General Discussion

I'm talking about the cases of people neglecting their work, school, families, children, spouses, etc., in a way that is pretty much identical to what happens when someone is either addicted to, or otherwise problematically uses, drugs or alcohol. It's a new phenomenon, which is why it isn't regulated (outside of China) yet ... but it will eventually be once the social issues relating to it become more widely known.

I think you drastically overestimate the number of people who play MMO's 40+ hours a week because they just happen to be very visible and verbal on the internet...

You're comparing apples to oranges...

Alcoholism is considered a problem because it directly causes death, between deaths by intoxication and alcohol related traffic accidents.  Alcohol isn't being regulated because it makes someone a bad father or husband.  The last time they tried to do that, we had the wonderful prohibition...HUGE success.

Now, you find a direct link between people dying regularly and playing too much WoW...you may be on to something.

Originally posted by Vincenz

You're comparing apples to oranges...

Alcoholism is considered a problem because it directly causes death, between deaths by intoxication and alcohol related traffic accidents.  Alcohol isn't being regulated because it makes someone a bad father or husband.  The last time they tried to do that, we had the wonderful prohibition...HUGE success.

Now, you find a direct link between people dying regularly and playing too much WoW...you may be on to something.

 

I think you're construing the social policy behind alcohol related laws too narrowly. Yes, the DUI laws concern traffic fatalities. The other laws are not directly related only to staving off death from overdrinking, they are there to address the other social ills that come from it.

In any case, I don't expect that my perspective will gain much currency on a site perused by many people who overplay MMOs by definition. I am lucky in that my short attention span has generally prohibited me from getting overly engaged in any game and playing it in a problematic way, but in my years of playing MMOs I have met many, many people who played extremely problematically to the detriment of their health, their marriages, and so forth, and I'm convinced that a certain portion of the population simply becomes addicted to these things for more or less the same reason a different part of the population becomes addicted to booze or drugs or sex or gambling or what have you. Whether we socially decide to do something about that will depend on how much attention the issue gets over the coming years as the industry continues to grow into a more mainstream thing.

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?

I do think that a lot of the gaming companies will eventually put out some PSAs about overindulging just like the alcohol industry.  However, ultimately it is the responsibility of the individual to regulate themselves.  Keep in mind that when a person get drunk and does something stupid, the law goes after the individual not the alcohol manufacturer.

If we were to make MMORPG companies responsible for people's behavior, we would have to change a lot of other industries as well.  Multimedia companies (television, radio, and book publishers) would also have to be held responsible for their customers overindulgence.  Sports organizations (pee wee leagues, high schools, colleges, and others) would have to be held responsible for encouraging their players from devoting so much time.

I really feel that this is a can a worms that no one wants to open.

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?

Very interesting. Thank you OP for coming up with an orignal idea for a post!

No matter what the MMO's devs do, there will be people who play way too much. Who play at what many would consider a "unhealthy" level.

All that they (devs) CAN do is create a game where you don't "have" to play that much. But at the same time, you know you are going to have people who want to play that much, so you have to give them stuff to do as well.

Blizzard has been pretty good about understanding this, but far from perfect. PvP is very casual, few hours here and there you can make considerable gains. The leveling process is the perfection of this "casual" play mentality. The change in Burning Crusade to make all the dungeons "winged" so they don't take very long to complete a single wing is also a very, very good step in the right direction.

But the raiding game is still as hardcore as ever. You simply cannot raid casually and ever expect to see content like Illidan Stormrage. In fact, I think WoW raiding is TOO hardcore because such a small, small, tiny small percentage of the player base will ever get there. Even if you raid 3-4 hours a day, 4-5 days a week, most guilds will still not reach the final tier of raiding.

So you spend all this time and money and effort creating content like like Naxxaramas, Black Citadel (or whatever Illidan's raid is) when only one guild per 2-3 SERVERS will ever see that content. (and I'm going off what I've seen and assumption)

I'd rather they release more 5-person instances, more small 10 person raids, more battleground and other PvP content, then any new raids. Why keep creating content for a few thousand uber-raiders out of 10 million players?

So, to answer your question, I don't think it's a social responsibility of the devs to create casual games so that people won't play for unhealthy amounts of time, because people will play for unhealthy amounts of time no matter what you do.... but they do need to STOP creating content JUST for those uber-hardcore players.

There are iron fist prohibitions (like making MMOs illegal, or limiting hours), and velvet glove prohibitions (like taxes, social ostricism, denial of benefits, denial of opportunities).

You don't need a law to make MMO gaming socially unacceptable.  All you need are enough institutions with economic or social clout enough reason to believe MMO gaming is harmful to productivity or profit or morals, and you start to make MMO gaming unacceptable in society.

Outlawing MMO gaming is relatively easy.  All one has to do is convince the health insurance companies that MMO gamers are more at risk for health problems.  All one has to do is convince major religions that it leads to moral depravity.  All one has to do is convince professional and trade organizations that MMO players are more likely to be less productive.  All one has to do is convince colleges and universities that it leads to poor study habits.  All one has to do is convince the banks and the credit card companies that MMO gamers are more likely to default on credit cards.

Notice that in any of these circumstances, the government isn't involved.  Yet this whole cyberlibertarian "freedom of choice" mantra I hear won't help MMO gamers when they are forced to pay higer premiums on their health insurance, or denied a job, or denied sacrements, or denied admittance into a college or university, or denied a mortgage.  Because the same freedom that you claim protects your MMO playing also protects these entities when they ask, "are you playing or have you ever played an MMO?"  It also protects them when they deny you in favor of those who don't play MMOs.

And when all of this stuff happens (and it will), do you really think the government and the courts are going to care about protecting your "right to play an MMO?"  Yeah, they'll protect it, but they won't protect you against institutions who discriminate against you.  After all, when the data suggests that MMO playing is not healthy (like gambling and cigarettes), who is going to blame society for keeping you away?

It's called LEISURE TIME. I have yet to hear of anyone being kidnapped and forced to play mmo's for 4 hrs a day. You just can't sit there and look all happy for the entire 4 hrs. If you do your parents or spouse is going to figure out you're having fun and put the smack down on. GOT IT!!!! go watch tv for 3hrs play for 1 hr and you won't feel so guilty.