MMORPG stands for Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game. World of Warcraft is one example of a very successful one, one that I have a lot of experience with, as I was addicted to it for a good two years, before Megs helped me overcome it. And now I run a Purse Blog full-time. Go figure. Anyway...
For those of you who don't know the mechanics, let me briefly explain. You basically create a virtual toon in a virtual world whose actions you control. The online world is enormous, there is a lot to discover, a lot of monsters to kill, a lot of new gear to find and so forth. WoW, in particular, has now over 9 million world-wide subscribers, it is quite possibly the most successful computer game ever.
While the game is brilliant, the big problem with it is that in order to achieve "greatness", you need to spend a lot of time in it. Hours, upon hours, every day. Only if you dedicate your life to the game, you can reach the most success, you can get the best year and develop your online alter ego the most. Resulting, there is countless accounts of marriages ending in divorces, relationships split, friendships destroyed. Over a computer game. Last real account was a lady at Target who Megs and I talked to a few weeks ago. She said that she broke off her engagement a few months ago with her ex-fiance because he got addicted to World Of Warcraft. He would be lying to her in order to spend more time on the game, he would neglect her to a point where she simply left him because it became unbearable. I am a witness to the destructive power of the addicting online gaming madness myself, my relationship with Megs suffered greatly 2 years ago over that game. Fortunately she helped me to get a grip on myself and I broke away from it.
After talking to a long-time friend of mine tonight, I finally figured out why MMORPGs are so dangerously addicting.
Fact of the matter is that it's a human genetic predisposition to discover, develop, strive forward. Without this, we'd be still in the stone age. Now, I don't mean to step on anyone's toes here, but I speak out of personal experience when I say that MMORPGs are a form of virtual entertainment that allows people to make up for deficiencies in the real life with virtual success. Instead of trying to break out of the mold of a miserable, shi**y life, a game like WoW enables people to live vicariously through that online toon. That is why people allow themselves to neglect loved ones, work, family, the important real life that would be much harder to fix than getting a new, shiny armor for your orc warrior.
I was a bloody deadbeat myself at that time, unhappy in my situation, without much of a perspective and that is why I was so devoted to the game and spend like 5h a day on it. It was a legal addiction that distracted me off the s**t I didn't want to deal with in real life. Fortunately I am at a much better place now.
Signed,
a happy recovered ex-mmorpg-addict.
P.S. Do you know any WoW- or MMORPG-related stories like that?
For those of you who don't know the mechanics, let me briefly explain. You basically create a virtual toon in a virtual world whose actions you control. The online world is enormous, there is a lot to discover, a lot of monsters to kill, a lot of new gear to find and so forth. WoW, in particular, has now over 9 million world-wide subscribers, it is quite possibly the most successful computer game ever.
While the game is brilliant, the big problem with it is that in order to achieve "greatness", you need to spend a lot of time in it. Hours, upon hours, every day. Only if you dedicate your life to the game, you can reach the most success, you can get the best year and develop your online alter ego the most. Resulting, there is countless accounts of marriages ending in divorces, relationships split, friendships destroyed. Over a computer game. Last real account was a lady at Target who Megs and I talked to a few weeks ago. She said that she broke off her engagement a few months ago with her ex-fiance because he got addicted to World Of Warcraft. He would be lying to her in order to spend more time on the game, he would neglect her to a point where she simply left him because it became unbearable. I am a witness to the destructive power of the addicting online gaming madness myself, my relationship with Megs suffered greatly 2 years ago over that game. Fortunately she helped me to get a grip on myself and I broke away from it.
After talking to a long-time friend of mine tonight, I finally figured out why MMORPGs are so dangerously addicting.
Fact of the matter is that it's a human genetic predisposition to discover, develop, strive forward. Without this, we'd be still in the stone age. Now, I don't mean to step on anyone's toes here, but I speak out of personal experience when I say that MMORPGs are a form of virtual entertainment that allows people to make up for deficiencies in the real life with virtual success. Instead of trying to break out of the mold of a miserable, shi**y life, a game like WoW enables people to live vicariously through that online toon. That is why people allow themselves to neglect loved ones, work, family, the important real life that would be much harder to fix than getting a new, shiny armor for your orc warrior.
I was a bloody deadbeat myself at that time, unhappy in my situation, without much of a perspective and that is why I was so devoted to the game and spend like 5h a day on it. It was a legal addiction that distracted me off the s**t I didn't want to deal with in real life. Fortunately I am at a much better place now.
Signed,
a happy recovered ex-mmorpg-addict.
P.S. Do you know any WoW- or MMORPG-related stories like that?
yeah, i was compensating for the fact that Hermes won't take me into there programme and train me fer real like!....
I know a few people that can function normally and play WoW, but not very many.
