Mmorpg

What is an MMORPG? It is an acronym for Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game. It is a multiplayer computer role-playing game that enables thousands of players to play in an evolving virtual world at the same time over the Internet. MMORPGs are a specific type of massive(ly) multiplayer online game (MMOG). (www.answers.com/topic/mmorpg)

To get a better picture of what it feels like to have your life influenced by one, imagine this following situation, which I experienced many times back when I was an MMORPG addict a few years ago: you are just stepping out of the shower one evening when you receive an urgent phone call from a friend in dire need. "Where are you, damn it? I need you!" He yells from the telephone, "I'm at the Orc Fort north of the City of the Dead in Delucia. Come quick - I'm surrounded!" He hangs up. No apology for yelling, no goodbye, only hope that you will dash to your computer as fast as you humanly can, 'plug yourself' into the game, and save his a$$; and do all this before the dreaded ghouls, orcs, and skeletal knights of the world of Britannia take all his hard-earned loot. Why do you care? You care because you know how it feels to invest hours of your real life into a virtual life and have it be in vain. The thought of it brings you pain of memories past, so you enter the world of Britannia, for his sake and yours, for you know he would do the same for you, and use your magic spell book to teleport to the Orc Fort. You can almost feel his hope flicker as he sees you materialize out of nowhere, his death mere seconds away as he fights off a horde of monsters with swift clicks of his mouse. You close your eyes, smile, and take out your lute, quickly applying your master bard skill of peacemaking to the chaos around you and ceasing all aggression long enough to open a portal in space and time, and getaway together. This is the life of an MMORPG player. This was my life.

Was I addicted? Yes, wholeheartedly. Why? I preferred my virtual life to my real one most of the time. Is it wrong to be addicted? Not necessarily. But when it begins to negatively impact your obligations and responsibilities in the real world, you could say it has become a problem

Many experts I've asked, many of them my friends, can attest to having suffered in one way or another from this addiction. Javier del Forn, for example, from the Dominican Republic, and who's been playing, like me, for over five years now, believes these games have caused great damage to his personal life because of his preference for living and socializing inside them with virtual strangers rather than with real friends.

Daniel Sosa, another expert from Santo Domingo, who's played an even greater variety of MMORPGs than the rest of us, agrees to this. He says that after an entire day playing, all he can think about is how guilty he feels, and how he can't wait to get back in.

What evidence suggests video games and online role playing games are addictive?

* 60% of MMORPG players surveyed have played the game for 10 hours continuously or more.

* 44% of MMORPG players surveyed would consider themselves to be addicted to the game they are playing.

* 13% of MMORPG players surveyed have tried to quit the game but failed.

* About 5% of MMORPG players surveyed strongly agree that playing the game:

- makes them feel guilty

- has caused them financial or relationship problems in real-life

- they become irritable and angry if they can't play the game.

- has caused their social life to suffer.

- arguments have arisen at home because of their game-play (http://www.nickyee.com/daedalus)

If they are addictive, why is that so?

One theory of addiction is that people become dependent on a substance/action because it ultimately empowers them as it destroys them. For example, individuals who feel they have