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A very interesting essay on this exact topic can be found here relating Everquest to a giant Skinner box which causes psychological addiction.

I suggest you do a little reading on what a Skinner Box is. Here is a great essay which explains how MMORPGs are essentially giant skinner boxes.

The trap you fell into is called psychological addiction, and it is quite vicious indeed. But what better way is there to ensure a continuous revenue stream from your customers.

As with all things in life, these games are fine in moderation, but always be careful that you aren't getting TOO into it.

From the article:

During the Cultural Revolution, Chinese characters were simplified so that they would be easier to learn and take less time to write. Because Hong Kong was still a British colony at that time, the writing system in Hong Kong remained intact, as it did in Taiwan because the Nationalists did not adopt the system from the Communists. So not only do Hong Kong children have to learn the traditional characters, they also have to learn the written language with no phonetic guide. Moreover, the written language does not correspond to their spoken Cantonese. And most of them are also learning English at the same time.

Recently, Cantonese speakers in Hong Kong have done something that no other Chinese dialect speaker has done. They have chosen to write out their spoken Cantonese, which is like writing in Ebonics but without the stigmatization because Cantonese is the dominant language in Hong Kong. In the process, many words that do not exist in Bai-hua were created specifically for written Cantonese. And many of the words in Bai-hua are used differently in this written language. Written Cantonese is very colloquial, full of slang and idiomatic speech. In short, it is utterly incomprehensible to Mandarin speakers, and speakers of other Chinese dialects, even though it is written with Chinese characters.

Wow, that sounds really like the variable reward theory that Skinner came up with. Read up on Skinner Boxes to find out about it. It's the science behind psychological addiction. Everquest does this too which you can read a paper on here.

That's why I stopped playing Magic, when I realized that. And trust me, psychological addictions can be just as bad.....sometimes harder to fully conquer than physical/chemical addictions.

Partly. From the commentary:

I see it like this. If Im going to stare at a butt all day, it might as well be female. :-)

and

I've always felt female characters are treated a touch nicer, so I take advantage of it. Roleplaying a female is interesting and can be a lot of fun. Plus, I'd really rather look at the backside of a female character anyway.

Partly. From the commentary:

I see it like this. If Im going to stare at a butt all day, it might as well be female. :-)

and

I've always felt female characters are treated a touch nicer, so I take advantage of it. Roleplaying a female is interesting and can be a lot of fun. Plus, I'd really rather look at the backside of a female character anyway.

Well, no. MMORPGs usually have monthly subscription charges - so the longer (in months rather than more as in hours) you continue to play the more money is made. 200,000 players at 15/month (a la EQ and SWG) makes for an additional incentive to provide 'addictive' qualities in-game. There's a brief description of the 'Skinner' characteristics of EQ here.

You are correct that the actual game programmer might not be directly advantaged (except by continued employment and company stability) but the suit who writes his paycheck will be - providing more than enough incentive.

My own take is that the developers probably weren't purposely trying to make people emulate lab rats with food pellets - but CRPG games since, say, Wizardry had been evolving in this direction. The closest to a Skinner model so far - EQ - was such a financial success (for this and other reasons - social being high amongst them) that other companies are scrambling to incorporate their own versions. Eventually, though, the possible player base will max out, whereupon, with all those potential lab rats out there playing someone else's game - the purveyors of addictive pellets are going to have to really smarten them up, hopefully with actual content and not just eye candy.

Lol, I like this image: Most men are single, but most women are married. Who are they married to? :)

(yes, I know that graph doesn't represent the entire population of the planet; the married women are married to men who weren't polled)

They're not microcosms of the *entire* real world. But they are microcosms of a part of society - the part that isn't all that far removed from the readers of Slashdot. To ignore the opportunity to study a socially semi-isolated population altogether, given the proper caveats, would be silly.

Besides, the differences between the general populace and that represented in MMOGs is already known.

What you miss is that they may get on the treadmill for those reasons, but many quickly get bored of it, yet are unable to get off the treadmill. Why you ask? Cuz its a bloody Skinner Box. There is a very well written article on it here. Its simple psychological addiction. I'd love to see what the MMORPG creators from those various companies would have to say about THAT.

WRT to addiction side of it though, here's an interesting study of gaming addiction.

For all you psych buffs out there, all of the MMORPGs out there now, like EQ for example are designed on the psychological principle of the Skinner Box. For an EXCELLENT essay explaining how these games aare Skinner Boxes, check out the essay at the Norrathian Scrolls website. Truly eye-opening insight into an extremely successful albeit scummy business model.

Gillette thinks they were smart by selling the razor cheap and getting people hooked on the blade refills? This makes Gillette look like a lemonade-stand in terms of a business model.

According to , About 84% of EQ players are male, while 16% are female. So as others have pointed out, this would expain why male characters are more valuable, men want to play as men.

The same study says that nearly 48% of men have a character that is female, but nearly all of them spend most of their time playing as a male.

According to , About 84% of EQ players are male, while 16% are female. So as others have pointed out, this would expain why male characters are more valuable, men want to play as men.

The same study says that nearly 48% of men have a character that is female, but nearly all of them spend most of their time playing as a male.

For those of you interested in some pretty good surveys and studies that follow this, you may want to look here.

Granted, the playerbase of EQ isn't as varied as, say, the viewerbase of movies in America or something. However, as far as games go, EQ has a surprisingly varied userbase for a computer game.

Like most computer games, the playerbase is heavily skewed towards the young male student demographic, but also incorporates a more varied cross-section of gamers than most computer games (especially single-player ones). I guarantee you'll find more variety in the player base of EQ than in Counter-Strike or UT2K3. (not bashing those games; they're well-made and enjoyable)

There's also an interesting essay about men and women on the site I've linked to.

As for your Muppet comparison, I'd wager that it's really just the vocal and annoying minority that stand out to give such a bad impression, much like how that one customer who just rips you a new one will ruin your day and stand out more in your mind than the 20 pleasant customers you dealt with.

Then again, I suppose it's just more sensational to rip on EQ gamers with your Animal-like chant of "LO-SER! LO-SER!". You'd fit in at the New York Times, sir.

Legal disclaimer: I play EQ, am a single male in a healthy relationship, earn a decent living, and tend to be online less than most people sit in front of their football or NASCAR (only a handful of hours each week).

Granted, the playerbase of EQ isn't as varied as, say, the viewerbase of movies in America or something. However, as far as games go, EQ has a surprisingly varied userbase for a computer game.

Like most computer games, the playerbase is heavily skewed towards the young male student demographic, but also incorporates a more varied cross-section of gamers than most computer games (especially single-player ones). I guarantee you'll find more variety in the player base of EQ than in Counter-Strike or UT2K3. (not bashing those games; they're well-made and enjoyable)

There's also an interesting essay about men and women on the site I've linked to.

As for your Muppet comparison, I'd wager that it's really just the vocal and annoying minority that stand out to give such a bad impression, much like how that one customer who just rips you a new one will ruin your day and stand out more in your mind than the 20 pleasant customers you dealt with.

Then again, I suppose it's just more sensational to rip on EQ gamers with your Animal-like chant of "LO-SER! LO-SER!". You'd fit in at the New York Times, sir.

Legal disclaimer: I play EQ, am a single male in a healthy relationship, earn a decent living, and tend to be online less than most people sit in front of their football or NASCAR (only a handful of hours each week).

Of course some of the best writings on the subject (not from academia, btw) are the seminal "Habitat Papers" by Chip Morningstar and Randy Farmer. Their main home at communities.com is gone, with the collapse of that company - does anybody out there have copies or links to another site that has them?

here.

Windows administration is enormously labor intensive, even if you set up everything the way Microsoft recommends you do. Windows administration (and Windows programming, for that matter) reminds me of the recent thread on games Everquest and the Virtual Skinner Box: you get the feeling that Windows tools are structured to dole out rewards to keep you playing, even if your skill level is pretty low. It's no accident that so many dialog boxes say things like "Congratulations, you have just..."; some accomplishment--to stick a CD in the drive and enter a serial number. The goal, after all, is to keep people buying and recommending your product; if it doesn't work effectively for them, that's OK as long as the customers don't notice and feel good about it.

As a result, "certified" Windows sys admins feel really good about what they are doing--they get a sense of accomplishment. But a skilled UNIX or Linux sys admin can often accomplish with a couple of commands in seconds what it takes the Windows admins hours to do.

Unlike Windows, Linux won't try to make you feel good or give you a pleasant user experience. It won't encourage you or compliment you. It's just a professional tool, and at that it's quite effective. What it will let you do is, given the same workload, spend more time on the beach (or posting on Slashdot, as the case may be :-).

Thanks for the link. Even more interesting, to me anyway, is this page (same site), where 62.1% of EQ players sampled in the study consider themselves addicted. Denial being what it is, I am surprised that nearly 2/3 of the respondents fessed up. I would hasten to guess that perhaps about another 15-25% of the respondents know deep down they are addicted, however refuse to admit it. I am curious to see figures on what the weight gain while playing (being addicted to) EQ are like.

This article posits the observation that EQ works via operant conditioning and shaping to guide the user to spending ever increasing amounts of time in pursuit of steadily decreasing rewards.

The most startling fact about EverQuest is how well it conforms to the Skinner Box model, making one believe that Verant specifically designed their product around principles to make it more addictive than it would be otherwise.

Here is an interesting read on that subject.

Honestly, if the company is exploiting psychological theory in order to make their game addictive on purpose, its not much different from cigarette companies using nicotine or cola companies using caffiene IMO.

Bad? Maybe... I've heard of a lot of otherwise well adjusted people playing EQ to thier own detriment. But then, ultimately it is the responsibility of the individual to take care of themselves.

In an industry scrutinized by the government as a drug infested haven that pollutes our communities and destroys the ability to lead a productive life, there is another industry that has the potential to become even more dangerous than any drug addiction. I'm not supposed to be writing this. What was supposed to happen was I prove my thesis that I couldn't be sucked into a virtual reality like many people I have met before. I never really understood what I was getting myself into when I started my research experiment, playing a Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game.

Three years ago at a nightclub I bumped into an old friend of mine who went by the nickname "Iggy". I was really amazed to see him because no one had seen nor heard from Iggy in over a year. Many of his friends had all wondered what happened to him.

"Jesus Iggy, where in the hell have you been?!"

"Everquest," was all he said. He looked down at his feet when he said it.

"Huh?" I had no clue what he meant.

"I've been playing Everquest."

As we spoke, Iggy opened up to me and confessed that he had lost his job, his friends and didn't want to go out much anymore.

"It's an addiction. I'm only out tonight because the server is down for patching and I'm miserable."

For some reason, he couldn't look me in the eye while he was talking. He was obviously embarrassed.

"Um. Okay." I mean, what was I going to say to something as incredulous as that? I've heard of game obsessions, like those college kids in the seventies that murdered their whole family while playing a Dungeons and Dragons game, but I just thought that sort of obsession lies only in the minds of sociopaths or people with a lot bigger problems than playing a game. Iggy was a really nice, normal guy who had lost a lot to some online role-playing game called "Everquest". I had no idea what to make of it.

I never saw Iggy again. Neither has anyone else who knew him that I have asked. Since that night I really pondered the absurdity of his situation. It nagged at me.

On the web you can put the words "gaming addiction" into Google and discover a thousand and one sites for support groups, self help courses, testimonials and various studies. There's the "Everquest Widows" forum, a site called "Ariadne - Understanding MMORPG Addiction", and a myriad of articles on topics like game addiction and the innocent bystanders that suffer from it.

As one Everquest Widow puts it, "I plan on starting "Widows Weekly." It will be a group that meets in a local coffee shop. Here, spouses can talk and help one another through this difficult process, and begin to realize that there is a life out there despite the loss of our loved ones. I plan to send the bill for coffee and snacks to Verant. It would be but a small compensation on their part to repay me and others for the loss of our loved ones--so pay up, Verant!" -- Christine Gilbert CD Mag.com

What I find interesting is that many of the people who author these articles or sites have usually neither played the games or have just been the "victims" such as spouses or family. Others who dissect the topic of game addiction tend to be outsiders looking in, shaking their heads or turning the study into one giant mouse in the maze science experiment. It's rare that you find someone, who actually plays games passionately, speak up or write anything about negative side affects.

The more people I met who played computer games, the more I wanted to understand the obsession. I also had another stake in this because my partner, Low, is a gamer and a "geek" in every sense of the word. Not to mention my fiancé. It was beginning to cause some strain on us from time to time in terms of "quality time". I was getting really angry with him on a regular basis actually. According to Low, it was I who had the problem, not him. This is how most gamers think. Deal with their gaming or don't deal with it at all. They will play either way.

So I eventually decided to do some investigation and find out what makes these gamers and role players tick. What sort of recreation has the ability to absorb people to the extent that marriages break up, jobs are lost, and they lose friends? How does playing a game on a computer make someone lose functionality in the REAL world, because they want to spend too much time in some imaginary reality? For crying out loud, I thought, it's just a game.

I had a lot of questions but no one I talked to had answers. Gamers would tell me, "You won't understand unless you are a gamer yourself." Ok, no problem. I figured I could just play a game I find entertaining and get bored and write about what nut cases gamers really are.

It just wasn't that easy. This little experiment of mine turned out to be more dangerous than I ever imagined.

I wasn't able to begin playing a game right away. The opportunity just never really presented itself directly to me. There just wasn't a game I really liked enough to "get into it" for long enough. Low would play his Quake, Unreal Tournament, Black & White, Carmageddon, Fallout, Diablo II and a multitude of other first person shooters, but nothing seemed all that captivating to me and there was no way I could play these games with him due to his extreme level of skill and years of practice in a 3D environment.

I played a little Diablo and actually had a bit of fun with that, but I found I only really enjoyed it when I played with Low or our friends in multi-player mode. We would go "adventuring" together as they call it, fighting demons and wizards and monsters and coming out winning or dying, but having some fun just playing together. It was my first taste of actually playing with another player in a game as a team. But when Low moved onto the next game, bored with Diablo, I didn't have the same drive to play anymore. So I put my project aside and put up with his gaming as best as I could.

Massive Multiplayer Online Role-playing Games (MMORPG) have been around for many years. You can find thousands of websites, magazines, web-zines and the like that are devoted to the enormous market out there for online gaming. Sites like GameSpy, that literally receive millions of visits per day from gamers and industry types from all over the world, provide an almost infinite amount if information about these types of games. Hundreds of thousands of people play games like Everquest, Dark Age of Camelot, Asheron's Call, and Ultima Online each day from all over the world. With the upcoming launch of The Sims Online, analysts and game reviewers are expecting the largest online game community ever seen to develop.

"The Sims promises to be one of the most interesting human experiments in the history of the Net." -- David Kushner, Entertainment Weekly

Low had tried many of these MMORPG's. He never stuck with one very long because, as he puts it, "I got tired of being a crappy tree-elf that always fell out of the damn tree village." In Ultima Online, he "got tired of having all my stuff stolen from me and getting killed by stupid 'PKers' (Player Killers)." Apparently for him, the rewards were far and few between to keep him interested in these games. He also has a very short attention span with most games. Play it, beat it, and move on to the next game is his motto. The more games you play in a single year the more well rounded you are apparently. With the new enhanced graphics engines, hardware and development that goes into games these days, it's amazing how stimulating the market can be right now.

Early in 2001, however, Low's opinion of online gaming changed drastically. He read an article about a new online role-playing game that was set about 30,000 years into the future, on a colonized planet. The story line was science fiction themed, with monsters, mutants, futuristic weapons, wars, and sinister political plots. The player would have the ability to create a character avatar from a wide variety of attributes and be surrounded by very realistic 3D graphics, with incredible scenery and sound. You would have to defend yourself, form guilds, make friends and alliances and your goal would be to "learn" or level your character as the game progressed in order to increase your skills and possessions. There would be PVP (player versus player) combat, PVM combat (player verses mobile or "mob" for short, a term used to explain computer generated enemy or monster) and a variety of other things one could do while in the game online. You could fly a plane, morph into animals and go on dangerous missions and epic quests. The game was called Anarchy Online.

Something about this Anarchy Online game really had his attention and right after it came out in July of 2001, he bought his copy and began playing, and once again I lost him to a game. He could not stop going on and on about how "cool this or that was" or the graphics or all the people he was meeting. His excitement was just ridiculous in my eyes but I had been through this before. Nevertheless, the game also captured my interest because of its science fiction theme. I am a sci-fi buff and the storyline had such a great plot that they actually sell the novels online for it. I read the chapters as they were released and was hooked on the storyline.

Low bought another copy about two weeks later. "I want you to play with me." By this time we were under some strain because he was really absorbed by this game every night. It looked really intimidating to me and I opted not to play it right away, stalling for time. The 3D environment bothered me because any game I had ever played, like Diablo, for example, had always been in third person view, which is a bird's eye view of the environment. The 3D graphics were dizzying as I looked over his shoulder from time to time.

In the end I caved in under the pressure and began playing it in September of 2001. I was a horrible player in the beginning, running into walls and getting lost or killed all the time. It didn't matter to me. I was playing a game with my boyfriend and found with each day that went by, I wanted to log on and play more and more.

So what was the appeal? Before I realized what was happening, I became addicted to playing this game. While logged into this game I met wonderful people, via their avatars, laughed to funny antics via chat window discussions, and experienced a futuristic sci-fi world via incredibly realistic 3D graphics and sounds. We ran through swamps with mutant wolves chasing us, the sound of our feet making wet suction sounds just like you would have in reality. We could hear birds chirping in forests we scouted and vultures crying overhead as they spotted us and attacked.

Our adrenaline would pump as we fought for our lives against twenty-foot tall robots with buzz saws for hands, or as we went on safaris to hunt giant brontosaur-like animals. We had the ability to heal and save each other as well as other members of our team at the time. We also had the ability to gain the respect, over more than a year later, of many online players, for being a great couple of characters in this game. We have, in fact, become high-ranking officers in our guild, which is almost like a family or alliance with other people to help you in the game.

In South Korea, some in-game alliances are valued more than real life friendships. A game called Lineage: The Blood Pledge has captivated approximately a third of the population. In Lineage, characters can take on the role of Princes, Wizards, and Knights and vow their loyalty to their clan or guild. This loyalty had lead to an incident in 2001 where a player was nearly beaten to death in real life for virtually killing the character of another player.

"He boasted that he had offed the gangman's virtual character just for the fun of it. Bad idea. The roughnecks dragged the 21-year-old into the urinal and pummeled him until he was covered with real-world bruises." -- By Michelle Levander, Time Magazine

It is easy to lose yourself to your imagination while you become someone you could possibly never be in the real world. You can become a hero, a bad ass, a wealthy person, someone with special powers or gain an enormous amount of respect from people who look up to you. This isn't to say you can't be that kind of person in reality, but what if everyone had this ability to find respect, admiration and status, simply by being in the environment long enough. What if all you had to do was play each day and level higher and higher, each goal leading to a new goal of achievement and possibilities. And what if you never had to leave the comfort of your chair to do this?

What if you could really become a diva, a soldier, a magician, or a samurai, and people respected or admired you unconditionally as long as you had a long red bar looming over your virtual head. Or, as in especially my case, what if while you were in this virtual reality, you didn't have to worry about deadlines, due dates, over 1000 emails per day to read and answer, or day-to-day stress that comes with what I do. The virtual reality could absorb you so much, that for the time you are logged in, you forget everything else. It doesn't seem to matter whether you are a strict role-player (someone who stays in character) or 'hardcore' (someone who spends more time in-game than an average user). You still can be addicted and absorbed with the attention you get.

The official Anarchy Online Community Forum, which gets thousands of posts per day, has also been one of my sources for observing how obsessed people have become with the game. Recently, a devoted and well known player had to throw in the towel due to her addiction problem.

"The level to which I got into things here is what has lead me to this point where I must say goodbye. My internet addiction and denial of it has taken me to a point where I must get a hold of it. I realize that many people have what it takes to play a game like this "casually" in a healthy manner. I am unfortunately not one of those people. I am currently battling bi-polar disorder (manic depression) and the escapism that a game like AO offers is too much like a drug for me."

The ability to be respected, to be admired, and to succeed, even in an imaginary world, is a very powerful lure. It can cause a person to produce endorphins, a chemical released into the brain that causes a feeling of energy and well being. Gaming also causes adrenaline production and extreme excitability. Scientists have proven that endorphins and adrenal rushes are incredibly addictive.

"There are indications that pleasurable games and activities cause the body to produce endogenous opiates such as endorphins. These substances are actually addictive. Some addictive drugs, such as heroin, are chemically similar to these natural substances, while other addictive drugs are thought to stimulate their production."
-- Leonard Holmes, Ph.D. from the article, Is Pokémon Addictive? 1999

It should be easy to see why gaming can be addictive as a direct result of the physical effects on the body. I also believe that people can become addicted to respect, admiration and power as well. Even though the production of endorphins can be a positive side affect in one way, it can be easy to overindulge and put aside productive living. But there are many ways to do this and online gaming is not the only vice out there. People find many different ways to escape the problems in their life or to combat stress.

People log on each and every day to find a level of respect that doesn't come easily in day-to-day life. They log on to escape reality or to escape other real problems such as illness and stress. I have met people in this game who have mental disorders or physical impairments. I have also played with people who are in IT jobs all day long, listening to customer complaints, getting bitched at regularly. Some have even admitted that they never hear the words "good job" in the real world.

One player who works in the IT technical services industry, told me "I get my faith in people restored when I get online. People treat me with respect and are actually nice to me. They don't expect anything in return. Also, they believe me when I tell them something because of my level in the game."

I know of other overly stressed out people who log in each day to escape their day-to-day experience of working or living in hard reality. We met a person in game, for example, who is an EMT. Everyday he witnesses death and horrible accidents. He told us that he plays the game to get it all out of his mind. I also met a nurse online with a similar story, and a school teacher who teaches eleventh grade in the Bronx, NYC, who is very stressed out by his job.

"Most human beings pass through periods in their lives, when they feel compelled to engage in some apparently mindless activity that, for the time being, seems to provide some relief from the prevailing chaos in their lives. This could be something as simple as spending hours in front of the television set. Or going on uncontrollable buying sprees just to feel and smell the newness of the product. Or getting into a series of dead-end relationships. Or going on eating binges. Or playing computer games, uncaring of unattended work piling up. Or playing snooker every evening at the club regardless of the family's legitimate demand for more attention. In other words, binging on anything potentially destructive to the body or the soul. Fortunately for many of us, after a period of this compulsive indulgence, we pull ourselves back to the mainstream and get on with our lives, until the next compulsion hits us."
-- Dr. Vijay Nagaswami, from the article, Who? Me? An addict, The Hindu Folio 2001

This is not to say that there are not positive aspects to interacting with people online. Online gaming opens the doors to people who might not have the ability to do so due to time, geography, or many more reasons. Gaming online is an inexpensive and quick way to make new friends, chat with people all over the world and share an experience with people you would never meet because they may be continents away.

One of our online friends, for example, who goes by the character name "Docker", lives in Leiden, Netherlands. Another friend, "Chanell" lives in Einselthum, Germany. These are really interesting people we would never have met if it was not for the game we play online. I asked Chanell why he started playing online games.

"It all began with Diablo II being released. Then my friend, Yppo, made me try it online. I found it was an incredibly boring and annoying game. Then Yppo made me try it online and I loved it. I joined his clan and had months of online fun, then it got boring, close to the moment DAoC [Dark Ages of Camelot] was released in Europe. While I went to DAoC, Yppo chose to go to A.O." Eventually Chanell started playing A.O. as well.

When asked how playing A.O. affects his social life, he reflected, "As for my friends... yes we hang together a lot less. This could be related to A.O. or the fact that we don't work in the same city anymore. I am not totally sure. I still have a lot of phone calls and meetings so I am not "lonesome" it just isn't an as high frequency as before."

And with that I can only think that one's social life is in the eye of the beholder. I interact with Chanell almost every day. In fact I interact with more people than I ever have before because of playing a computer game. They just are not all physically in my proximity.

Interaction with people... It got me thinking and I began to develop my own theories on what causes the addiction. Psychologists can use fancy terminology like "Motivation Factors" and "Attraction Factors" such as self-esteem and self-image problems. They can harp on the role of achievement problems and relationship deficiencies in a person's personality. But I think I can sum it up to one word that would work for any individual needing his or her game "fix" each time they log in, regardless of how well rounded they are in their lives or how much of a basket case they could be perceived as.

RESPECT.

I think it is just that simple. I like the feeling I get when people look up to me in the game or ask my opinion. It seems to be a common drive for players in general. That is, to be respected for being the best and reaching the next level in the game.

Not everyone who plays games neatly fit into these Psychologists stereotypes. "Solories", another Anarchy Online player, is an example of someone who just logs on for the sake of play.

"I would say that I am responsibly addicted, meaning I have never been late to work due to AO.
My wife would prefer that I not play AO as much as I do, but I always make time for her every night, and try and do one thing planned together every weekend. I have never been late to work, but the first night I played AO I stayed up until 4:00 am and had to get up at 6:00 am and the next day I played until midnight. I don't feel that AO affects my work habits, work is work and when it is time to play, it is time to play. I enjoy watching my character grow in his skills and MMORPG's in general let you get away from the normal day to day monotone life and do something out of the ordinary. In AO I am Solories Enforcer of Rubi-Ka a defender of the cause. I fight battles that help my guild get better and help the clans win a war against the Omni."

In the process of my gaming experiment, I became a casualty of the concept of being respected. If someone had asked me in September of 2001 if I expected to be obsessed with an online role-playing game a year down the road, I would have said with confidence that I am one of the most level headed non-addictive persons I know. No way could this happen to me. In fact, I would have been reminded of poor old Iggy and his demise.

I technically have ended my experiment. In the process, I haven't lost my job, and due to our simultaneous obsession, I have not lost my fiancé either. I haven't lost my real life friends, but they do sometimes look at me funny when I talk about the game I play. Low and I get our work done, run our business and have a great balanced life together I think. Anyone who actually knows me in real life can tell you that I have no self image or esteem problems and in fact, I have been accused of having quite an ego. I won't even go into Low's ego. I will admit though, that I have missed quite a few parties, nights out with the girls, shopping, and some chores needed around the office and home because of Anarchy Online. I will also admit that I want to log in as much as I possibly can every single day.

People have worse entertainment addictions than playing computer games. If I am going to be addicted to something, I would choose online gaming over drugs, bowling, gambling, television, or being a baseball fanatic easily. I don't have to wear ugly shoes, lose my hard earned money or do the wave next to someone I don't know and that just about makes it a no-brainer for me. It IS after all just a video game, like Neal describes in his great novel, Snow Crash. It is just another amusement park.

"Amusement parks in the Metaverse can be fantastic, offering a wide selection of interactive three-dimensional movies. But in the end, they're still nothing more than video games."
--Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson

And I will leave you with that. Signing on now... Tenjikiito, level 157 Female Solitus Adventurer, Advisor to the Clan Guild Synergy Factor, the best damn guild on the world of Rubi-Ka, with the best damn virtual people one could ever virtually meet.

Special thanks to the following people for help with my research and leveling:
Sohjiro (Low Tek), Theevilcouch, Demnspawnt, Akarah, Chanell, Sheffy, Mr. Cheeze/Conqueso, Solories, Kirishami, Docker, Ramzie, Boco (who is to blame for all of this), Sultanx, Asmoran, Caddock, Meurgen, Tergwannabe, Trus, Ayanamie, Cplkane, Spherana, Ankokujin, Thedwarf (aka Notmyfault), Stromm, Molg, Butwalrus, Ciyt/Toonot, and Yokoduna.

Related links:

Anarchy Online
Dark Age of Camelot
Ultima Online
Diablo II
The Sims
Everquest
Try Anarchy Online free for 7 days! (We dare you to). =]

Unfortunately, most sociologists are not prepared to take advantage of the opportunity. It's become such a "soft" science, so channelled into the idea that nothing can really be proven, and dependant on the advocacy model of academic discussion, that it's institutionally unprepared to switch gears and behave like a hard science.

There are exceptions, but they tend to be outsiders and young students. There's been some really interesting ideas coming from synthesis with network theory, and Nick Yee has done some really good work treating the populations of online games as subjects and doing comparative studies. But it's not yet being taken seriously by the greater community of sociology, which seems focused on finding ways to make the new tools give the old results.

--Dave

Here is a previous study that is much more interesting and factual, Alice in the Matrix. It's an interesting read with 330 responses that seems to affirm what the article had to say.

MO, this will cause the PS2 version to be different enough from the PC version so that it won't be as successful. Add to the fact that you will need a bunch of peripherals to chat for the game (can you say 'expensive'?), and this will drive away all but the really hardcore Everquest gamers.

Obviously, this person has never EXPERIENCED EverCrack. I sat stunned reading this story on the front page a few times. I fear EQ, quit two years ago. I honestly can't decide if it was easier or harder than smoking.

I can say that both had to be quit at the same time, EQ's time-dependency makes you smoke packs a day....

I hope they do bridge the game to the PC worlds. Why wouldn't they? The last EQ expansion was the first that the majority of players didn't rush to buy. I'd say make a snapshot of the current expansion sets, and link the PS2 and PC versions here and now....

What am I doing, damn EQ, it's taking up my time AGAIN just thinking about it now.
Want to know how addictive EQ can be? Check out NeverSleep.

Capitalism at it's best. Maybe VirtualWorld Services will offset the RealWorld damages... Remember the article that the _average_ EQ players spends more time playing than working.

Other great statistics here.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the heck out of the fantasy/role-play aspect of these games, and recognize that the simulated progress provides the continuity that makes them so compelling. But it is important to be aware that they are habituating and therefore addictive. It is equally important to understand that the maximization of the addictive qualities contributes to a predictable revenue stream.

Just something to think about next time you are considering allowing yourself to become sleep-deprived (which contributes to a lack of judgement), in order to slay that next beast.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the heck out of the fantasy/role-play aspect of these games, and recognize that the simulated progress provides the continuity that makes them so compelling. But it is important to be aware that they are habituating and therefore addictive. It is equally important to understand that the maximization of the addictive qualities contributes to a predictable revenue stream.

Just something to think about next time you are considering allowing yourself to become sleep-deprived (which contributes to a lack of judgement), in order to slay that next beast.

Here is some interesting reading as to why makes an MMORPG work. People argue about games being too much hack-n-slash, too little role-playing or a combination of the two but I think the real question is what makes a player hooked? According to the Skinner Box idea, getting hooked is accomplished by slowling increasing the difficulty of the game while offering random rewards. Everquest ("Evercrack") has done very well with this approach. I think the future of these virtual games is bleak. It will involve painful, long chores and amazing rewards...although there will always be a chance to get a better reward in the future. Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to log onto Evercrack and clear VP for several hours(I wish I were joking).

"A final psychological theory regarding the appeal of MUDs is termed "the Virtual Skinner Box." [19] This concept is based on the writings of the psychologist B.F. Skinner, who developed an idea known as Operant Conditioning. In Operant Condition, a subject is coerced into performing complex tasks by repeatedly doing much easier tasks. The key is to provide frequent "positive reinforcement"--rewards--for the easier tasks. The subject is then eased into fewer rewards, as they have to perform increasingly elaborate tasks. In MUDs, early rewards come in the form of obtaining low level abilities and objects, which are plentiful, for the gamer's character. [19] Gradually, the reward system enters the background and players will play for lengthy periods before receiving tangible benefits. [19] Hence, the "Virtual Skinner Box" is designed to addict a player from the start. In general, the above three ideas illustrate how MUDs have sparked debate in terms of what the human mind finds appealing."

The Norrathian Scrolls: A Study Of EverQuest.

99% male, 1% female.

Did you read the article? The article states that the gender ratio is closer to 84% male, 16% female, and more than half of the females playing EQ are engaged, married, or separated. Check the "RL demographics".

It's sad to see, EverCrack, just like real crack hits the lower classes the hardest. for shame.

Btw, did any one else notice that most female everquest players seem to be married and almost/ greater then 30?

I'd often wondered why the makers of these MMORPEGS, seem obsessed with "nerfing" (removing or disabling) any techniques involving skill, in favor of mindless, repetitive actions. The above link made it clear. The research is questionable, but to this long-time player it rings true.