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Entertainment plays a big role in everyday life. Games, video, computer, online games, Playstation's, etc can be used as entertainment and stress relief by many. (Woolley). Games are created to give people some time of pleasure and fun, time to get away from the world and dont think about the problems they face. But entertainment has become a business. Companies dealing with entertainment business make millions of dollars by (for example) putting a single computer game on sale.
Their success depends on their products, and if the product is an MMO (mass multiplayer on-line) Game then their success will be great. Because even though MMO Games are created with the same purpose of a normal game to entertain, they do cause addiction. Marie Winn says the essence of any serious addiction is a pursuit of pleasure, a search for a 'high' that normal life does not supply. in her Plug-In Drug (Electronic Heroin. ) She presents watching television as a serious addiction, comparing it to heroin addiction and alcohol addiction. Accordingly MMO Games addiction is very similar to what she explains about television addiction in her essay. She says television experience allows the participant to blot out the real world and enter into a pleasurable and passive mental state.
The worries and anxieties of reality are as effectively deferred by becoming absorbed in a television program as by going on a 'trip' induced by drugs or alcohol. And just as alcoholics are only vaguely aware of their addiction, feeling that they control their drinking more than they really do, people similarly overestimate their control over television watching. (Electronic Heroin) MMO Games share this very serious problem with television addiction. They give people pleasure, and can be used as an escape of the real world entering that passive and pleasurable mental state in the games fantasy world the same way the television gives the escape to television viewers. The main reason MMO Games rise the addiction issue is the way their game-play is arranged.
Single player games offer players a set of objectives and when it is completed then the game is over and the fun and pleasure of that game is over. Unlike single player games, MMO Games give the player a character and place him in a fantasy world where he can experience virtual adventures. All players from the whole world are placed in this fantasy world with the help of todays World Wide Network and friends from different sides of the Earth can join forces and play together to finish a quest or an objective given to them in the fantasy world. The key that MMO Games offer unlike any other computer game is the unlimited time of fun. They are not limited by time because the fantasy world is like our normal world and life in this fantasy world goes on like in our world. It is constantly changing and more and more objectives are inserted in this world so that players can be challenged more and more every next time they log in with their character.
Adam Shaikh in his essay A Look into MMO Gaming says It is extremely common to find that players have spent well in excess of 500 hours playing any particular character, and during this time they gather a group of friends and attachment to their character. This means that giving up or changing to an alternative game, resulting in the loss of that character, is something that is difficult to do. (Shaikh) Shaikh also mentions that publishers of MMO Games benefit from the addictive nature of their products because the more time a player has spent on his character the more difficult it will be for him to discontinue playing with it and turn to another game. Additionally, he says, players continue to play the same game, not changing to a competitors one, paying the monthly fee to remain a part of the certain fantasy world in which he has already spent an enormous amount of time. When you have spent 500 hours on a character, throwing it away and starting again is much less appealing. Therefore once you have a player hooked, it is much easier to keep them, even if a superior title comes along. (Shaikh) This knowledge makes a connecting bridge between MMO Game Publishers and Tobacco Companies.
Both businesses are so similar in that their product is of an addictive nature, but they want this characteristic to remain because this means more smokers buying cigarettes, or more players hooked in; thus more income from daily cigarette packages sold, and more monthly fees paid to remain in the fantasy world of the game. Liz Woolley in her article Head to head: Is online gaming bad for you? goes strong in this arguing that MMO Games are addictive, she says For some, the enjoyment turns to suffering when they become "addicted" to the games. They no longer have the "choice" to play, but are driven to play. They leave their real lives and join others in a fantasy land, and they can't leave. They no longer bathe, clean house, interact with family and friends, or go outside. (Woolley. ) And not only Woolley, but also Lynn Hall, who is MMO Game player for more than three years, says that MMO Games are addictive.
She says It can rob you of your spare time - not so bad - but it can also rob you of time you should be spending with friends and family. (Woolley) These two authors just confirm what many other people say, and even though Lynn Hall is on the side that protects MMO Games she still agrees that they are addictive and time-consuming. An article in BBC News about MMO Games provides a discussion and many people share their opinion about MMO Games. People, mostly players but also others, have amazing stories to tell in these discussions. I selected some of their comments and underlined the most important and touching parts of them: The sad truth is my husband spent 11 hours today playing his Warcraft game.
He did not interact with our sweet tiny baby because there were important quests waiting online. I can't talk to him while he is playing. There is absolutely no point as he doesn't hear me or is so distracted that I get a 'ummm... ya' a few minutes after I ask him a question. I believe that he is addicted to the online gaming, and that is the cause of his depression and restlessness. A friend of mine got World of Warcraft in the post this morning, he disappeared into his room and I haven't seen him since! !
But the person I really do feel sorry for is his girlfriend. Who scheduled the release of this wretched game three days before Valentines day? These first four comments are given by people who probably live with or around addicted players. I found their comments really touching. They all share the opinion that MMO Games are very disruptive and time-consuming leading them to become addictive and take over gamers lives. This game is so good I'm not going to get it, there's no way I could limit the hours I'd spend playing it I used to play the online role-playing game EverQuest a lot.
By 'a lot', I mean probably 15 to 20 hours a week on average, and on weeks where I didn't have to work, as many as 30 or 40 hours. furthermore he says You lie; you don't go into work because you had stuff to do at home; you cancel or refuse invitations to dinner, you spend much less time watching TV (a good thing, presumably) This game is addictive [authors comment: talking about the game World of Warcraft]. Seriously. An addiction to a game like this is far more costly in time than any substance could impair.
You " ll love this game so much that you will hate what it does with your spare time. Just a warning to those with a strict time schedule who are interested in this game: KEEP TRACK OF TIME. These three comments come from people who actually have experience in MMO Games. All of them agree that MMO Games are time-consuming. One says that he plays as many as 30 to 40 hours a week, another one doesnt want to buy a particular MMO Game because he wouldnt be able to limit the hours spent playing it, and the third person is a one that wants to warn future players of the game World of Warcraft. The second comment also explains why a loss in social life occurs to people playing MMO Games.
He says that he spends so much time playing the game that he has to cancel or refuse invitations to go out, dont go to work etc. A very sad notion is that MMO Game players are aware of these negative effects, but they still cannot do anything about it because they are so much into the game and as Woolley says they are driven to play. People share the opinion that MMO Games players start to forget about the real world and turn to the fantasy world created to entertain them. This is exactly what Marie Winn is talking about in her essay, while the certain MMO Game is installed on the computer and available to addicted players, then all other experiences seem less attractive. She says the television habit, but in my case MMO Game habit, distorts the sense of time this being just what the third MMO Game player said in his comments last sentence: KEEP TRACK OF TIME.
We cannot make game programmers stop making this kind of games, we cannot order gamers stop playing these games, but the arrangement of the game-play in MMO Games makes them addictive and that is where the problem resides. They lose the real meaning of a normal game; one that is supposed to be fun, entertaining, interesting, but certainly not addictive. A normal game gives people distance between everyday issues, gives them pleasure time when they forget about their problems, but MMO Games are not this kind of game, they are the life or they dictate the life of the person playing them. They take over players day time, remove them from the real world and the society and grant them a place in the world of fantasy a place where they relax with the false thought that they are not addicted to their favorite MMO Game.
Works Cited Anderson, Travis McAllen. Warcraft sets gaming standards. Online posting. (No date). BBC News Discussion. 12 Apr. 2005. web Becky.
Warcraft sets gaming standards. Online posting. (No date). BBC News Discussion. 12 Apr. 2005. web Electronic Heroin.
Die Off. (No date). 24 Apr. 2005. web Elliot, Phil. Warcraft sets gaming standards. BBC News 14 February 2005. 12 Apr. 2005. web Shaikh, Adam. A Look Into MMO Gaming.
Personal web site. (No date). 12 Apr. 2005. web look into mmo games. htm. Waters, Darren. Loosing yourself in online gaming. BBC News 17 February 2005. 12 Apr. 2005.
web Woolley, Liz and Lynn Hall. Head to head: Is online gaming bad for you? BBC News 17 February 2005. 12 Apr. 2005. web
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