heroinware

(HAYR.oh.un.wayr)

n.

An extremely addictive online or computer game. Also: heroin-ware.

Example Citations:

Luckily, Jaffe found refuge and eventual salvation with On-Line Gamers Anonymous ( www.olganon.org: http://www.olganon.org/ ), one of several online self-help groups that have sprung up to deal with the fallout from electronic entertainment they call heroinware. Its forums are swollen with refugees of various online worlds, all with harrowing stories of runaway gaming habits, lives ruined, friends lost, marriages broken.

— David McCandless, "Just one more go: Online games are so addictive, some players just can't stop - even if their lives depend on it," The Guardian, April 3, 2003

And Doom is addictive as well as violent. Jay Wilbur says that a writer at Byte magazine coined the named heroin-ware for Doom.

Mr. WILBUR: He analogized us to drug dealers. We'll give you the first one. Here, you know, try this one. If you like it, you know, come back. We've got some more you. You got to pay now.

— John McChesney, "Doom' Becomes Digital Game World Phenomenon," National Public Radio, September 29, 1994

Earliest Citation:

Doom, like Castle Wolfenstein, is shareware, sort of: that is, you can download the first installment from most BBSes and run it for free. Register that, and you'll get more episodes. (Call it "heroinware" — the first dose is free....)

— Jerry Pournelle. "The annual Orchid and Onion Parade issues forth from Chaos Manor," Byte, April 1994

Related Words:

beerware

careware

coasterware

crackberry

fritterware

gamer shame

herdware

ludology

malware

slideware

spyware

Categories:

Games

Internet

Programming and Software