Psychiatrist to counsel via 'WoW'?

A London psychiatrist plans to offer online counselling through the popular role-playing game World Of Warcraft.

Concerned about the effects of gaming addiction, Dr. Richard Graham plans to offer online help through the MMO and has already contacted Blizzard about a discounted subscription.

"We will be launching this project by the end of the year," he told The Daily Telegraph. "I think it's already clear that psychiatrists will have to stay within the parameters of the game. They certainly wouldn't be wandering around the game in white coats and would have to use the same characters available to other players.

"Of course one problem we're going to have to overcome is that while a psychiatrist may excel in what they do in the real world, they’re probably not going to be very good at playing World Of Warcraft.

"We may have to work at that if we are going to get through to those who play this game for hours at end."

One proposed solution is to have gamers act as virtual mentors as a means of compensating for the self-imposed isolation some compulsive players indulge in.

"Those effected don't exhibit the same outward warning signs as most teenage anti-social behaviour issues do because they're in their bedrooms most of the time, seemingly out of trouble," Graham said.

"Because of this we can't get through to them in the traditional educational environment or intrude on their actual bedrooms, we need to turn to the internet itself to tackle these problems."