MMO Overdose
With the growth of online gaming has come a new form of addiction, MMORPG Addiction. While some experts question the legitimacy of ’soft’ addictions such as gambling, gaming, and so on, there is no question that a certain percentage of MMO gamers have play habits that wind up damaging their real lives.
It’s no accident that many MMOs & MMORPGs are structured to keep players hooked. By offering incremental rewards that steadily become more and more difficult to reach, the genre by nature places a high demand on a player’s time. The online and thus social aspects of MMORPGs bring out the competitive side in all of us by framing the game’s progression as a race to the top either among friends or the entire server depending on how determined the particular gamer is.
The first MMORPG to garner major media attention was EverQuest, known as EQ for short. Besides being blamed for ruining thousands of marriages and relationships, at least one gamer took his own life partially due to events that unfolded in-game. Your very own editor may of suffered from a mild case of EQ addiction back in the late 90s when I played for, on average, 12 hours a day. Eventually the game lost its attraction as it took longer and longer to level up and the novelty of it all wore off. To this day, EverQuest is only half mockingly called EverCrack by current and former players.
There’s another famous case of a gamer taking things too far due to a MMORPG. The case was reported in the West by the BBC and involved two Chinese men. One man, Qiu Chengwei, loaned his friend Zhy Caoyuan a powerful sword called the Dragon Sabre from the game Legends of Mir 3. The friend then sold the sword for around $800 in the real world. When the original owner found out, he reported the matter to the police. Since virtual assets of this nature are not recognized in China, nor anywhere else for that matter,Qiu had no legal recourse. Rather than accepting his loss and moving on, Qiu broke into Zhy’s house one night and stabbed him to death.
When Blizzard released World of Warcraft similar complaints soon resurfaced and made their way around the major news channels. But with WoW and earlier games likeEQ, the most harmful aspect of MMO addiction was generally related to lost time. Players would waste away hundreds, if not thousands of hours, in front of the computer rather than studying or working. With the recent advent of free to play MMORPGs supported via micro-transactions, the stakes have grown much larger.
The f2p model makes it easier for gamers, especially young gamers, to play a particular MMO by removing the need to purchase the product or use a credit card to sign up for monthly billing. Most free to play games have hundreds of optional premium items for sale that require real cash. These items vary in form and include mounts, pets, clothes, and experience boosting scrolls or potions. What all these items generally have in common is that they come with expiration dates. This means dedicated players must constantly dish out money to enjoy their benefits.
MapleStory made headlines a few years ago thanks to a Fox News story in which young kids were stealing their parent’s credit cards in order to purchase items for their 2D avatars. Free MMO publishers like Nexon keep detailed statistics on what percent of their gamers use the cash shop and how much they spend. Many readers may be surprised to learn that the average rate per paying user is higher than the $15 per month that most subscription based MMORPG charges for unlimited access.
Free MMORPG gamers who chose to treat themselves to a premium item here and there aren’t likely to cause themselves harm but should be weary when dealing with certain games. Many browser based MMOs in particular have questionable premium features that seem to be built around exploiting a small percentage of players become obsessed. The auction feature in several BigPoint games including Seafight and Dark Orbit come to mind. Powerful items are placed up for auction by the publisher and bids can only be made in premium currency. The moment a bid is placed, that money is lost and cannot be reclaimed even if the player is outbid at a later date. Many ex-players have legitimately compared this system to an online casino.
In many popular free MMORPGs like Shaiya, Atlantica Online, and Perfect World there are many items for sale priced a litter higher than what most people would consider ‘micro’ levels. $15-20 items are common and I’ve even seen a Dragon Mount for sale at $150 before. Of course these items are all optional and most don’t grant direct gameplay advantages against other players. Even so, the temptation to splurge while a game has you hooked can be overwhelming. Addiction may be too strong a word for temporarily getting carried away with a new MMORPG so I propose a new term:MMO Overdose. MMO Overdose can be defined as a temporary obsession with a particular game that costs the player either a great deal of time, money, or both.
Please share your first or second hand experiences with MMO Addiction and Overdose with us and if you can find any other extreme cases like the Mir 3 Dragon Sabre dispute, please post them below!
By, Erhan Altay
January 25, 2010
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Great article, Mr. Altay. That shows us the bad face of the MMOs.
January 25, 2010
#1
Scary stuff.
Makes some ask their self; what the hell am I doing ?
January 26, 2010
#2
I’ve heard of two guy’s who were addicted to counter strike, they knew eachother in real life and lived i think two town’s away from eachother? anyways, they had a one on one match to see how was better, using the AWP only, and one lost obviously, the guy that lost later that night drove to the dude’s house and smashed a stand up mirror over the guy, the guy had i believe 42 stitches and 3 staple’s, Gaming is a very addictive thing sure, but in my eye’s, it’s only the people that were bound to do this kind of thing do it anyways, if the guy’s didnt play counter-strike that day but instead played a friendly game of tic-tac-toe i’m sure the guy still would of gotten the same treatment.
January 26, 2010
#3
Great article. It’s sad to say that despite the fact I know I have an addiction, I just can’t stop. Matter of fact, I just recently re-subscribed to Aion.
I wish I could just stop and play games like a normal person and be normal.
January 26, 2010
#4
I’m still addicted to a few games even today. Every few years I go back and play Diablo 2. I can’t stop myself lol.
January 26, 2010
#5
Lol. I pay for some because I feel obligated. Like many browser games, or if Ive played for more than a few months. It’s like… “Ive used their services and I feel guilty, so I’ll donate”. And to date Ive spent at LEAST $100 on Perfect World International.
Nothing like the above described though.
January 27, 2010
#6
IcyBlue. I believe the author of this editorial meant that spending in ‘excess’ is bad. I’ve personally spent money on numerous free to play titles as well. I found the part about that Chinese guy killing his friend over a sword in Legend of Mir pretty ridiculous.
January 27, 2010
#7
Wasnt there something a while back about people in China (not talking about Mir) commiting suicide on a regular basis because of other games? And to relate directly, I tend to spend an excess on some Social MMOs. (One day I spent $100 on Gaia/IMVU combined).
As for the Chinese Guy killing someone over a F2P MMO. To play devils advocate (but not support the killing), in a Typical F2P MMO it can take many months to get the best weapon/armor. In the case of PWI, the Warsoul Weapons take I think a minimum of 6months PER PERSON >_> with a full party. And if someone sold it, I’d be pissed and confront the person. (Considering it just ate 6months of my life). But NOTHING to that extent…
I digress, this article does help and could be altered to warn people of the “dangers” of MMOs. Assuming people don’t get carried away.
April 7, 2010
#8
I don’t see a problem with the Chinese guy killing his friend about the $800 sword. $800 is a LOT of money and if you consider the fact that a lot of Chinese workers make anywhere from 45 cents to $1.06/hour means that that sword is anywhere from 754-1777 HOURS of work. For an American making a reasonable $10 an hour that would get him $7,540-$17,770 in the same amount of time the Chinese man spent getting that money. I would kill somebody if they stole $17,000 from me and the government laughed in my face too!
January 28, 2010
#9
In the end it all comes down to the player. People who blame the companies just use that excuse as a cop out, think about how many people (myself included) have a addictive personality. My wife and I play wow together last week we decided it took up to much time so we gave up our subscription gave the accounts to friends and are no longer playing. I dont blame blizz for anything other then giveing a social network for people who dont have a social life, and in the end you cant really get mad at blizz for that but for the people who dont get out and socialize in person. I play a few ftp games with some of my irl friends but when i play them we all get together at someones house and sit around and make a nite of it.
Hell we get together once a week and play dnd the real version and just like in the games online we have the typical “rules martial”, “someone who dosent know how to play there character”, “the idiot”, “the jerk”, “the leader (who people dont liek to listen to )”, and the random people who come just to have a social life of any kind cause they dont have any real life friends.
All in all life is what it is its the people who have the problem not the games and if people dont learn how to deal with real life then they will always find the easy way out, by either playing the game or those who blame the game for what it “does” to there loved ones.
February 5, 2010
#10
+1. A game that doesn’t make its players to get hooked is relatively not a good game. Every good game, gives you tons of reasons to get hooked. So I agree, it is really up to the player, not to the companies providing the game
February 8, 2010
#11
Great article .Everybody should know the dangers of being addicted to a game,I am addicted to a game right know , but i don’t pay money for items ,i think it’s foolish to spend so much money on a game.
February 11, 2010
#12
A very good article.I think everybody should know what happens if you get to addicted
to a game,because if you get to addicted you will begin paying for taxes and losing a lot of money isn’t a good thing
February 11, 2010
#13
A very good article.I think everybody should know what happens if you get to addicted
to a game,because if you get to addicted you will begin paying for taxes and losing a lot of money isn’t a good thing.Many people do this and they get on the streets because of their addiction.I heard a story about a guy who played everyday Metin 2 and he lost 500$only in one month.
March 6, 2010
#14
as a former WoW addict. i had lost evertything. most mmorpg games have an addictive nature, and as someone who can easily become addicited to something. these are easy ways to get a high without doing drugs or drinking. what stopped me was the fact of a breakdown, i was always tired, my job that i had loved had lost government funding (which means i lost my job) and i had lost some friends that i never really gained back. now that i am back into mmorpg’s. i find that i can control my time better and now am able to have a social life outside the games.
many people think this is stupid, but its a major addiction. i’ve experinced it. people think its a joke. sooner will we realize that there needs to be support groups for this addiction just like drugs, because like drugs. we can lose everything
June 14, 2010
#15
Its things like this that make me glad i’m a mmo hopper. The most i’ve spent was 30 bucks on s4 league in 1 day.
July 27, 2010
#16
There was a story where a guy was so addicted to WoW or everquest 1 or 2…where he slowly thought the game was real life and eventually made a character named “I love you”…Now the worst part is that he hit on 5 random characters and got shot down each time. So he soon shot himself with a hunting rifle hung in his room. Don’t worry i’m not gonna end this by saying his ghost will blah blah i’m just telling another story of addiction…that weirdly went very bad.