I am a reality-avoidant deviant

 

The Warlock pointed out the MMO Anonymous site to me the other night and many people have been discussing the moving confessions of a former hardcore raider. The Warlock friend of mine has in fact returned to Australia from Korea and is suffering from a lack of functioning WoW due to having to operate with a laptop and 500 mbs only of RAM. The horror. She too has voiced aloud the ever present wow-gamer question “am I an addict”.

Heh – you know you dig around on the web with keywords like warcraft, therapy & confessions and you get some really interesting sites.  Plenty of interesting ‘dealing with addiction’ and `psychology of the MMO’ websites.

Actually there really are heaps of dealing-with-the-addiction links; truly I wonder is wow addictive or is it just played by addicts :) I mean take a look at me. I am a reality-avoidant deviant.

No really.

Frankly before ‘the WoW factor’ entered my life, I enjoyed various entertaining forms of reality escapism: reading, PC gaming, internet surfing, entertainment media, roleplay games (oh yeah – warhammer and D&D, paranoia, stupor heroes and white wolf gaming, you name it), I was already into MOOs and MUDs.   I probably indulge my inner child a little too much and yes I have Pokémon games and anime DVDs on my bookshelf amongst the mess of Sci-Fi and Fantasy books, some books are even a heathen mix of the two genres. (Aye Pike I too have read the whole Redwall series and believe that hares are the coolest species (though badgers were high on the list.) Bre & Fimlys – I too don’t care that everything David Eddings writes is a repeat the same story with amusing added details. That’s a part of the pattern of the fantasy tale he is telling *mad cackle* – it’s awesome, accept its awesomeness.)

I actually deal pretty darn well with real life. Have a decent personality (heh if I do say so myself), decent health, couple of handfuls of friends, least one handful of rather close friends, decent full-time job, doing a second degree, insane family (but I hear all families are insane from the inside lol), pets, personal projects and so on – got all that and can’t complain (cept when I do.)

 

Now when it comes to WoW:

• I have played for 3 or so years.
• I currently log in hmmm probably once a day or every second day on average (if we don’t count my occasional week-month long disappearances from the wow scene.)
• I have a level 70 and dozens of alts
• What to most people is TV time … is my WoW time (my sister once had hysterics when she stayed with me at this one residence that had net but no TV reception… lol she is an average TV junkie and couldn’t understand why you would live somewhere where you couldn’t get it – me, well I just watch movies, videos and downloaded TV series really.)

 

Okay so according to some sites that’s probably enough to classify me as hardcore or addicted despite the fact I feel like a casual gamer.

So why do I find WoW so attractive? Why indeed?

• Well probably because it’s darn entertaining. Real life is great, but I am just another Joe-Blow (*Australian for average person*) & I dunno about you but I find RL can hit a bit of a farming grind some months outside of social events and annual holiday leave. The snake in the back garden can cause small excitement in everyday routine … but so can dealing with a dragon out in SMV. Heh and I can log into see the dragon – kinda like a ‘small excitement on my terms & time’ thing (similar to downloaded TV) I am such a spoiled brat.
• WoW has been genuinely a game that doesn’t end. With all the patches and Blizzards habit of tweaking classes in ways that practically make them new classes it’s not a game I am getting bored of. (Probably helps that I can’t really just plug in cheat codes to give me a super racing car that shoots bullets and clear zones on easymode.) If Blizzard had made a crappy game I would have moved onto some other game.
• I just like MMOs. Being social and having a love of web based activities.

 

Back to the ‘addictive’ or ‘addict’ issue.

I believe that you have to be an ‘addict personality’ to get addicted. Particularly in the case of something that is mostly psychologically rewarding like wow. I have watched a few people in my life fall haphazardly from one addiction to another; they do something like start with something trivial like  cigarettes or gambling or drinking (which gives them something they need psychologically) and eventually get into something more serious like drugs (yes smoking pot counts o_O), which they may exchange for sex (okay its usually some unhealthy relationship where they have been nagged into dropping a vice to continue), something which may be dropped for serious booze or the like upon breakup – eventually they seek help and fall into another addictive pattern of behaviour either therapy prescribed or they find religion. If they lose the religion or stop the therapy then it will be back to one of the past addictions. That’s a nasty generalization on the behaviour of absolute addicts as I know them.

Being an extreme addict seems to be a symptom of other underlying issues. Being an addict seems to have a fair bit to do with how a person interacts with the world around them – it carries over into whatever the ‘cure’ is. Ever been near an AA meeting? To an outsider it can be scary. You can feel the Borg vibes reaching out to you *join us – be one with us – you should come to AA as well because you COULD be an alcoholic even though we know you don’t actually drink, there is a family precedent two uncles back*, O_O – okay that’s an uber extreme example … but it is the summary of a real conversation I had once with an AA member while doing some volunteer work. Now let’s be clear – I am not saying that addictions are not real or bonafide issues, just that it is less about the actual thing of addiction and more about the addict behaviour. Of course enabling addictions (like giving people free drugs to swill or allowing people to plug their credit cards into the pokies) is rather socially irresponsible … happily I am not the government so it’s not my job ta be responsible and avoid enabling people :p *Heh come my friends I have this free wow account card – bwahahahahah – join us – play with me!*

 

Okay so personally I find wow slightly addictive … but I know I have a borderline addict personality (I mean really – what other excuse can I have for having once made an entire spreadsheet of optimal pokémon breeding for stats and attacks for each pokémon species based on type and group role… that’s hardcore for a twelve year old fourteen year old… ah okay okay it was only a couple of years ago (bah)… maybe even insane.) If you took wow off me I would simply transfer my addict behaviour into another outlet, probably not a RL socially esteemed outlet like being a workaholic or making money either – I would probably, I dunno, build a formula one race car out of matchsticks or glue buttons to my work vehicle.

 

Anyway as a habitual addict I have the usual guidelines to follow when interacting with wow

• Don’t let it affect work
• Don’t let it impact negatively on family
• Don’t turn down real life socialisation for the habit/hobby
• Don’t let it affect your health
• Don’t let it control your emotional well being
• Don’t take it too seriously
• Always have a couple of other addictions around to tap into (balance your hobbies)

 

But really the fact that MMO’s have actually become so common that they have hit the list of addictions researchers write about is awe inspiring … I mean does anyone remember the old text-based muds? (they are still out there) … hmm flashback: cast magic mushroom-cast magic mushroom-cast magic mushroom. I skipped some final University exams to play those (along with a group of friends) and we & the people like us never made headlines like the students who skipped study for drugs and alcohol problems did … but now I feel like my habit/hobby/addiction/entertainment is pop-culture baby … it is boggling and bizarre.

 Anyways one good site for interest reading is the following: The DAEDALUS Project: the Psychology of MMORPGS

~ by Lactic Acid on July 11, 2008.