Topic : 06/03 Virtual Chaos

Sigh... I loved that game. I was a Lawful Good Ranger, like Strider in Lord of the Rings. We tried not to play with people that liked the Chaotic Evil characters, we always found being evil boring. It was nothing but kill, kill, kill, yawn. We played a game with some guys that seemed to be into the Satanic stuff. They were very weird. They had upside down crosses and black candles burning and some other silly stuff. I'm glad you had a laugh. I remember us all thinking it was hysterically stupid at the time

     MMORPG's are games based on the community although some games may relay less on the community, but Everquest Online Adventures does not have Mercenary NPC's that a player could pay to group with. The closest thing is if your character has a pet like Necromancer, Magician, Wizard, Enchanter, or a certain leveled Druird or a level 51 Bard with 75 cms for Entrancing Song.

    Every aspect of an MMORPG requires leveling beyond chatting like in a chat room; in fact, a MMORPG is essentially a video game with a very elaborate chatroom. This creates competition like any other online game like Socom, Halo, Madden, Racing games, or other.

    Without the community, the game would not be fun at all; in fact, I forget the name of it. It'd be as pointless as that shooter game where you just run around shooting things that couldn't shoot back. I think that was called "Shooter". Pretty pointless game if you ask me. I prefer games with challenges, situations that require thought or some sense of reflex, and strategy. Those are games more my forte.

    Such as I play Diplomacy. Diplomacy is a board game that requires all 7 players write down their orders for each unit and turn in to a GM or take turns reading off their orders, and the moves are all simutanisly adjusted. Such as, I couldn't end the move in Berlin if another unit or player's unit moved there. Because of this rule, Diplomacy is playable by mail, e-mail, or face to face.

    MMORPG's would be less destructive if the designers opted for difficulty over mindless time sinks or drop sinks.

    I do agree with you that the players are real people. True, a player could be someone else entirely, but as a veteran MMORPG player. Those people are often exposed fairly rapidly because they can't keep their lie straight, and people role playing their character is uncommon. Thrall did rather with the RPG aspected although I agree; this place is the inappropiate place to role play their character.

I watch your show everyday Dr. Phil.  When I saw today's topic I knew right away that the game this guy was playing was World of Warcraft.  I played WOW (World of Warcraft) for a year back in 2005.  I started playing with a few friends that I actually met online in another game (Basically online card games with a chat room).  All five of us decided to give the game a try and after a few months I watched as all 4 of my friends who I had known online for over two years prior changed into really nasty versions of theirselves.  Now mind you we are all adults, in our 30's.  I was the only female and no I do not have children or a husband so yes I had free time to play this game when I wanted to etc.  However a few of my friends who were also playing did have families and wives and they were being completely neglected.  Little by little these friends of mine would rarely log out of the game.  When they did it was begrungingly.  I began to seriously worry about some of them and voiced my concerns which fell on deaf ears unfortunately.

I didn't nag at my friends because I didn't want to lose them because they were really good people.  However the way the game is set up it changed them all one by one.  The game dynamics make it so that you need to get those better items in order to do the higher level playing areas.  The game is also designed that these so called Raid bosses take hours to complete.  You can't just log on to the game and play for a small amount of time.  Well, that is if you want to get anywhere.  As the months went on I noticed that my so called friends all became quite greedy.  They would fight over game gear during raids, and if someone needed help with something they wouldn't offer unless they got something out of it that they needed.  These once very friendly people were now just like the rest of the Worldcraft community tends to be.  Greedy and basically looking out for only their own interests. 

People say that the games shouldn't be blamed, and in some respects that's true.  But in others it is not.  These games are designed to make you play for hours on end if you want to get anywhere in them.  They know that people become addicted to the game itself, and that's obvious by the random game messages that appear as you are logging into the game.  One I read said, everything in moderation, including Wolrd of Warcraft, be sure to get outside and do other things in life!  Now really, if a game has to put statements like that on it's login screen I think there's a problem there. 

As for today's guest, the husband who isn't working and spends hours playing WOW.  All I can say is, wake up.  The people you call friends in this game are not your friends.  If you stopped playing tomorrow, I guarantee the majority would only ask  you if they could have your game gold and gear, other then that you will be replaced by the next guy ready to fill that shaman spot in the raid group.  Sorry but that's the reality of online gaming.  You may think you have good friends in game but if you were gone the next day they wouldn't miss you like your wife and children would, snap out of it and get off the computer before your wife leaves you.

I watch your show everyday Dr. Phil.  When I saw today's topic I knew right away that the game this guy was playing was World of Warcraft.  I played WOW (World of Warcraft) for a year back in 2005.  I started playing with a few friends that I actually met online in another game (Basically online card games with a chat room).  All five of us decided to give the game a try and after a few months I watched as all 4 of my friends who I had known online for over two years prior changed into really nasty versions of theirselves.  Now mind you we are all adults, in our 30's.  I was the only female and no I do not have children or a husband so yes I had free time to play this game when I wanted to etc.  However a few of my friends who were also playing did have families and wives and they were being completely neglected.  Little by little these friends of mine would rarely log out of the game.  When they did it was begrungingly.  I began to seriously worry about some of them and voiced my concerns which fell on deaf ears unfortunately.

I didn't nag at my friends because I didn't want to lose them because they were really good people.  However the way the game is set up it changed them all one by one.  The game dynamics make it so that you need to get those better items in order to do the higher level playing areas.  The game is also designed that these so called Raid bosses take hours to complete.  You can't just log on to the game and play for a small amount of time.  Well, that is if you want to get anywhere.  As the months went on I noticed that my so called friends all became quite greedy.  They would fight over game gear during raids, and if someone needed help with something they wouldn't offer unless they got something out of it that they needed.  These once very friendly people were now just like the rest of the Worldcraft community tends to be.  Greedy and basically looking out for only their own interests. 

People say that the games shouldn't be blamed, and in some respects that's true.  But in others it is not.  These games are designed to make you play for hours on end if you want to get anywhere in them.  They know that people become addicted to the game itself, and that's obvious by the random game messages that appear as you are logging into the game.  One I read said, everything in moderation, including Wolrd of Warcraft, be sure to get outside and do other things in life!  Now really, if a game has to put statements like that on it's login screen I think there's a problem there. 

As for today's guest, the husband who isn't working and spends hours playing WOW.  All I can say is, wake up.  The people you call friends in this game are not your friends.  If you stopped playing tomorrow, I guarantee the majority would only ask  you if they could have your game gold and gear, other then that you will be replaced by the next guy ready to fill that shaman spot in the raid group.  Sorry but that's the reality of online gaming.  You may think you have good friends in game but if you were gone the next day they wouldn't miss you like your wife and children would, snap out of it and get off the computer before your wife leaves you.

That last expert was on the money. It's not the games that are the main cause of the problem, they are a symptom. People have stress, pressure or emptiness in their life and obsessively playing these games temporarily brings comfort. It's wrong to spend that much time on games, but it's also wrong to ignore the reasons behind the obsession.

And the idea of putting a watch on your child to see how long he/she plays games? He/She plays games for as long as you let them. ;)

I have some advice for you.  If your son is not working, odds are that he's not paying for his account.  Stop paying for his account.  Hire a computer tech for an hour and have him or her block world of warcraft on your router or internet modem if you have to.

Be the parent.  You cannot be passive in this and expect him to work his own way out of it.  Be agressive.

If you absolutely have no other alternative, pull the network cable out of the back of his computer.

Be the parent here.  It's harsh, but you have just as much of a responsibility for his well-being as he does.