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There have been many
horror stories lately, some true, some fiction about players of
WOW. The stories have a wide range, a kid
leaping from a building claiming to be reenacting a spell from WOW,
parents not feeding their children for days due to their in-game needs,
to a real life stabbing over a virtual theft. After playing the games
online for a while, it is evident that some people will inevitably take
the virtual world too seriously. It’s a game, meant for fun. There are
plenty of casual players, but some take things too personally or too
seriously. That’s when it begins to borderline on addiction, and becomes
dangerous.
In an America where everyone is becoming more enlightened and in touch
with themselves, there seem to be twelve step programs to help contain
the addictions of every sort. Now the kids who grew up playing video
games are growing older, and still playing them. Video games are a form
of entertainment, a method to escape from the toil of every day life no
different than television. WOW offers its players a chance to
adventure in a virtual world that many of their customers are familiar
with from the Warcraft franchise.
The online role playing genre however lends itself to addiction and
competitive nature very easily. A portion of the game is attaining the
maximum level; level 60 in WOW. Only the people who have achieved
this feat can possibly hope to have any influence. At maximum level, one
would think there’s not much left to do in the game, after all, there is
no more improvement that the character can strive for. With the Player
versus Player (PvP) ranking system, and “end game” content, that’s
hardly the truth. Through the PvP system WOW has put in place, players
may view their characters rating against all others that they play with.
The PvP system rewards player for each enemy player they slay. The more
foes killed, the higher the rating. Players are ranked on quantity
rather than quality, meaning the players with the most time to dedicate
to the game get the highest rank and reward. The “end game” content is
mainly made up of raid instances, challenging dungeons and content that
requires a group of forty people to coordinate and spend six to eight
hours a night to complete a dungeon. There are currently three such
instances in the game, meaning a raid group who wants to do all three,
as they often do, would have to dedicate a minimum of three nights of
eight hours to just those instances. That’s the equivalent of a part
time job playing WOW. The players gain nothing tangible for their time,
but their characters have a chance to get some new armor or a new weapon
for the time spent.
The majority of the subscribers to WOW are not these same video
game junkies that would kill for their online world. Just like classic
pen and paper role playing games, most of the players know the clear cut
line between fantasy and reality. The amount of time needed to dedicate
to a WOW game just to stay on top of the curve is more than any
casual gamer has. The competitive nature of video gamers push many of
them to spend more time than they can afford to have the most powerful
character possible. Plenty of college students have failed out of
college because of the downward spiral that WOW addiction can
cause. Once a student gets behind in a class, they can become depressed.
WOW can be a good way to take your mind off the problem. A
planned hour of play can easily turn into three or four. Soon, the once
small problem of turning a project in late becomes test material left
unstudied.
About the Author
Hunter Crowell is a
researcher, marketer, and an avid online gamer, including World of
Warcraft and also the creator of
Buy WOW Gold Price List, a web site setup to help players
find the cheapest place to buy their WOW gold. Visit his site at
http://www.wow-gold-price-list.com
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