This is a little phenomenon that I have pondered for a long time. One of my good friends is practically glued to his computer with this game 24/7. He has in fact, skipped work to play. I could never quite understand why it was more appealing than any other game.I recently talked to another friend that also has a stange infatuation with this game. This is what he said: "It's like a chat room, but insted of just sitting around and talking to people, you are doing things at the same time."I think it's a mix of that, and an escape from reality.
Everyone has some way to escape, whether it be interactive video games, books, movies, working out, sleeping, etc. For me, it's books. I also am a Harry Potter fan, and recently finished the Twilight series, also very good.
So I have two questions for you. How do you escape, and do you agree that WOW is a means of escape?
4 comments:
Being a gamer myself I have a mild bias towards gaming as an escape. Also, having been a player of the WoW(World Of Warcraft) I have a bit of experience with that particular world.
MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games, like WoW) have been around for over a decade, so this is nothing new. Though no game is as wildly as popular.
As far as games as an escape an article from a local Spokane Gaming Group might suffice.
http://www.clanhood.com/phpbb3/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=212&p=2397&hilit=anger#p2397
this will get you to the forum and this link is to the actual article.
http://www.itnews.com.au/News/73410,computer-games-make-players-less-violent.aspx
I totally agree with you! Everyone needs something to just escape their problems in the real world. So it helps to have something where you can just lose yourself completely. My escape is also video games. Halo and guitar hero are the ones for me. The only problem with games is that they are so addicting. Dont let them consume your life.
I do play video games occasionally, but I wouldn't consider it an escape. I find it just another form of entertainment (like movies or TV), something to pass the time and fight off boredom. For someone to be so obsessed with a game that it consumes their life (like your friend skipping work to play), seems like they are taking their enjoyment of playing video games too far. I'm not against video games, I just think that there is so much more out there to do besides sitting in front of a screen.
I also have friends who are intensely involved in WOW and sometimes they get into these gaming frenzies and I don’t see or hear from them for weeks. On many occasions I had to remind them to join the real world again and interact with other people. In fact, the Warcraft episode of Southpark was particularly funny to me because I imagined my three guy friends doing exactly that. Losing sight of everything around you and get sucked into an exciting, challenging and I guess rewarding gaming world. But, I do have to agree with jay- I don’t believe gaming to be an escape, because honestly what do any of us have to escape…. We are living in America not Iraq. American teens and young people have access to many kinds of technology that countless adults would love to have in other parts of the world. Yes, we all have problems and we all experience times we need to “get away”, but gaming like television (movies) is a form of entertainment.
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