What Does Evercrack Mean?
“Evercrack” is a slang term for addictive use of one of the first massive multiplayer online role-playing games or MMORPGs, officially titled EverQuest. EverQuest was released in March 1999 as the second major MMORPG after Ultima Online. Eventually, the team garnered over 400,000 online players in the early years of the millennium.
Techopedia Explains Evercrack
The term “Evercrack” describes a specific kind of video game addiction. Because of the rich universe of EverQuest, players often got so involved in the game that they would compromise their real-world activities to favor time spent on playing EverQuest or composing their characters. In fact, the Evercrack phenomenon is one of the earliest examples of how humans in an increasingly technological world struggle with the balance of real-world activities and digital ones.
Addictive use of EverQuest was a major concern as these types of video games became popular. Many thousands of players would neglect jobs or family activities to spend more time playing EverQuest. Common warning signs included radical changes to eating and sleeping schedules, lack of interest in real-world activities, and changes in mood and emotion. The American Psychological Association proposed criteria for video game addiction as a significant mental health problem.