Entering the world of gaming was a mysterious adventure into what Spacexcape thought, at the time, was a new world. Forever the explorer, she found herself in land of breathtaking graphics and visual stimulation with constant challenges and achievements. It was not difficult to see why gaming is addictive and why users would rather spend hours in front of a computer than with friends, playing sports or even just watching TV. But the consequences of that are already becoming evident. Research is showing us that gaming is contributing to obesity, depression and violence. Yet it is one of the largest growing activities western society has produced.
Spacexcape’s experiences in World of Warcraft were very different to those in Second Life. In SL, she quickly found like minded people to collaborate with in both the real and the virtual world. In WoW she works in isolation wondering how or if that world could ever be what she needed it to be. 3D animation is a complex and time consuming practice, not to mention expensive and finding a way to progress with the project has been slow. But the gaming experience is very much a part of that progression.
Communications Pod in the Spacexcape Project (Second Life)
There are over 10 million people subscribed to WoW. Gamers appear to fall into two categories – casual that play occasionally for fun and hard core who are totally immersed in the ‘life’. Spacexcape has met both. The hard core are ‘experts’ in their profession and life has to work around the game, rather than the game fitting into their life. This is the excessive, compulsive and addictive nature of the game. But at what price? Is gaming changing the way that people behave?
I recently posted a link to a short video that I had made of my mage gnome reading Sartre’s 1945 speech on existentialism, on the WoW forum – part of a piece I am working on at the moment but was intended as a piece of fun. I emerged with only some small pieces of flesh hanging from my skeleton! Gamers are a hard audience to address. Gamers like to be in control. One poster – Santea (in a guild called ‘My little Pwny’ on the Twilight Hammer server) posted a long, long diatribe about the lack of merit in my work and that it was not worthy of discussion … and yet had spent probably 20 minutes doing exactly that! There were other similar posts. One poster wrote “If you want to be an artist give up your dreams because you are terrible.” and another “If it IS serious however, god I do pity upon you.”
I found these remarks to be very insightful and exposing the type of attitude that is prevalent in game. Ask any gamer and they will tell you that the open channels in virtual worlds are swamped with users who seek attention through insult. As a player myself, I have become accustomed to being belittled by the hard core gamers – or those who strive to be. World of Warcraft breeds anger – and it is projected into forums, chat rooms and the world through violence, abuse, and prejudices.
Gaming is a dangerous and yet delicious exercise.
The Spacexcape Project 
World of Warcraft breeds anger – and it is projected into forums, chat rooms and the world through violence, abuse, and prejudices.
Does World of Warcraft breed anger, or does it attract a type of person who has pent up issues but can’t handle them in the real world? So they use forums like World of Warcraft – the safety of the screen – to attack others?
I think the ideas of WoW addiction and game rage really need to be studied and discussed – we are only seeing the tip of the iceberg.
(this is Ollie by the way!) 🙂
Ollie! I think this is the very question that has been going through my mind for some time now. Anonymity is the key here. Is the virtual world a mask? and if it is, does that mask hide the real person or do they don the mask to become another person?
The World of Warcraft audience is predominently young, and male. The hard core are clearly obsessed by the game and any criticism of them in any form will be sure to attract an angry response. Few admit to being addicted to anything. I’ve tested that on several occasions! and sure enough, they swoop like vultures to rip the flesh from my bones.
But this is not restricted to gaming forums – in the past, I have experienced this many, many times before. So the question is, does gaming encourage its audience to be more aggressive, more confrontational, more prejudice and more angry, or as you say, does it just attract those people anyway.
A friend of mine was telling me about an online game he played where you could speak to other people through mics. He could tell he was playing against teenage boys – arrogant ones who kept telling him they were going to beat him. However, he is an experienced gamer and he beat this particular boy. The last thing he heard was the boy throwing his headset and smashing it against the wall before losing contact… says a lot really.
YouTube is also filled with videos of gamers having complete freak outs because of games.
My experience has been to witness that sort of behaviour in the blogging world, particularly 6/7 years ago when people were new to it and didn’t have experience of managing their personalities online. Now people are more savvy, but not so much the younger generation.
That’s a very familiar story and to be honest there have been times when I have thrown semi tantrums – mainly at other people for their behaviour though, not because of the game. It maddens me that the screen becomes this mask that some think is a ticket to every anti social behaviour possible. I’m a great believer in taking responsibility for my actions and whilst I can be the most controversial, provocative forum participant, I do so under no mask!
Actually, this leads me to my next blog which I was thinking about in the middle of the night while the cat was using my bedroom as an obstacle course …. (speaking of boredom)!