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.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Well (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:There was a time... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Well (Score:5, Insightful)
The fact that people care so much about a silly game is, however, pathetic in my opinion.
Re:Well (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Well (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Well (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Well (Score:5, Interesting)
Now how many americans have gotten murdered over $3000 or less? A lot.
Re:Well (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:WGet a Grip... (Score:2, Insightful)
I think the point the poster is making is that here in the US, violent crime is so common as to be generally un-news worthy, and that the US have a very high violent crime rate. Of course I am not going to quote you numbers, but I'm suggesting that this idea is not arguable.
Re:WGet a Grip... (Score:2)
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!
Re:It IS arguable (Score:5, Informative)
Re:It IS arguable (Score:5, Informative)
Washington DC's homicide rate of 45.8/100,000 is more than a hundred times that of the capital of the European Union, Brussels
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/homicide/homtrnd.htm [usdoj.gov]
http://www.benbest.com/lifeext/murder.html#world [benbest.com]
Re:Well (Score:3, Insightful)
I believe that parent posters point was that the poor bastard that got murdered didn't get murdered for a virtual sword that's worth nothing; he got murdered for a virtual sword
Re:Well (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:GP Score 2???? (Score:5, Insightful)
GGP makes a statement. Thin skinned GP take offense at what he obviously believe to be an attack on the U.S. and P spouts inane trolling crap.
And here I am answering for some reason to that crap.
I'm not the GGP but I'll take the liberty to re-phrase what he said:
"A lot of people have been murdered for less than $3000 in almost every country in the world."
There. I believe it's still faithful to the spirit of GGP's post which was something like:
"The man wasn't killed just for an imaginary object in an imaginary world. That object had a value of about $3000 and that is why he died."
Disclaimer: I'm not american nor I live in the U.S. I don't hate America, tho I probably hate a few americans. I also hate people in several countries in all continents. I'm probably a very spiteful person. A country is an abstraction. I can't hate a country any more that I can hate the color blue. But that's just me.
Re:GP Score 2???? (Score:3, Funny)
Don't get me started on the color blue! Just thinking of the color blue makes me see red! I'm not a violent man, but if the color blue were ever hit by a bus and tasted its own blood, I would want to be there to see it.
In short, down with the color blue!
(except for the periwinkle shade, which is kind of nice.)
Re:GP Score 2???? (Score:3, Funny)
That was your first mistake.
It's easier to ask for forgiveness than for permission.
Re:Well (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Well (Score:5, Insightful)
Nah, of course it isn't okay. What we're saying is, is that it is conceptually understandable.
If you say "some guy killed another guy for stealing his imaginary sword", the immediate response is "wtf?"
If you say "some guy killed another guy for stealing 3 grand from him", the response is more, "oh. one more murderer in this wonderful world of ours."
You don't condone it, but you can sort of see why he might want to do it.
Re:Well (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Well (Score:3, Insightful)
Yet in playing the game you must understand that everything within the game mechanics is fair play. Exploits are another story. And its even worse when you get exploited and the parent company does not admit the exploit exists and wont make you right. Or even worse when they deny it exists, then you see a fix in for it a month later, but no reimbursement.
I play eve-onli
Re:Well (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Well (Score:2)
Is it baseless? After all, it would seem that a lot of people don't know the difference between a satire web site article and a completely serious one.
Nothing new (Score:2)
Son of Sam. Watches movie and goes around shooting people.
Street racer kids who watch "Too fast Too furious" and go racing around streets killing people.
People that take Oprah/Arnold/whomever as role models.
If you have a boring RealLife(tm) then you are quite likely at risk of taking your more exciting FantasyLife quite seriously and attaching significant value to your FantasyLife.
Other forms of obsessive gamer (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't know about murder, but people do suicide over it (a recent event in the stock exchange where I work confirmed this to me).
Come to think of it, there's an awful lot of commonality between an MMORPG and the stock exchange. Hmm... you listening, Sony? I can imagine my level 63 Vah Shir warrior wandering into the main bank at PoK, right-clicking the banker and investing in the international equities market. All on the credit card. Corporate takeovers could be PvP raids. Thwack!
Or... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Or... (Score:5, Insightful)
Renting dvd's also tends to end up being cheaper. Cost of getting to the theater, $10+/ticket in a lot of places, and soda, popcorn, etc. by the time it's all said and done, if more than one person is going to see the movie, it's actually cheaper just to buy the bloody thing in the store when it comes out on dvd.
Avoiding rude people is just kind of an added bonus.
Re:Or... (Score:3, Insightful)
Prohibitive? In Europe, folks pay $5-6/gallon (Adjusted from Euros/litres) which is far more prohibitive than $2.50-3/gallon. In the US, we are used to a subsidised (Our energy bills pander to the petroleum industry) fuel delivery system. Well, the fantasy is coming to an end, oil man President or not.
I'm totally for renting videos. I pay Blockbuster $25/mo. and get probably 20 or so rentals out. I don't even rip/burn the discs. I just watch one every other evening or so.
Well, not totally. I'm still going
Re:Or... (Score:3, Insightful)
Then again, even if I'm totally wrong, where in the heck do you think the government gets the money for subsidies? That's right - from the taxes the citizens pay. My taxes haven't gone down recently, but the price of gas sure has gone up (mostly due
Re:Or... (Score:3, Funny)
A DVD rental is next to free with netflix, and if you can't watch it for some reaso
Re:Or... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Or... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Or... (Score:5, Funny)
Is it impossible to watch a movie without buying popcorn and soda? With determination, one CAN go for two, or even three, hours withiou eating a snack. Work up to it, start by watching a 30-minute sitcom without eating.
If the monkey is really on your back, it's not hard to smuggle snacks into a cinema.
Re:Or... (Score:3)
Work up to it, start by watching a 30-minute sitcom without eating.
The real trick is watching a 30-minute sitcom without drinking yourself into a coma.
violence (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:violence (Score:2)
Well... living in your mothers basement and never having a girlfriend is definately a financial benifit. Although, bad hygene and poor social development may be considered by some to be con.
ever compared the real violence rate and drug rates between nerds and jocks?
Take a knee junior. This type of humor, although not ironical, uses juxtapositioning to present the stereotypical nerd, geek, dweeb, and dork just as irrational as the feared jock when
Re:violence (Score:2, Funny)
i beg to differ - i did coke, raped loads of women, beat up pretty much all of my peers at least once and never really bothered with sports at all
Re:violence (Score:2)
By being weaker it's harder for us to rape women and smarter means we know better.
Re:violence (Score:5, Insightful)
I guess you could possibly say I was that 'stereotypical' looking jock/prep guy in highschool (just graduated, 3.6 GPA, so not a 'dumb' jock either). Yeah, I've done an assortment of drugs, not really to my regret either, started out small, escalated, and I still do them at parties on the weekends, though nothing really 'hard'. By hard, I mean essentially using a needle to do it, but used to snort 80s of OxyContin among other things.
However - I'm also what you would call a 'nerd' to an extent, I've worked in computer businesses for two years (two seperate businesses for a year each - both went out of business and I was with each from start to finish). I took state three times in wrestling, twice in collegiate and once in Greco-Roman, but I'm not a violent person at all, I party a lot but I don't get into fights, I don't rape women or anything like that, I adhor violence honestly.
So essentially, I'm a jock that plays MMORPGs (Lineage II, EverQuest, fyi), wears Abercrombie, uses Linux, used to do coke a lot, has never taken advantage of a woman, and yet still bound to these petty stereotypes? Sorry, but grow up and get your head out of your ass, the world needs stereotypes about as much as they need racism.
-Brandon
Drugs/crack/weed are not cool (Score:3, Insightful)
Weed rots your brain, especially on those who are using it alot, yes. The absolute worst cases you see on the street is in fact due to HEAVY use of harshis, not the harder stuff. But it also has diverse effects on people, not everyone reacts to it the same.
Do you smoke crack?
I tried harshis a handful of times, but on me it had worse and worse effect. Sometimes I got vibration in my chest from it that really scared me since it felt like it was the heart. Now I know
Re:violence (Score:2, Funny)
Re:violence (Score:5, Funny)
That is one messed up personal ad...
You fools (Score:5, Funny)
But we need a one hour break from 6-7, Mom will murder me if I'm not there to eat dinner with the familly. Don't worry, this "real world" instance seems to be pretty persistant, our progress wont be lost, just aa few minutes to clear the repop...
Re:You fools (Score:4, Funny)
Fuck man, it's not an instance! There's people there I run into over and over again, and I'm telling you, they're not in my team!
I was taking this article somewhat serious... (Score:4, Funny)
"Just think of how porn changes when the user also gets to go in with the toned body of an underwear model. It'll make our current online porn look like just the tip of the assberg."
Was that really needed?
Anyway the article smells of someone trying to get posted on
Re:I was taking this article somewhat serious... (Score:3, Insightful)
Isn't the biggest reason of releasing something into the public to get acclaim or notice from it? It doesn't matter if this person was trying to get onto /. or not. What matters is if the article itself holds water, which imo it does.
Re:I was taking this article somewhat serious... (Score:5, Funny)
The Real Question (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:The Real Question (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:The Real Question (Score:3, Insightful)
Yeah, they had the Internet back then.
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.
Re:sure its real... here's the line blurred for ya (Score:2)
"Reality" has always been defined by what we agree on. Ask any anthropologist, politician, or phone-sex operator...
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
Re:Mmm.... not so sure.... (Score:2)
Right on. To paraphrase Socrates, there are two basic kinds of pleasure, the first being the kind one derives from bowing to one's immediate desires for sensory gratification, and the second being derived from acting according to one's conscience, thereby "ennobling" oneself.
Those of us living in the wealthiest societies habitually choose the former kind of pleasure.
Re:Mmm.... not so sure.... (Score:3)
Re:Mmm.... not so sure.... (Score:3, Insightful)
During highschool and my first couple years of college, I played quite a few videogames, read books almost constantly, and went to movies frequently. But, for the past couple of years, I've replaced most of that with a girlfriend. We simply spent lots of time together, doing m
As Fark might say.. (Score:5, Informative)
Re:As Fark might say.. (Score:2, Funny)
Of course not, this is slashdot; we don't get that kind of stuff here...
Re:As Fark might say.. (Score:2)
There were other reasons too, but the swords one was just amusing. Swords lead to rabid fan-girls, and those just lead to general amusement in various and assorted ways.
I'll be worried... (Score:5, Funny)
And what sort of conspiracy that my verify word was 'sorcery'
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!
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
Re:It can become an addiction (Score:2)
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.Swords?! (Score:2, Funny)
Why distinguish online vs. offline life? (Score:5, Insightful)
Without these "hobbies," people would be little more than animals -- eating, sleeping, reproducing in the endless cycle of life that we share with even the lowliest bacteria. What distinguishes humans from animals (perhaps only quantitatively) is the extent that we can move beyond the mundane activities of "real" life and explore such a wide range of alternatives.
For the record, I, personally am not into online gaming or sports -- this post is not a personal rant -- but I can see how these activities can become a major part of a person's identity and daily life. As such, it is important to understand and respect (in a love-of-freedom sense, not a politically correct sense) the fact that different people value different things. Its not that some people go overboard on online life vs. real life, its that some people become immersed in a life that is different from the utilitarian vision of a standard life.
Re:Why distinguish online vs. offline life? (Score:5, Insightful)
Two things:
1) When the dog breeder stops going away for weekends, and starts dressing their dog and talking to it like a human being, they get plenty of ridicule. Same with sports fans that get so obsessed they riot, or that sail boat owner that won't even talk to their wife and kids and is about to lose his job (but hangs on to it JUST barely...so he can buy parts for the boat). No one's going to ridicule you for playing an online game occassionally. But when you start to shun friends and family and get obsessed you can rightly expect to be called a twit.
2) There is some feeling that because there is no tangible physical real-world gain, it's all just a waste of time. This is largely a point of view issue. Some see more abstract things as worthwhile. Others don't. But most people would agree that if you've got a great "online" life and a terrible real life, it's time to stop the escapism for long enough to give your real life a go.
All those wacky Asian countries are the same? (Score:5, Informative)
CHINA, not Korea. It happened in SHANGHAI. Geez, do a little research, tens of thousands of people are going to read your submission...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8143073/ [msn.com]
Re:All those wacky Asian countries are the same? (Score:2, Funny)
FTFA (Score:2)
Huh? Nedroid is completely fake.
Dupe (Score:2, Informative)
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.
Oh, yeah, it's 1979 D&D all over again! (Score:5, Insightful)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeons_&_Dragons#C
These people behave irrationally not because of the game, but because they are irrational, sick, or sociopathic people.
If these same individuals were in a knitting club, they'd be stabbing each other's eyes out with knitting needles and paying stupid amounts of money for fancy-assed wool to turn into butt-ugly sweaters and scarves. But we don't hear people telling us that knitting is evil -- probably because other people outside the knitting community understand what it's all about.
WoW is serious business (Score:5, Informative)
http://wowseriousbusiness.ytmnd.com/ [ytmnd.com]
This was recorded from a voice chat on WoW. All I can say is...WOW...
Not actually (Score:3, Informative)
They do say that one sign of MMORPG addiction is if you get far too emotionally involved in the ups and downs of the game.
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.
MMO's are very addicting (Score:2)
Nuts.
But now I am having tons of fun
YOU STOLE MY FUCKING CLOUDSONG! (Score:2, Funny)
Obligatory YOU STOLE MY FUCKING CLOUDSONG!
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".
futility? (Score:2)
I can still PvP quite well. Very well, infact, with my half-decent equipment.
But even that doesn't matter. Unless you spend horus a day playing, you can never really be well-rewarded for your PvP efforts.
Who is called Sulva? (Score:3, Insightful)
In That Hideous Strength [amazon.com] , Merlin asks Ransom, "Who is called Sulva? What road does she walk? Why is the womb barren on one side? Where are the cold marriages?"
In part, Ransom replies, "... the womb is barren and the marriages cold. There dwell an accursed people, full of pride and lust. There when a young man takes a maiden in marriage, they do not lie together, but each lies with a cunningly fashioned image of the other, made to move and to be warm by devilish arts, for real flesh will not please them, they are so dainty in their dreams of lust. Their real children they fabricate by vile arts in a secret place."
Lewis had modernism pegged way back in the '40s.
Re:Who is called Sulva? (Score:2)
Not surprised (Score:2, Interesting)
I read somewhere that that dudes sw
The sword is real (Score:2)
They all have it in common that they do not have an intrinsic physical embodiment and they could conceivably be copied endlessly without losing use value for the owner of a copy.
Stealing a virtual sword is if anything a lot worse than making a copy of a record. It's more akin to stealing the actual CD from someone, or making a copy and deleting the original, since you deprive the owner from use of the item.
In a word: 'Snowcrash' (Score:2)
Personally, I vow never to buy into a MMORPG until they are like in Snowcrash.
By then, the argument about the difference between real and virtual property will be redundant. And the USA will be broken up into franchises. And skateboards will have glass-powdering sonic blasters on them.
Zero players before 1998? Excuse me? (Score:2, Informative)
And before even that I remember wasting a lot of time playing Legend of the Red Dragon, Usurper, the Pit, and many many more game titles I have since forgotten.
There's no such thing as "real" money (Score:5, Insightful)
"Real" money is just a fantasy substance that people barter for. Money is not a fancy piece of paper, it's a delusion, that we all politely buy into to make trading easier.
Like some third-world currency that suffers boutes of inflation and counterfeiting, MMRPG money is ephemeral and unstable, but from a mathematical standpoint, economics does not care if there the resources are real or imagined.
Markets have judged the supply and demand and the perception of inflation/permanence have assigned it a conversion rate. And because there are a great many unknowns in how a game will develop or be managed, the markets may from time to time exhibit irrational exhuberance, have pyramids and bubbles, just like the "real" world.
It's not entirely impossible that some day a court might rule that income tax will have to be charged on game money for the simple reason that there is a market for it - just as if it was money earned in another country.
Re:There's no such thing as "real" money (Score:3, Funny)
Happy happy, joy joy . . . . . .
Ahh, kids, they think they invented everything (Score:2, Funny)
That's obvious, you ban the guy, even though you promised you weren't going to use your powers to interfere in the game anymore [ludd.luth.se] and then watch the society you built crumble into dust.
No kidding. (Even though the article is a parody). (Score:3, Insightful)
I work a regular, decent job like any other normal person. When I come home, my wife and I play World of Warcraft together. This is opposed to sitting ourselves down in front of the TV for 6 hours like many people do.
We have formed a guild with other working adults who treat WoW as a game, and not a replacement for life. We have a great deal of fun when we play without needing to be pressured by others to be involved in raiding or other activites every waking hour.
Yes, there are some people we know who are in the game at least 18 hours a day and treat raiding Molten Core as if it were more important than life itself. Yes, it is pretty sad. But if it weren't WoW, they'd most likely be squandering all their time obsessing over some other activity.
Real money - right... (Score:3, Insightful)
"On ebay people are paying real money to buy WoW gold."
No they aren't.
They're connecting to a virtual auction house (ebay) to exchange virtual money (credit card/paypal/whatever) for virtual goods (MMO junk).
I'm half inclined to go an about the value of various pieces of paper (greenbacks) vs. blank pieces of paper and the implication of the phrase "real money" - which is a lot like saying "real promises of value", or even "virtual wealth". But I'm not going to, because I've already put more thought into this comment than I think the author of the article or the post did.
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
I can draw a distinct line (Score:3, Insightful)
And we take offense to these remarks.
Is the "value" of an online item more absurd... (Score:4, Insightful)
Of course, the bottom kinda dropped out of the sports card business, so maybe that's not a good example. :)
You know you're addicted to WoW.... (Score:5, Funny)
Regards, Martin
What's so unreal about it? (Score:3, Insightful)
Computers are real, as are the people using them. I don't know why they should be considered less 'real' than any other human activity.
Re:reality (Score:2)
Re:"End of evolution"? (Score:2)
In the absence of addictive materials, those who crave stimulation have often found it by doing battle. The genetic tendancy to addiction appears more often in people from races that had a war-like history, particularly those that survived long term oppression.
Exactly how much genetics affects personality is not completely known but there is an effect, such as the recent discovery of a gene that corellates to people wi