Kayleigh Katz
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Are video games too addictive? Should we be concerned? Maybe this is the wrong crowd to ask. :mrgreen:
World of Warcraft, which creates a vast interactive world for the gamer to explore, has grown into one of the most popular of all online games. More than 11million people worldwide are registered as players.
But the popularity of the game has led many experts to have concerns over the extent to which youngsters are developing unhealthy addictions.
Dr Richard Graham, a child psychiatrist at the Tavistock Centre, said: "Some of my clients will discuss playing games for 14 to 16 hours a day at times without breaks and for those the consequences are potentially very severe.
"The problem with World of Warcraft is the degree it can impact and create a socially withdrawn figure who may be connecting with people in the game and is largely dropping out of education, social opportunities."
Some of the childen referred to him even failed to attend appointments because they were playing the game, he told the BBC.
more at link...
Are video games too addictive? Should we be concerned? Maybe this is the wrong crowd to ask. :mrgreen:
:mrgreen: I loved that one.Some of the childen referred to him even failed to attend appointments because they were playing the game, he told the BBC.
There is no incentive for them to have someone playing 14 hours a day. In fact it probably costs them money in server maintenance. All they need is the monthly subscription.
Play-time is exactly like viewership for TV: the more interest they can show advertisers is more money in their pockets.
The monthly subscription is just gravy.
Why do you say this? Has WoW been advertising products since I quit playing?
I'm not seeing any evidence of playtime being a direct indicator of revenue. There is a correlation I'm sure, between playing the game a lot and spending more money but I don't see it demonstrated that Blizz is directly using this as a metric to drive revenue or that they have any motivation to push people to play for insane amounts of time.Play-time is exactly like viewership for TV: the more interest they can show advertisers is more money in their pockets.
The monthly subscription is just gravy.
Part of the attraction to WoW is the addictive cycle of pretty much every RPG ever made: Kill enemies so you can get items for your character and level him up, then go to a different area with more powerful enemies and repeat. The goal (become powerful) is rewarding, and the means to achieve that goal (killing enemies) is fun. Some of the best items can take months to get, and it's a big sense of accomplishment when you finally get to put it on after so much effort.I've never played WoW and have no idea what the big deal is.
Part of the attraction to WoW is the addictive cycle of pretty much every RPG ever made: Kill enemies so you can get items for your character and level him up, then go to a different area with more powerful enemies and repeat. The goal (become powerful) is rewarding, and the means to achieve that goal (killing enemies) is fun. Some of the best items can take months to get, and it's a big sense of accomplishment when you finally get to put it on after so much effort.
Then there's the social side of the game. Some areas you can't handle on your own, so you have to join with other people to take down the tougher enemies, and that's usually a lot of fun. You meet some cool people along the way, and you end up chatting and grouping with them regularly. You can join a "guild" where members help each other out and can become good friends.
Die-hards like I was will join a "raiding guild," who'se main focus is to gather into groups of up to 40 people, called raids, and take down the game's toughest enemies. All for the best loot in the game, and of course bragging rights. :2razz:
Besides those general things, some people might have other specific things they get out of the game. Maybe they're just a number at their real job, but in WoW they're an officer or raid leader in the guild, and therefore somebody important. Some people's primary goal is to make as much gold as they can in the auction house, buying low and selling high. Or maybe they just like to order around hot demon chicks and listen to them slap their own asses.
I stopped playing because they only way I could improve my character was to raid, and the raids made it feel more like a job than a game. Plus the cartoony graphics got old after a while. I prefer Vanguard now.
You want your Character’s name changed? $10.
You want your Character moved to another server? $10.
You want to play in the Arena? $30 (+subscription).
(OMG, go to e-bay and search "Spectral Tiger").
What is Vanguard like, and why on earth would that guy be playing WoW in 36 games at the same time?
Functionally, Vanguard is very similar to WoW. But the graphics are focused more on being realistic, instead of the goofy cartoonish theme in WoW, and that makes it a lot more immersive for me. Plus it expands on a lot of WoW's convenience features, and invents several of its own that make some inherent gameplay aspects less annoying or easier to work with. Players and guilds can build their own houses, and you can even build your own ship to sail around the oceans in. I was something of an EverQuest (EverCrack) addict back in the day, which was one of the games that spawned the whole MMORPG genre. In my opinion, Vanguard is everything EverQuest II should have been and more. Right now it just needs some wrinkles fixed and some more polish. An extremely buggy launch turned a lot of people off. They've done a great job patching it up since then, but it still has some quirks and problems that you have to be able to ignore to enjoy playing it.What is Vanguard like
1. Apparently he's trying to control an entire raid force himself.and why on earth would that guy be playing WoW in 36 games at the same time?
My problem isn't with video games, it's with reality.
Part of the attraction to WoW is the addictive cycle of pretty much every RPG ever made: Kill enemies so you can get items for your character and level him up, then go to a different area with more powerful enemies and repeat. The goal (become powerful) is rewarding, and the means to achieve that goal (killing enemies) is fun. Some of the best items can take months to get, and it's a big sense of accomplishment when you finally get to put it on after so much effort.
Then there's the social side of the game. Some areas you can't handle on your own, so you have to join with other people to take down the tougher enemies, and that's usually a lot of fun. You meet some cool people along the way, and you end up chatting and grouping with them regularly. You can join a "guild" where members help each other out and can become good friends.
Die-hards like I was will join a "raiding guild," who'se main focus is to gather into groups of up to 40 people, called raids, and take down the game's toughest enemies. All for the best loot in the game, and of course bragging rights. :2razz:
Besides those general things, some people might have other specific things they get out of the game. Maybe they're just a number at their real job, but in WoW they're an officer or raid leader in the guild, and therefore somebody important. Some people's primary goal is to make as much gold as they can in the auction house, buying low and selling high. Or maybe they just like to order around hot demon chicks and listen to them slap their own asses.
I stopped playing because they only way I could improve my character was to raid, and the raids made it feel more like a job than a game. Plus the cartoony graphics got old after a while. I prefer Vanguard now.
Are video games too addictive? Should we be concerned? Maybe this is the wrong crowd to ask. :mrgreen:
Last nite - 170 people gathered on RZ and 1400+ deaths later....yes 1400+ this event Blew the old Single spawn causing death record set by Legacy of Steel and Shock of Swords first killing of the Avatar of War by a HUGE margin(only 400odd deaths there), the Sleeper's Hp again took a nose dive with each % of its health taking about 2 minutes to do, from 100% down to 0 the Players of EQ were watching, Waiting for SoE to screw it up, and they didn't, the Sleeper Died..of course there was No Loot, but seriously who would care.
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