Why Play MMORPG? PART II

Firstly, can you think of some reasons why people play video games? It can be as simple as just a hobby or a pastime. Moving on to experiencing a story, challenging yourself through puzzles and scenarios, escaping to a world out of reality and doing things in a virtual world which are impossible in our world.

What about MMORPGs? People play MMORPGs looking for more than just these reasons. MMORPGs can be described as a very large platform for virtual social interaction with added graphics and games into it. And as it is a (people among people) game instead of the usual (people among Artificial Intelligence) game, it becomes very competitive as players fight to be the best in the game. It also allows the players to make friends and work with each other in completing game objectives whereby they become be part of an ongoing story of the game(as there is no ending to MMORPGs unlike normal RPGs).
A virtual world also allow players to express themselves in ways they may not feel comfortable doing in real life because of their appearance, gender, sexuality, age, or other factors.

From these simple reasons of playing MMORPGs such as for the fun of it, getting to know friends or for the competitiveness, comes consequences such as Game Addiction, Cyber Harassment and Virtual Civil Disobedience within the game. And exactly how much are the Game Developers responsible for such behavior.


Game Addiction <- click to see Article

Addiction refers to the condition of being habitually or compulsively occupied with or or involved in something. Which refers to the crave for games which results in excessive hours of gaming in the case of Game Addiction. Addiction can happen in anything, such as Drugs, Smoking, Alcohol, Gambling and even Gaming.

Addiction in Drugs, Smoking & Alcohol is caused by Inhaling/Consuming products which contains substances such as nicotine with stimulant effects on the electrical activity of the brain. When a person consumes such stuffs and reaches a significant quantity or over a period of time, the brain will crave for more when the effects of the substances are gone.

But Addiction in Gambling and Gaming are casued by the emotional beliefs in people. A player who is addicted to gambling loses a lot of money, and they believe that it is more important for them to continue playing because of all the investment that they’ve already made. And in MMORPGs, many people believe that every hour that they spend in these games helps to build their sense of worth and with everything that matters to them within that game. And by playing that extra hour, they are less likely to stop playing because of the sunk cost. Here is a video regarding Game Addiction in a MMORPGs, World of Warcraft.

When gamers become so immersed in MMORPGs, it becomes an alternate reality which can be potentially harmful to the gamers. As it is the competiveness most gamers look out for in MMORPGs, the desire to attain power and sense of being the most powerful in MMORPGs can lead to Mental Abuse in MMORPGs. Mental Abuse in MMORPGs can occur just by criticizing other gamers of their poor playing skills, or arguement can just emerge among gamers whether friends or not, through communication in the game itself. Some of these cases, if serious enough, can be identified as Cyber Harassment which is one of the Cybercrime offence.

Cybercrime - Cyber Harassment
Basically, Cybercrime can be seperated into 3 major categories which are against; 1) persons 2) property 3) government and in this case, we are talking about Cybercrime against persons.

It is very easy to commit a crime against a person online, most commonly by harassment. The use of Cyberspace makes it easy for people to commit such crime as people can do so without showing their true identity and think that they do not have to take responsibilities for their actions. Though easy to commit, yet highly potentially harmful because such a crime to humanity can hardly be amplified. This is one Cybercrime which threatens to undermine the growth of the younger generation as also leave irreparable scars and injury on the younger generation, if not controlled.


So in this entry regarding Game Addiction and Cybercrime, how responsible are Game Developers in controlling these from happening within MMORPGs and what do you think should be done by the society to help reduce such negative aspects of gaming. Please post your comments in the tag board. And we'll post up What We Think in the following entries.