After the release of World of Warcraft in November of 2004, several million players have become increasingly engrossed within the virtual world created by Blizzard Entertainment. When I say several million, it was just a few weeks ago when the folks at Blizzard officially announced they now have over 11 million monthly subscribers to their online game. At $15 a month per subscription, Blizzard has certainly hit the mark when it comes to feeding into an ever-growing problem around the world. Even websites like Olganon (Online Gamers Anonymous) and GamerWidows have been developed as a direct reaction the epidemic of addicted gamers. But what do we do to solve the problem?
In Short, the game takes place in a virtual world where players interact with other players around the world fulfilling various tasks and duties. Each player controls their very own persona in which they pursue careers as a mighty warrior or the weak mage who packs a ferocious fireball. Many players even choose to play multiple personas to vary their role within the game. The almost cartoony art style to the game gives World of Warcraft its distinct look from the other online worlds out on the market today such as Everquest II, Age of Conan, and EVE Online.
Why might a person decide to play an online game? For me it was rather simple, I enjoy games already and I enjoy socializing with people online so playing an online game was a natural fit for me. I have always been kind of anti-social outside any online setting and World of Warcraft allows me to fulfill my desire for some sort of interaction with other people. Others may have joined the game because of a friend or spouse who already play just to gain the attention of the person they know who can’t seem to escape from the virtual reality. I’m sure there are all sorts of reasons people would pick up the game. The problem is figuring out how to put the game back down.
What makes games like World of Warcraft so addictive? The trouble with online games is there is no real end to them, the worlds are persistent. Life within the game continues when you are not even logged in. The first goal for most players is to reach the highest obtainable level to be among the best players in the world. After reaching the highest level, then there are upgrades to armor and weapons to obtain. However, these upgrades aren’t that easy to obtain, more times than not the gear a player is looking for requires a group of other players to get to after several hours of working together. Even then the chance for the item being found is completely random thus making the players repeat the task over and over until his desired item is discovered. For example, an item I needed to upgrade my online persona took almost a year to recover after several attempts every week at 6 hours per encounter. “Online games such as World of Warcraft clearly demand more from their players than your average first-person shooter or sports game. To play all parts of the game calls for skills that takes time and perseverance to develop.” (Levin) There is always the next goal in an online game, and with the recent release of Blizzard’s Wrath of the Lich King there are all sorts of brand new goals for almost every WoW player.
The price a player pays from their online addiction can be any number of things. Loss of job, failure in school, loss of friends and family, eating disorders, physical disorders and even death are all reported issues that have been a result of online gaming addiction. At first glance you wouldn’t think of death being a result of wow addiction but it was reported last year that a Korean couple was charged last year when their 4-month old daughter died while they were playing WoW at a nearby internet café. It isn’t just Warcraft causing the problem either, a man in South Korea died from exhaustion after playing yet another Blizzard title, Starcraft, for 50 straight hours. On a more personal level, I’ve lost jobs after several late night marathons in the virtual world and have struggled with school work as a result.
So how does a player deal with their addiction to an online virtual world? In China, all persons 18+ are limited to the amount of time allowed to play in an online game by the government. Maybe a similar course of action should be required to be enforced on the software companies that develop these games. “… many gamers wind up begging for help in online support groups rather than seeking out mental health professionals.” (Kennedy) There are a number of 12-step programs out there to feed the adopted term of “internet addiction” in which Olganon.org has adopted from the folks of Alcoholics Anonymous. The treatment of WoW addiction isn’t just for the players , but for the people effected in their lives as well, GamerWidows.com is one such website for players to discuss the addictions of the people they know and how to seek help. “The American Psychiatric Association is considering adding video game addiction to the next edition of its diagnosis book for mental health professionals.” (Jackson)
Online addiction to games is an ever-increasing problem and with new online games coming out in the not so distant future, I don’t see the problem going away any time soon. There needs to be some kind of regulation set in place for the people who may have a harder time avoiding this sort of problem to keep from getting it so it doesn’t affect their lives and the lives of the people around them. I have an idea, the next time you hear a co-worker, classmate or friend talking about their online encounters within a game, ask if they’d like to chill sometime and get them away from the game. As we say within the game, “Life > WoW.”
