www.oudaily.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2005/11/08/43717ff880d6f?in_archive=1
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Michael Lewis, marketing and management senior, and zoology senior Jyl Curry, who are currently dating, play their characters, Loaded and Milaria, often together on the online game World of Warcraft.
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Fantasy Fanatics
Massively multiplayer online role-playing games have become very popular.
by Kris Akins, Grant Slater and Calvin Son
November 08, 2005
Michael Lewis moved to the front of the pack, sacrificing his body for his comrades. His timeworn mace landed blow after blow on the massive, two-headed dog with skin made of lava.
Lewis and 40 of his comrades battled with their canine foe for seven weeks of seven-hour campaigns in the depths of a sweltering dungeon, surrounded by lava pools and bursts of flame.
When the warriors finally brought the beast, Magmadar, to its knees, Lewis received his prize: the Leg Plates of Might, a leg piece critical to his suit of armor, which he still wears today.
Lewis, marketing and management senior, does not wear his leg plates to class, but in the online realm of World of Warcraft.
Gamers like Lewis live a double life: one in the real world and one in the online world. This second life can affect grades, jobs and relationships to the point where some call it an addiction.
The players develop relationships in the virtual world and become so immersed that the line between reality and virtual reality becomes blurred.
Blizzard EntertainmentAC/a,!a,,C/s World of Warcraft is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game. In MMORPGs, gamers speak and act through characters in a virtual world, aiming to reach level 60 AC/a,!aEU the highest level.
Nick Yee, a graduate student at Stanford University, has done studies about the implications of immersive virtual reality, specifically relating to MMORPGs.
Yee surveyed more than 35,000 players of MMORPGs in order to collect information about their lives and playing habits. He collected his results in a 2002 study.
The average MMORPG user spends 23 hours a week inside the game environment, an 61 percent of users spent at least 10 hours in one sitting inside an MMORPG, according to YeeAC/a,!a,,C/s study.
Jyl Curry, zoology senior, said she knew nothing about online gaming when she started dating Lewis almost two years ago. Lewis made the mistake of leaving her alone in the room without exiting the game.
AC/a,!A"I sat down for the first time and made my character, and I didnAC/a,!a,,C/t get up for eight hours,AC/a,!? Curry said.
Curry now plays around 10 hours a week, while Lewis said he invests as many as 40 hours a week in the game. Lewis has logged over 45 days of play time in the past year.
Why they play
AC/a,!A"Individuals who have low self-esteem issues in real life can temporarily overcome these issues in virtual worlds,AC/a,!? Yee states in his study.
Lewis said he feels like he has the freedom to be a different person in the virtual world.
AC/a,!A"It lets me do things I wouldnAC/a,!a,,C/t do in real life. IAC/a,!a,,C/m way more confident online,AC/a,!? Lewis said.
Yee said his studies found four main categories of motivation for players: achievement, competition, fantasy and sociability.
AC/a,!A"The more you reward for something, they more they will do it,AC/a,!? Yee said.
Twenty-seven percent of users reported that their most satisfying experience of the past week took place inside an MMORPG, according to YeeAC/a,!a,,C/s study.
AC/a,!A"I get excited about getting a good item or making a good kill,AC/a,!? Curry said. AC/a,!A"I run to tell my roommate about it even though she has no idea what IAC/a,!a,,C/m talking about.AC/a,!?
Competition also drives many players to spend time within the game environment, Yee said.
An individual who is finding it difficult to cope with his problems can avoid them by immersing himself in a make-believe world, according to YeeAC/a,!a,,C/s study.
Finally, Yee said players are motivated by a desire to form relationships. These relationships are commonly built on trust and tend to form when risk is involved, much like in real life.
Living in another world
Tyler Kollock, business marketing sophomore, said a characterAC/a,!a,,C/s life can depend on the help of others online.
Kollock came to the rescue of a fellow player, who was being mauled by wolves. Later, that same player rescued Kollock from certain peril in a nearby cave.
AC/a,!A"I thought, this is why I play this game,AC/a,!? he said. AC/a,!A"It was the weirdest, coolest experience IAC/a,!a,,C/ve ever had.AC/a,!?
Drew Schiller, University College freshman, said he sees players who blur the lines between virtual and real friendships.
AC/a,!A"Some people forget how to have actual relationships, and thatAC/a,!a,,C/s not good,AC/a,!? Schiller said. AC/a,!A"You canAC/a,!a,,C/t apply WoW to real life.AC/a,!?
YeeAC/a,!a,,C/s study states that 39 percent of males and 53 percent of females indicated they felt their online friends were comparable to or better than their real friends.
AC/a,!A"You canAC/a,!a,,C/t just skip out for two weeks,AC/a,!? Curry said. AC/a,!A"Imagine if you didnAC/a,!a,,C/t hang out with your friends for two weeks.AC/a,!?
WoW in the real world
Students with online gaming interests sometimes have trouble synchronizing their online identities with their lives as students.
AC/a,!A"By playing computer games too much, I had a lack of sleep, and my lack of sleep led to me sleeping through classes,AC/a,!? said Jared Ransom, film and video studies sophomore.
Kollok said heAC/a,!a,,C/s careful not to allow the games to impact his grades.
AC/a,!A"No matter how much I enjoy playing games, my mother would still kill me,AC/a,!? he said.
WoW fills a place in LewisAC/a,!a,,C/ life that he used to fill with fraternity activities and socializing.
AC/a,!A"I would find something equally useless to do instead of playing the game,AC/a,!? Lewis said.
WoW can also significantly impact romantic relationships. Curry said online gaming has brought her relationship with Lewis to the brink five times in the past two years.
AC/a,!A"ItAC/a,!a,,C/s either me or the game getting attention,AC/a,!? Curry said. AC/a,!A"ItAC/a,!a,,C/s like IAC/a,!a,,C/m competing with the computer game.AC/a,!?
Some think MMORPGs negatively impact players more than just socially and academically.
Liz WooleyAC/a,!a,,C/s son, Shawn, was an EverQuest addict who committed suicide in 2000 when he was 21 with EverQuest on his screen.
She has since founded olganon.org, which is designed to help computer game addicts.
On-Line Gamers Anonymous is an organization similar to Alcoholics Anonymous that helps gamers overcome their addiction to video games.
AC/a,!A"IAC/a,!a,,C/ve been following these games since they started,AC/a,!? Wooley said. AC/a,!A"I watched them go from games to technical games. I began to notice that they were changing the person playing them.AC/a,!?
Wooley said the story of her sonAC/a,!a,,C/s death spread and started a flurry.
AC/a,!A"I was shocked to find out that there were thousands of people that this [game addiction] was happening to,AC/a,!? she said.
Virtual creeps into reality
For some who play World of Warcraft, the line between reality and virtual reality starts to blur.
AC/a,!A"They are places where people fall in love, get married, elect governors, attend poetry readings, start a pharmaceutical business and even commit genocide,AC/a,!? YeeAC/a,!a,,C/s site states.
Schiller said World of Warcraft players recently celebrated the Halloween holiday together.
AC/a,!A"You can trick or treat,AC/a,!? Schiller said. AC/a,!A"You might get a special wand, or you might get turned into a cat.AC/a,!?
A trip from across the World of Warcraft world can take literally 45 minutes, Curry said.
Lewis said a bug in the game recently caused a virus outbreak that spread throughout the virtual world. The virus was fatal to those characters who came into contact with it.
Psychologists are studying this incident as an example of how a population would react to a catastrophic virus in the real world, according to a story from NPRAC/a,!a,,C/s Talk of the Nation.
Players with high-level character sometimes sell them on Web sites like eBay.com, Kollock said. This practice is discouraged by the creators of the game
AC/a,!A"I know a guy who sold all his level 60 warrior with all Epic stuff AC/a,!aEU which is like beating the Internet AC/a,!aEU on eBay for $250,AC/a,!? Kollock said. AC/a,!A"He just looked at all his stuff and said, AC/a,!EoeI need out.AC/a,!a,,C/AC/a,!?
Lewis said there are places in eastern Asia where companies AC/a,!A"gold farm.AC/a,!?
They hire people to sit in the game and acquire virtual gold. The companies then sell this gold on eBay.com.
Curry said she pondered a long time over what to buy Lewis for his last birthday. She spent $100 for virtual gold on eBay.com and bought Lewis an extremely rare and completely virtual Lionheart Helm.
AC/a,!A"I wanted to give him something he would actually use,AC/a,!? Curry said.
Liz Woolley