MMORPG Addiction

A couple of things came together today to set me thinking about MMORPGs and MMORPG addiction.

Firstly Tobold had an article about Raid Lockouts where he seems to take the line that although Raid Lockouts are an inconvenience to players they are basically a good thing because they force people to have well organised guilds. I quote:

There must be incentives not only for playing together one evening, but for staying together and making compromises for each others needs.

The second thing was a link from Syncaine to his blog post about the Sickness that was WOW raiding. I was particularly struck by how as main tank for a high end raiding guild he felt he could never take a night off without feeling guilty at letting 39 others down.

I can't help but make a link between these two things. The very need for group organisation and commitment that Tobold lauds is the same thing that made Syncaine and many others like him slaves to the game.

While I was playing WOW I read several stories like Syncaines. In fact stories like his helped to convince me that I should leave before getting embroiled in WOW's end game.

I know it is not just a simple issue of saying MMORPGs are bad. I know there are personality issues involved. I know that many people love the social side of raiding and manage to integrate it into happy and fulfilled lives but I do think that every MMORPG player should spend some time reading about MMORPG addiction before getting too involved in these games. Nick Yee's Daedelus project is a good academic source but for some more personal insights subscribe to the WOW Widows newsgroup.

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