Check out this article over at Cracked if you or any of your friends are stuck in the iron grip of an MMO and then come back. I’ll wait for you.
MMO addiction can be a real problem, but I agree with the assessment in the article that it’s largely a product of the person playing the game rather than the game itself. Everyone I know who has dropped out of school because they were playing games like Dark Age of Camelot or World of Warcraft inevitably did so because they weren’t happy with what they were doing.
Of course there is always going to be the problem that the rewards in the real world run on a far slower scale than the rewards in any virtual world you can name. Since I got involved in the MMO scene back in 2003 I’ve often wondered how much potential is being squandered in my generation because the next great American novel or the cure for cancer was put off indefinitely because of raid night.
I suppose we’ll never know. The only thing you can do is not let these games control your life. My trick is to use my iPhone as a sort of life authenticator. I don’t play the games unless everything in my task list for the day is completed, and I don’t ever play in the marathon sessions that I used to when I was in undergrad.
And MMOs are really more fun when you play casually. I had a friend back in college who was determined to get the Grand Marshal title in Blizzard’s old Warcraft PvP system. He spent his evenings grinding Alterac Valley while his girlfriend studied next to him on the bed. He tunneled into his home PC from his TA office so that he could play in between office visits. He tied an oscillating fan to his mouse so that it would move his character and not log him out as afk before Blizzard really started cracking down on that sort of thing.
And ultimately he hated the game that he felt compelled to continue playing. He got that Grand Marshal title, but at the end of the day he was so burnt out that he couldn’t stand to log in to use the gear that he’d earned. And I’m not even going to go into the griping when Burning Crusade came out and green items in Outlands were better than the PvP gear he’d invested so much time in.
It can be a vicious cycle, but only if you let it get to that.
Of course part of the ease of breaking the MMO addiction is being conscious of what they’re doing to keep you hooked. Every time I log into World of Warcraft I first ask myself if there is something better I could be doing with my time. Sometimes I stay on and melt some faces in the battlegrounds and arena, but more often than not I log right back out. Its all a matter of setting priorities and recognizing the treadmill gameplay for what it is.
Make the most of your casual sessions and help support Insert Credits:
Razer Mamba Wireless Gaming Laser Mouse 5600 DPI
World of Warcraft 60 Day Pre-Paid Time Card
