Lets have yet another look on the subject of whether playing MMOs can be detrimental to ones health.
First of all let me share the following story with you;
I will kill myself!
The young man was chatting with a Blizzard rep and made the statement that he was "suicidal and that the game was the only thing that he had to live for." Whether or not this was World of Warcraft or a Battle.net account was not disclosed, but even still, it has raised the question in a few circles if Blizzard was beyond the bounds in bringing the police into this situation - or why the police might arrest someone for it.
Personally, based on my previous experience in technical support for a large multinational Internet company, these types of threats are sadly more commonplace than the average person may realize. When someone's primary method of connecting socially with others is removed - via internet, basic telephony, or networked gaming - you will see a scattered handful who claim that their life is no longer worth living, and then threaten suicide if they aren't helped. Admittedly, the grand majority are falsehoods intended to sway the representative into feeling bad and perhaps caving into the user's unreasonable expectations of service. The problem is that if if the representative doesn't treat every single threat as credible, they open their employer up to liability. Between liability and frequency, most large companies have strict policies on the books to deal with just such situations.
Source
Having said that, lets proceed on to the next topic;
Would you hire a WoW Player?
Recently a new story broke out - a recruiter was instructed not to hire WoW players because they (amongst other things) have irregular sleep patterns and therefore lower work efficiency.
The original story (with disclaimer, so check it out)
 
I met with a recruiter recently (online media industry) and in conversation I happened to mention I'd spent way too much time in the early 2000s playing online games, which I described as "the ones before World of Warcraft" (I went nuts for EQ1, SWG and the start of WoW, but since 2006 I have only put a handful of days into MMOG playing - as opposed to discussing them - I've obsessed over bicycles and cycling instead).
He replied that employers specifically instruct him not to send them World of Warcraft players. He said there is a belief that WoW players cannot give 100% because their focus is elsewhere, their sleeping patterns are often not great, etc. I mentioned that some people have written about MMOG leadership experience as a career positive or a way to learn project management skills, and he shook his head. He has been specifically asked to avoid WoW players.
David Laux, global executive in charge of games and interactive entertainment for IBM says that casual games can improve memorization and the ability to discern detail, first person shooters can help with rapid decision making, and games like World of Warcraft can boost leadership skills. He says WoW specifically helps players learn how to work well on a team, assess risks, and put the group first to achieve a common goal.
Which is true -- if you're actually the one in charge of groups. I'm of the opinion that it's very possible to play a game like WoW and get a nice boost to your leadership skills (leading a guild is often a job in itself), but I think it's also very possible that you could play WoW and not get a thing out of it -- I know quite a few people I've grouped with that I'd never want to have sitting next to me in a real office.
Source 1
Source 2
So you see this is a problematic issue as is well summed up in the following quote:
We had two people who were basically 'let go' because of the 'results' of their gaming habits. Both just so happened to be WoW players. They got fired because they were either always late or calling in sick all the time. They did that because they either didn't get any sleep or they didn't want to come to work because they were in the middle of a raid. Although there is no 'official' link to their game playing habits (WoW players), everyone knew the real reason for the cause of their dismissal. These were government employees too, so not your stereotypical 'gamer who works in a fast food restaurant'.
The dilemma poised here is - were the people who were "let go" playing WoW or were they really ill and only prejudiced against based on their WoW playing habit?
Knowing my real life friends, it could actually go both ways, I know at least 5 real life persons who lost their jobs over WoW. One let his own firm go to waste so that he could play more (a really wise career move). The other one dropped out of college and is now stacking beer cans at the local "Billa" supermarket etc. etc. Furthermore, several Croatian firms had to invest into IP cameras to keep their employees from time and again managing to open firewall ports and play WoW from their work places. Many of my friends have reported that WoW is too tiresome in itself and that its really only playable from ones workplace.
This particular comment deserves more careful study. Grinding in WoW, which is omni present and omni potent (it would seem), is the only way to (eventually) get to the point when you can enjoy the game (win in PvP or be taken to hi end raids). People don't really want to wait and do a boring repetitive task (that is grinding) in order to get to that point. So why is grinding so omni.*?
This is exactly why the players will either;
a) buy gold (which plays to Blizzards plans)
b) cheat (covered in the previous article)
c) play from work (which damages their careers) - additionally, is WoW also work? its most playable from work, so its not enjoyable enough to be best played from home?
From a legal standpoint, WoW addiction is not something you are born with (a disability so to speak) - its a bad choice, so what should you do?
In an increasingly wired China, rehab for Internet addicts
....if you can't find a way to avoid mentioning that you play World of Warcraft (or any other time-consuming activity correlated with lateness, absence, or social misfithood) when interviewing for a job, then you're a ******* idiot.
You are to hide the fact that you are a WoW player.
So, are people able to control their WoW consuming habits?
FCC commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate blamed World of Warcraft as a leading cause of college dropouts:
You might find it alarming that one of the top reasons for college drop-outs in the U.S. is online gaming addiction - such as World of Warcraft - which is played by 11 million individuals worldwide.
The problem is not whether candidate is gamer or not. Question is whether he has a discipline and able to make an effort to accomplish something he doesn't like. Yes: games we choose ourselves, but often our jobs is something we just ended up being with to earn money for living. Most people simply can't make proper judgment on priorities. Few people can quickly switch between problem in game to problem in real life
I have personally witnessed people not being able to control their urge to play the game. Its what the game requires from you, in order to advance at an optimal pace, therefore the core problem lies in the game system itself. Sure, the system (heroin strategy) does yield $$ to Blizzard but it also makes people into WoW automatons.
What I am saying is that WoW was designed to be highly addictive (and because of this, bring in cash). This means that a lot of people will not be able to control their gaming urges.
I will quote another player;
Combined with my agoraphobia and anxiety problems, quite often I do nothing but stay at home on my computer playing WoW or the Sims. I know myself well enough to avoid the more damaging addictions, and majority of my friends play WoW as well, so I get my socialising done in-game.
Seems to me you will see the following image only in your dreams:
The aforementioned player (anxiety/agoraphobia) found WoW to be a short termed cure (so to speak, because in fact, ultimately WoW will only ruin him further). Instead of handling his issues (which is the only way to achieve a healthy social life) head on, "thanks" to WoW, he will ignore them.
Rewards are incredibly powerful motivators for player behavior. All you have to do is look at Achievements in WoW or other games to see how far people will go even when the rewards are little more a check on a checklist.
Players will optimize their behavior to get rewards most efficiently.
The optimum path to a reward isn’t necessarily the same as the “fun” path or the expected gameplay path. In fact, it can easily be a completely negative experience for the player, or for other players, or involve activities that break the expected gameplay.
The more the reward is tied to a “meta” game mechanic — especially one that is accumulated over time — instead of direct gameplay, the more likely you’ll see these kinds of negative experiences.
In a game that takes up so much time as it is, people want to get things faster.
Knowing that many of us have facebook profiles open for public inspection, nothing stops our future employers from checking whether we play any MMOs - and thus learn a lot about us and our failings.
The lesser of two evils...
Is there something about MMO playing that inherently precludes high-productivity and workplace dedication?
Who would be a better job candidate? a raiding WoW player, a guild master, raid leader, or a WoW noob who hasn't even fully leveled yet?
One might argue that WoW noob wont be a good employee because he failed to cooperate with other players in WoW, therefore he is likely to do the same IRL. On the other hand one might argue that an accomplished raid leader might have his focus elsewhere (raiding) and might neglect his work....
As far as the lack of regular sleep is concerned, a recent poll suggest this kind of situation:
Are you a night owl WoW player?
Yes 5640 (54.9%)
No 1039 (10.1%)
Sometimes 3598 (35.0%)
Deciding in favor of loss of sleep.
I will quote one of WoW players at this time:
I like playing morning and late nights because the "kids" IN WoW are not on then.. I'm 50 years old and /trade chat and the antics of the younger set don't quite mesh with my playing style - zones are nice and empty, tons of herbs just BEGGING to be herbed.
This means that people play during the night on purpose, because there's less competition on herbs and other resources at that time. Crazy isn't it?
-Playing WoW from work-
Dont bother saying that it aint so because people have already begun thinking about sneaking in WoW installation on an USB stick. Read more.
However with the introduction of this new technology an interesting prospect is raised: playing WoW off of an SD card.
Panasonic hope to have a 64GB card available soon, and rumors are saying sometime around March. Of course the cards will be a couple hundred dollars most likely, but nonetheless when this happens I will be easily able to transfer my entire WoW directory onto the card and play it from there.
Guess someone will be an employee of the week :)
For extra style you could also download BOSSKEY addon, heres the description:
Having trouble hiding your WOW addiction from your employer? Use this old school boss key with modern styling to save face at work.
Set the key binding to ` and switch to a UNIX logfile screen much faster than alt-tabbing. Open up the config panel with a /bk and change the alpha value to allow you to continue fishing while the boss looks on and wonders how you've managed to kick the WoW habit that's taken over the office. You can also have a variety of chat channels displayed so you can continue to fish or finish off a mob.
downloads today: 169
Say it aint so? :)
WoW competitors (namely Age of Conan) have reported a sudden loss of players.
Funcom has revealed that its ailing MMO Age of Conan will reduce its server count from 49 to 18. The cuts are most dramatic in the US, where 25 servers have been hacked to six. GI.biz speculates that AoC won't be shut down because it's Funcom's only source of income until it releases The Secret World, allegedly releasing in the next couple years.
Source
This happens simply because the system requirements of AoC are set pretty high (too high) and therefore AoC is not playable from work or on notebook PCs. People love playing MMOs from work, this kinda shows that MMOs roughly fall into the same category. MMOs are chores we have to endure before we get to have fun.
Microtransactions:
The difference is that [Blizzard and Valve] provide their incrementals for free, and we plan to do the same. But it's the different things that we would charge for. And quite frankly, in other MMOs out there, people do buy things and broker things between each other. They go to farmers for gold and things like that. There's a great demand for products and services to enhance gameplay. To me, this microtransaction model is a way to address what already appears to be a need.
Source
This of course may easily become a moot point and somewhat of a conflict of interest, with the recent rumors going around of Blizzard acquiring IGE (which had already acquired thottbot and allakhazam) - perhaps one of these days the majority of Bli$ards profits will be coming from RMT. To achieve their goal (goad players into buying WoW gold) Bli$ard will allow gold to hyper inflate, prices to rise etc. - you will NEED to buy gold in order to "keep up with the Joneses". Treadmill game design may become the principle strategy in making sure players will buy gold.
Also you may want to have a look at the following charts courtesy of gamerdna.
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