In our continuing series on video game addiction, we talk to renowned video game designer Bill Roper. Currently, Roper is an executive at Cryptic Studios where he oversees MMORPG's like Champions Online and Star Trek Online. We get an insider's perspective on what goes into creating a successful game, including game mechanics, demographic considerations, and more. We specifically ask him his thoughts on video game addiction as well.

Coming up soon on Flipswitch, we'll be interviewing a couple of major designers in the video game industry as we take a look at the issue of video game addiction. At times, it may come across like we're wagging our fingers at them for making games that get so many people for such long stretches of time; however, that's not exactly right. The reality is the fact these things are so fun to play for so many people that it makes them want to play forever means in their particular field of video game making, they're extremely good at their jobs. That is precisely what they're supposed to do. So, we're definitely not trying to sound conspiratorial or that they're somehow "to blame" for the phenomenon of average folks playing video games for WAY too long.