The Beginnings of an MMO Era

Growing up in what I view as the whole explosion of the video game and social media era, I have been surrounded by screens and consoles since I was very young. From the Nintendo 64 to the Gameboy Color to the PlayStation 2 and continuing through the "next generation" consoles that I have now (Xbox 1 and Nintendo Switch), everything is advancing quickly. I was always so fascinated by video games and I haven't grown out of them even slightly. However, around the mid to late 2000s, my brother and his friends started playing an online computer game. He called it a multiplayer role-playing game of sorts and it was all about creating a virtual character or avatar and using abilities and exploration and doing quests. As the curious gamer I am, I decided to take a look at this game, "World of Warcraft". From the get-go you were immersed in the whole experience.

As you read this, I want you to get a sense of the impact this game had on me personally before I tell you what I have learned about the actual research. Starting the game, you must first create a character on either the "Alliance" or the "Horde" which are represented as essentially blue vs red or light vs dark. There are 4-5 "races" among both sides of the game, each entirely different from the last one. As an Alliance you can be a Human, Gnome, Night Elf (tall, dark-skinned elf creature), or Dwarf. As the Horde you can be an Undead (Skeleton reanimated basically), Orc, Troll, or Tauren (bull-looking creature). You can customize their hair, facial hair, skin tone, horns, eye color and it really enables you to make something you really like. In addition to that, you can randomly generate a name for your character and this is something I loved because of that whole Sci-Fi/Lord of the Rings crazy names which just sound so cool. Who wouldn't want to have a name like Aragorn or Legolas that's just badass man! Now many of you are thinking, "but what is the point, why even bother?" Well, if you take enjoyment and reward from playing games, you might want to hop on to a MMORPG like World of Warcraft right now.

There are many people who say that people who play MMORPGs are just wasting their life and wasting time but for me, wasting time is when you do something that you don't find enjoyable. All video games essentially have no point to them, but the experience and the enjoyment you take by either playing by yourself or with others, that is the point of these games. But don't just take my word for it. There was an article from AlteredGamer.com that talked about a study at Syracuse University that found that people who played MMORPG games "reported a much greater enjoyment and sense of reward from the game. They also reported having a higher interest of going back to the game to play some more at a later time." In my personal experience, I find this to be 100% true as well! Compared to many console games that solely have a story and even repetitive multiplayer aspects, World of Warcraft and other MMORPGs have a continuous story with loads of expansions and extra activities that give the game a ton of replay ability. If you are really interested in learning more and hearing more about my intense love of these types of games look out for another post coming next week and check out a trial of WoW while you are at it. Thanks!