SARASOTA, Fla. – At the height of what he calls his addiction, Ryan Van Cleave would stand in the grocery store checkout line with his milk and bread and baby food for his little girls and for a split second think he was living inside a video game.
It sounds crazy, but it’s true: Something would catch his attention out of the corner of his eye — maybe another shopper would make a sudden move for a Hershey bar — and he was mentally and emotionally transported to another world.
World of Warcraft, to be exact.
It was his favorite video game, the one he played every night, every day, sometimes all weekend. The sudden movement in the store triggered a response similar to when he was in front of the computer screen, battling dragons and monsters for up to 60 hours a week. Van Cleave’s heart pounded. His breathing quickened.
But then the thirtysomething family man would catch his breath and come back to reality. Sort of.
World of Warcraft began to crowd out everything in Van Cleave’s world. His wife. His children. His job as a university English professor.
Before teaching class or late at night while his family slept, he’d squeeze in time
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