The Pyschology of Virtual Worlds

We've all heard the many tales of online woe, supposedly caused by online games, the latest culprit being mmorpgs (massively multiplayer online roleplaying games). Broken marriages, lost jobs, neglected children.

The blame is often placed firmly upon these games, with the media publicizing tragic stories and giving it a bad reputation, never citing such positive effects that occur as a direct result from gaming hours. No, it is far easier for researchers and psychologists to lump gaming addiction under the ever encompassing umbrella that is Internet addiction disorder (IAD). They fail to mention the lack of consistent evidence to establish a norm in Internet use, consider what other passive activities game playing is drawing its time from, or shedding light that the criteria which IAD is based on is from gambling addiction, which has no logical basis of comparison to IAD.

Is there a problem? Yes, but it lies more in the classification of what could easily be termed 'obsession' rather than addiction. At this point, designating long hours of play as some sort of disorder is simply not feasible, when the body that is establishing the criteria is unable to agree on what the norm is, consider the positive effects of play, and seems too affected by the very rare stories of death and comparatively tragic situations that are shown on the news.
In approaching the games with notebook in one hand and tape recorder in the other, these researches seem to completely miss the point. We are multifaceted people, and a variety of influences shape our lives and preferences. While gaming might be a large, and potentially harmful part of our lives, you cannot simply discount everything else. From your job, friends, family, and environment, there are literally hundreds of different aspects that can lead you to a proclivity of playing online games.

Other activities in which people spend a great deal of time in don't get blamed for nearly as much as online gaming. When was the last time you saw anyone rip a book out of someone's hands for 'being too involved in that escape from reality'. As Nick Yee of the Deadalus Project (http://www.nickyee.com/daedalus/) notes, "We say someone is passionate about work, photography, rock-climbing, theatre, or art, but we say someone is addicted to an online game. It's a strange double-standard."

So it's more the medium of the activity that is being blamed. Even console gaming never seemed to get hit as hard as online gaming (although all the debacle over game violence seemed almost as ridiculous as this situation), so I expect any minute now for the pitchfork wielding mob to come around and beat down the poor unsuspecting computer.

I won't deny that there are some bad situations out there, but I will say that there is more than just a game to blame. I've had my own problems with gaming, and although I spent many hours among several mmorpgs, it cost significantly less than any other things to do, as well as engaging my mind. However, my simple pastime got the blame for everything from work performance to the destruction of a former relationship.

It's a convenient target that can be easily blamed because it will not take offense at the label. If I dared claim that lack of communication or money problems might have had more of a hand in the break up than some pixels, I was met with incredulous looks. After all, gaming (and computers by extension) are evil. The same way that DnD was evil, or any popular activity that is not understood by the mainstream audience.

So what can you do? The gaming community has always been a rather distinct entity, and self regulation from within would seem to be the best course of the matter. Many online gamers are part of guilds, which over time grow to be very close. Abberant behavior or excessive playing habits can be picked up by other guild members first and foremost, being as that they understand the game and the culture surrounding it. Family members and friends who are not involved with the games have no basis for comparison, and often subscribe to the common misconceptions about the games, some of which are as follows:

Online gaming is full of crazy people (well that much is true...) that have no lives and don't know what the sun is (but I see it rising before I go to sleep!)

Games are only for kids and teenagers(yet the majority of gamers I know from 3 multigaming guilds are mostly adults above 18 years of age)

That nothing serious is ever accomplished in these games (leadership ability, hand eye coordination, and culture clashes don't count for anything then, huh?)

That even 'normal' people cannot resist being drawn in and are hopelessly addicted (this isn't marijuana people, it's a game)
The list quite literally goes on and on, and a majority of these concerns are fed by the media and their own misunderstanding of what these games are.

So it's up to us gamers to learn some self moderation, if only to get the researchers, friends, and family off our backs. People in many walk of life have problems balancing work and play, and the problem is not specific to the gaming community.

However, there are a few methods to keep from getting out of balance:

Online friends are just as real as real life friends, but don't neglect your real life friends just because the other ones are more accessible.

You have responsibilities in life. Address them, deal with them, and allocate a specific amount of time to playing. Whiteboards and scheduling books help out a lot in this.

While gaming isn't a passive activity, it is sedentary, so if you're sitting for extended periods of time, make sure you take up some form of exercise to burn off calories (although if you do tech support too, throwing things at the computer when it doesn't work is a viable alternative)

If you do believe you are truly addicted, and not just obsessed over playing a fun game, the best thing for you to do is go get professional help. Support groups are fine and all, but listening to others commiserate about how so and so game ruined their lives, without looking at the contributing causes, will only lead you down the same path again, and change nothing.

Just be honest with yourself. Is your life at a point where you would like it to be? Commit to change if you think it needs to be done, and enlist your friends, both on and offline to help.

Researches need to pin down a specific methodology of study, as well as remembering to look at the big picture before allegations of gaming induced addiction can be seriously considered as a major factor that requires treatment. Could it be that people with certain disorders tend to be drawn to mmorpgs, such as a number of people that I know with social anxiety disorder? Coincidently, people whose condition actually improved as a direct result of playing these games?

Once an activity encompasses a large percentage of the population, many different types of people will end up being represented, and only 1 or 2 deaths, while sad, do not represent the many hundreds of thousands of mmorpg players, it's just a look at the statistics that make up our society as a whole.

Nick Yee has several similar views on this issue. "The average MMORPG player plays for 22 hours a week...About 40% of surveyed MMORPG players would consider themselves addicted.. On the other hand, typical Americans watch 28 hours of TV each week, an activity that is far less active, usually less social, and requires less thinking when compared with playing in MMORPG."

He does say that these games are designed to be addictive in a way, but that it would make "more sense to try to understand the problem holistically - it's about 'certain' people who play 'certain' games."
He also poses an intriguing question:

"Are there players for whom the happiness they derive in the virtual environment is significantly more than what they could achieve in real life because of their circumstances? "

Determining what makes gamers tick, and whether they want to look that deep inside and changes things for the better, will do a world of difference more than any number of clinical or academic studies.