Decoy Doctorpus said:
GamerDude123 said:
Hey everyone. If you've ever even heard of World Of Warcraft or tried it you know how addicting it is, and with the new exspansion out I'm having some weird dreams. My parents don't let me play W.O.W because I became too addicted to it. I'm having a cruddy time doing almost everything related to gaming. Any thoughts?
I think, and as some people will be quick to point out this is just 'my opinion', that if you look objectively at the reasons you (and most people) enjoy WOW you'll get over it really quick. RPGS, particularly JRPGs and MMORPGs reward players without bettering them in any way. Now I'm not saying gaming suddenly has a point, it doesn't, you're still wasting time, but at least when I complete a platformer I can say I've become
better at platformers. RPGs don't reward you for improving yourself, they reward you for time spent. I can play a platformer for 10 hours straight and not make any progress, you can play an RPG for 10 hours straight, go up 10 levels and collect a shitload of fancy boots, but in the end who's getting the most out of their time?
The conclusion you should ultimately come to is that video games are a massive waste of time and you should channel all that energy and dedication into something useful or creative. Like reorganising your sock drawer.
I wear odd socks.
Actually, you decapitated the proverbial nail of it's head...almost. All games are a 'waste' of time, or rather, time spent on a recreative activity. However, this does not make them 'useless'.
Can anyone here honestly say that eating, sleeping, communting, working. Repeat and re-arrange as needed is all one needs to have a good life? People -need- something to fulfil the other aspect of their lives, that free time. Sure, if you get your kicks organising socks or stacking boxes, great, good for you. The same, you like playing games? You like playing a sport? You like collecting things? Awesome. No, none of those things serve a practical purpose in the sense that a job does. But, who exactly is it to deny you that? So what that you didn't spend that same time on reading, or making a bird house, or grinding that instance, or beating the other team, or organising one's socks. Different strokes m'kay?
I -like- MMO's, I like one MMO, I like WoW, I play regularly. I am not an addict, I can regulate my time. I do get bored with WoW sometimes. I regularly play, and finish other games. I am -not- unique in this regard.
Are there problems with WoW? Of course. Are there addicts and asses? Yup. Just like football has it's drunken yobs, avid book readers it's myopic misanthropes, just as sock organisers have their tyrannical overlords who insist on no odd socks.
A game is not a direct chemical addiction. It is not alcohol, it is not cocaine. Any such addictions are purely in my opinion psychological, and subject only to weak minded people, although, often due in part to the makeup of their own minds, and not strictly speaking entirely their fault. Much like gambling.
And that of course depends on whether you should think gambling should be banned too huh? So, alcohol too right? All other recreative drugs, porn? MMOs? Okay great, what next? Well, there's those guys who get too into which team they support and smash up the stadiums, so lets ban football too. What else? Well, we can't have fat people, so let's ban sweet and fatty foods for everyone and replace all food with nutrient pills, that will solve our obesity epidemic. And you know, I think something like that would, but, that doesn't make it right.
