I read an “interesting” article about MMO addiction, I shall call it an article as I believe that is what it originally aimed to be, before being filled with what at times feels like general malice towards MMO games and their players.
You play a MMO, You are weak!
Smashing the first misplaced statement, I play MMOs, I also play RTS games an FPS games, and I quite enjoy adventure games too. Me and my friends play simulated musical instruments for enjoyment, it doesn’t achieve anything, there are no goals or final bosses to defeat, yet we still play. Many of my gaming friends play MMOs and many other non-MMO PC games and generally they own a console too.
Speaking of consoles, when GTA4 was released, it sold a massive 3.8 million copies on the first day, I dread to think how many people sat down a played that game until they couldn’t keep their eyes open. And I can guess that they did the same for a few days following too. I think I wouldn’t be too wrong in say that the above example is a good demonstration of peoples generally addictive nature
And I’ll not deny there are those that have tendencies to become addicted to games, and yes it can lead to self-destructive behaviour in the real world. I have see first hand how a gamers innocent habit can spiral out of control but these case are quite rare. Are these the social rejects mentioned in the article or aren’t they just the gaming equivalent of fanatical sports fans?
Milking the life from our bones
Around the world there are people that sit down every weekday to enjoy their favourite sport, TV show or Soap-opera, the 9.7 million viewers that sat down on January 26th to watch EastEnders on BBC1, are these people “useless, socially inept sacks of shit“? No they are doing something they enjoy.
Even talking into consideration the fact they sit down multiple times a week to watch the same program or few programs, labelling people solely based on their past-time isn’t going to win you any friends and certainly avoids having to dig deeper into the reasons and facts behind these habits. Why bother to examine the social elements or enjoyment of these hobbies when you can just label the patrons addicts.
I would rather spend my hard earned money on one months MMO subscription for £8.99 than pay out £8 on Lottery tickets for a months worth of draws. I know which one feels like throwing my money away and which I find fun and enjoyable.
Underhanded tricks and other things
I’d like to focus on one item of the “List” of underhanded tricks:
“Constantly update and patch the game with arbitrary bug fixes and class changes that will throw gameplay completely off balance. Just for the hell of it. Players will complain on the forums but for whatever reason, they still refuse to quit.”
Now I took alot of the other comments with a pinch of salt, someone else’s opinion on various topics, but really the above statement just doesn’t make any fucking sense. During my entire gaming history I can’t say I recall a time when a patch was released “just for the hell of it” and class changes will generally be to balance overall game play not because the developers wanted to play a joke. Do you get the feel someone is bitter about a class nerf from along time ago?
I know we think the MMO gaming scene is still relatively small compared to other gaming types, but with completely trashy journalism likes this is it any wonder? It all reminds me of the scare tactics employed by the informational films of the 50’s, They might as well have gone with the title “Playing MMOs will turn you into an addict, just say no!”.
It’s truly sad that the misconceptions regarding MMOs are so rife, hopefully as more MMOs make the jump onto console platforms and into mainstream console gaming, the mists shrouding MMO games will lift and open peoples eyes to the true facts about the games that we enjoy and play.