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The Reality of MMORPGs
Daniel Maile
Sociology 1000
December 3, 2006
I. Introduction to Online Gaming
The idea of becoming another person, of donning a mask and living another life, has fascinated mankind for thousands of years. Today, human beings have access to a wide variety of material objects that allow them to change into something they believe can make them greater than the people around them. In the real world, these results can be achieved by using things like steroids, pheromones and gene therapy. Yet, the ever-increasing need to fulfill the need for entertainment has driven human beings to create new worlds in which people transform at will into new creatures, strange, fantastic, but altogether human in essence. These new worlds immerse users in worlds of years past, years in the future and fantasy worlds from the depths of human imagination.
According to Edward Castranova, an economist and professor of telecommunications at Indiana State University, MMORPGs:
Are sites on the Internet where computer users come together to exchange information, do business, seek amusing adventures, build cities, hunt monsters, or even make war and kill one another – all dressed up in the ‘costume’ of an imaginary character they have created for themselves (Jennings 60).
While thousands of players interact on a daily basis, many lose track of their lives offline. In the most addicting of these, MMORPGs, massively multiplayer online role-playing games, players often spend days on end pursuing the objectives assigned them in-game, often leading to social and psychological issues. While many people do not consider excessive gaming a serious problem, despite initially being a means to entertain, it is now an acceptable way of life, supported by businesses, social ranking and cultural popularity that de-emphasize the ever-present issue of addiction. While there are many factors to consider, to truly comprehend the system, careful attention to each side will yield the answers needed.
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II. Literature Review of the Online Gaming
MMORPGs provide a world in which the player can often do anything they please within the rules of the game, which are realistically very free and can be open to interpretation. This concept of being able to do anything draws in players who may feel their own lives do not provide an adequate sense of control or fulfillment (Yee 2002). While MMORPGs have evolved past being simple web sites online, this description is true to the basic functions and nature of a MMORPG. Interviewing lead game designer Jeff Kaplan, Seth Schiesel of the New York Times relates the success of Blizzard’s World of WarCraft (also known as WoW) MMORPG:
World of Warcraft… has shattered the expectations of just about everyone in the game industry because it also appeals to a broader, more casual audience. And one of the biggest reasons for that appeal is that much of the time, World of Warcraft is a relatively easy game. That ease of play has made the game fantastically successful (Schiesel 2006).
When you couple the ease of initial play and the ability to keep a user entangled in the game’s system with, MMORPGs readily become drugs for the masses. In most MMORPGs, players increase their skills and strengths after a certain amount of experience points, are earned through killing monsters, completing quests of various tasks assigned by specific non-player characters, or attacking other players from opposing factions to gain reputation points within a player’s own circle of association. This pseudo-realism mirrors many facets of real life, where people are expected to fulfill a role within society, except that, in the game world, these tasks seem more appealing as the user chooses what he or she will do, where, how and with whom. The addiction comes as users continue to rely on the game itself for social interaction and fulfillment of needs, known or unconscious.
Nicholas Yee, creator and compiler for the Daedalus Project, an online database that charts online gaming statistics specifically dealing with addiction, defines addiction as “a recurring behavior that is unhealthy or self-destructive which the individual has difficulty ending” (Yee 2002). Results from polls and surveys offered to gamers show that, out of a sample of 2,760 males and 406 females, 66.2% of males and 57% of females between the ages of 18 and 22 have played an MMORPG for more than 10 hours at one time. While this may seem significant, what many intellectuals fail to understand is that many parts of the game require a real-time investment, an aspect of the game companies strive to develop. In the same age range, 50.7% of males and 44.7% of females say they lost sleep due to gaming. However, in the same test group, 62.2% of males and 48% of females consider themselves addicted. In a related study Yee conducted, a survey of 3,989 players revealed that 29% agree, 21% remain neutral and around 50% disagree with this statement: “I continue to play EQ [EverQuest] even when I am upset or frustrated with EQ and not really enjoying it.” Yee concludes that:
Critics may argue that similar responses could also have been solicited from individuals who partake in many healthy hobbies: such as dancing, tennis or skiing. Someone who loves to play tennis or ski might be irritable and frustrated if they weren't able to because of weather conditions... It is only when an individual partakes in an activity in the face of negative or self-destructive behavior that the use of the word addiction is appropriate, and these behaviors are seen in MMORPG players (Yee 2002).
In a study conducted about the Lineage series of MMORPGs by L. Whang and G. Chang, PhD’s in the Department of Psychology at Yonsei University in Seoul, on the online game Lineage, three main types of players emerged after survey results were tallied regarding how players used the MMORPG world: Single-oriented, community-oriented players and off-real world players (Whang and Chang 595). Off-real world players were those who showed strong inclinations for anti-social behavior and game-focused values and materialism. While many gamers respect their peers and comrades, these players would often disrespect the game's social rules and cause harm to other players, using whatever means available to achieve personal success in the world. They emphasized that creating a new identity in the game world and grouping with others of similar mindset specifically for those purposes. Respectively, each group made up 28.2%, 44.8% and 26.9% of the 4,786 players surveyed (596). Among the aforementioned groups, the last is the most likely to suffer from addiction created by a need to control and belong, both of which can be fulfilled in the game world by spending time playing and learning his or her role. In fulfilling this, the user begins to associate their positive experiences with what are essentially destructive, discriminative behaviors in the game, which make playing with people outside his or her group awkward and boring. These games are made to keep players interested. In many ways, human nature is exploited.
“In online games, continuous scoring, promotion, immediate feedback, and achievement of self-satisfaction have become the channels for upgrading individual self-esteem of the Internet generation…However, excessive [participation] in this optimal experience might result in negative outcome” (Wan and Chiou 318).
This negative outcome is what can be considered the addiction to online gaming. An expert in the field of addiction, Dr. Maressa Orzack, a psychologist at McLean Hospital, near Boston, believes that “game addiction is a true mental disorder,” and as much as “40 percent of World of Warcraft players are addicted to the game.” Current estimates of total players in this game are in the millions around the world. In an interview with a self-proclaimed addict, he believed that he was “in the game completely,” and in it he found a sense of the belonging. “ This individual came from a family that was unfortunately breaking up, and World of Warcraft was his way to escape that” (Wright 2006).
Darren Waters, a technology writer for BBC News online reports that, “[u]nfortunately, gaming and addiction is a far too easy association to make… stories about gamers spending 10 to 15 hours a day in front of some video games are becoming more frequent.” The basic aspect of most online role-playing games is colloquially known as “grinding,” a process by which gamers perform mindless tasks, such as killing a certain type of enemy or harvesting a certain type of item to gain levels and, thereby, access more areas of the game (Walters 2006). While game developers may deny this, a simple understanding of the game’s nature reveals that killing something or obtaining something will bring a return of experience. This can take as little as half an hour, or more than a week, depending on the circumstances of the player’s goal.
To many experts and concerned parties, online gaming of this scope has adverse effects on the human being, both in body and mind. “The Interactive Digital Software Association reports that there are about 145 million people, about 60% of all Americans, older than age 6 who play computer and video games. With the rapid growth of the online game market, online game addiction has also increased considerably… People may spend an entire day playing online games even though they might feel exhausted. Players will spend their money on related products and game software” (Rau et al. 396).
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III. Positive and Negative Opinions on Online Gaming
Overwhelming professional and intellectual reports cry out against these games. In Asian countries like South Korea and China, online gaming has become a national obsession that seems to pull people, young and old, away from their everyday lives into the game. In 2005, “Chinese players paid out $500m (£280m) in subscriptions for this part-time escapism” (Taylor 2006). In the same countries, major cities like Beijing and Seoul have their own clinics where gamers fighting the addiction can go to “sober up” and spend time in the real world, dealing with the symptoms of their withdrawal. Government and social regulations to these games seem to help in stemming overuse, as can be seen in the Chinese system where gamers are allowed to play for a set amount of time before the game automatically puts their characters under handicap (Taylor 2006).
However, there is more to the issue than simply taking every case of addiction and applying it across the board. While there is a certain ratio that can be associated with players becoming clinically addicted to online gaming, the vast majority of gamers are not obsessed over the game. According to Waters, “such obsession is rare. But the huge growth in online gaming means a growth in the numbers of people who take their passion for a hobby too far. Almost 400,000 people bought a copy of World of Warcraft in the first two days on sale earlier this month [February]. Only a fraction will descend into obsessives” (2005). In another article, Mark Ward, a technology correspondent with BBC News, describes one thing the MMORPG environment has that many other games do not, a virtual economy. Cash in WoW comes in nearly metric denominations: 100 copper equals 1 silver; 100 silver equals 1 gold. Monies function just as they do in the real world, and people are apt to find strategies that turn a profit:
One player who has turned playing the auction house into almost an art is Alex Tabony. He uses a Warcraft add-on program called Auctioneer to fine tune his exploitation of the auction house [a simulated auction house in World of Warcraft that functions like any real-life version]…"My method is to artificially manipulate the high selling point of any item," he told the BBC News website. "If you can control the market price of a specific item type for a while you can 'set' the high selling point for other user's Auctioneer data…The limit is realistically how much time one wants to invest into it," he said (Ward 2006).
Obviously, this is not a casual player who has just begun adventuring in the lands of WoW, but this is evidence of a breed of smarter, more thoughtful gamers who look at the game environment as a deeper challenge, a breed who are not addicted to the game, do exist. A month earlier, Ward began his own account on WoW and conducted an online interview while touring one of the many starting areas in the game. He found himself staring at a fantastic world where dwarves and humans fly across the landscape, and seascapes of some areas and players offer helpful advice, constantly looking for new acquaintances with whom to network and enjoy the game environment. “[T]here was the constant scrolling chatter of all these people talking to each other or looking for help or buyers and sellers for their goods…It is the chatting, social side of it that is encouraged” (Ward 2006).
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IV. Conclusion and Personal Opinion
As human beings continue to create and refine technologies that help to increase awareness of the world and the human condition within it, more and more cases like online gaming addiction will occur in related fields of entertainment. Just as the parents of the 1950’s would exclaim that television could rot a person’s brain, the same could be said by peers of players in this era. Unless there is a worldwide agreement to limit the spread of online gaming, there is little doubt that the gaming industry will wane in popularity or influence. Gamers will continue to use online gaming as their means of entertainment and fulfillment, and those who only look from the outside will always exclaim it as a waste of time better spent in the real world. The economic impact of these events is helping to bolster the computer gaming industry as a major power in the economics of electronics and will no doubt keep it alive for many years to come. In the future, advanced technology may allow users to interact in a fully three-dimensional world, in which case the argument to curb game time will gain new momentum. Until that time, computers will continue to drive the market for these games. Conclusively, online gaming addiction exists. Studies show that there are significant numbers of the gaming population who admit they are addicted and do not know how to escape.
However, in the course of researching these addictions to electronically-generated stimulus of the mind, it would seem that, with the advent of devices that make life “easier” to weather, human beings have become more dependent on these aspects of modern life. Computers, robotics and electronic devices are now some of the most important cultural aspects of the civilized world. Gaming is attractive, much a matter of finding new and exciting challenges to undertake and beat, most satisfactorily when the challenges are beat within inches of being killed by some antagonistic force. Both sides of the argument, those who advocate restricting these games and the influence they have and those who advocate experiencing the intense visuals and enthralling entertainment they provide, have valid points.
In my own experiences with electronic gaming, I have known, and still do know, friends and acquaintances that spend copious amounts of time in-game, searching for items, monsters to battle and the fulfillment of needs they feel are not met, or cannot be met without great difficulty, in the real world. At times, the allure of fighting off a horde of enemies with a group of friends gives a sense of both pride and belonging. But there is no replacement for the sense of friendship and community that is found in the real world. The one defining difference that sets people who are able to live outside their game from those that cannot deal with reality is, in my mind, is their ability to find fulfillment in their reality. This is obviously an issue buried deep within the consciousness of modern society, the idea that there are indeed people who seem clinically unable to find fulfillment outside a synthetic existence.
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V. Reference Section
Jennings, Lane. "Worlds to Conquer Online: Multiplayer Gaming Comes of Age." Futurist July-Aug. 2006: 60-61. EBSCOhost. 25 Nov. 2006. Keyword: Online Gaming.
Orzack, Maressa. Interview with Rob Wright. TwitchGuru. 8 Aug. 2006. 22 Nov. 2006
Rau, Pei-Leun Patrick et al. “Time Distortion for Expert and Novice Online Game Players”. CyberPsychology & Behavior, 9.4 (2006): 396-403.
Schiesel, Seth. "Kill the Big, Bad Dragon (Teamwork Required)." The New York Times 28 Jan. 2006. 22 Nov. 2006
Taylor, Richard. "BBC NEWS | Programmes | Click | China wrestles with online gamers." BBC News. 9 Apr. 2006. 23 Nov. 2006
Wan, Chin-Sheng and Wen-Bin Chiou. “Psychological Motives and Online Games Addiction: A Test of Flow Theory and Humanistic Needs Theory for Taiwanese Adolescents”. CyberPsychology & Behavior, 9.3 (2006): 317-324.
Ward, Mark. "BBC NEWS | Technology | Fantasy fuels games with finances." BBC News. 30 Dec. 2005. 23 Nov. 2006
Ward, Mark. "BBC NEWS | Technology | walk in the World of Warcraft." BBC News. 30 Sept. 2005. 23 Nov. 2006
Waters, Darren. "BBC NEWS | Technology | Losing Yourself in Online Gaming." BBC News. 17 Feb. 2005. 22 Nov. 2006
Whang, Leo Sang-Min and Geunyoung Chang. “Lifestyles of Virtual World Residents: Living in the On-Line Game ‘Lineage’”. CyberPsychology & Behavior, 7.5 (2004): 592-600.
Williams, Dmitri, and Marko Skoric. "Internet Fantasy Violence: a Test of Aggression in an Online Game." Communication Monographs 72.2 (2005): 217-233.
Yee, Nicholas, comp. The Daedalus Project. Oct. 2002. 20 Nov. 2006
Yee, Nicholas, comp. The Daedalus Project. Oct. 2002. 20 Nov. 2006
