MMORPG claims another victim

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

My roomate of last semester just withdrew from college and went home. Nobody is entirely sure why, but we’re pretty sure it was because he was failing his classes, due to his MASSIVE amount of time spent playing World of Warcraft. There was some depression thrown in, but it was mostly the failing of classes due to time spent with World of Warcraft.

It’s a pity, too. Before that game came out, he had a 3.6GPA and was overall one of the most intelligent people I’ve met.

So for those of you out there wasting your lives away in WoW, keep this in mind as a warning of what happens when you spend too much time on one thing.

2

AS if this has changed from any other MMORPG of the last 6 years…

Relax, he could have spent his time drinking and partying, and whacking off and quit school also. Addictive personalities are addictive personalities whether it is drink, partying, porn or MMORPGs. Frosh depression may just be the answer, and he was ‘selfmedicating’ by retreating into a fantasy world because he was having trouble with the cold real world. He may end up back in school next year.

3

Preach it. Its high time he remove this scourge from our computers. Down with WoW!

4

OK. What exactly is WoW and why is it so addictive?

5

online multi player rpg. Massive waste of time really, unlike this message board. :wink:

One of the guys I played street hockey with started missing games because he was playing some online game. Might just be me but I can’t see the attraction. All that pseudo 1337 speak and hollow bluster. :rolleyes:

6

Just like anything else that provides a refuge from real life, MMORPGs can be bad for people.

On the other hand, having played three MMORPGs over the course of five years I’m pretty much of the opinion that people are bad for themselves. Short of wrapping people in cotton wool, how’re we supposed to protect them from all the things that are bad for them? If someone knows they have finals in the morning but refuses to go to bed, :smack: then they’ve just put the instant gratification lab-rat lever-pellet mechanics of the game ahead of the long-term reward of not flunking school.

I don’t think it’s a bad idea to restrict the availability of MMORPGs on college campus housing, but I still think that there is no cottonwool in the world that will protect people from making stupid decisions for themselves.

Me, I’m currently retired from online gaming. Got out while I was on top, and before the game ate any more of my free time. But it was a grand five years and I don’t regret an hour of it. The addiction for me was in the community, and I had the pleasure of belonging to communities of smart, funny people, with whom I shared many memorable times. These are hard to explain to people who don’t game, and in fact, game anecdotes are probably the most boring thing on earth to someone who wasn’t there, but there was camaraderie, leadership, tension, adrenaline, a lot of things your average homebody like me doesn’t normally experience. That’s what the R is for- Roleplaying. It’s fun to pretend I’m a kickass warrior woman who’s taking names against the other team. It’s great fun to go out with a group of other people and laugh and joke and generally have a good time while doing so. It’s like a fantasy team sport. I’m never going to slay a dragon in real life, am I? But it’s fun to put on another persona and be a dragon slayer.

7

It’s pathetic and sad when people spend so much time in artificial online communities.

Oh, I just noticed my 10,000th post is coming up! Let’s have a post count party!!!

8

WoW is World of Warcraft, Blizzard Entertainment’s fantastically successful foray into the world of massively-multiplayer online roleplaying games. As for why those games in general are so addictive, check out The Daedalus Project, some dude’s extensive research into the genre.

And in response to the OP: I say any time spent in real life is waste of MMORPG time. RL just doesn’t come anywhere close.

9

The problem these games have for some people is that it further encourages embedded antisocial behavior. Now let me preface this by saying I don’t think there is any ‘problem’ with folks who are shy or prefer to spend their time by themselves. However sometimes the reason people are lonely/don’t have any friends is because they were never willing to step up to the plate, so to speak, and take some risks in the real world to interact with others in real life.

An online game is a fantasy world a person can immerse themself in. Just like some drugs, this immersion can often make real life boring/stupid/depressing, and the person will spend more and more time playing the game.

I have an addictive personality. But I also have a very short attention span. I have an account on World of Warcraft, but I can’t get it to run through AOL broadband, so I only play it when I visit my friend at his apartment (about once or twice a week). The combination of addictive personality and short attention span means that while I’ll be kind of obsessed about the game at first, if I play it enough I’ll get bored of it quickly and move on with my life. Actually, the arragement I have right now is perfect for me, because I play the game in moderation, enough to enjoy it but not so much as to deprive my social life/get bored of the game.

A lot could be said about self-control and discipline when young adults abandon school to play computer games. I have heard quite a few kids dropping out for this very reason. Some people don’t have any self-control; and no amount of parenting can totally gaurantee that a young adult will make the right decisions. Some people NEED someone around to force them to do things. When things are left 100% to me, I can get kind of flaky, because nobody is forcing me to do anything. But when people are threatening me or nagging me, it can make me extremely productive and motivated.

10

You’ve got me legitimately curious now. How do you spend your time in real life? Do you date? Do you have friends? What do you do with your friends? I’m not trying to insinuate you’re a “loser” or anything like this, but I would like to know what you do in real life to make you prefer the online world.

To me, the internet just can’t compare with the fun I have with my friends, but that’s mostly because I’ve found a group of people whose company I enjoy greatly.

11

I’d say that doesn’t so much make your friends look good as it makes it clear to anyone that you have no net skillz. You must learn the ways of the web, see its beauty and realize that all else in life is fake and unnecessary. Your physical body and the so called “RL” are just there as a means that make the internet and WoW possible, it would be silly to act as if though they were an end in of themselves.

12

My mom, a high school teacher, knew someone who had a problem with “internet addiction.” She was staying up all night chatting online, not keeping up with her work, and was falling asleep during class.

Sad thing is, we’re talking about a teacher.

Mom tells me she got counseling and is doing better now.

I sometimes have a hard time stopping myself from surfing and getting to work. It’s also hard for me to recognize sometimes that I’m just clicking aimlessly, and not even enjoying what I’m doing. “Close the laptop and pick up a book,” is a little mantra of mine. If the internet isn’t available, however, I know from experience I’m perfectly capable of finding some other unproductive activity (or a productive one that just doesn’t further the goal that’s supposed to be my number one priority.) The internet is an extremely attractive way to waste time, but I find it hard to swallow that someone who flunks out of school because of being online wouldn’t have flunked out of school anyway in a simpler time, because they were spending too much time read comic books, or watching TV, or hanging out too much at the video arcade, or smokin’ the weed.

Er, and, so, um, I’m supposed to be working right now, so . . .

13

Back when I used to play EverQuest, I spent about 3-4 hours a day on school days playing. I never dated, I drifted apart from my friends and I spent all my free time playing. What new “friends” I did have were simply other EQ players and most of the relationships were shallow and transient, lasting only until one or the other of us logged off. Two or three of these friendships lasted beyond the game and we now keep in touch via email, but these are exceptions and not the norm.

On weekends, I would play the entire day and most of the night, into the wee hours of the morning. Sleep was something reserved for my classes, and even in my sleep I would often dream of playing. Homework, school, and every other part of real life was completely irrelevant.

I was, in every sense of the word, a loser. And ya know what? I didn’t give a damn. EQ kept me satisfied and free from boredom. Pathetic as it may sound to you, EQ gave a guise of meaning – however fake and imagined – to my otherwise bleh existence. Playing EQ was the high point of my daily life.

But EQ was not the cause of this all this. I was. This type of behavior was always a part of me and EQ was merely the final symptom. It wasn’t that EQ turned me into a loser; I was always a loser and EQ finally provided the complete escape from reality that I desired. If EQ wasn’t around and if I had access to drugs, I have little doubt I would’ve chosen them instead. In short, I only got that involved in EQ because I had no real life to start with.

Due to a variety of reasons, I have since stopped playing EQ and other MMORPGs. For the sake of brevity, I won’t get into the specifics.

Anyway, for the most part, I think these games are just good sources of entertainment. Not everyone who plays them loses themself in the process. Along with the game, I think it takes a certain type of player, in conjunction with other possible events/causes, to become so deeply hooked.

Or perhaps you could argue that I was so attached to the game I would do anything to defend it, even blame myself for everything instead of seeing it for the evil that it is. shrug But I’m pretty sure it was just me.

14

There’s nothing inherently wrong in MMORPGs, hence why I cautioned against spending too much time on one thing. But there is something to be said for the anti-social tendencies it fosters in players. It’s like gambling, but you only lose $15/month and you don’t even have to wear pants.

15

Well, my experience with online gaming hasn’t been anti-social. Quite the opposite, in fact. I played EQ for almost 5 years, and got into a guild full of people who have become very dear to me. Not the least of whom is my live-in BF and soulmate of 3 1/2 years, whom I’d never had I not played EQ.

Admittedly, my guild isn’t typical of alot of online guilds or clans. We have RL meets all the time, all over the country, have an Annual Guild Camping Trip in Missouri every year (this year’s will be our biggest turnout yet!), we discuss and offer support both emotional and occasionally otherwise in our private forums, so on and so forth.

For instance. A couple many of our guildmates is friends with (they were in our EverQuest allied guild) had their house burn down a couple months ago. They, in addition to themselves, have 5 very young children. They lost everything. Their home itself was insured (but declared a total loss) but nothing inside was insured. Nothing.

Since then many of our online friends have come together and sent them lots of stuff, as well as set up a PayPal account for them. In fact one of our guild’s officers came down here just a few weeks ago and brought them a truckfull of stuff.

In all honesty, many of the RL friends I have now, are directly because I originally met them in-game.

I spend alot of time with my family, keep my house clean, work, have other hobbies, etc. I just choose to spend my lazy-free time playing World of Warcraft with my sweetie, instead of staring at a TV.

I have an ex-bf on the other hand, who lost his mind over EQ (we started playing together). He had a really good job as a network admin, and didn’t even quit, just stopped going. Stopped doing everything. I eventually left him. Last I heard he finally wised up and got back to living, but it sure took him a long time.

In the end, anything can become an addiction to someone who has addictive tendencies.

16

Not the least of whom is my live-in BF and soulmate of 3 1/2 years, whom I’d never met had I not played EQ.

17

Last night, I robbed a seveneleven to pay for my WoW addiction. I have six computers set up; I play one with each hand, each foot, I play one with my face, and one with my dick. I play sixteen hours a day. I kill monsters and get lots of gold and sell the fake gold for real money and use that to pay for my crack and heroin and Yoohoo and for my Internet connection and WoW accounts.

I only have time to post here whenever I need to take a crap. I just aim my logs at the seventh computer to type…

18

Now that you mention it, that reminds me of this guy who lives in my dorm, Burt. He has two Final Fantasy 11 accounts and plays both simultaneously. One on his TV via PS2, and the other on his computer.

19

I can play three or four DragonRealms accounts simultaneously, but all on one computer. Does that put me higher in the geek hierarchy? :smiley:

As opposed to the stimulating, world-peace-bringing erudite lingo that street hockey brings? Isn’t he just trading one 1337speak environment for another?

That sounds very typical. Almost every friend I’ve had, I’ve met through online gaming. People that send me money if I’m starving, offer me a place in their home, bring me chicken soup when I’m sick with the flu, etc., etc. I don’t think the quality of devotion is less because I didn’t meet them randomly at the bowling alley or the laundromat.

I, too, have a brilliant friend who flunked out of UMD due to his Starcraft addiction. He never blamed Starcraft his personal issues. He dealt with it and is still playing weekly and working on his Masters. If I weren’t gaming, I’d be reading a book or watching TV or taking a walk. The shiny video game didn’t trick me into being an introvert. I’m sorry about your roomie, Mr Sakamoto. Take comfort in all the recovery stories.

20

Five and a half years of EQ and then four months or so of WoW were ultimately detrimental to my academic and social lives both, though not to the ultimate degree in either case. How I managed to keep friends and keep from failing out for the two year or so period when I was leading my guild/alliance and playing 6-8 hours a night fairly regularly is beyond me.

That said, I’d do it all again, even though I’ve quit now and it’s lovely to be back on a semi-normal sleep schedule if nothing else. Things in EQ like leading a 40 person raid and keeping everything coordinated and working perfectly, leading a couple of groups through a minor raid, going into dangerous places with one group, or soloing things that weren’t meant to be soloed… these provided an amazing rush. It was every bit my drug of choice. There’s something to be said for having some friends to hang out with when all of my real life friends were off at frat parties I had no interest in, in my first two years of college. On the other hand, it probably kept me from getting a lot of sex over the past few years :smack:

Even now, there are times when I want to play EQ again SO badly. Thankfully, I want to play the EQ that existed before all of my friends left for WoW, which was more fun but less addicting (and thus easier to finally quit, if all that makes sense). That EQ no longer exists, and I uninstalled it all and left all the CDs at home anyways. Making sure there is no crack within arm’s length doesn’t make the cravings worse, but it does make it a lot harder to fall back into pattern.