Maressa Orzack

Orzack died November 10, 2010 in Mystic, Connecticut after a long illness.

On August 8, 2006, Orzack was quoted in an interview that she felt that over 40 percent of all World of Warcraft subscribers were addicted to the game. She went further by stating that she feels Blizzard Entertainment, the game's developer, structures the game to be deliberately addictive and designs it to keep people in. While she agreed that other personal issues can have an effect she felt that the cause of the problem was what she described as the game's "inherent addictiveness". Describing the addiction as similar to gambling, Orzack cited variable-ratio reinforcement as the mechanism that keeps people playing. Continuing, she added that she feels willpower or self control is not a factor, and that MMORPGs like World of Warcraft should carry warnings in a similar way to cigarettes. There was disagreement about Orzack's conclusions, with it being described a "ridiculous claim" that an addiction to an enjoyable activity and describe it a “serious mental disorder”. Other commentators were concerned that the term "addiction" was being used too frequently, and noting that at the time gaming and internet addiction were not included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

Orzack studied at Columbia University, where she worked as an experimental psychologist. From there, in the late 1950s she worked with Agnes N. O'Connel on setting up a research arm at the Wisconsin Central Colony and Training School, under a job share arrangement. It is understood that her later work involved experience with impulse control disorders such as eating disorders and gambling addiction. Her research into computer addiction started at around 1994 while she was treating patients for gambling addiction and substance abuse at McLean Hospital. From discussions with her colleagues and patients referred to her, in 1996. Orzack went on to found and coordinate computer addiction services and a study centre at the hospital. When the clinic first opened Orzack would see at most two patients a week, but later expanded to dozens a week. After that time, Orzack expanded her research from online sex to computer gambling addiction, through to computer game addiction.

Dr. Maressa Hecht Orzack (February 5, 1924 – November 10, 2010) was an American psychologist who was clinical associate in psychology at McLean Hospital; Coordinator of Behavior Therapy Affective Disease Program, also at McLean Hospital and assistant clinical professor of psychology, Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. She also held private practice at Newton Centre.