A World of Warcraft World 457
An anonymous reader writes "On ebay people are paying real money to buy WoW gold... while some guy in Korea murdered another guy over a rare sword that existed only in an MMORPG. This essay looks at the way more and more people are failing to draw a distinction between their real and online lives and takes it to its logical, yet utterly insane, conclusion." Amusing, and with more than a few ounces of truth.
The Real Question (Score:5, Interesting)
sure its real... here's the line blurred for ya. (Score:5, Interesting)
These people have a very real connection to the entertainment, social, and self image (among many other things) aspects of playing this game. The ways you can gain prominence, excell, get friends, make a splash, whatever it is they are talking about (swords and money are prime examples).
When someone takes that from you or offers to sell it to you, it has real world implications to their lives that are no less real than anything else. It does not matter what social construct it is.
Going down to my local club where every girl is dressed up and dancing is also complete surreal to the normal world around me. And if I drive up in a nice car (+5 pimp/has money) and wearing a rolex (+3 nice job) it has effect on that world too. And it's the bsuiness owners job to make it as surreal as possible just like a game... with flashy lights to make the girls look better, and drinks to.... make the girls look better (and the guys too).
It's all about power and these people are just living it with a game as the medium. But it's no less real. Odd maybe, not so accepted, yes, but it's very real... as that guys rage in killing someone demonstrates quite well.
It can become an addiction (Score:5, Interesting)
Take these stories as warnings. You might not think yourself capable of such things, and okay, I doubt you'll end up killing anyone, but even a stupid little game can become a major feature in your life if you're not careful. Especially when you have to pay per month, since it's so easily justifiable - you're only getting your money's worth, after all!
What Would Darwin Do? (Score:3, Interesting)
K, why would someone kill someone else over something as intangible as the way they honor their preferred deity? There are always people on the fringe of any group whose very fringiness make them outcasts. Online wealth is still wealth. People go to war for essentially the same thing; albeit on a larger scale.
I say, Let Natural selection decide who is the victor, People with intangible swords vs. people with tangible swords and questionable mental stability.The Psychology of MMORPGs (Score:5, Interesting)
http://www.nickyee.com/daedalus/ [nickyee.com]
I've filled out his surveys for 4 or 5 years.
At the site you may find many tools for characterizing your personality type and how it relates to the alternate reality of the games. As well as analysis of how MMORPG's have affected people en masse.
Re:Well (Score:5, Interesting)
Now how many americans have gotten murdered over $3000 or less? A lot.
Re:It can become an addiction (Score:2, Interesting)
It can be a problem, but only if you take it seriously. If you treat it as the fun it should be (and not as a life/career etc), then there is no problem.
This sort of problem is not new, but goes all the way back to D&D, and the suicides of people whose character died. (http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0046/0046_01. asp [chick.com] for those of you who have not seen it before) If your only social interaction is virtual (either as packets on a network, or stats on a page), then you may have a serious problem on your hands.
Re:Or... (Score:2, Interesting)
I know a guy... (Score:4, Interesting)
...who met a woman, and dated her, as much in the World of Warcraft as in the real one.
She ended up leaving her husband and moving to an apartment near him just to be with him -- a college kid. Talk about insane!
Poor guy didn't know what'd hit him.
She was po'-white-trash with no job and no education beyond high school. Finally he got enough sense knocked into him to get away from her.
The kid is still addicted to WoW, much to the detriment of his grades and his social life. For all I knock the crap that passes for a "social life," sitting by yourself in a dark room playing MMORPGs sure isn't healthy!
I've been in some bad situations, but man: What happened to him sure makes me feel normal.
The same people have always been there (Score:4, Interesting)
Of course, there now are regularly elements that are beyond the control of one person, namely other people; this is where the combination of fantasy and immaturity lead to "bad things".
Mmm.... not so sure.... (Score:5, Interesting)
The way "reality" works in our world, entertainment = escape. The entertainment industry probably prefers you not equate the two so starkly, but I think it's just the facts. All of us have a need to disconnect from our daily lives (the "daily grind" as we so often call it), so we crave some "entertainment" to whisk us away from all those worries and stress for a while. But some people live for the escape itself, not for their lives as a whole. And that spells trouble.
Just because while playing an MMORPG, one might have a real connection to the "social aspects" of the game and so on doesn't mean it's any more "real" than other forms of "escape". Most people hooked on cocaine, heroin, or other drugs tell you that all their friends are doing it, and it's "cool" and so on and so forth, too. It does let them become a part of a particular "social circle" and attain a level of "popularity" they might not otherwise have had
Not surprised (Score:2, Interesting)
I read somewhere that that dudes sword was worth about $600-700 via Ebay, and was very, very rare within the game. My point being is that a lot of people have been killed over non-virtual possessions worth a heck of a lot less, and a lot easier to come by too.
Oh and also, the linked article is just a bunch of incoherant rambling with some bad jokes and satire to boot. Hence, pointlesswasteoftime.com .
It IS arguable (Score:5, Interesting)
Stats [tinyvital.com]
Of course I am not going to quote you numbers, but I'm suggesting that this idea is not arguable.
In other words, you won't cite anything but will declare your argument inarguable. It's sad that this is what passes for insightful commentary on Slashdot these days!
From a recovered MMORPG addict. (Score:2, Interesting)
One incident comes to mind, ok.. Let me see if I can explain properly. In the high end game there is a system called DKP that guilds choose to use or not, basically it is if you are on alot and at their events you get DKP that you can cash in to get an item that a monster yeilds, if everyone wants the item, it comes down to who has the most DKP.
Well... This real life friend of mine, who is a girl (we got her hooked on eq, bad idea, anyway), she got married in game to this dude that came down to meet her, so he shows up, they get together what ever, and he leaves. Come to find out his guild had set up this 'underground' DKP system that consisted of this - if you could have sex (in real life) with a girl from the game, you would get insane 'underground' DKP from the guild that you could cash in for anything (like getting someone kicked out for no reason, etc).
Ended up he didn't get his DKP though, because some other guy from his guild had already came to visit and had sex with her and claimed the DKP off her. Sooo, yeah, that game was all kinds of snafu.
But I'll tell you this, even though I had logged in over 300+ actual real time played / logged in on my account, I would have at any time left the game at the drop of a dime to do something with my friends in real life, the game never had me that hooked, but it was sure something to do those countless nights when I couldn't find any IT work. I'm happily retired now, for the last few years, and would never ever go back to it. I could have been a CCIE with all the time I wasted on that shit. Anyway...
Some thoughts (Score:2, Interesting)
If our consciousness could ever be uploaded into a machine perhaps these virtual worlds are the beginnings of the vessel for this.
The article brought up an idea that never occurred to me before. WOW characters could join in marriage or civil unions. Opposite sex partners could have children.
I advanced a WOW character to level 60 just to see how the game worked, then cancelled the game subscription. There is no way I can put that much more time into a game.
There was another story on WOW I saw recently that made some good points about the culture:
http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2005/8/7/162558/754
You are misreading it. (Score:3, Interesting)
You could maintain that both were not real money. It may not be a very reasonable position to take, but it would at least be logically consistent based on them both being bits you cannot touch.
You're defining the "real money" as the bits that can be converted to cash at an ATM. If you can sell the game money (or game items) to someone to increase your electronic bank account balance, which you then withdraw as cash at an ATM, what is the difference between that scenario and selling (exchanging) a certain amount of French or German currency for US dollars? None. So, as I think you agree, both can be considered real money.
The parent is just pointing out that it's not really a sane position to call one real and the other not real.
korea? wasn't it china? (Score:2, Interesting)
hmmmm (Score:2, Interesting)
At the time I was very introvert and anti-social, So playing UO counter-acted that completly.
It seems that there is a link between self-image and the length of time u spend on an MMO. Just think about it