When MMOGs Ruled The Quickies

This summer it seems like Massive games are the only good news going, and this week has been busy. R. Spencer writes "1UP explores MMO addiction and, in true confessional style, opens the floor to heavy users and recovered junkies. It's especially interesting how much the mechanisms of MMO addiction have in common with other forms of addiction. The primary source of addiction nowadays seems to be World of Warcraft. If you're jonesing right now, you might want to check out this Guide to the Creation of the Scarlet Monastery on the official site. Additionally, Mogg writes "For new players, GamerGod has a up part one of a guide to the game World of Warcraft." This is Tobold's first writerly foray at the new site. Luck to him. For something a little different, 1up explores the world of Sociolotron...a Sex MMOG. Speaking of sex, SOE has been busy lately. The end to the Quest for Antonia search is almost here. They've put up new details on future EQ2 content, and announced a dramatic downsizing of The Matrix Online. See, when no one plays, you don't need as many servers. The new content mob is rearing his head all over with Secrets of the Syren in the works on Star Wars Galaxies, CoH Issue 5 coming up soon, and screenshots from the next Guild Wars update available. MMORPG.com continues to put out interesting editorials, with a look at the stories in Massive Games. Finally, the highly respectable Nick Yee has published a new edition of The Daedalus Project. The seminal source of MMOG statistics on the web has articles on participation in games at the level cap, introductions to the genre, and the stress of loot. As always, participation in the survey helps ensure future issues have good data.

Comments

A Different Kind of Addiction

[Valarauk]

So Fraiser retired his sword. "I had no idea how addicted I was. It had been such a habit to walk in the door and head straight for the computer that it took physical effort to get out of that state of mind. We tried other MMORPGs, but they paled in comparison. So piece by piece, we just got over ourselves and moved on. It disgusts me when I look back. I could've done so much more in the real world that I didn't, and I regret that badly.

This was exactly the case for my friends and I in high-school. Looking back now it is painfully clear that we were addicted to Everquest. Many of us lived for new raids, more levels, and better gear.

There is a reason however that I don't rank "MMO" addiction up with addictions to drugs or alcohol like so many in the media. This is because MMO addictions run their course and leave you largely immune to falling into your old habits with a new game. Like Frasier and his friends, noone I know still plays Everquest, also like him and his friends noone I know, after trying numerous new games to try to recapture the feel, was able to get as drawn in as we were with Everquest. It's not because EQ was that awesome a game, it's because after being so taken with a game for such a long time you aren't able to later find something which doesn't "pale in comparison".

You probably won't hear many recovering alcoholics or drug users tell you they tried their damndest to get back on the wagon and today's booze/drugs simply "pale in comparison" to what it would take to pull them back into their old ways.

Re:A Different Kind of Addiction

[CarlinWithers]

My experience, as I've recovered from both video game and drug addictions is that the major difference lies in the chemical effect of drug/alcohol addictions.

To quit an MMO when you're addicted requires an amount of effort equivalent to that of the phsycological component of a drug addiction. This effort is mainly to destroy the habit of your addiction, the physical action of sitting in front of the computer OR the physical action of taking a hit. Also, both addictions make inroads into other areas of your life such as socializing. People quitiing MMOs have to deal with the same issues of either dropping friends, or explaining their wish to quit that drug addicts do.

The major difference comes in the chemical addiction. MMOs don't have the significant chemical addiction that hard drugs have. This is what adds difficulty to tackling a drug addiction that is above and beyond an MMo addiction. Physiological sysmptoms of withdrawal also become an issue.

For this reason MMO addiction is less serious than drug addiction. However, it is still serious.

Wow

[jayhawk88]

Matrix Online has three world servers now? Down from only nine? Damn, that's horrible. How can they even afford to run the servers with that few players?

Re:Wow

[QuantumG]

I tried to watch the second one but was unable to get past trying to figure out where they found the cows to make all those leather jackets from and how they had time to construct the machinery and chemical processes to build those sunglasses they all seemed to wear.

They don't have anything like that on in the real world man. They all wear rags and other garbs that you would expect people who live in a hole in the ground. The clothes in the Matrix are all contrivances.

Addiction to MUDs

[Soleille]

As an administrator of one of the larger free MUDs, Medievia, I see many players with addiction problems. Playing our game is very addicting and has led to school, marital, and family problems, not to mention the anti-social behavior of a lot of our players. If they are at home Mudding, they are not learnng valuable social skills, or so people say.

We have realized this problem and have created a http://www.medievia.com/addiction.html Medievia Addiction Page for the assistance of those players that need it.

In addition, it is not uncommon for players to realize their problems and they request to be frozen for an extended period of time or have their playerfile purged altogether. We of course don't deny their requests. Sometimes they come back, sometimes they don't.

Re:Addiction to MUDs

[QuantumG]

One of the few girls who did an IT degree around the same time as me had a MUDing problem. She didn't study, missed classes, missed exams, flunked courses. We all felt so sorry for her but none of us knew what to do. Eventually people started intervening. If we found her in the unix lab we'd harrass her to stop playing MUDs. That didn't work though, she stopped coming to uni altogether when she got herself an Internet connection with no weekly connection limits (as you can tell, this was quite a few years ago). Some of the girls starting going around to her house but her parents would lie for her and say she wasn't home (even though we knew she was cause her character was online). It's really sad.

Re:And WoW still hasn't fixed the classes...

[Drawkcab]

Yes exactly. It can't be as biased in favor of the horde as people say if such a high ratio of people still prefer Alliance. People would switch if the advantages were stacked that heavily with the Horde. When things start evening out, which may never happen, then you can quibble about fairness.

The funny thing is that when I played on a server where Alliance was at a 3 or 4 to 1 advantage, the Horde was still more successful overall at PvP. They were organized, could control themselves in raids, knew how to play their characters, and could quickly mobilize their players to defend against incursions. As an alliance player myself it didn't take me long to figure out that my fellow players wouldn't respond to any sort of coordination in PvP, making anything resembling tactics impossible.

Addiction, not such a bad thing....

[SynapseLapse]

I have an insane roommate who's an argumentative, messy asshole... But ever since he got WoW for Christmas, he never leaves his room except to work and leave the occasional Pizza mess on our stove. I LOVE World of Warcraft without even playing it.