MMORPG Addiction
The psychology behind MMORPG games and MMORPG addictions have always fascinated me.
I recently came across Nick Yee’s research on the subject of MMORPG addictions:
http://www.nickyee.com/daedalus/gateway_addiction.html
Nick Yee is a researcher and Stanford PhD specializing in MMORPGs and online virtual worlds.
He goes on to note that MMORPG addiction will vary based on personality types.
It’s interesting that he notes that players with low self-esteem and feel they have no value in the real world feel a sense of power and appreciation in MMORPG worlds. This is definitely a motivating factor based on my own studies, but there are also very many other factors including guilds, items and equipment, and so on.
Further, he specifies other personality types that wouldn’t be prone to MMORPG addiction. His primary example is FPS gamers. FPS gamers feel MMORPGs are “too repetitive and slow to be fun.” MMORPG games definitely do take more time before you feel a sense of “accomplishment,” but once you reach a certain point, it may be difficult to turn back!