Reseachers Call For Less Addictive MMOs

[tzimize]

...And while you are at it make sure people can only buy 1 beer and 1 pack of cigarettes each day. Because, holy damn, 2 beer will destroy your entire life style.

Seriously, if people can't handle alcohol MMO's they shouldn't drink play as much or at all.

Yeah. Goddamn humanity. Why is it so retarded.

 

[Slash2x]

In other news researchers have noticed a call for less wet water. In other new many of the crackpot researchers of the world get a voice thanks to the internet......

 

[Dr. Crawver]

But...those universities are rubbish. Why would the government listen too much to their research?

In all seriousness, while I agree with the idea, I do find trying to impose limits...a little absurd. I guess it depends on how they're done?

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

I've yet to see a free MMO to capture my attention for longer than 5 minutes.... without customization I refuse to play an MMO.

 

[shirkbot]

I'm not sure why this is even the responsibility of the companies making the games. Addiction is a private issue and is treated in private, why are they suggesting that the game designers make changes to resolve a situation they don't control? Put a warning label or whatever on them if you must, but for goodness sake don't imply that it's exclusively the developer's problem to solve. I'd actually be up for having a small tax levied on MMO developers to pay for addiction therapy where needed. Treatment is always an underrepresented interest in these discussions...

Pffft, these people are barking up the wrong tree.

Everyone knows that turn based and grand strategy games are the true roots of video game addiction!

This as well, though I'll give you that if it came down to a competition, PSO has eaten more of my life than any other game of any other genre.

 

[IamLEAM1983]

I always thought MMOs were overrated. Give me a nicely developed open-world with lots of lore or at least some tangible incentive to keep exploring (as opposed to the need to keep farming) and I'm set. That's why some of my favourite games include the Elder Scrolls, Fallout and Saints Row series.

Lately, though, my personal definition of digital crack is Kerbal Space Program.

Must... Finish... Space station!

 

[Kargathia]

As a rule of thumb I tend not to trust anyone who adds the word "Cyber" as a prefix to their job title.

That said, I think the only real problem is if the game designers are specifically setting out to make an "addictive" product. If they are putting their player integration rate above actually making the game fun. If that were the case then I'd agree that the games designers may need to be reigned in.

They're treating Skinner's research as pretty much their how-to manual, so yea, I'd say a case can be made MMO's are designed to be addictive.

 

[MrGalactus]

90 hours in a single session

Fucking WHAT?
HOW?

 

[spartan231490]

I have an extremely addictive personality, and MMOs bore me. I truly find it impossible to understand how someone can become addicted to an MMO.

 

[Clive Howlitzer]

Wait a second? MMOs are addictive? Since when? They are so awful they practically encourage you NOT to play them. I must have missed something somewhere. Isn't the god awful design a good enough deterrent?

 

[Jamieson 90]

While we're at it let's legislate against more damaging legal addictions like:

Smoking.
Drinking.
Prescription and none prescription medications.
Gambling.
Fast food.

But of course these pale in importance compared to those EVIL GAMES .... rolls eyes.

 

[Karadalis]

Really? Because MMO addiction i such a national problem as say... the death toll that alcohol abuse produces every year.. including innocent people that get killed by drunks behind the steering wheel every year? Or the millions upon millions of dollars that it cost to treat cancer and other conditions that can be clearly lead back to smoking?

But no... its the couple of handfulls of no lives that waste their time spending it on a game that we have to worry about. Because THAT has a real impact on society right?

 

[Risingblade]

can't really argue against the idea of having to grind less in mmo's

 

[VodkaKnight]

If you make the leveling easier, then they'll be less grind.
And grind is the only thing that keeps people PLAYING MMOs.
If you're at max level, there's nothing to do except PvP, raids, dungeons, and those get old after a while.
So you just wait until the patch/expansion pack adds more grind.

 

[Amir Kondori]

"The study warned that if MMO makers don't do something to address the issue, governments may be forced to legislate usage limits."

Baloney. This is never going to happen in a western country. If so they would regulate soap operas b/c a certain subset of the population does nothing but sit and watch those all day. Patently ridiculous.

 

[4RM3D]

Get a clue about addiction. Fast.

I know how addiction works. I also know alcohol addiction is different from game addiction. One is a substance the other is an activity. Regardless the same principal still applies. People know drugs, alcohol and cigarettes are addicting and still they (ab)use it. It's their on fault. With games it might not be as common knowledge how addicting it can be. So you could get trapped in a Skinner Box. But you should also have the strength to get out of the box.

On a side note, people also drink and drive and cause fatal traffic accidents. Those people should be banned from driving permanently after serving a +5 year sentence.

Yes, I have zero lenience for people whose destructive behavior causes harm to others.

 

[maximara]

"Because your games are so addictive, we have helpfully suggested ways to help the game devs make the game worse/less fun."

While this guy may be blowing some hot air, he does give a fair warning.

The study warned that if MMO makers don't do something to address the issue, governments may be forced to legislate usage limits.

Everyone knows how concerned the parenting/out-of-touch politicians are. This will undoubtedly come up in congress in the coming years.

It won't come in the US Congress because the Supreme Court has ALREADY ruled on it:

Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association, 564 U.S. 08-1448 (2011)

Video games enjoy ALL the protection of the First Amendment meaning that the only censorship option would be under obscenity law which Miller v. California, 413 U.S. 15 (1973) made very narrow.

"Psychological studies purporting to show a connection between exposure to violent video games and harmful effects on children do not prove that such exposure causes minors to act aggressively. Any demonstrated effects are both small and indistinguishable from effects produced by other media."

"Reading Dante is unquestionably more cultured and intellectually edifying than playing Mortal Kombat. But these cultural and intellectual differences are not constitutional ones. Crudely violent video games, tawdry TV shows, and cheap novels and magazines are no less forms of speech than The Divine Comedy ? Even if we can see in them ?nothing of any possible value to society ? they are as much entitled to the protection of free speech as the best of literature."

I should be mention that even California's District Court saw this and stomped the law into the ground before it could even be enacted.

Finally the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (D5 for short) does NOT recognize Video Game addition..so as far as the D5 is concerned it does NOT exist.

 

[Riobux]

Firstly:

Nottingham Trent University Professor Mark Griffiths said that while the proportion of gamers who develop problems will likely remain constant, "As online games get better and better and increasing numbers of people discover them, the number of addicts is most probably going to rise."

This guy knows what the hell he is talking about. Put simply, his life work is on about gambling and addiction. If anyone can find a non-bias psychologist who has studied gambling and addiction (which is very much relevant to this due to the same psychological processes) and is better than Mark Griffiths, go for it. Unlike what has been claimed here:

It's okay
This researched stemmed from Derby and Nottingham Trent 'Universities'
Basically two of the shittest Uni's in the UK
It basically means nothing

The BBC didn't just round up any old psychologists who is willing to say stuff at the podium, and therefore only poor shitty universities volunteered. They at least did their homework. While I can't speak for the other psychologists, I can vouch for Giffiths as having a clue based on his track-history of research.

Secondly: Asking for less addictive MMOs is like begging for alcohol and gambling to be less addictive. It just doesn't make any sense at all.

 

[Fdzzaigl]

I support this actually, many of the grindy and tiered reward setups actually make these games more addictive, because you're pressured to "keep up" with your peers by continuously upgrading your gear etc.

A more creative game would actually be less addictive in my opinion. Example in case for me would be GW2, a game that definitely did some very new things, but never got me as addicted as WoW did.

 

[BoogieManFL]

I'm all for less grind, but I'll be damned if someone else puts limits on what I can and can't do. I can manage myself fine and I'll not be punished because of a few weak willed people who can't. If people can smoke and drink themselves crazy free of constraint, then they can fuck right off about my internet and gaming time.

I've played WoW since release day. And I ONLY play because I have good guild mates who are fun to play and talk with. If enough of them were to quit, so would I.