Computer Game Addiction

1. Computer Game Addiction

3. Introduction to Online Games 3 Primary Online Games: World of Warcraft Final Fantasy XI Online EverQuest These are called MMORPGs � Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games MMORPGs never end, there isn�t a final goal state which you can achieve. You ultimately strive to be the best of the best within the game.

4. Player Demographics Many people believe that online games are played by teenagers alone, yet a survey on MMORPGs has shown the average player to be about 26 years old (Nick Yee, �Player Demographics�) It has also been common to stereotype gamers as loners or socially anorexic, yet the same study showed that 80% of gamers would play with someone they knew in real life (Nick Yee, �Player Demographics�)

5. Personal Bias I currently play Final Fantasy XI Online, and also own World of Warcraft. My opinion of online games is that they are a great way to spend free time, and playing with people I know is more enjoyable than playing alone.

6. How can a game be addictive? Addictive Game: A game which hooks players into playing. Addiction to a game varies from person to person. Usually involves repetitive game-play, and an increase in time spent playing Playing for extended periods of time doesn�t express an addiction problem, much like gambling, yet abusing the privilege is a cause for concern

7. An Overview of the facilitators of Game Addiction Services which act as a convenience to players Online Subscriptions Websites which provide help and strategies to players Guilds or Online Communities

8. Services of Convenience Description: in-game features which reduce a player�s need to leave their chairs A good example is the �/pizza� command in EverQuest Each game has some sort of chat privileges, and also allows for players to send other players in-game messages or mail �Farming� allows players to receive money by selling in-game items/currency. Usually is bad for the economies within a game, because these people develop monopolies on items which players may need. If making a profit off of a game you play is your desire, then you should look to playing �Project Entropia� - allows players to put in and take out real-life currency. Ex. One person bought a virtual space station for $26,500.00 (BBC News, 2005).

9. Online Subscriptions World of Warcraft costs $14.99/month1 While Final Fantasy XI and EverQuest cost $12.95/month each1 These prices are on top of the $50.00 of base software cost (Taken from price at the time of software release) On average a player can spend anywhere from 15 � 21 hours a week playing an online game1 Because you are paying for time to play, a player may feel an obligation to get their money�s worth.

10. Strategy Websites Definition: A website which gives detailed help to players of a specific game in order for them to gain knowledge about where to find in-game items, defeat certain monsters, or complete missions or tasks within the game Ex. www.thottbot.com, www.allakhazam.com Allows players to get past in-game barriers, instead of giving up and trying again at a later time. Makes repetitive play easy, and encourages players to continue playing.

11. Online Communities and Guilds Great way to create friendships within the game However, problems within guilds and online communities can create tension and drama which can create real-life problems because players become too involved with the game and their communities Also, players may form more of a preference to their online friends

12. Why addiction is a problem All of the previously mentioned facilitators can lead a player to become addicted because they develop a preference to the game compared to reality. Shawn Woolley � A 21 year old man from Hudson, WI who committed suicide from stress caused by a personal friend within the game EverQuest.2 A Korean couple left their 4 month old child alone to suffocate and die, because they were playing World of Warcraft at a local internet caf� for too long. �We were thinking of just playing for an hour or two like usual, but the game took longer that day�3

13. A disclaimer from Final Fantasy XI(Displayed every time before logging into the game)

14. Possible methods of Prevention World of Warcraft allows players (entitled Parental Controls) to limit the time in which the game can be played Removing in-game features which aren�t needed in order to play the game, but are just a convenience to have (I.e. /pizza) Monitoring or removing guilds and online communities since they aren�t necessarily needed to play the game, to prevent online problems which could hurt a person�s physical being.

15. Ethical Analysis Discuss the Morality of the services which provide a convenience to players Discuss the Morality of the proposed methods of prevention Discuss my Final Thoughts

16. Kantian Analysis of Convenience features �Is it moral to provide in-game features because they are convenient?� Kant�s Second Categorical Imperative: �Act only so that you always treat yourself and other people as ends in themselves, and never only as a means to an end� (Quinn, p.70) Players use features like online website guides and the Pizza command for their own personal benefit. Providing these services indirectly increases profits for the game company. With online guides, players can easily continue their adventures in a never-ending game. Both players and providers are using these services as a means of personal gain, and can be rationalized to being immoral in Kantianism.

17. Act Utilitarian analysis Benefits: They are convenient and easy to use. Online strategy guides reduce frustration with games by showing players how to get past areas they get stuck in. Harms: There is a potential for players to feel the need not to leave their games, resulting in forgetting to eat or sleep. Having the pizza command doesn�t remedy this, because a player may not be able to afford it. Since the harms of online convenience services is undeterminable, we cannot find the morality in this viewpoint.

18. Rule Utilitarian analysis In order to find the greatest increase of happiness, we state that it is moral to use these features for personal convenience when playing online games. In a Rule Utilitarian analysis, we are to believe that everyone is to follow this rule. Because of this, it can be assumed that everyone will take advantage of using these features, including the online strategy guides. This means that everyone will know where to get rare in-game items, and therefore everyone will try to get one. However, it�s impossible for everyone to get one specifically rare item, due to the rate at which they drop. Thus, these features of convenience only help a few people, and because they can�t help everyone it isn�t moral to use them in Rule Utilitarianism.

19. Social Contract Theory analysis �Morality consists in the set of rules, governing how people are to treat one another, on the basis that rational people will agree to accept these rules for their mutual benefit.� (Quinn, p.83) This argument follows similarly to the Rule Utilitarian analysis. These features are meant as a convenience for everyone, and not everyone is able to quickly and conveniently make use of these services. In general rational people wouldn�t agree to using these convenient services if they understood that their purpose of helping everyone, is unattainable. Therefore from a Social Contract Theory viewpoint these online features are immoral.

20. The Morality of my proposed methods of prevention We�ll mainly look at the method of prevention which involves having programmers change the original code so players can complete in-game tasks, like obtaining items and defeating opponents, more quickly.

21. Kantian view on my prevention methods Through use of the Second Categorical imperative again, we can see that this method of prevention uses the game programmers as a means to prevent or end game addiction. Therefore this method of prevention is immoral in Kantianism

22. Act Utilitarian view on my prevention methods Benefits: can lead to decreased addiction to games, because players spend less time playing the game to receive the in-game items they want Harms: Could result in people looking to programmers the fix the problems with society because they occur within their games. In short, programmers could get blamed for acts of online violence (this goes beyond the scope of my paper however) Even with the consequences of these actions, blame lies solely on the gamers themselves in the end, and because this method of prevention can decrease addiction I deem it moral within Act Utilitarianism.

23. Rule Utilitarian view on my prevention methods Here we observe the overall happiness of a set of moral rules. It�s important to realize that there are more players compared to programmers, this makes more sense when observing the overall happiness of an action. Because the actions of the few (programmers) are far more beneficial than the inactions, we can rationalize that removing in-game features from games is moral in an attempt to decrease game addiction within a Rule Utilitarian analysis.

24. A Social Contract Theory stance on my proposed methods For this analysis it is important to look at how people are to treat one another. By using the same method of prevention, we can argue that by doing this a programmer is helping players become less addicted to their games. In return for this, it might be expected that a player stay fair to the company by continuing their patronage, and also not committing acts that may be deemed unethical by the community such as �farming.� With this it can be rationalized that this method of prevention is moral because players and programmers are treating each other fairly. Rational people would also agree that changing the game to decrease addiction is a good idea.

25. Brandon�s Final Thoughts Online Game addiction is a relatively new concept, it also extends to console gaming as well. Without the latest advances in technology, the ideas of MMORPGs would be non-existant. It is then due to computers that talks of ethicality behind problems with these games is necessary. In my personal opinion I agree that online game addiction is a problem, but like alcoholism it is only �� harmful if abused�4. This requires players to take act responsibly in-game, and take care not to become addicted.

26. Citations #1.) Project Massive: A study of Online Gaming Communities By: A. Fleming Seay, William J. Jerome, Kevin Sang Lee, Robert E. Kraut Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 2004 http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/985921.986080 #2.) Online Computer Gaming: A comparison of adolescent and adult gamers Journal of Adolescence [0140-1971] Griffiths, 2004 vol: 27, issue: 1 pg: 87 #3.) World of Warcraft Community Site: www.worldofwarcraft.com #4.) Anonymity is not Enough � Escapist Magazine By: Mark Wallace, 2006 http://www.escapistmagazine.com/issue/34/10 #5.) Ethics for the Information Age By: Michael Quinn, 2006, p. 122 #6.) Death of a Game Addict Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, March 30th, 2002. Accessed on March 27th, 2006 from the Academic Search Premier database. #7.) Couples online gaming causes infant's death Gamespot Online Article, posted on June 20th, 2005 www.gamespot.com/news/2005/06/20/news_6127866.html

27. Citations cont. #8.) Sony builds pizza-order function into 'Everquest II' Peter Svensson, USA Today, 2/24/2005 www.usatoday.com/tech/products/services/2005-02-24-sony-pizza_x.html #9.) Project Entropia - Online game involving real currency www.project-entropia.com #10.) Final Fantasy XI - Official online site (also used Disclaimer Note in game) www.playonline.com/ff11us/welcome/ #11.) Allakhazam - About the Site By Jeffrey Moyer, a.k.a. Allakhazam www.allakhazam.com/Staff_Bios.html #12.) Thottbot - World of Warcraft Search www.thottbot.com (Cosmos add-on found at www.thottbot.com/?p=download) #13.) Gamer buys virtual Space Station BBC News Online Article, October 25th, 2005 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4374610.stm #14.) The Daedulus Project By: Nick Yee, 1999-2004 http://www.nickyee.com/daedalus/gateway_demographics.html

28. Questions? Please feel free to read through my paper, and give feedback! It can be found through the links http://www.d.umn.edu/~cprince/courses/cs3111spring06/Projects/