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Me giving back to the MMO community
tstowell
Member Posts: 6
Hey! I'm new here, i was givin an assignment to select a subculture to tdo a study on and i chose people who play MMOs. I don't play MMOs personally but i know people who do so i hope you find my analysis from the outside interesting. Part of the assignment is giving back to the community i study, so if you feel so inclined, have a look at my research essay.
Thanks,
Tess 
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The subculture that I chose to do this essay on is that of people who play MMORPGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game). Even people who do not belong to this subculture can be greatly affected by it if they have a friend, family member or significant other who does play an MMO. I now realize that many people play online games, even if they don’t admit it. I have always been quick to judge this subculture, but my research left me asking some questions. People who play online games are interacting with everyone else who also plays that game. They talk about everyday issues, make friends with people, some even form romantic relationships. It is a common notion (one that I have had for many years) that peoples who play video games do so because they have no social life, no friends, nothing else to do. However, is this really the case? Is it really any different than watching television or some other pastime that is unproductive? Is it any different that going to the mall or someone’s house to hang out with friends? I thought I had a pretty good idea about the people in this subculture, however I could not have been more wrong. Out of all the things I have learned about my subculture, the main things that I will show in this essay are how greatly relationships made within these games affects the rest of the player’s life, how people become obsessed with having a second online identity, and how easy it is to become addicted to these games.
Because my subculture consists of people who spend so much time online, all of my primary research consisted of interviews conducted online on AOL instant messenger. The only interview I conducted in person was with my boyfriend, Coleman Lindsay. For this paper I will be referring to him as K’ale because this is his “online” name. This was a very helpful interview, because I knew he would not hold anything back from me. He was also able to tell me who would be good to interview from the MMO he plays. He told me of two people that would be helpful for this essay. One of them, whose screen name is Rio, is someone who is a very good friend of K’ale’s, and is somewhat similar to him. The other interview I conducted was with someone named Anxiety. Just hearing this name alone, I knew that I wanted an interview with this person. Anxiety is very different from both K’ale and Rio, who are both in their early twenties and have many activities in their lives other than just online games. Anxiety is a teenager, and invests much more of his time into playing his MMO. I wanted to interview someone like this, because I wanted to get different answers to the same questions from all my interviews. Rio lives in California, and Anxiety would not say where he lives; I believe there are two reasons for this: 1. He was skeptical that I was who I said I was (he thought I was K’ale pretending to be a girlfriend) and 2. He enjoys his online life more than his real life, and probably does not want to mix the two. The other piece of primary research I did was an observation from a Con I went to in Atlanta called Dragon Con. Even though this experience was before I started research for this essay, it was a very helpful memory to draw for this paper. Dragon Con was somewhat of a culture shock for me and greatly affected how I viewed this subculture.
In this first section of my paper, I will show how greatly relationships made within online games affect the player’s life. One of the questions I asked in my interviews was whether or not they had ever been involved in a romantic relationship with someone from a game. Two of the people I interviewed said yes but did not want to elaborate much on the details of the relationship. Another question I asked was if they had ever met with someone they knew from a game in person; again, they both said yes but did not want to elaborate (I think Anxiety was lying however). When talking to my K’ale, I was able to get a lot more information about the relationships that go on in the game. One of the interviewees stated that “[you] got the guys who use it as a virtual dating service” (Rio). K’ale said this is definitely a large part of the reason that many people play MMOs. There are some males who are constantly trying to meet up with girls in the game and then will travel -sometimes across the world- to go visit them for a weekend. When that weekend is over, they’re back on the game trying to find the next girl who will let them come stay with her. If people are addicted to an online game, they are often spending the majority of their time playing that game. Even people who have jobs or other activities still feel their game is more important to them. Because of this, people will try to fulfill their needs for friends, relationships, and success all within an online game. I believe this is the reason that people put forth so much effort in finding a relationship in these types of games; if they have experienced rejection in their real life because of the way they act or look, they can completely transform themselves in an online game.
While there is no doubt that is sad when people find their only sense of friendship within MMOs, there are much more serious issues dealing with online relationships. One article, written by MSNBC, was about people who have ended up divorced because their spouses are more interested in playing online games than spending time with their family. Some gamers have even left their spouses for someone they have met within their game. Bob Stephens states,
My wife left me for a man she met in Second Life. She has abandoned me, my children, our pets, her biological family, all of her real friends, virtually (no pun intended) her entire real life for the fantasy of Second Life. We all feel abandoned. And in her view, we are all to blame for her seeking comfort and escape in Second Life. (MSNBC)
It is hard to believe that a mother would leave her children over a video game. To neglect your family to the degree of abandoning them shows extreme addictive behavior. In this instance, an addiction to a MMO is just as harmful to that of alcohol or drugs. This woman has let a relationship from a game ruin the lives of everyone who loves her. Dr. Kimberly Young gives some insight as to how people reach this level of addictions. “While research in the addiction field has not been conclusive, most researchers agree that a combination of neurochemical and behavioral bases explain addictive behavior and studies support that non- intoxicants are equally as habit-forming as substances” (Young). This addiction is one that is not fully understood yet it is regarded as a serious problem, especially amongst those who have lost loved ones to it.
There are many different types of relationships people engage in while playing MMOs. In the Cracked article, A World of Warcraft World: 10 Ways Online Gaming Will Change the Future, Wong believes that given how much the popularity of MMOs has grown over just a few short years, it will only continue to grow into an (almost) unbelievable popularity in time. Wong speculates at how much online gaming will continue to affect relationships. One of the claims this article makes is that people will meet in an MMO, get to know each other, end up falling in love in and get married to live a happy, wonderful life together; the only catch - they will never meet in person. While no one has gotten officially married over the Internet yet, there are people who do fall in love and are in a serious relationship with someone they have never met and only know from an online game. This prospect seems so strange, yet it is has become very common to meet your significant other on the Internet. Chat rooms, dating websites such as EHarmony, and social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace have all become increasingly popular over the past few years. Typically, the people who meet on these types of websites end up meeting each other in person; however, maybe engaging in a marriage where you never see each other is a better choice for some people.
You have a woman who, in real life, weighs 400 pounds and has a thick, neatly-trimmed beard. But she has a heart of gold. A thousand miles away you have a guy with three eyebrows and a hairlip. In reality, he lives in a trailer with his 14 cats. In the metaverse, he lives in a stone palace with 14 magical flying cats. They marry, the woman showing herself as a beautiful princess, the man a handsome prince (Wong).
This is pretty extreme, however there are many MMOs who have in game marriage features already. A lot of people, who are involved in marriages inside of their MMO, even have spouses in real life. In fact, these “marriages” can be very similar to real marriage. Simon Hill states in his Bright Hub article, “if she catches you playing away with a flirty Night Elf you may end up losing half of your weaponry and armour in the divorce” (Hill).
While there are definitely unhealthy relationships that are made in online games, there are also people who make good, substantial friends. Friends that they will talk to and get advice from, or just have a conversation with. All of the people I interviewed said that they consider the people they know in the game to be friends, just like they would someone they met at school or work or anywhere else. Some people will consider friends from their game even closer than other friends, simply because of the fact that they are able to keep in touch with them easier. A study done by Nottingham Trent University finds that, “gamers make good friends with the people they meet in their virtual worlds, with almost half meeting in real-life situations and one in ten going on to develop physical relationships” (Game Daily). I came across a story about a man named Sean, who was a social misfit throughout his life, constantly being bullied and taunted with no place to look to for relief. He had made plans for suicide and was ready to go through with it until he stumbled upon an MMO; “I made strong bonds and found myself without inhibition, I was myself and I didn’t hold back what I had to say. For once in my life I felt respected and strong” (Sean). People can definitely have good, healthy friendships and even romantic relationships. One point that was brought multiple times throughout all my interviews was that you make:
Really good friends with people that you would have NEVER been able to get to know in real life. It goes far beyond prep meets skater, it’s more middle school student in all black meets blue collar, forty year old, expert bow hunter and they form a strong bond that would be impossible to achieve in the real world (K’ale).
Meeting someone online gives you a chance to get to know him or her without the snap judgments we make when meeting someone in person. This gives gamers the opportunity to have many different kinds of friends in their games and venture out from the type of people they may be drawn to in another social situation.
The next thing I will show about my subculture is how obsessed people who play MMOs can get about creating a second online identity. Because people do make such close relationships in MMOs, some see online games as an opportunity to create a new identity. People who do this are, a lot of times, not there to make friends at all - but to have satisfaction in knowing that they are somebody completely different online. If you can’t have some fascinating second self, like being a secret agent or an assassin straight out an action movie, you can just pretend you do.
I play in virtual worlds to escape from myself and the stresses of my real life. My online characters are often who I wish I could be if I truly lived in that virtual world. When I’m living a fantasy, it isn’t helpful for immersion if real world issues and relationships interfere. As a result, any online relationships I may have formed are lacking the essential emotional attachment required to become a real friendship (ferv0r).
If people are unhappy with their own life, whether it is because of they’re appearance, their skills, or their success, MMOs are a very helpful tool in creating a second “life” in which they can become a completely different person, there is even an MMO called Second Life (I referenced this game earlier when talking about the woman who left her family for someone she met in Second Life). This MMO is actually very different from most. In Second Life, “players don’t pit their skills up against each other, they just go into rooms and talk” (K’ale). This MMO is strictly a social networking game, where people can be whoever they want.
Perhaps people who play Second Life are completely comfortable with accepting the fact that the only thing they want in an online game is to create a second identity. Other people, who play MMOs that focus on skills and things other than social networking, will also use their games as an opportunity to be completely different from their real life. There are a few different ways people try to obtain this second identity. Some people spend more time posting in the forums of a game, than they do actually playing the game. The reason behind this is to try and create a “celebrity status” for themselves. People do this usually by posting pictures of themselves working out, standing next to nice cars or girls and sometimes pictures with rolls of money so that people will think their life is successful and lavish. However, there are some people who never post pictures of themselves because of their insecurities of how they look. These people will often post pictures of their “girlfriends”. “One guy, who we all knew was obviously socially awkward, posted a picture of an attractive girl. No one could figure out how he had a hot girlfriend…. until we found out it was his sister” (K’ale). There are other people who will post pictures of attractive girlfriends, and then someone else from the game will find the exact same picture from an obscure MySpace page or another website.
Aside from people that lie about having girlfriends, there are many guys who claim to actually be girls and will post pictures of females claiming to be them in order to get attention. This, apparently, is something that happens more often than you might think. On GameSpot Forums, there are many posts talking about this issue. A lot of the posts are making fun of guys who pretend to be girls in games calling them a “G.I.R.L. Guy In Real Life” (Eldublay); also “MMORPG = Many Men Online Role Playing Girls” (Severed_Hand). However, some men will admit that they pretend to be girls and explain why: “Do you blame us? all you have to do is say 'i'm a girl' and some undersexed male gives you free stuff ingame.....My friend even got sent a webcam once” (Mercury88). Besides receiving free things, girls are treated like they are above everyone else in the game and almost have magical powers over the men they play MMOs with. “90% of guys [who] play game are nice to girls because they think somehow they will magically find true love. Not to mention girls don't get ripped on when screwing up” (XileLord). Some people just do not take MMOs very seriously and find humor in tricking people, “I've been a G.I.R.L. Strung a guy along for about two months. Proves how boring the game can be” (JustPlainLucas). There are obviously many reasons men pretend to be women in online games. The fact that this goes on so much shows how enticing a completely anonymous, second identity is to people. You could be a three hundred pound man who hasn’t showered in a week, yet everyone thinks you’re a cute blond cheerleader. When no one can see you and knows nothing about you, you can be whoever you want – even a member of the opposite sex. (GameSpot Forums)
As you can see, people will go to any lengths to get the attention that is not so easily found in their day-to-day life. It is much easier to get away with lies when people cannot see you and do not know anything about your regular life. If lying about having a girlfriend does not work, often times people will lie about serious injuries such as being shot, motorcycle crashes or anything else that might be perceived as “cool”. There was one player in my K’ale’s MMO that posed as his sister to go on the game and tell people that he had died just to see the reaction, after telling people he was just joking and that he was alive and well, his lie became so infamous that people refer to it as “pulling a Jenner” (his screen name) when anyone is caught in an outlandish lie. While Jenner made many people angry about his lie, he was able to achieve the “celebrity” status that he was hoping for. Many people are so desperate to be known and talked about by people of their game that they will resort to making people mad by putting offensive posts in the forums or otherwise being rude and obnoxious. This is such a common problem there is a name for it, this is called “trolling the forums”. To many of these gamers, negative attention is better than no attention. Perhaps, the original intention is to receive attention for being skillful or “cool”; however, if people are trying too hard to be someone different that who they really are, it is easy for that to come across as needy and desperate. After many attempts to get attention for being “cool” do not pan out, this is usually when people will just decide to go in the opposite direction and be so ludicrous and obnoxious, so that at least their name will be recognized and talked about. However, if they have a negative perception of themselves in real life, and then end up resorting to a negative persona in a second identity, wouldn’t this be more harmful to their self-esteem? This could be why a lot of people who play MMOs have subscriptions to many different games. A lot of times these people will try out different personalities in all of the games they play and because of this, do not care too much about one in particular.
Another way people will try to achieve a famous status is by spending as much time as possible on their game perfecting their skills so they can be recognized as the best at something in the game. The idea behind online games originated from a board game that started in 1970, called Dungeons and Dragons. Even though this was a board game, the people who played it would spend many hours working on their “skills”.
“Dungeons & Dragons allowed people to explore strange lands and go on important quests with characters that they could continually nurture and improve. This scenario sounds so familiar because it is the basic premise of every MMORPG. Even if an MMORPG is set in a science fiction or real-life scenario, the game still owes its roots to the classic tabletop RPG, Dungeons & Dragons.” (Hope).
Besides Dungeons and Dragons spawning the idea of MMOs, it also brought forth something called Live Action Role Playing (LARPing). Being in the age of the Internet, it is no surprise that MMOs are so popular, however there is still a large interest in LARPing, which is the ultimate form of creating a second identity. Some people are so into LARPing that they will not even reveal their real name and will always stay in character. People spend tons of time and money on different clothes and weapons for their LARPing adventures. Some players will even speak only in old English and other accents or languages pertaining to their character. These people will make up a person from a different world with a detailed life story that is completely fabricated. Some of the things people do while LARPing consist of engaging in “fights”; one LARPer describes his experience as a “full contact medieval game that is based on medieval weapons” (Break). When I went to dragon con there were many LARPers who were decked out in expensive costumes and engaging in “fights” and challenges. They all had foam swords, sometimes wrapped in tin foil, or other homemade “weapons”. This was quite a culture shock for me, it is one thing to hear about these gamers playing online or to see the game happening on a computer screen, but was very strange to see this happening in real life. However, is it really so weird? We all have wished to be someone different than ourselves. Everyone has dreams of being taller, thinner, richer, smarter and the list just goes on. People who engage in LARPing have just found an outlet to allow themselves to become someone else for a while. It is so easy to judge and think about how weird it is to do something like this, but if it really were so weird, why has this been going on for decades? Why did I see hundreds of people engaging in LARPing at DragonCon? Why are there movies that reference it, websites dedicated to it – it is not hard to find out anything you may want to know about LARPing. Maybe, this is something that is more attractive to many of us than we would like to admit.
Between the seriousness of relationships formed in MMOs and the obsession with a second identity, it is easy to see how with these two issues alone; someone could become addicted to an MMO. However, there are even more things that contribute to people’s addictions to online games. The last thing I will show about my subculture is how easy it is to get addicted to online games and why so many people struggle with this addiction. One of the questions I asked in my interview with my boyfriend was whether or not he considered it easy to become addicted to MMOs. His answer was, that it is not necessarily always an addiction; it is just the way the game is set up. This was very interesting to me. I wondered if people are in denial about being addicted to their games and just place the blame on the set up of the game. However, it seems that many gamers do in fact consider themselves to be addicted. The Daedalus Gateway states, “About 50% of MMORPG players would consider themselves addicted to the game”. This online journal also states,
MMORPGs employ well-known behavioral conditioning principles from psychology that reinforce repetitive actions through an elaborate system of scheduled rewards. In effect, the game rewards players to perform increasingly tedious tasks and seduces the player to ‘play’ industriously. These environments also encourage making friends or joining guilds that then become sources of social obligations. (Daedalus Gateway).
K’ale said almost all of the same things from this journal throughout our interview. I find that most people who play online games are aware of the fact that the games are designed to be addictive and (sometimes) feel as though they are wasting their time by playing them. Obviously, this is not enough motivation to stop playing these games. Another journal from the Daedalus Gateway entitled, The Seduction of Achievement in MMORPG’s, brings up a very interesting point about why MMOs are so addictive. When we are young we are bombarded with fairy tales, parenting, and schooling that show us that “Goals and rewards are well-defined – the prince has to slay the dragon to marry the princess, or you need to write the alphabets three times before you get a sticker.” (Daedalus Gateway). However, when we get out into the real world we see that a defined goal and reward system is not a guaranteed part of life like we were taught in childhood. We often have to work very hard and then do not always receive a huge payoff. MMOs are a place where it does not matter where you come from, what you look like, or how educated you are because, “anyone can become rich, powerful, and admired in an MMORPG if they put enough effort into it” (Daedalus Gateway).
Another reason people spend so much time on their MMOs has a lot to do with time differences. Because of the fact that there are so many people from all over the world that can all play the same game, the time changes make a huge difference. If you have a friend who lives in another country that you want to talk to but the time that they usually get on is in the middle of the night for you, you will sacrifice your time. These habits can easily turn into a routine if you wish to maintain a relationship with people six hours behind you. I believe that the main reason people get so addicted to MMOs is because they wish to spend time with the friends they make. I will spend hours talking on the phone or just hanging out and talking with friends that I have; hanging out and talking within a game is basically the same thing, just in a different venue. Especially because pretty much everyone you meet in a MMO does not live near you, the game is the only place to socialize.
There are endless opportunities to meet new people in MMOs; there are usually thousands of people who all play the same game. With this many people to run into, it is no wonder why people spend so much time on these games. People can become so addicted to potential attention they may receive from so many gamers. In an article by MSNBC one gamer wrote in, “ I, a relative ‘nobody’ in real life, am a founding guild member, guild officer and very strong player and guildmate [in my MMO], and everyone always wants or needs my help” (Addicted in Virginia). This shows that people become addicted to the fact that they can be known and respected in an online game. This is not necessarily a bad thing, however if this is the only sense of success in one’s life, it can lead to spending hours upon hours a day online. Although, it is easier to understand why so many people become addicted to these games, it is still something that can be, and should be, controlled by the individual player. We all have to learn how to manage our time between relationships, work, and hobbies. The problem with these games is that they are a source of relationships (both romantic and platonic), hobbies, and self-identity for some people. The more time you invest in an MMO, the more benefit you reap. You can build up rapport, learn how to interact with people, and make genuinely good friends – these are not bad things. However, too much of one thing always becomes an addiction. Because this is a non-chemical addiction (as opposed to an addiction of drugs or alcohol), the player can control how much time they are spending playing games. If people are using an MMO as a crutch to get through a life they are unhappy with, they should be investing time into making their life more enjoyable, not getting “lost” in a game to make them forget about their problems. While people can learn important things through a MMO, they also need to practice self-control.
Some people cannot seem to find this self-control when in comes to online games. On a website called Slashdot, a blog was posted about getting help for a “friend” who is seriously addicted to an MMO. A lot of the advice is almost shocking. For example, many bloggers posted the steps you must take in order to be “rescued” from this serious addiction. One blogger even said, “the next thing that's got to happen is a massive tobacco style lawsuit and cash settlement” (Robogun). Some people, who struggle with being addicted, will sometimes purposefully do something “illegal” in the game (such as downloading a hack that will flag them) knowing they will be banned by the company, because they cannot bring themselves to delete their own account. (Slashdot). One of the most shocking posts stated, “ [people play games] Because life really blows most of the time and usually we hate our jobs and hate our girlfriends and lives... Some of us deal better than others. Some get by with a crutch” It is so interesting how there are so many different angles to look at addictions to MMOs. The last quote almost sounds like he could be talking about drugs or alcohol, which is something that a lot of people do use as a “crutch” to get through lives they are unhappy with. When you look at MMOs as a replacement for something harmful to your body, such as illegal drugs, they start to not look so bad. (SlashDot Forums) It really just depends from person to person how harmful and addiction to MMOs can be. For some, when they realize they are spending too much time on a game will delete their character and move on. For others, it is much more difficult than simply deleting their character. Dr. Young states, “True recovery involves looking at the issues underlying the game habit. Addicted players need to examine the emotional motives that prompt them to play a game excessively and look for alternate ways to satisfy those needs” (Young). Similar to other addictions, people who have problems with addictions to MMOs usually have issues in their life that they are trying to run from. We all need an escape from life to some degree; we just have to find moderation.
Not all people who play MMOs become addicted; there are definitely people who have balance in their life. However, even people who do have a healthy balance between online games and the rest of their life are fairly quick to admit that is easy to become addicted to MMOs. These people are constantly checking themselves in regards to how much time they are spending in their game. After all this research it seems funny that there is such negativity surrounding this subculture, with so many being assumed as “nerds”. People either do not realize how large this subculture is, or they do not admit they are part of it. Even people who do not play online games spend a lot of time on some sort of social website. Many people do not realize that a lot of what goes on in MMOs are basic conversations like in any chat room or social networking site. People who play MMOs are interacting with so many different people on a daily basis. While it is not good to be addicted to anything, there are many good aspects to online games. The people in my subculture have friends, relationships and a very active social life online. As resources online are continuously growing and social networking is becoming more and more popular all the time; who knows, we may all belong to this subculture someday.
Comments
The first thing you need to know about MMO players is that nobody wants to read all that crap.
Well guess what, I don't care.
Well guess what, I don't care.
"Part of the assignment is giving back to the community i study..."
- RPG Quiz - can you get all 25 right?
- FPS Quiz - how well do you know your shooters?
Well guess what, I don't care.
Guess what? Neither do we.
I read it but I dont find your study objective at all
seems like your study has an agenda its trying to prove
Pre Online gaming, I played plenty of Dungeons and Dragons (Tabletop gaming)
that game also had its share of demonizing by "outsiders" like yourself
EQ2 fan sites
We are a protoculture not a subculture :P
Anyways... I don't think that MMO players likes to be treated like lab rats
(Wheres the emotes anyway? I swear to god the design of this forum seems to be moving backwards in the evolution of the internet)
I am sorry, but I don't know where you're coming from with this summary of his opinions? Where, once, did he says in this essay that he still hates MMO gamers? Once? And yet you come to the conclusion that he dislikes us all... WTF?
I just think you should give this guy a break (or gal) for they are only doing a case study and they thought they should share their efforts with us. To be honest, in my opinion, this essay is far from 'anti-MMOgamers', whereas it is trying to make people realise we deserve some slack as it 'is just another pass time'. What he is trying to say is, we are not losers, and everyone else thinks.
-StapledPuppet
I revised my post -- please read what I quoted from this "study"
EQ2 fan sites
For those of us that can't allow a post and thread to be created that we don't agree with or appreciate to make 'rude' and 'unnecessary' comments is just basically crazy. Get over yourselves. The OP started by stating this is research they were conducting and they wanted to SIMPLY share the final product with us, whom it was about. If you are interested, then read it.. and respond, if you are not then go read a thread that interest you.. but you show your immaturity by posting negativity on a thread which you clearly are not interested in.. the real question here is.. if you don't care, why do we need to know?
Tekro
I too, found this entire essay to be quite objective. Early on, discussing interactions with "Anxiety", I thought it was quite funny the immediate jumps to conclusions such as that he was lying about things he'd told you. Way to go judgmental - I almost just stopped reading there.
The next part that almost made me laugh to tears was the discussion about peoples' attachments to their "second online identity". For the most part, all I could think of is how many people in my real life I've known to be completely and utterly different than the people they present themselves as to others (essentially having second identities themselves, in reality). Being from the South, I find that more often than not, all you get from the people you "know" is a facade. What's sad is that so many people, no matter where they're from, put up a facade for all to see that's in extreme conflict (at times) with the person they truly are, just to fit in. You want to study something, go figure out why people are so desperately trying to fit into what society shames them into wanting to be. Not making six figures a year? Loser. Don't look like the cover of a magazine? Loser. Come from a poor family? Loser. Don't drive a nice car? Loser. I could go on for days. Best and quickest example I can give is of a high-school buddy of mine (one of my best friends). He was the "star pitcher" on my high school's baseball team. He got a scholarship to college on his pitching. He chased it all the way to the minors, and travelled all over the country for years. He was/is an incredibly athletic, well-built good-looking fellow who never, ever had issues getting along with anyone he bumped into. However, few people knew him like I did. To the point, he perpetually tried to build himself up to be something that he wasn't, and was always lying to people who didn't know better about this or that going on in his life, and about his accomplishments, even so far as to brag about meeting certain celebrities (at one point even having claimed to date Britney Spears before she became truly famous - I'm not joking). This guy was everything society already told him to be, and even still he felt such pressure from those around him to be something even more, that he'd come up with such lies on a regular basis to 'impress' people even further. So yeah, I find it rather funny that while people do go overboard in these games with their alternate personas (G.I.R.L. ftw), there are plenty of examples of such things taking place in reality. Cross-dressers anyone? The fact is, more often than not, the people you meet in games, whether or not they lie about their real life circumstances, are truly who they are. They exhibit the characteristics they truly value, and there's more honesty there than from Joe Blow you sit next to at work every day.
As for the rest, there's no way in hell I'd deny MMO addictiveness. Do I find it to be some deep, dark evil that we should all fear? No. Yes there are people that take it to an extreme - I at times have been one of them - but by and large it's mostly just folks having a good time in the downtime of their days. It offers something far more substantial than the boob-tube, and does allow people who may not have other social opportunities to take advantage of that, and share a common interest or hobby with the people they're playing with. Yeah it can be sad when someone uses it as their daily portal to escape life, but does that really point to the problem being with MMO's, or more to the problem of real life becoming less attractive than a virtual one to some? Then, who's to blame? Society as a whole has reached a point of holding such standards over people that reality becomes, for most, little more than chasing the carrot on a stick, no different than MMO's. It also treats those who fail to end up meeting such standards cruelly, and casts these people aside. Where do those with little fulfillment have to turn? Anymore they have another option aside from some of the more popular forms of old which would involve anything from drugs to suicide.
In all, I think you should point that magnifying lens at yourself and your "friends", Tess, and try to apply some of your essay to them. Go find the social similarities and parallels in your own life, then you might reconsider some of your clearly pre-conceived notions and generalisations about gamers, and might learn a thing or two in the process (which thus far, reading your essay, you've learned little). That said, I don't know you, nor do I know the people you hang out with or call friends. You may well be a fine person, you may not, but some of your essay does come off as pretentious and presumptive and you can easily expect that those who DO take the time to read through it may not take it so lightly as I have. After all, I expect little from an outside perspective than that of judgement anymore, and while I could frankly care less to be offended by such a thing, others just might.
Edit to add that if you want to give something back to the MMO community, re-write that paper and prove you learned something. You didn't take anything from the MMO community to begin with before you showed your ignorance of it, and its relation to sociecty as a whole. Re-reading your wrap-up last paragraph is almost like an attempt to tie it all in and excuse yourself from some of your earlier perceptions and assumptions.
"The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it."
George Bernard Shaw
What is a cynic? A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.
Oscar Wilde
Dear Tess,
I skip read most of your article due to 1 reason ; Sounds very familiar. Although i have to say your article is alot more personal and less sterile than www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/232238/MMOs-as-the-Opium-of-the-Masses.html OP, i am sure you will find a lot of answers and some very opiniated people writing their thoughts there. You mention though in the OP here, that your relationship is a gamer ; well there is only one way to really make up your mind on if mmorpg's are addictive. You should ...... play for about 1 month ; track down time(s) you play and etcetera if you haven't already. If you accept the fact that there are gamers and nongamers, how you believe gamers feel of a nongamer reviewing and making statistics and examples of their lifes. Cross the fence ; play 1 game as part of your project/paper and finally bring to all of us your conclusions, that would be a real contibution , as far as i am concerned.
Signature!!!...
LOL well said.
my first reply to reading the Op came off much too strong - and I toned my reply down
I believe the Op is well intentioned, I just take offense to some of the Stereotyping in the study
mmo gamers only have friendships online? please
EQ2 fan sites
Bonobotheory, LynxJSA, WisebutCruel
I honestly meant for my, "Well guess what, I don't care." line to come off a lot more lighthearted than it did. I'm sorry for the confusion.
Nadia
I understand where you're coming from. I'll be the first to admit that going into the study I had an extreme bias. My boyfriend used to piss me off to no end with his long nights spending time with his "friends" rather than me. I want you to know that I've come to understand how real the relationships are, and in the end I came away with a greater understanding. I get it now how much a person can mean to you. After all, 5 years ago me and my boyfriend saw very little of each other and our relationship sprang from long AIM conversations. The thing is, when it came to MMOs, I had a hard time seeing past the dorkiness of it all.
Jefferson81
I think you just like the word "protoculture". I still think "subculture" is the best terminology, though my boyfriend says you may be onto something. (concerning the learned behavior of the hating of RPers by the "true" PvPers... His words... I dunno. You two can get into that if you like.)
StapledPuppt, Tekro
Thank you for the support. You're right, I really don't hate MMO players. My boyfriend has been playing them since we met. My original suspicion was that there was nothing positive to be gained from them but now I see that's not the case. I was hoping to make that apparent in my essay. Though I understand people's need to take the defensive. Oh, and yes StapledPuppt, I'm a girl.
Shiymmas
I'm genuinely surprised that people took the time to read my entire essay. I wasn't expecting much of a response. I really wasn't expecting a reply as large as yours, but I do appreciate it, thank you. First of all, while your argument is interesting, I think you're missing my intentions. Sure, people can be fake in real life. I understand this kind of thing is common practice. However, it's only in MMOs and through the anonymity of the internet that you can reinvent yourself at the click of a button. If your baseball friend suddenly wanted to become a skater or cowboy, he would have to put a ton of work into it. Even if he wanted to start talking different or hanging out with a completely different crowd, it would take quite a bit of adjusting. He would suddenly have to alienate those close to him to achieve the reinvention that the internet makes instantly possible. Can those poor people with crappy cars suddenly become rich in real life? No, not quite. Anyway, I am sorry I came off pretentious and presumptive. It's not something I wanted to happen. Also, you're 100% correct about the ending being kinda bad. I'm not that good at conclusions in papers. I'm sorry, but I don't have it in my to re-write the paper. I've already turned it in, and after spending so much time on it already I think I'll leave it as it is for now.
Patternizer
My boyfriend has tried... I read the Harry Potter books and was pretty addicted to that, but it ended. Then there was a time in my life that I watched nothing but Law and Order: SVU. That also ended. From what I've found, MMOs stretch on forever, and I don't really have a longing for something to fill my time. I'm pretty busy as it is.
EVERYONE
As I said to Shiymmas, I was surprised how many people took the time to read my thread, even if they just skimmed through it. It's nice to have your opinions. I'm sorry where I inadvertently offended some of you. I assure all of you that I did try to remain objective and I did learn something positive about your subculture from the experience. Thank you all for the feedback.
Oh, i thought you killed Chilton and Smedley or somethin.
To fight the horde, singing and crying: Valhalla, I am coming!
On we sweep with threshing oar, our only goal will be the western shore."
Good article.
Hehe with all these negative replies you got, you should maybe consider adding a little more to your essay.
Nice effort......maybe this might intrest you aswell > http://www.nickyee.com/daedalus/ but it's in hibernation mode atm.
Welcome to The Daedalus Project
The Daedalus Project was a long-running survey study of MMO players. It is currently in hibernation mode. There will no longer be updated findings or surveys, but all information accumulated will remain available and comments will remain open.
For New Visitors: Check out The Daedalus Gateway for brief thematic primers to the data that has accumulated here over the past few years. Also look at the tag cloud to get a sense of what issues I have written about.
For Returning Visitors: The easiest way to scan through or find past articles of interest is through the "by Issue" or "by Category" listing pages. This link is also always available on the right-hand navigation bar.
For Students and Researchers: If you're looking for papers or articles in print you can cite, check out this index of peer-reviewed papers. If you would like some of this survey data to play with for a stats course, see this shared data set.
I am not sure in what context your assignment was made. I will asume it is college level or perhaps an senior highschool assignment.
If your teacher has graded your paper and taken the time to do his job with the intention of teaching you anything, he will tell you first and foremost. To have a core part of your material come from a source which you are biased towards is problematic to say the least.
To label any comments from any of your sources with non objective commentatory is not scientific. You will make a source quote at the very end of your paper where you list problems with your various sources as well as litterature, showing you have an understanding of their context and factuality. You do not do that in the paper proper.
Secondly, you have to state how many people you spoke to, and list all your questions and all the answers in a appendix to the paper. I do not know if you did that. This is to allow readers to see how unbiased you really are, by reading what you were working with, and comparing this to the conclusions you drew. It matters greatly how many people you poled. If you truely only conducted an interview with 3 people and stripped the rest of your comments as needed from forums, you havent made anything worth calling an effort. And I cant believe you based a paper on it. If you have a problem seperating your poll group, questions and answers factually in a an overview for an appendix, this is a red warning sign to show you, that you already have a muddled research going and to start over!
Thirdly as someone allready mentioned, you should have played a game or three for a month each minimum and observed yourself as a gamer to really be able to discuss and opinionate about gamers in general, instead you perpetuated stereotypes, which is not new and doesnt enlighten anyone. Least of all the gaming communities because we allready know who we are.
This paper, and your enthusiasm and passion which I dont doubt you have, could have brought to light facets of gaming people do not know about, in an unbiased manner if you had substained from the commentary in every section of your paper. Basically, and this is the most important lesson for you. When you write a paper on any subject matter, you have to very very clearly seperate your fact retrieval and fact discussion from your conclusions. It must never seem to the reader as though you are trying to tell us how the truth looks. You must instead show your facts, how you decided to argue them and your conclusions, but clearly seperated so we can follow your trail of thought, and then agree or disagree with you, without becomming confused as to where your opinions start and your fact recital ends.
Unfortunately its very hard to draw the line between any serious research you may have made, and any if there is any unbiased conclusions made. You seem to be preaching your opinions and your frame of reference, your boyfriend, 2 of his friends and gaming forums in general is very weak and unprofessional.
Ask yourself if the reader can clearly differentiate between your source comments, an unbiased analysis of those and your immediate conclusions and opinions. And ask yourself, if you believe it is fair to anyone readin a supposedly scientific unbiased piece of work, to be bombarded with opinions from the author at each paragraph.
Im sorry if I am being harsh on you. But if you really want to become good at writing up papers like this, go to your school and ask for older reports they might have on file and read how others did this. And if your teacher gave you a good grade on this, Im sorry for then he stunted someone obviously quite intelligent from learning how to compose an unbiased and factual article.
Ps. I am not english, but i tried to clearly explain how you should go about writing papers like this. And I forgot the most important part lol. When you start out you explain the problem you are going to extrapolate on. You dont write a soft opinion that you intend to selectively research to back up....with this I mean. If youve decided what you know and how it should end before you are done researching, youll have biased material from a biased research and thats never scientific or factual.
Anyway, Ive made lots of papers. I made one that had the same mistakes in it as yours do, when I was in my first year in College. I had never written a paper before. You learn there is a certain way these papers are supposed to be written, and certain no no's. I honestly hope your teacher wont be overwhelmed by your choice of subject matter and still speak with you about the many many structural problems with your paper. So you can improve.
My advice is be open to critisism. I dont know if you have to sit in class and get critiqued by everyone of your peers like I did in some of my later papers, but even if you do, be open, try to learn how to research, sort your bias, and comment on your references... it will help you tremendously as you advance through school.
Op. Break your essay up into smaller paragraphs. Very few people are going to read that. They are link mini-wall of texts.
Currently Playing: DAOC Uthgard
Previously Played: UO, DAOC, Shadowbane, AC2, SWG, Horizons, COX, WOW, EQ2, LOTRO, AOC, WAR, Vanguard, Rift, SWTOR, ESO, GW2.
lol so summarizing the post....
Girlfriend angry. Now stereotypes all online gamers.
my advice:
Find a new boyfriend.
I work full time, have a house, friends mortgage, 2 kids < 3 years old... and i am mature enough to know i cant play games during the day, so when everyone goes to bed around 1030pm *wife likes to sleep, i am a night owl* i play online. So don't spout generalizations on people cause your boyfriend is a slacker and socially challenged.
Hado
Like I said before, my assignment is complete.
Tempestormer, Nilenya
"Giving back" to the subculture that I chose to study was part of my grade. What would you have preferred? Should I have just gone to my local Gamestop, bought subscription cards, then handed them out to less fortunate inner-city kids? The course that I wrote this paper for was an 1102 English class. I'll be happy to report back with the grade I receive. I can take criticism, but the downright patronization and scorn is really uncalled for.
On top of that, you're both being overly unrealistic. Do you truly expect me to have spent a month playing an MMO in preparation for the sanalysis? My teacher sure wouldn't have. I conducted interviews and used internet articles to conduct my study. If you were told to write a paper on the "skater" subculture, would you buy a skateboard, spend a month learning to skate, and then pay for skate park tickets? No, you'd go to the skate parks and interview the kids there.
As for having an original bias toward MMOs, I thought that was an interesting slant to base my paper on. My teacher thought so as well. The instructions never said that I had to edit out every one of my opinions. On the contrary, we were encouraged to change our opinions over the course of the study and produce everything we learned.
I do appreciate the input, but you people are a pretty tough crowd.
Please don't judge me based on the replies. Try looking at my original post, ok?
WOW! You are not english?
Sure makes my English as a first language behind feel like an idiot.... Very well written.
OP, interesting article. Not really much new in it that has not been posted or published elsewhere be it pro or con. I hope that,regardless of the flaming going on, you were able to get something out of the experience.
As far as the rest of the postings on this, just goes to show the subject is very touchy. You had an extremly small sampling of the massive community that makes up MMO gamers as reference and source material. That makes it hard to draw conclusions without alarming or inflaming those who do not reflect those points of view.
Do not let the responses on this thread keep you from doing research or investigations in the future. Use it as a learning tool on what you can do to prove a point. Trying to anticipate what your readers response will be, only makes for a more concise document.
Say hello, To the things you've left behind. They are more a part of your life now that you can't touch them.
It is very hard to gauge how much time is apropriate to asign to this research when I dont know the context in which it was written. But yes, to answer your question if I was writing on a subculture fx, skaters as you suggested I would have delved into that group of people to experience it or followed them as closely as possible for a decent length of time. If I wasnt willing to do that, then why should I take on the mantle of reporting on them in any capacity. Your question is baffling to me.
If you are going to do something, do it thoroughly and do it well. Never strive to be mediocre, its pointless, there is a mass of people readily filling up that pool as it is. Anyway, you replied as I thought you might, almost an exact image of how I responded when I had mucked up a paper in college. But I learned from it, even without admitting my mistake when I was under a barrage of critisism.
If you are writing something for high school then ofcourse the expectation is lower, having said that I worked 3 months on my bachelor project and almost 2 semesters on my masters, so if Im to judge you in that context then no, its not unreasonable to question the research you put into this. When you posted your paper, I wasnt sure if you had posted a highschool paper here, because that didnt immediately seem logical to me. Btw. Thank you for telling us what class this was for, personally it doesnt mean anything to me, because Im unfamiliar with the system youre in. Is it for college?
I understand why you get defensive, but I was trying to educate you on what would be expected and deemed necessary in any worthwhile scientific paper. Im afraid yours only read as a regular highschool assignment. But in that context its not bad. If that is indeed what it was, then you did well. If it was for a higher learning institute, then I hope you make a greater effort next time.
And in ending. You're going to have to learn to recieve critisism and defend your arguments in real time with an audience, in the future if you plan on staying in school. Percieving them as scornfull or patronising because they arent going easy on you is not constructive. Neither is posting on this forum if you expected everyone to think you did a magnificent piece of work. Because, well, it was just ok, and it wasnt scientific. But maybe it wasnt supposed to be? If it was an essay it was a decent piece. Reading it as a scientific runthrough of my subculture it was sloppy and biased.
Anyway, you asked a question, I hope I answered it. And I take no pride in making you feel bad here, so I wont reply again. I meant no harm,.
To the person who commented on my english, I have an ear for languages
but I wouldnt be able to tell you the grammatical rules for any of the languages I speak bar my native one lol.
Seems like a lot of words just to call us a bunch of nerds.
I'll have you know that I'm a medical doctor who is also an expert martial artist and a billionare to boot. So don't piss me off or I'll have my security staff hunt you down and bring you to me whereupon I'll kick your arse and then perform a lobotomy on you.
But don't tell my Mom or she'll kick me out of the basement.