The monotone game show host says addictive role-playing game 'EverQuest' is turning his son into a 'walking time bomb.'

Editor's note: Due to travel problems, Ben Stein will not appear on Friday's show. We hope to have him back in the near future. In the meantime, keep posting your opinions on gaming addiction in the Talkback section.
There's no question that Ben Stein deeply loves his son, Tommy. He even wrote a book, Tommy and Me: The Making of a Dad, in which Stein, host of Comedy Central's Win Ben Stein's Money, chronicles his fulfilling relationship with the son he adopted so late in life.
All was going swell until Stein's "perfect angel" became hooked on EverQuest, the deeply immersive, massively multiplayer fantasy game in which participants live out the virtual lives of dwarves, lords, and warlocks. Now Stein barely recognizes his beloved boy.
Daddy's little 'demon'
As Stein wrote in the November/December 2001 issue of The American Spectator, "EverQuest" is "the worst thing that ever happened to [Tommy], a literal curse, a drug that eats away at every drop of energy and initiative." Tommy became so obsessed with the game, nicknamed "EverCrack" for its addictive powers, that he even stopped going to school.
"He has gotten so self-obsessed and self-referential," Stein writes, "so utterly unconcerned about anyone but himself, he's a walking time bomb for self-demolition."
Stein's only recourse was to send his son 3,000 miles away to boarding school, far from the grasp of his "fancy computer" and "his goddamned 'EverQuest.'"
'How to Ruin Your Life'
Stein has never been afraid to add his conservative 2 cents to national political and social debate. Now the former Nixon speechwriter has turned his acerbic tongue to the well-populated shelves of celebrity-penned self-help books.
Stein's twisted take on the genre is called How to Ruin Your Life. It takes the tongue-in-cheek approach of outlining exactly which actions and attitudes will ensure a terrifically tortured existence.
Buy "How to Ruin Your Life" by Ben Stein
Videogame addiction?
Do you think it's possible to become addicted to a videogame? Does Stein have legitimate reason to be concerned for his son's mental and physical health? Post your opinions in the Talkback section below.