General Discussion

It's a recognised truth that to get the most out of an MMO you have to invest a lot of time in the game.

As an example, say World of Warcraft, where you have to spend 3-4 hours a day, 4-5 days per week (for several months) in order to get the opportunity to "complete" the content by killing Illidan Stormrage.

This is a time investment that many would consider "unhealthy".

The question is; do MMO's have a social responsibility to discourage us from playing to such an unhealthy degree by aiming and pacing content towards the casual gamer, and if not.. should they?

first of all not all MMOs are time consuming.

GuildWars can be played on a casual basis
 for one, and many out there is the same, it will just take longer to achieve, but hey isnt that the point of a game, to play it...

now for the social responsability, they could not care less about your social life. we live in a capitalist world (or semi-capitalist in some parts) therefore business is business. As long as you give them money they will keep giving you a server to play on, and the better they supply the "service" the more you pay, the more you pay, the better they can serve you (up to a certain degree when greed takes over)

so no, for them social responsability are just 2 words found in the dictionnary which can be used to embellish their developer's moral booster letters (of course not in the same sentence).

--very good job Joe, you now have greater responsability in the development of your section. make sure you put some social interaction at the endgame.

Originally posted by TeflonEddie

It's a recognised truth that to get the most out of an MMO you have to invest a lot of time in the game.

As an example, say World of Warcraft, where you have to spend 3-4 hours a day, 4-5 days per week (for several months) in order to get the opportunity to "complete" the content by killing Illidan Stormrage.

This is a time investment that many would consider "unhealthy".

The question is; do MMO's have a social responsibility to discourage us from playing to such an unhealthy degree by aiming and pacing content towards the casual gamer, and if not.. should they?

As for the time to get to end game, come on, there is no end-game, killing Stormrage is only 1 achievement.  There is no need to get to every aspect of end game (max level, max crafting, max reputation, killing all bosses, opening entire map, getting every recipe, every gear, every ..).  A game is a game, not a list of job objectives.  Play to enjoy not to achieve some sacred targets.  That is my way of playing now, play when I want, and stop when I feel like.

Every person makes a choice to sit down and play a game.

Don't deny personal responsibility in making that choice. Don't look for another person to make that choice for you.

It is your choice.

Originally posted by ianubisi

Every person makes a choice to sit down and play a game.

Don't deny personal responsibility in making that choice. Don't look for another person to make that choice for you.

It is your choice.

We need a "big brother" to do that for us. Just like the Chinese do for their people. Why be personally responsible when someone else can do it for me? I should just be able to gorge myself on whatever I want, if its bad, someone will tell me.

I am sheep, lead me to the slaughter.

uh huh

The only social responsibility I hold for mmos is for me not to physically hunt down the guy who ninja'd my loot.

The only social responsibility an mmo has to me is to have the server up when I want to play.

Originally posted by Zorvan

The only social responsibility I hold for mmos is for me not to physically hunt down the guy who ninja'd my loot.

The only social responsibility an mmo has to me is to have the server up when I want to play.

Actually I would like to get my hands on the smart arse who thought that "kill task" were a great idea for content & quest and choke the sh*t outta him. And then b*tch slap all the knothead players who actually like that crap and think its a "good" thing.

(ooo....I'm in a highly anti-social mood today, aren't I?...someone forgot to take their blood pressure med's today)

The question is; do MMO's have a social responsibility to discourage us from playing to such an unhealthy degree by aiming and pacing content towards the casual gamer, and if not.. should they?

No.  If you have so little self control that you can't regulate your time spent playing a game, your problems won't be fixed by Blizzard acting as your nanny.  I would, instead, recommend, as Seinfeld once told George:

"You know you really need some help. A regular psychiatrist couldn't even help you. You need to go to like Vienna or something. You know what I mean? You need to get involved at the University level. Like where Freud studied and have all those people looking at you and checking up on you. That's the kind of help you need. Not the once a week for eighty bucks. No. You need a team. A team of psychiatrists working round the clock thinking about you, having conferences, observing you, like the way they did with the Elephant Man. That's what I'm talking about because that's the only way you're going to get better."