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From the article here,
[comparing high school football to online games]
As big as the stereotypical jock vs. nerd divide is in high schools, there are a great deal of similarities between football and MMOs. They are both social activities that take place in a cordoned-off portion of the real world. In these virtual worlds, different rules come into play. Players take on fantasy roles that only have functional meaning in the fantasy world...
On the other hand, there is a tremendous difference in how people interpret tragedies that occur in these two worlds. High school and college students on football teams regularly die during practice...
...When people die during or after playing an MMO however, it is typically “caused by an online gaming addiction”...Even in cases where the person suffered from depression and other mood disorders, an “addiction” to the game itself is primarily blamed for the deaths.
[analogies to addictive substances]
to the extent that [online games] are social places, asking whether someone can be addicted to an MMO is like asking whether someone can be addicted to the United States. To see how analogies with cocaine and alcohol fail with social places, we can paraphrase a survey item for diagnosing Internet Addiction Disorder: “Would you become irritated and frustrated if you were unable to live in the US?"
Another assumption in the “addiction” rhetoric is that the real world is wholesome and fulfilling while the virtual world is impoverished and limited....
While it would be nice to think that the real world is perfect for everyone, this is simply not the case. There are many people who, for a variety of reasons and circumstances beyond their control, have very limited options in life. Some of these people may find leadership and affiliation opportunities in virtual worlds that they don’t have in the real world...Specifically, the question we need to ask ourselves is this. Until the world is a perfect place for everyone, is it actually pathological for some people to prefer being in a place where they have social status and respect?
Some of the reasons beyond people's control may be difficulties (or unwillingness) to socialize in extroverted ways; online gaming is, among other things, an introvert's paradise. It also doesn't have those pesky things like eye contact and tone of voice to get confused over, and interactions can be largely stereotyped-- while, for instance, some people with Asperger's and related syndromes sometimes feel that they're living in a world full of aliens (see Alien Planet for some articles on that), the online gaming world can lead to the discovery that some of those aliens are people, too, for both sides.
[some interesting perspectives from the conclusion]
To ask whether teenagers are getting “addicted” to online games is a way of not asking why our schools are failing to engage our children. To ask why some people get “addicted” to their fantasy personas is a way of not asking how we expect people to derive life satisfaction from working at Wal-Mart. MMOs are seductive because they empower some people in ways that the real world does not. The people who we let fall through the holes of our social fabric are caught by an alternate reality where they feel a sense of satisfaction and purpose.
And picking up where the author draws his conclusion-- I think, as I've said before, that people need a home. "Home is where, when you go there, they have to take you in." It's one of the devastating parts of various forms of dementia, that the brain chemistry changes and even if you're in the same place, home doesn't feel like your home emotionally; that's one reason why a lot of dementia sufferers are very tense and upset.
AOL used to survey its employees every year. One of the questions on the survey asked employees to rate on a scale how afraid they were that they would make a mistake and get fired for it. Every year, the number went up. I don't think AOL is alone (although I do think they're getting what they deserve, because they're shutting their call center here and their company's worth is dropping like a rock)-- people don't feel "at home" at work.
Because of the price of housing and continuing education, a lot of people stay with their parents or in ever-changing school housing during their young adult years. But despite the ability to personalize their rooms to some extent, there's no real stability; their parents and everyone else expect them to move out at some point, even pressuring them to do so, but expect that they'll be able to provide themselves with all the same material benefits immediately-- not always the case. So people don't always feel at home where they live, either.
Is it any wonder that some people know the NPCs of Neriak or Ashenvale better than they know the neighbors who only wave (if that) as they go out the door? That they know more about their guildmates than their co-workers?
The greatest relief I've ever felt in my life was the moment I converted to Christianity, the moment that I felt I'd been asked to "come home." But seeing from that point of illumination, there are a lot of things that give me the comforting, homey feeling-- and gaming is one of those, maybe one of the biggest.
I wonder where most people's homes are?
[comparing high school football to online games]
As big as the stereotypical jock vs. nerd divide is in high schools, there are a great deal of similarities between football and MMOs. They are both social activities that take place in a cordoned-off portion of the real world. In these virtual worlds, different rules come into play. Players take on fantasy roles that only have functional meaning in the fantasy world...
On the other hand, there is a tremendous difference in how people interpret tragedies that occur in these two worlds. High school and college students on football teams regularly die during practice...
...When people die during or after playing an MMO however, it is typically “caused by an online gaming addiction”...Even in cases where the person suffered from depression and other mood disorders, an “addiction” to the game itself is primarily blamed for the deaths.
[analogies to addictive substances]
to the extent that [online games] are social places, asking whether someone can be addicted to an MMO is like asking whether someone can be addicted to the United States. To see how analogies with cocaine and alcohol fail with social places, we can paraphrase a survey item for diagnosing Internet Addiction Disorder: “Would you become irritated and frustrated if you were unable to live in the US?"
Another assumption in the “addiction” rhetoric is that the real world is wholesome and fulfilling while the virtual world is impoverished and limited....
While it would be nice to think that the real world is perfect for everyone, this is simply not the case. There are many people who, for a variety of reasons and circumstances beyond their control, have very limited options in life. Some of these people may find leadership and affiliation opportunities in virtual worlds that they don’t have in the real world...Specifically, the question we need to ask ourselves is this. Until the world is a perfect place for everyone, is it actually pathological for some people to prefer being in a place where they have social status and respect?
Some of the reasons beyond people's control may be difficulties (or unwillingness) to socialize in extroverted ways; online gaming is, among other things, an introvert's paradise. It also doesn't have those pesky things like eye contact and tone of voice to get confused over, and interactions can be largely stereotyped-- while, for instance, some people with Asperger's and related syndromes sometimes feel that they're living in a world full of aliens (see Alien Planet for some articles on that), the online gaming world can lead to the discovery that some of those aliens are people, too, for both sides.
[some interesting perspectives from the conclusion]
To ask whether teenagers are getting “addicted” to online games is a way of not asking why our schools are failing to engage our children. To ask why some people get “addicted” to their fantasy personas is a way of not asking how we expect people to derive life satisfaction from working at Wal-Mart. MMOs are seductive because they empower some people in ways that the real world does not. The people who we let fall through the holes of our social fabric are caught by an alternate reality where they feel a sense of satisfaction and purpose.
And picking up where the author draws his conclusion-- I think, as I've said before, that people need a home. "Home is where, when you go there, they have to take you in." It's one of the devastating parts of various forms of dementia, that the brain chemistry changes and even if you're in the same place, home doesn't feel like your home emotionally; that's one reason why a lot of dementia sufferers are very tense and upset.
AOL used to survey its employees every year. One of the questions on the survey asked employees to rate on a scale how afraid they were that they would make a mistake and get fired for it. Every year, the number went up. I don't think AOL is alone (although I do think they're getting what they deserve, because they're shutting their call center here and their company's worth is dropping like a rock)-- people don't feel "at home" at work.
Because of the price of housing and continuing education, a lot of people stay with their parents or in ever-changing school housing during their young adult years. But despite the ability to personalize their rooms to some extent, there's no real stability; their parents and everyone else expect them to move out at some point, even pressuring them to do so, but expect that they'll be able to provide themselves with all the same material benefits immediately-- not always the case. So people don't always feel at home where they live, either.
Is it any wonder that some people know the NPCs of Neriak or Ashenvale better than they know the neighbors who only wave (if that) as they go out the door? That they know more about their guildmates than their co-workers?
The greatest relief I've ever felt in my life was the moment I converted to Christianity, the moment that I felt I'd been asked to "come home." But seeing from that point of illumination, there are a lot of things that give me the comforting, homey feeling-- and gaming is one of those, maybe one of the biggest.
I wonder where most people's homes are?
