With the announcement of the new expansion pack “Cataclysm”, World of Warcraft – and its fans – are getting more press attention than ever. But it seems to me that the game is now what Dungeons and Dragons was twenty years ago a leisure activity that, in certain contemporary circles, reduces you from the status of an intelligent, interesting fellow human to a complete social pariah. I'm talking a total lame-ass. A geekwad of epic proportions. You probably have no friends, never leave your darkened computer den to behold the outdoors, and fantasise nightly about elves and gnomes because you've never seen a woman before. It must be true, because you play World Of Warcraft!
In the gaming world there is a divergence between those who play games on the PC, and those who play them on consoles. Console gaming is certainly the more acceptable of the two, due to its association with casual gaming, and socialising, as most console games have a multiplayer option and several controllers. PC gamers are treated by some even inside the gaming world as people who take the whole thing too seriously, put solitary gaming before social interaction, and World of Warcraft is the most notorious culprit of all.
But this is becoming less and less true. A recent advert showed a young man at university playing Mario Kart with his father, at home presumably miles away, on the fun Nintendo Wii. This is hardly different from the way on-line PC gamers use in-game chat and voice chat programs to socialise with the people they are playing with. Even in the LA Times there was a recent article about the close bonds formed by playing on-line with people for a few hours a day, and the BBC News website has in the past published articles advocating the positive effect moderate gaming has on the player's social life. After all, that's what the strongest friendships are based around – shared interests. World of Warcraft is a particularly social game – a large portion of the content relies on co-operation with other players and working as a team, whether in a dungeon fighting a boss, or in a battleground fighting a team of players from the opposing faction.
However, I would be providing an unbalanced argument if I didn't illuminate that sometimes, gaming can become addictive. And yes, people have died from dehydration and exhaustion from playing on-line games for several days at a time non-stop (World Of Warcraft is actually not the worst offender here, but it certainly received the most news coverage). But the addiction is not part of the game; it is part of the player. Most of the people who play do so casually and without taking the game too seriously – the recluse who spends 17 hours a day killing gnomes only exists in the tiniest minority. World Of Warcraft players aren't some different species, born to play, confused and apathetic if asked to do anything else or maybe leave the house. They're just people, who enjoy playing a game. If somebody made a bad decision such as playing chess for two days straight and died because of it, would there be stories all over the news the next day about how harmful and addictive chess is and how it is destroying our society by turning them all into obsessive chess-heads? Of course not. But almost twenty five thousand people have died while playing chess in the last hundred years. And yet the newspapers can't wait to play a new favourite pastime of their own - “Pin The Blame On The Computer Game”.
Despite the calibre of games out at the moment, and the amazing developments in technology in the last few decades gaming is still not a hobby worthy of writing on a CV, which is small-minded and unfair. There is a lot to be said for gaming as a leisure activity in itself. While watching television the brain is in a hypnotic state, and there is only marginally more going on by way of brain activity than there is while you sleep. But gaming not only keeps the brain active and interested, it has also been shown to speed up reaction times and improve hand-eye co-ordination. Gaming in all its forms does not get the credibility it deserves. It is seen by the older generation as a waste of time, but it is really no different from the games they played or still play with their friends in their spare time. It is only the medium that has changed – computer gaming is a both a form of entertainment and a means of bonding with friends, just like any other type of game.
Except Solitaire.
1 comment:
well! just stroll back into the place as if you just popped out to make tea.
Good to see you again!
Richard Curtis is apparently writing a doctor Who episode for 2010.
Four Tardis's and a TimeLord I spose.
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