A growing number of marriages are being wrecked¹ by video game addiction².

电脑游戏瘾正成为婚姻的一大杀手。

More women filing for divorce are complaining that their husbands spend too long playing video games, according to research.

Of those wives who cite unreasonable³ behaviour for ending their marriage, 15 percent believe their partners put gaming before them.

This has soared from five per cent a year ago, the study by Divorce Online found.

In particular, disgruntled（不高兴的） wives blamed World of Warcraft, which allows gamers to create their own fantasy character for mythical⁴（神话的） adventures, and Call Of Duty, where gamers battle in various war zones.

The games have faced heavy criticism in the past for their addictive⁵ properties, with some claiming that World of Warcraft is more addictive than cocaine⁶.

One wife who blames her husband’s obsession⁷ for the breakdown⁸ of their marriage is Jessica Ellis, 24, from London.

She said: ‘He was addicted⁹ to World of Warcraft but played other games now and then. The amount he was playing gradually increased until I could not take it any more.

‘When it became serious he was playing up to eight hours a day. I was constantly trying to get him to cut back but he didn’t think he had a problem until I told him I wanted to leave. But by that time it was too late.’

The study looked at 200 unreasonable behaviour petitions（请愿） filed by women.

Divorce Online managing director Mark Keenan said his team carried out the research after noticing World of Warcraft was repeatedly cited by unhappy wives.

He said: ‘I was surprised by the result at first, but I would expect the number to be even higher next year. The increase could be a consequence of people staying indoors more because of the recession, or it might be being used by men in particular as a means of escape from an already unhappy relationship.’