Whilst hovering about in IRC, I noticed a conversation that both annoyed and confused me. The basics of it were as follows:

1. Sibling plays MMORPG
2. Sibling becomes addicted to said MMORPG
3. Sibling very nearly fails out of school due to said addiction
4. Therefore, the game and it's developers are evil, and the game should be avoided like the plague.

Fair enough, World of Warcraft can be addictive (Apparently, anyway. I can't see the attraction myself.), but surely that's the fault of the person who lets it take over their life, rather than with the game itself?
To me, the attitude that “the game developers are at fault for making the game so addictive” is horribly broken at least, and at most is dangerously close to the belief that “video games make people violent”. If you can't prioritise (and I know, this is good coming from me…), that is hardly the developers' fault.
I mean… for the love of all that is unholy, it's just a game!

So, can anyone explain (in terms other than “lol, warcraft suxorz!1” or “stupid people paying so much money to play a stupid game,lol”, please.) why I should reconsider my view on it being Blizzard's fault that people let Warcraft take over their lives?

(World of Warcraft is a trademark of Blizzard Entertainment. I've never played it, and probably never will, so anything I say about it could be completely wrong and I welcome any corrections.)