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MMOs: Pavlovian Experiment Targeted to Addict the Socially Inept
donjn
Member UncommonPosts: 816
MMOs are nothing but a Pavlovian Experiment to Addict the Socially Inept
I hear a lot of you saying if X happens I am leaving MMOs for good. Well I ask, why not now? That is what I am doing and I have never been happier. Day after day on this message board the posts all look the same. People complain about the following things in new posts over and over:
• Why aren't there any good sandbox games?
• WoW has ruined MMOs
• SoE is evil, EA is evil, Blizzard is evil
MMOs fail because the whole idea behind them is flawed. You cannot please everyone. EA could never please both the Mage who waits outside of Britan ready to one shot PKIll you and the Tinker who wants to mine in the Minoc Mountains without getting ganked. So in order to be successful MMOs these days are made to please everyone. It is a lot like the movie industry. Look at the box office. Usually (but not always) crappy movies where the director wanted to appeal to everyone make the most money.
We log on to MMOs because there is possibly something socially that is lacking on our lives, at least for those who are addicted. I have a friend who is a guild master in World of Warcraft and he is a "star" online. Everyone PMs him when he logs in. I know this person. It is so funny seeing people suck up to him when he is online. No wonder why he is addicted and returning to his mundane lifestyle is not an option. Now, I am not saying this is the exact same case for all of us, but I do feel that anyone who is addicted to an MMO has some issues.
You see, the thing is, I don't want to play with you people. Not at all. I generally do not like anyone I do not know. Sure sometimes in groups I will meet a nice person but that one time I meet a jerk it would drive me nuts. In World of Warcraft sometimes a member of the horde would "/spit" on me after killing me. This would bug me so much that I would actually log on my horde alt and ask them why they did it? I would keep pursuing this matter until I got an answer I was happy with. I finally got that answer when I read about the "Greater Internet Dickwad Theory" by John Gabriel. This basically states that any given person, given anonymity and an audience can and oftentimes does become a total dickwad on the internet. Now, knowing that this means myself as well, I finally was able to understand that which is inside us. It is human nature.
Why not play some great single player games? Right now I am playing Fallout3 and Fable 2 and I have several more games lined up afterwards. These games have a main storyline, much like reading a good novel, that has an end. I dont feel that I am "missing" anything when I am not playing them. I am spending more time with my kids and when I have time, enjoying the "good book" that Fallout 3 is without dealing with having to spam chat channels to find groups, or deal with any of you.
And now that Microtransactions are just about here, there is no reason under the sun to be playing MMOs, at all. There should be more of an outrage. MMOs are a total insult. In an MMO there is no ending, and they are purposely designed to string you along so you can get that next piece of loot, again and again.
But you continue to sit there and take it. Posting your displeasure on a message board is not enough.
Uninstall....
Peace
Comments
lol.
First off there are sandbox games. Second Life is the perfect sandbox.
Vanguard has a lot of open freeworld in it, although it shrinks with time.
To say that the only successful movies are ones that appeal to everyone is just blanket. What determines a movies quality is the actors, the director, and the quality of the movie.
The summer block busters arent bad. There are TONS of 20 yearold guys who LOVE to go see shit blow up.
There is LOADS of 14 yearold girls who LOVE to see the latest teen hearthtrob without a shirt on.
Those movies set out to accomplish a goal, and they do it very well, thus they make lots of money.
Some movies set out to make epic tales, and great stories. There are several examples of great success from that pattern. The problem being that if you neglect all but on facet, diehards aside, the movie is not entertaining.
Is you dont like it, you exist in one of those diehard catagories, Who values 1 perticular aspect of a movie, and is eager to instill shame and inferiority on anybody who prefers to look at the overall experience.
I enjoy WoW, why?
Well I live with roomates, and I goto university, I get good good(ish) grades, TA lower level courses. Work on projects, and have fun with buddies. I assure you, im not lacking anything but something to do in my downtime... which is where WoW comes in.
Sure I get a lot of recognision in WoW, its fun, I play it quite a bit, and I have a well setup guild I play with. I sure get a lot more ingame than I get in real life. Does it mean I play WoW to fill that void... no not really, thats a leap of faith far too many pop psycologists LOVE to make.
Personally I love Fallout3, I loved a bunch of offline games. My problem is I like to play games, esepcially the competative aspect. And if im not directly competing with sombody, I want to be indirectly competeing.
MMO's are a more social game. If you dont like it, its your choice, but to make a post about how we are inferior, or miserable people. Thats just plain wrong.
One of my FAVOURITE aspects of WoW, is how I can talk with other people, on the bus, out on town about it and they understand. A lot of people play wow, so Its very viable for me to say "sorry, I cant come I have a raid scheduled" people understand, which is nice.
I think you need to take your eye off the iron sight and take a better look at the situation.
after 6 or so years, I had to change it a little...
Good job OP, I think this is the best post going. You nailed it on the head for me, yet here I am, logging in to MMORPG.com daily. I don't even sub to anything, and I don't want to... grrr
Thumbs Up
for me, it beats watching television
but keep generalizing ...
EQ2 fan sites
I am glad you were able to really understand what I was saying.
Was my topic a bit harsh? Perhaps...
for me, it beats watching television
but keep generalizing ...
My topic is a generalization. I understand this. But have you ever thought that most people make generalizations based on higher percentage rather than ALL?
Now, if you play MMOs for 5 hours a night or if you watch TV for 5 hours a night, you have issues, either way.
you come to a mmorpg fan site
making commentary that mmorpg players are socially inept - you expect a reasonable discussion?
EQ2 fan sites
So far it has been pretty reasonable. I even had a reply saying that my post was great.
Now, I hope you don't do your best to make this topic become unreasonable; but if you do, you will be proving my point. The potential for irony is interesting.
Or you can post something with some meat on its bones...
It's your call..
Reading my title again, it was wrong.
It should have been:
Pavlovian Experiment to Addict the Socially Inept
Meaning people who are socially inept become addicted.
But there is more to talk about than my topic title..
Socially inept is kinda harsh dude.
I don't know if everyone here hates MMOs but I know I enjoy one or two on the market atm.
Actually Im more ur run of the mill Eve fanboi that enjoys being overly critical of every other mmo.
Kinda like a wanna be video game critic.
The forums are fun and sometimes great convos spring from certain posts that I enjoy.
PLaying: EvE, Ryzom
Waiting For: Earthrise, Perpetuum
Again, I am not saying all of those who play MMOs are socailly inept. I am saying that MMOs target the socially inept to get them addicted. A big difference.
Well first off its not an experiement. It is a actively designed to exploit the pavlovian (and other responses). Some of it quite cynically so. Its not experiemental, its in production.
Second off not everyone addicted is socially inept.
By the literal definition, yes, it's not an "experiment". But that is being picky. I mean, I would almost assume you only read the title of the post.
Would you agree that anyone that has an addiction is lacking in an area of their life?
Again, I am not saying all of those who play MMOs are socailly inept. I am saying that MMOs target the socially inept to get them addicted. A big difference.
Then why did EQ have such large raids? It seems that in order to get the best rewards and followthe ringing bell you need to be social.
Now sure the Holy Trinity you must have a healer BS in SOME MMOs does coddle the social inept, but even so that does not mean they reward you for being sociall inept. In fact you are generally rewarded for being socially apt.
I would go so far as to say the motivation of the group Roles is more of Unionistic type thing. Its meant to make people feel more important and keep things nice and predictable. The coddling of the socially inept is just a bad side effect.
By the literal definition, yes, it's not an experiment. But that is being picky.
Would you agree that anyone that has an addiction is lacking in an area of their life?
No addiction is not a measure of lacking in life although it certainly leads to problems and death. Explaining addiction is far beyond the scope of this thread. And understanding addiction takes an understanding of despair. A quality all people have and are tempted into fairly often.
Again, I am not saying all of those who play MMOs are socailly inept. I am saying that MMOs target the socially inept to get them addicted. A big difference.
Then why did EQ have such large raids? It seems that in order to get the best rewards and followthe ringing bell you need to be social.
Now sure the Holy Trinity you must have a healer BS in SOME MMOs does coddle the social inept, but even so that does not mean they reward you for being sociall inept. In fact you are generally rewarded for being socially apt.
I would go so far as to say the motivation of the group Roles is more of Unionistic type thing. Its meant to make people feel more important and keep things nice and predictable. The coddling of the socially inept is just a bad side effect.
By socially inept I mean outside of the MMO, in real life. Once you are playing the game, the socially inept become more social and make new friends, guilds, groups, etc. It is much easier to be socially apt in a virtual world.
Gotta love it; sit immobile for an hour in front of a soap opera and you're the paragon of well-adjusted normalcy, yet sit for an hour in front of a computer playing an interactive game and you're "Socially Inept".
Though you might have actually stumbled upon a valid point; perhaps some people feel that all MMO's suck because they're socially inept and incapable of integrating into a social online community?
By the way, if you think that Fallout 3 is a "good book", then you've either not got to the ending yet (I won't post a spoiler, but prepare for disappointment) or just have no concept of half-decent narrative.
That game has absolutely terrible writing.
Playing: EVE, Final Fantasy 13, Uncharted 2, Need for Speed: Shift
By the literal definition, yes, it's not an experiment. But that is being picky.
Would you agree that anyone that has an addiction is lacking in an area of their life?
No addiction is not a measure of lacking in life although it certainly leads to problems and death. Explaining addiction is far beyond the scope of this thread. And understanding addiction takes an understanding of despair. A quality all people have and are tempted into fairly often.
Good point. I might be stretching it. A lot of people have overactive Endorphins which can lead to addiction too.
Playing: EVE, Final Fantasy 13, Uncharted 2, Need for Speed: Shift
Fixed.
I think I'd rather spend 200+ hours with other people in a MMORPG than alone in a single player RPG.
If anything I'd say the one who enjoys playing the same game, alone, for over 200+ hours is socially inept.
But, that 200+ hours could be over 100 days, two hours a day. The same can be said for MMORPGs.
So please think before you post, and don't make hasty generalizations.
Good post OP. But there are still some decent games to be played. Some of us are just getting what we can out of the genre before it caves in on itself.
Yeah...I'm an MMO addict. Have been since I started playing them years ago. But it certainly isn't the social aspect. It the appeal of a game that doesn't end.
People in MMOs more often than not just piss me off, or get in my way (kind of like RL, actually). But I put up with that in order to play a game with more content and more open-endedness than any single player game that I could play.
Of course, these days they are becoming more shallow, with less content, and following the same pattern of "grind to max level, raid and PVP, then roll alt to do it all over again." So unless something changes, I'll be leaving the genre myself.
Hi, First, socially inept is way to hard.
Second, Im a 23 year old guy, i live in a big city, there is nowere to go, there are no big parks, there is a lot of polution and i haven't found a place to meet people and just chat since I'm 16. Does that make me a socially inept? What is your suggestion?
What do you think i should do? Maybe you will tell me, you should get a job, and i did. But I still can't find people to talk to, and besides, that is not the point of having a job.
Maybe you will tell me, go to college. Socializing is not the point of going to college either.
Maybe you will tell me, get a girlfriend? then i will ask you "Where?". After all the initial problem is that there is no place to hang out an meet people.
Maybe you will tell me... you are just making it dificult. No I'm not! I'm a social guy, today I started a conversation with someone in the subway. And ended up having his mail. The problem is that he is arround 40 or something. I'm 23, i want to spend time with people of my age!
So what is your magic suggestion now? should i addopt a kid so I can spend more time with my kids? Maybe I should stop posting in the forums and just play solitare, alone.
Right now I'm not playing any online game beside savage 2.
You see, your theory is right, but your point of view is completely worng. Yes MMOs addict people who don't have a social life, but that doesn't mean that they have any other place to go.
Since WoW started i have seen the population grow, this is in part because big cities are becoming less social, people don't even talk anymore in my city, i don't know my neighbours, i only meet with 1 of my highscool friends, and he has a job, and he doesn't have much time to hang out.
See what I mean? Yes, you are right, many people play MMOs to have a social life, others like me post in forums and some others take pictures of themelves and have flogs, or write blogs.
This is not because we are incapable of socializing outside a computer, but because we don't have other place to socialize.
Now, about the spit thing.... I think you are overeacting. I mean, he just typed /spit. WoW does not make comunicating between factions and easy task.
It is true also that some people, given anonymity, act like morons. But this is a small portion.
So, how old are your kids? have you considered that they may suffer from what other MMO gamers suffer... lack of a place to hang out with his friends? Maybe he won't because you live in the suburbs, maybe he will because you live in the big city.
So, if you red this, answer somthing, just to let me know that you did, because i find important for people to understand that our society is starting to fall due to our lack of socialization, and MMOs are neither the problem nor the solution, they are just showing us what is happening with our world.
PD (you don't have to answer this, is just so you know): about fallout 3 being a good book.... thats a matter of opinion, i think its a piece of crap and you have really bad taste by considering "a good book". But is my opinion, don't let it bother you much