There's a reasonable amount of talk about gaming addiction, and I don't think it's stupid. MMOs in particular parallel the drug experience not just in the rush of dopamine achieved through means that circumvent whatever evolution has decided are the proper sources of a dopamine rush (forgive my sloppy pop-psych and pseudo-science, it's not really relevant) but in the pattern of tolerance.
The exponential level curve mimics quite closely the initial drug experience of getting plenty or even too much pleasure, followed by needing more and more of the same substance to achieve the same feedback. While this works very well for getting people to do a lot more drugs, for MMOs the problem is different. First of all, a given user using *more* or *excessive* amounts of a product doesn't necessarily benefit a game creator. They just need the person to use enough to continue to feel the fee is worth it. Moreover, whereas MMOs are highly habit-forming, the withdrawal after quitting is relatively low, so expanding this curve to too great an extent is going to cause some number of addicts to go cold turkey.
Lord of the Rings Online has found a way around this problem with legendary items. Now that my items level, often at a much faster rate than I do, I get to experience the same rush-whoosh-ding much more often than I otherwise wood at high levels, without having to rush through all the content. It's not a fool-proof plan, as for some the upkeep and fiddling required by the items is a net negative. But it's a really good idea.
Oh look, I leveled.
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