On several other occasions, I’ve written about online gaming on this blog, so obviously I find gaming – especially massively multiplayer gaming (MMOG)– to be a very interesting phenomenon. Through these sort of games, players are able to create miniature copies of society, with parameters tweaked to suit their fancies. Wish you could fly? Sign up for City of Heroes and defy physics to your heart’s content. Enjoy the rich lore of fantasy literature? Join the world of Lord of the Rings Online and live out Tolkien’s epic novels yourself.
Problematic Internet use, as it relates to gaming, has also been a favorite topic of the media for some time now. The allure of immersing oneself in another world is so great for some people that they can totally lose themselves. Over the years, people have reportedly lost their jobs and even their lives as a result of gaming. Many have been quick to blame the Internet and the games themselves as the root cause of these problems. These accusations cite the general properties of the Internet as a “corrupting force” on otherwise normal people.
At face value, these arguments appear to have some merit. Online games constitute a synchronous online space, with a audio-visual component that supplements text-based verbal communication. Thus, it is susceptible to what Wallace described as “operant conditioning,” whereby players are rewarded on an inconsistent basis. In most MMOGs, the player controls a character with a numeric level representing his/her accomplishment. The ostensible point of the game is to perform tasks that earn the player experience, increasing that level up to the maximum allowed by the rules of the virtual world. Although at first glance this may appear regular, it actually constitutes a variable schedule: as you progress in the game, the reward of “dinging,” or attaining a new level becomes more and more difficult to attain, and experience-garnering tasks become either more difficult, more rare, or both. Just as you are settling in to your mid-level character, you attain level 20 and the whole game changes.
Despite all of this, Caplan’s model does a far better job of explaining game-related problematic Internet use. That is to say, “problem gamers” are in fact predisposed to problems before they lay a finger on a keyboard. These individuals harbor psychosocial problems, such as loneliness and mild depression, that lower their social confidence. When they join the online world represented by a MMOG, these issues cause them to identify well with the medium, which in turn causes them to shun “real life,” face-to-face situations. This explanation does a much better job of explaining the few isolated problem cases of game-related PIU because it focuses on the underlying personal issues rather than blaming the game. Thus, we can explain why someone may be driven to suicide after losing a virtual job in an MMOG, while still accepting the fact that millions of people play these games every day without any such issues.
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I like how you brought up how the popular media always places internet features above individual. They often bring in some extravagant story, such as the child who died from neglect because her patents were playing World of Warcraft, then talk about how the game pushes its players to become addicted. They rarely mention what kind of person becomes a excessive and compulsive player and that his or her personality traits may have contributed to the PIU. You can see how this may have further consequences as some politicians try to place restrictions on video games, while the real problem is not with the games, but with the people who pick them up.
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