I could not find this in the related section and I am unable to post in that section so I thought I would add it here. The site even refers to OLGAnon as a good place for people to go that need help.
Also I saw an interesting post about a comic where the author talks about his World of Warcraft habits.
Foxtrot's Bill Amend. I actually was doing research and found the page on the comic earlier but was not sure if anyone would think it was interesting.
Matt
Game free since 11/26/04
The games inherently appeal to one of the major problems in this world - Quick and easy rewards with little or no meaningful (read: important) work.
People 'grind' for experience in those games for hours, days, months, years and when they realize that real world rewards aren't as easy, it's too easy to just pop back into the grind again for their 'fix.'
I've tried World of Warcraft and EQII and while they were fun at first because of the technological improvements and tuning of 7 years of MMORPG experience, they still revolve around the same boring concepts:
1. Start out - quick rewards and levels to get you hooked.
2. After a little bit - new items and fun quests.
3. Down the road - Kill, kill, kill, grind, grind, grind (yawn)
4. Even farther - Raid, raid, raid, grind, grind, grind.
5. Keep going - New items, new graphics...wow..this is.....fun....ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
6. And of course, you can throw tradeskills in for variety
In Everquest I, you killed Orcs...lots and lots of Orcs... In Everquest II, you kill goblins....in WoW you kill boar...lots and lots of boar.
Now that is a simplification, mind you, but the core features are that you have to kill stuff for money, experience and items until you need help from others to kill even more stuff for money, experience and items.
That being said, for us first generation MMORP Gamers, EQ was groundbreaking..and for some of us a dangerous diversion from our real lives. For the second generation MMORP Gamers who are discovering current offering of MMORPGs, the threat is just as bad for them.
At one local Game Stop, (Video game store chain) there is a guy who has a World of Warcraft shrine in his bedroom. He actually bought multiple copies of World of Warcraft just so he could have game boxes with different pictures on them (at $49.95 each). Great marketing on Blizzard's (game maker) part. This guy is in his mid 30s.
There are times when I look at the clock and think, "where did my evening go?" But to this day, I don't have a problem anymore about prioritizing where games fit into the scheme of my life. For that I am so thankful.
Ron
Ron Jaffe AKA Diggo McDiggity
Discussion Board Administrator
On-Line Gamers Anonymous
Co-Founder of OLGA and member since 2002