Sociology in MMORPGs Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Sociology in MMORPGs - Essay Example In this game players can create characters with different attributes, skills, and characteristics. They venture this world of theirs fighting creatures and gaining experience to achieve higher levels, obtain better abilities, and fight even harder monsters. True, it may sound easy, but people sit and play this game for many hours at a time. A large percentage of people who play EverQuest have admitted to playing for 10 hours straight, but you must remember that in MMORPG's people must put a large amount of time into it, otherwise people generally will get bored of the game. If people do not succeed and are always doing badly in the game you would think there would be no reason for them to play. People get addicted to these games very easily. There are plenty of great people to talk too, even though there are probably twice as many people you will not get along with. A lot of people lose sleep due to playing these games for and excessive amount of time. There are also people who have tried to quit these games, but have failed. Even though they just started to play one time, they had to continue after that. Do you think that these people just think they are addicted to the game though Some people say that they have gone through withdrawals trying to quit playing some of these games. One man even stretches to say "I get stressed when I have to go 24 hrs without logging on for a fix, and I wasn't able to quit when I tried. If that's not an addiction, I don't know what is." A game, an object, cannot be physically addicting. It is not a substance that alters a person's organs inside their bodies. Physical addictions are gone after detoxification, which is not the case in MMORPG's. These types of games are considered psychologically addicting. People sit down for hours playing these games, and they have so much fun they keep saying I just want to come back and play more. It can shortly begin to start running your life. A female and her boyfriend lived in an apartment in California living off of money they earned on e-bay, and all they did was sit and play EverQuest. The only reason they left the house was to go grocery shopping for food. After they lost their apartment everything started to crumble for her. The couple started to fight and they ended up braking up and moving back to their parent's houses. She tried to start socializing with people again after this, but she had hard times conforming back to society. When she was around more then one person at a time she got scared and anxious. Some people get addicted to Massive Multi Online Role Playing Games due to the self-esteem boost they get from being part of a group. They can actually achieve something that seems like a great thing, such as slaying a ferocious dragon, when all there doing is typing and clicking the mouse. A survey done on this very topic indicates that the more time spent playing the game the higher the persons self esteem was. Another part to this is a person with a low self-image. A person with a low self-image can go onto these games and, no matter what, have a character that looks amazing. They can act without fear of being ridiculed by complete strangers, and of consequences of their actions. Some people just have very stressful lives and need a way to escape reality. They sit and play games while the real life problems