“ I feel for the most part those who have never played games that can cause such a dedication, might dismiss the fact that their friends and family are addicted as just a petty obsession. Without intervention I think that a lot of these addicted players might never seek help for themselves.“

by Markendeya

(a term paper by my son)

The New Matrix?

Getting started off

I focused my primary research for this paper around one of many games that people play. World of Warcraft (WoW) is a massive multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG). Basically what that is saying is that it is a huge virtual world in which you can create an alter ego of your self, good or evil, and interact with all the other people playing at the same time as you. The world itself is full of ‘none player characters’ that gives you quests to complete for rewards, such as gold and experience points. You can still play by yourself completing these quest, but in the long run you have to start teaming up to kill hard bosses or visit dudgeons.

The way characters interact is based on the three different roles. First the ‘tank’, this is the guy who takes all the damage in the party. He may not do much of the killing of the monsters but keeps them attacking him. Then you need a ‘healer’ to keep the ‘tank’ from dying since he should be receiving most of the damage. Finally you round out the group with some ‘DPS’ (Damage Per Second), these are the guys the do the damage to the monster. This is the most common type of player since in a party of five members they take up three spots. Later on in the game the groups turn into raids where you have to have twenty five players working together to kill the monsters, and with over 12 million people currently playing the game, it’s not hard to find others to play with.

For me, as a WoW player myself, this research would almost look into if I have an addiction to this game. As well as interviewing my friends to see if maybe they are addicted and can use help. Though after talking to my friends who also play, I found it very hard to determine what being addicted to WoW really means. For addictions to be ‘real’, at least in America, it must appear in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV TR). It will break down the signs of an addiction as well as how to treat it. This is the stand in which the current medical profession work off of. Yet, the addiction to on-line video games has yet to appear in this printing and after my research, I find my self supporting those who would like to see this disorder take its place in the DSM-V. This way if Doctors get more involved in defining this type of addiction, it will be easier for the common guy like me to know. Maybe there could be different levels of addictions, some being a non-harmful kind.

When I started off this project I wanted to just write about how addiction to online video games is a growing problem not only in our culture, if not worse in others, and that it needs to be realized by those who don’t play. Yet as I was going about my research I kept asking my self, why is this game, and others like it, so addicting? Is it the players fault for not having the will power to stop playing or the companies who make the games in such a way that they force you to be addicted? So though my focus was on how addicting the game is, I would still like to share later on some other points of views from some of the players themselves on topics of why they are addicted.

What I have found out

Since the topic I have chosen is very modern, I was unable to find any hard copy books in the library and was able to find a few soft back titles on the internet. So my attention was draw to the most current article on the topic I could find. Yet still I was able to find an article, Internet Gaming: A hidden Addiction, that was medically based for a family physician to read that I felt sum up a lot of the basic sign of MMORPG addiction. Dr. Meenan, of the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Rockford, sets up a situation a family physician might find:

A teenager or young adult, usually male, who is suddenly failing at life. He may be having anger problems, personality changes, and sleep or appetite changes. He may have gotten good grades in school and is now failing all of his classes. He is not “running with a bad crowd”; in fact, he is not running with any crowd. He is usually home, playing on his computer. He says he is fine and denies feeling depressed. Drug tests come back negative. You may have prescribed antidepressants or stimulants empirically for depression or attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, but there has been no response. This patient does not act like anything you have seen before. This young man may very well be obsessively playing a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), in which players create virtual identities for themselves and become immersed in an online fantasy world. (Meenan)

After reading Dr. Meenan’s means of diagnosing online gaming addiction, it became clear to me that those who never have experienced playing such games or had have friends and family directly affected by the addiction, most people, even an educated doctor, have to be flat out told why someone might be acting in such weird ways.

I have also watched more videos about WoW than I every wish to do again. There are so many people so involved in this game; they make short movies about their characters. Most of them are just little stories that they just chose the games engines as their platform, but other such as World of Warcrack, is a mock journey through the life of a college freshman who gets addicted to WoW. In a sense it was the perfect depiction of you stereotype ‘WoW Nerd’. Showing how the game can cause drastic changes in your personal life and environment. For example the main charter would rarely leave his room, even to party, and the room itself was dark and energy drinks and delivery food surrounding him. The real beauty of the movie is in how he makes so many in game references that unless you have committed tons of time playing WoW and interacting with other ‘hardcore’ players you would never pick up on. I guess my point here is that the game’s influence has spilled over into almost ever aspect of some people’s lives. Like taking your love for WoW and combining it with your passion for making movies

.

What I found when I started looking

Since I myself play WoW, I was able to find a lot of people willing to participate in my interviews, but I chose only two people that I wanted to spend most of my time observing. The two people I picked where complete social opposites; one is a metro sexual that is almost OCD about how clean the area he plays in, there as the other rarely leaves his room for any reason other than food and class, and has no sense of the fact the his room is trashed with empty soda cans, chips wrapper and god knows what else.

I wanted to see what similarities these two might share that lead to the fact they both have at least a minor addiction to WoW. The biggest thing that hit me off the bat was the amount of hours they logged, playing for almost 5 hours a day on weekdays and pushing 8 per day on weekends. They both stressed to me the importance of staying on top of playing your character, or you will fall behind the head of the pack. This got me to thinking that maybe competition might have a lot to do with people playing the game to the point they destroy their everyday lifestyle. They both make a lot of sacrifices to play the game on a level far above what I feel someone like me could ever achieve.

When asking them what about the game they enjoyed the most, no matter what aspect of it they spoke to me like they were a five year old showing me his favorite toys. They were both very proud of the fact they have logged so many hours playing their characters, and of all the items they have earned. After talking with them I found they way the speak to each other about the game is very similar, but to the point were I was only able to understand most of what was going on since I myself play and I am familiar with the terms they used.

The language of WoW I have found is like talking to someone who is a baseball buff, there are so many numbers and adjectives flying around it could make you dizzy. A conversation between me and a friend, when talking about WoW, would involve talking about “Team rating” and “Personal Ratings”. My friend, and one of my subjects I interviewed, also let me know how his arena matches went the night before, “I got up to 1902 last night on my 2’s, after we started off losing three matches to a mirror Druid/Warrior team, but hit a hot streak, for like 5 straight matches in a row.”(Busund).

A lot of the terms used can really be understood after playing the game at a very involved level and before I reached that point, they would say things like that and I felt like I was a moron who wasn’t even playing the game right. Though looking back on it now, I can see the only reason I didn’t understand what they were talking about was because I never dealt with that portion of the game. They also use a lot of abbreviations such as: LFG (Looking for group), LF2M (Looking For 2 More), WTS (Willing to Sell), WTT (Willing to Trade). These are a few of the more generally used one that mainly help with typing long winded statements, while spamming for what ever purpose.

Some elitist in the game use some that wouldn’t make any sense unless someone just flat out told you for the first time. Such as: Noob, which you would call someone who keeps messing up or is talking about something that makes no sense, most likely delivered from the word newbies; FTL/FTW (For The Lose/For The Win), these would be used when someone has done something stupid that cause everyone to die, FTL or when someone save the group or wins an item they have been wanting for a long time, FTW. There is an endless amount of terms used in the game like these, and I would say that people are always trying to come up with new ones, so they can be on the cutting edge.

In as many ways as I could find that they were the same, I found just as many if not more differences. Not only the environment they surrounded themselves in, but how they reacted positively and negatively to the high and low points in the game. For example, if one of my subjects was playing in a player vs. player match and loses, his normal response is to yell and punch things. In contrast, my second subject, who playing with the first subject on the same team, normally just laughs it off and thinks about how he is going to make it up later, because he is just that good.

Whereas I would say for me I am very indifferent to the game. I know that losing is a part of the game; it helps you learn what you are doing wrong, and winning gives me the sense of pride for doing something right. These emotional differences where of the biggest note to me, it shows to me how they let themselves get involved on such different levels. These responses to the game could also be signs of how addicted one is to the game. Though maybe it is more of a side affect of the addiction than a cause.

Another major difference was in how the game physically affected the two subjects. One has never let the game affect his sleep pattern, eating habits, social interactions or school work. The other has missed weeks of school staying up playing the game for days on end, to the point where he was hospitalized after his body went through a phase of malnutrition and sleep desperation. These drastic affects on ones life can destroy their goals and aspirations. This, to me, is of the upmost concern, to let an online video game cause such a heavy influence on someone people’s lives need to be brought to light, or even a warning posted on the game itself.

I feel for the most part those who have never played games that can cause such a dedication, might dismiss the fact that their friends and family are addicted as just a petty obsession. Without intervention I think that a lot of these addicted players might never seek help for themselves.

What I would do to get the information out

People are ove looking the fact that there are those out there without the self control to stop playing WoW is what I feel needs to be brought to light. I think that there are many forms in which to get information about online video game addiction can be brought up, some of those being: Starting a Facebook group where people can talk about how there friends and family act when playing WoW; Posting flyers with some signs of addiction in Comic book stores or the video game retailer; or maybe banners on popular gaming websites. I think using multiple platforms to get the message out to player and non-players alike, is the most affective way of reaching the kind of numbers you would need to make a difference. The big thing in any of these methods is to use a lot of visual in game references, such as are popular in game hang out spots. This would not only help draw in those who are familiar with the game, but help those who are not understand what game you are talking about.

Lets talk about it

With a problem that is on the rise as rapidly as online video game addiction, there are many out there such as myself who want to help those who been seen not to be able to help themselves. They have been discussing ways to help prevent those who haven’t yet played from becoming addicted. A lot of these people like to point out the situation in China where the government has put regulation on how many hours a day you can play. Right off the bat this might cause those who believe in civil liberties to throw a fit. I can see where they are coming from; does the American government have the right to tell me when and how long I can play games for?

Yet they do regulate over many aspects of our lives to save us from ourselves, like speed limits, seat belt laws, and control over prescription medication. These are, to me, important things to control, for if you didn’t there are many people out there, just like WoW addicts, who seem to be unable to control the desire to do reckless and dangerous things.

They mostly likely back up these regulations with studies done by experts. This is what I feel should be happening with WoW. We need to get experts to research affects of extensive playing of video games. Then once we have studies to back up the reasoning, we can start looking into ways to help control and limit play time. Still there are those out there who can play the game as much as they feel is fun for them and never show signs of addictions. So should they suffer for those who have no control? It’s a very slippery slope to go down, you might over regulate the game and not make it fun for the certain people, or you might under control it and not really solve the problem.

Putting it all together

I feel that if we as a country don’t start looking about online video game addiction as a real problem soon, it might get out of control before it is even accepted as a condition. Not to mention those who already suffer and can’t afford treatment through their insurance companies since the medical world has yet to document condition in the DSM-IV TR. If something is to be done publishing cases in medical journals and doctors coming out and sharing causes of extreme addictions needs to start happening.

In this world of ever growing technology I feel that we should not just let people get sucked into a virtual world like the “Matrix”, where they sit for hours on end in a dark room clicking and typing away in a fantasy world that gives them a false sense of worth and pride. We need to find a way of controlling this growing problem and maybe even pull some of these people who seem to have gotten themselves stuck in “The New Matrix” and bring them back to the real world.

Works Cited

Busund, Mike. Personal interview. 20 March 2008.

Canatella, Bryan. “World of Warcrack” Video file. 08 Feb. 2005. Worldofwarcraft.com 13 April 2008. <http://warcraftmovies.com/stream.php?id=65319&stream=Youtube>.

Meenan, Anna L. “Internet Gaming: A Hidden Addiction.” American Family Physicain 15 Oct. 2007: 1116+. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Wise Library, Morgantown, WV. 6 Apr. 2008 <http://search.ebscohost.com.www.libproxy.wvu.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=27084078&site=ehost-live>

World of Warcraft. Computer software. Blizzard Entertainment, 2008. Windows, 6Gig, DvD.