WOW, so addicted

Hello all,

This week I have been thinking about the ‘addiction’ (or rather ‘problematic use’) associated with MMO’s and particularly World of Warcraft. It is a reward system that primarily entices individuals to get hooked on a game; when a player is invested into the game they like to know they will receive a reward from all of their effort. Real-time game play has hugely influenced players and the amount of time spent on a game (or in a world); this along with the reward system of MMO’s creates a swirling vortex of irresistibility within WOW.

In 2007, Joshua Smyth (associate professor of psychology at Syracuse University) conducted a study to see the effect upon us between different styles of videogames. He had randomly assigned college students to play traditional arcade-style games, console games, single-player computer games, and fantasy-themed MMO’s. Through this study he learnt that the community associated with MMO’s is important for gaming and the relationships developed add to longer game play. It is because of this that Smyth states that MMO’s have more negative outcomes. However, throughout the entire article it is not mentioned once that MMO’s have a real-time game play so the player is constantly thinking about the game even when not playing as the game continues long after the player is offline. One of the side effects listed is lack of sleep, also most likely pinned down to the real-time aspect. Although MMO’s had the most negative result, they also had the most positive; participants in the study finding them so enjoyable influenced by the community associated. This community is hugely dependent on when game play begins though. As Kevin has pointed out in class, the real-time nature of WOW means that the world is constantly moving and players that started when the game first came out will have moved on and up to harder aspects of the game. The community associated with intro to the game can heavily alter a player’s experience of the game. When this study was conducted there would have been a group of new players each part of the study so they were able to navigate the game together and form a community amongst themselves. Looking at all of this, it is clear that game play is purely contextual and the experience is still down to the investment each individual adds to their play.

-Alice