posted
Well I'm curious about what you all have to say about them. I'm 14 years old, and play World of Warcraft, but I think I've done a good job not becoming addicted to the game.
WoW ruins lives. Like no joke, it does. I know a mom of three who got addicted to the game and doesn't take care of her kids anymore. Whats up with that?
I do see alot of adults playing the game. I was questing with someone and he said "Hold on, emergency" and he ran off for five minutes. When he came back he said, "Daughter hurt herself playing"
I dunno about all this, when I'm an adult I don't plan to play videogames anymore, how could these people be so addicted to the game? Its a great game and all, but it doesnt rule my life. Thoughts?
Posts: 57 | Registered: Aug 2006
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posted
A friend of mine has been lost to the game. He schedules his life around it. Almost quit his job so he could play the game more (lives with his parents).
Posts: 3134 | Registered: Mar 2005
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I don't think WoW or any MMORPG/online game is any different than many other hobbies; if you sink too much time into ANYTHING, it becomes harmful.
If you'd like to read a really interesting study on MMORPG addiction, though, check out the Daedalus Project.Posts: 4313 | Registered: Sep 2004
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posted
I got WOW the day it came out, I have played it intensely for the last 2+ years, my grades in college have been fine, I have held a job the entire time. I still found time to meet my wife and date her and get married. My wife plays the game now 1-2 hours a day sometimes not, depending on plans for the day. My guild just decided to take a break from intensive raiding until the expansion comes out.
I had more fun playing WOW then any game in my life, but it has also made me want to chew on glass. Its just like anything that is fun, even a good thing can be taken to excess. Ill continue to play it until a better game comes along. Yes it costs money but no more then what I would have spent on other games which I did not buy because I was playing WOW.
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Storm Saxon: It's not WoW, it's MUDs. WoW is really just diku mud version X.
No, it's really, really not.
Conceptually, MMORPGs and MUDs share similarities, but one glance at the code reveals that they are technically dissimilar. The only exception to date is the original Everquest.
Posts: 4313 | Registered: Sep 2004
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posted
I mean, it's not exactly the same because you're in a three-d world versus a text world, but it's all been pretty much there since the 1990s.
Posts: 13123 | Registered: Feb 2002
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posted
I was walking the path to WoW addiction. Letting it effect my grades, my life, playing all night so that I couldn't wake up in the morning, etc. I reinged it in, and found some balance.
And then I met my girlfriend. I had to choose between her and WoW. I deleated WoW from my computer, cancelled my subscription and only miss it every now and again.
Life comes first.
For those people who don't make that choice, it might have something to do with the need to be great, to be a hero, to effect the world. The sad part is, being a good husband or wife, boyfriend or girlfriend, father or mother, son or daughter IS changing the world, is being a hero at least in my none too humble opinion.
Posts: 6683 | Registered: Jun 2005
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quote: <shrug> It's about as useful to say that Mario 64 is just the tenth sequel to Mega Man 1.
Not getting the second reference, so I don't know.
However, I can tell you that the actual game play and what makes rpg type games fun and addicting hasn't changed since MUDs, except that rather than having to, say, type 'n' and 'cast "magic missle" skeleton' to do you thing, you target and press a button.
Now, does this change game play significantly? I would argue that it doesn't since the game is still basically the stats and numbers which make up you, your stuff, and the world are the three-d game, and these are pretty much unchanged from the two-d game.
Perhaps this isn't something that we can see eye to eye on.
Posts: 13123 | Registered: Feb 2002
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quote: <shrug> It's about as useful to say that Mario 64 is just the tenth sequel to Mega Man 1.
Not getting the second reference, so I don't know.
However, I can tell you that the actual game play and what makes rpg type games fun and addicting hasn't changed since MUDs, except that rather than having to, say, type 'n' and 'cast "magic missle" skeleton' to do you thing, you target and press a button.
Now, does this change game play significantly? I would argue that it doesn't since the game is still basically the stats and numbers which make up you, your stuff, and the world are the three-d game, and these are pretty much unchanged from the two-d game.
Perhaps this isn't something that we can see eye to eye on.
I agree that the similarities you're presenting are there; I'm saying that if that's how you define games being similar enough to merit sequel numbers, or if those similarities are enough to call MMORPGs "just" copies of what has come before, it's a fairly useless observation.
To use another example: it's about as useful as saying Good Charlotte is just The Beatles CXXIV.
Posts: 4313 | Registered: Sep 2004
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quote:Originally posted by Cyronist: Well I'm curious about what you all have to say about them. I'm 14 years old, and play World of Warcraft, but I think I've done a good job not becoming addicted to the game.
WoW ruins lives. Like no joke, it does. I know a mom of three who got addicted to the game and doesn't take care of her kids anymore. Whats up with that?
I do see alot of adults playing the game. I was questing with someone and he said "Hold on, emergency" and he ran off for five minutes. When he came back he said, "Daughter hurt herself playing"
I dunno about all this, when I'm an adult I don't plan to play videogames anymore, how could these people be so addicted to the game? Its a great game and all, but it doesnt rule my life. Thoughts?
One of the things I've noticed occurs when someone gets completely absorbed in the online gaming experience is that their grammar and punctuation and spelling go bye-bye. It's good to see that you haven't gone this route.
Posts: 2827 | Registered: Jul 2005
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quote:One of the things I've noticed occurs when someone gets completely absorbed in the online gaming experience is that their grammar and punctuation and spelling go bye-bye. It's good to see that you haven't gone this route.
Actually, I think e-mail and online messaging systems like AIM/MSNMessenger are much more to blame for this than online games are.
Posts: 4313 | Registered: Sep 2004
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quote:One of the things I've noticed occurs when someone gets completely absorbed in the online gaming experience is that their grammar and punctuation and spelling go bye-bye. It's good to see that you haven't gone this route.
Actually, I think e-mail and online messaging systems like AIM/MSNMessenger are much more to blame for this than online games are.
lol true story.
Dr S: A healthy dose of hatrack forum browsing can help offset the ill effects of online gaming in regards to grammar and spelling.
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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Possibly, but the truly atrocious offenders tend to be MMORPGers (in my experience). That sort of stream of consciousness style of writing with switched around letters and no punctuation really doesn't fly even with most emailers and/or IMers. It seems to be as a result of the streamlined manners communication needed to communicate and play a game at the same time.
Posts: 2827 | Registered: Jul 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Dr Strangelove: In response to eroso:
Possibly, but the truly atrocious offenders tend to be MMORPGers (in my experience). That sort of stream of consciousness style of writing with switched around letters and no punctuation really doesn't fly even with most emailers and/or IMers. It seems to be as a result of the streamlined manners communication needed to communicate and play a game at the same time.
I think you're right, although the basis of most of what annoys me (and I've been guilty of) originated with IM and e-mail. Lack of capitalization, using "LOL" as punctuation after your own sentences, etc. BLEAH.
The increasing advent of deliberate misspellings, e.g. teh, pwn, etc., can be directly attributed to online gaming, though.
Posts: 4313 | Registered: Sep 2004
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quote:Originally posted by Dr Strangelove: In response to eroso:
Possibly, but the truly atrocious offenders tend to be MMORPGers (in my experience). That sort of stream of consciousness style of writing with switched around letters and no punctuation really doesn't fly even with most emailers and/or IMers. It seems to be as a result of the streamlined manners communication needed to communicate and play a game at the same time.
This may interest you but in my guild we had a member join who came from the culture of MSN/IM and had embraced all the typical misspellings and grammatical mistakes. A handful of us started teasing him about it and insisting he stop doing it and eventually he started typing normally again.
Obviously some guilds probably don't care or encourage it passively, but that was not the case within my guild. Usually its younger folks who write that way intentionally.
I also agree with eros on the whole "teh, pwn, etc" thing. In fact I have heard gamers when speaking to each other on programs like ventrillo or team speak actually SAY those terms.
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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quote:I also agree with eros on the whole "teh, pwn, etc" thing. In fact I have heard gamers when speaking to each other on programs like ventrillo or team speak actually SAY those terms."
It's actually spread to vocalization among people who don't game at all.
It's kind of scary, actually, to hear a teenie-bopper looking girl say "pwned" and then giggle, especially when they don't actually know what it means or where it came from. I use it mockingly, but seriously, if this becomes a legitimate part of language, I'm going to be upset.
Posts: 4313 | Registered: Sep 2004
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We had a cleric in my old EQ guild who thought pwned was short for pawned. She would run around saying 'yeah, our group pawns!' and we'd usually be laughing too hard to set her straight...
Posts: 1676 | Registered: Jul 2000
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It has crossed my mind to get a personalized license plate that reads "t3h pwn"
I think it would be funny for people to see a middle aged woman climb out of a car with those plates.
Posts: 7085 | Registered: Apr 2001
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quote:We had a cleric in my old EQ guild who thought pwned was short for pawned.
What is it short for and how do you pronounce it?
It's not short for anything; it began as an accidental mistyping of "owned" (due to the proximity of p and o on the keyboard), which ended up becoming a deliberate mistyping.
Opinions vary, but most seem to agree that you pronounce it like "owned," but prefaced with a p - "powned."
Posts: 4313 | Registered: Sep 2004
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quote: I use it mockingly, but seriously, if this becomes a legitimate part of language, I'm going to be upset.
I'm not much of a gamer, but the majority of my friends are. It is part of our normal, every day vocabulary. I used it before knowing the origin. *shrug* I don't see why it's anything to get upset about.
Posts: 1947 | Registered: Aug 2002
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It's not as powerful as Zpwned (pronounced zap-owned), which usually indicated being pwned by a particularly powerful player, as it includes the Pure Power Letter, "Z."
Posts: 3950 | Registered: Mar 2006
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I have a soft spot for any virtual environment (I used Active Worlds a lot, for example), but I think these are the ingredients which make MMORPGs particularly addictive;
- The 'second life': role-playing a character of your own creation. People love walking around as their metaphorical selves, fighting metaphorical enemies to protect their metaphorical city, where they have a metaphorical house filled with metaphorical furniture.
- Discovery of new land, items, quests, people. Points, new things to do, more eye candy.
- A character advancement system which rewards you not always immediately but over a period of weeks/months/years.
- Teamwork: guilds, corporations, ad hoc groups for hunting, questing, making items, making money.
Playing a MMORPG is a bit like online social networking in certain ways, and the idea of working in groups to achieve something an individual can not is always exciting.
I was once addicted (perhaps too strong a word) to EQII. I loved the world, met lots of friendly people, and had heaps of fun hunting orcs in groups or crafting furniture to sell or furnish my room. I even wrote a crafting guide and started a guild.
I left when I started university. The time commitment was obviously too much, but I was already getting frustrated by the fact that the effort:reward ratio was getting too high.
I still feel nostalgic when I think about EQII though.
posted
hmm while some ppl do have addictive personalities. i think these games require an extra amount of discipline than a lot of things. i dont think i have an addictive personality, but online games really hurt my grades. i played ragnarok online and loved it. i still think it is a really great game. the major problem with games like these is that they require lots of time to get to a high level, and there is always new and different stuff one's character can do.
as much fun as online rpg's are, i think a little part of my soul might have been sucked away cuz of them. i think ill stick to reading books instead.
Posts: 813 | Registered: Nov 1999
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quote: dunno about all this, when I'm an adult I don't plan to play videogames anymore
Um...there's nothing wrong with adults playing video games. Especially when you have kids. We have Friday night Halo tournaments at my house and it's a blast and a great way for parents and kids and siblings to interact.
I won last week, btw. We were on the waterworks map (I think's that the name, I recognize them by sight but never remember the names) and I kept getting the shotgun and just blasting everyone away. Natalie likes to get in a ghost and splatter people but with the shotgun I could kill her before she could kill me with the ghost. The only real threat to me was my husband, who likes to hide out and snipe, but when he ran out of bullets for the sniper rifle - the game was mine.
I do however, think the probability of game addiction goes way, way up when playing online, so we keep the Xbox in the family room, and only play for a specific number of games and we do not have Xbox live.
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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posted
I actually have heard the word pwned used IRL quite frequently. My old roommate is an electrical engineer, and he and his friends used pwned and owned a lot.
Of course, we have also played poker using different colored circuits as poker chips just because that was what he had lying around.
Posts: 1901 | Registered: May 2004
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posted
There are lots of fathers and sons, and not a few families, that play mmorpgs and games together. Most people who buy and play video games are adults.
Posts: 13123 | Registered: Feb 2002
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in a way, i think im glad my dad doesnt play those game with me. i think it would be really cool if he did, but im glad he doesnt. being the only one in my family that plays(ed) games like this makes it easier for me to get away from them and back to my studies.
tho, now that im moving out and will maybe only see my dad once a week or so. it would be cool to be able to play some mmorpg with him. i wont ask tho. im sure my mom would kill me if i got him involved in something like an mmorpg, especially now that he is retired. hahahaha, wow. yeah, she would be pissed.
Posts: 813 | Registered: Nov 1999
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quote:Originally posted by Nighthawk: I've been playing and writing games for over twenty years, and I've personally never used the word "pwned" or any similar phrasings.
Actually, I don't think I've ever even TYPED the word "pwned" until this post.
bam! Your stuck, now you must continue to use it!
I was watching cartoon network just the other day. I was just walking by I SWEAR, I hate modern cartoons, anyway. Apparently one of the character defeated the other in a game (not a video game) and yelled, "I totally just owned you!"
Its working its way into mainstream vocabulary, believe you me.
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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