Hi,
I choose to write my blog on an addiction that still grips many people today of all backgrounds. My title WOW stands for world of warcraft, a massive multiplayer online role playing game that many people consider themselves addicted to. Countless stories have been told on news channels and the interenet about obsessive players who have lost things in their life due to their addiction to the game. If this seems outrageous to you take a look at this site for recovering addicts, http://www.wowdetox.com/.
So what is so appealing about this game that people would rather play it than do activities in real life?
In addition, Caplan’s views on PIU also can be applied to WOW addiction and why it occurs. He states basically that people with psychosocial problems have negative perceptions of their social competence, and because of this prefer the less threatening online interaction. This in turn leads to excessive online interactions which reverts to worsening their real life problems. Many people who play WOW use it to forget some of their real life problems and blow off steam at first. Then they get sucked in and play compulsively ahead of doing other things like communicating with friends, doing school work, or real work. Then when these pressures build up again they resort to playing more WOW in order to escape the more threatening. This vicious cycle leads to the addiction you see. WOW can be a near perfect world for some people, with availability 24/7 and high customizability of your character. Every problem has simple solutions unlike the real world.
3 comments:
Chris,
I find it interesting that you talk about the World of Warcraft (WoW) and its addictive nature because I could never seem to get myself into it, which is strange because I love Starcraft :) I agree with you that it is definitely an enjoyable source of entertainment and a good temporary way to de-stress yourself from all your work. However, like you mentioned in your post, it becomes a serious problem when people would rather play WoW than live their actual life. I liked how you described the “vicious cycle” of this addictive nature for people who play this game and have psychosocial problems. To add to your post, Davis, Flett and Besser’s four factors are also a good indicator to determine whether certain people are more prone to develop PIU from playing the WoW. All in all, great post!
Chris,
I really liked that you included a link for recovering World of Warcraft addicts. I guess after all the things we learned in class, it still wasn’t apparent to me how real these online addictions can be. It seems like only recently has popular culture started to understand these very specific almost sub-cultures. On TV there was an episode of the popular show “South Park” about World of Warcraft, and even a Toytoa pickup truck commercial set in the WoW environment.
There seems to be a very fine line when it comes to online gaming. Since the game, as you described it, is designed specifically to be an escape from reality, it’s hard to classify people as addicts just because they play the game a lot. I think Caplan’s model applies especially well here since an alternate online reality would draw to it the kind of people who might have pre-existing conditions that would push them toward a preference for online interaction. Good analysis!
Nice job with this post. I also focused on MMORPGs but we approached the causes of PIU differently. You make a good point about WoW being used as a tool for procrastination. It’s definitely a way to escape from the real world. I wonder if the exaggerated “heroic” fantasy setting helps with that. Maybe a grimmer, more serious setting like Lord of the Rings Online would be less effective in that respect. You also mention that the anonymity leads to greater social comfort. This could be what leads so many players to focus on harassing others rather than playing in the intended manner. It gives them a sense of superiority that they couldn’t otherwise feel. That feeling could become very addicting in itself.
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