a challenge, but in my opinion it is in its basist form, just a want to escape from the real world temporarily).

in short, its Escapism-Taken-Too-Far and lack of self control, not addiction.

Before you folks go any further, here's a definition of the word addiction just to remind you.

Addiction - Being abnormally tolerant to and dependent on something that is psychologically or physically habit-forming.
An abnormally strong craving.

So basically, if you have an abnormally strong craving for video games, or you've become dependent on games, that's addiction. I know there are people who are like this, and therefore I believe video game addiction is real. I see what you guys are getting at with the whole 'lack of self control' thing, but as I see it a lack of self control is pretty much part of addiction and vice versa. If you gain self control, then you can fight addiction.