Escapism: The Need for an Alternate Reality

[Akasha]

Following the White Rabbit

I usually feel a bit old reminiscing about my hobby. I started playing RPGs on my PC a long time ago. As far as I can remember, my first game was "The Bard's Tale" and dated back to 1986. Since then I have been considered a computer freak in the eyes of my friends and family, playing days and nights, regardless of my high school and university agendas. I think the only two factors that kept me attached to the so-called "reality" were my military service and three blond girlfriends who managed to pull me out of my madness for few months at a time.

You can imagine my joy and utter disbelief when I first learned about MMORPGs. I remember a quote from Kevin Costner's "Field of Dreams", in which his father asks, "Is this heaven?" Well, although it sometimes felt like hell, Ultima-Online and EverQuest managed to elevate my addiction to new heights. The best part in my MMORPG era was that I could finally feel relatively sane (regardless of my wife's stubborn objection). Having a job and a wife, I can hardly be considered a hardcore gamer in regard to my actual gaming time. Watching the RPG frenzy nowadays, with numerous games on the market and many more in the works, I can honestly claim that I am not the worst of my kind.

In my column I will try to analyze, with your help, the core of that unique 20th/21st century addiction that we all share. Since all I can truly offer is my personal view, I genuinely call for your participation. Every week I will point out a few aspects that may contribute to this phenomenon and will try to connect it to the "World of Warcraft", which already became an addiction of its own for me even at its early stage of pre-beta. Then I will turn the ball over to your trustworthy hands; I urge you to storm the WoW forums and share your thoughts and experiences with us. I truly can't wait to read your stories.

This week I will try to discuss my basic need for escapism and its impact on my online behavior. So to start this first round of therapy session …
My name is Tal and I am an MMORPG addict.

At the very core of my addiction, I think that I can spot a strong personal need to escape reality for certain periods of time. The funny thing is that on the surface I don't really have much to escape from. I am blessed with a healthy, loving family and fairly strong economic background. Nevertheless, reality just doesn't cut it for me 100% of the time. I feel like there must be something more to it than just that. Looking deeper into my inner self, I think the answer becomes clearer: my day to day morality simply doesn't offer as much aggressiveness, greed, power and excitement as I would like. Online gaming usually does!

Where else could I find an endless supply of beings ready for the slaughter, whose sole purpose is to satisfy my darkest and most aggressive personal needs? I can honestly say that these mindless killing sprees tend to cleanse my mind after a long day's work. At that stage I am particularly fond of killing the boss, if you catch my point …

But aggressiveness is hardly the only quality I am yearning to unleash. Greed plays another important role for me. I just have to obtain one more item and will probably do quite a lot to get it. With good games, you hardly ever feel you have everything you want; there is always something else that you must get!

Excitement is another story. While aggressiveness and greed are controllable aspects of my real life personality, the ability to take risks is a quality I lack. It is said that this issue is decided by our genes. Apparently, it is completely missing from my construct. I am a true coward in regard to dangers. I will never bungee jump nor will I ever take an uncalculated risk. Therefore, you can understand my foolish and heroic online bravery. I am the type to storm in first and ask for direction later. The typical nut case.

I wouldn't blame you for thinking that I must be your friendly neighborhood grief player. Hey, put together aggressiveness, greed, and uncontrolled behavior and you could end up describing the worst kind of online players. Total escapism might lead to pure anti-social behavior. Surprisingly enough, we each carry a certain amount of morality to these games. I care for my online friends and wouldn't like to offend even a complete stranger. I don't believe in total escapism when dealing with online games. For that you have to keep playing single player games. Unfortunately, this morality is hardly accepted by everyone. Grief players do exist.

WoW is going to be huge for my compulsory escapism. It acknowledges the need for constant combat with a ton of strategies and monsters to overcome. It will also address the spawn problem and the long rest periods of the old games so that our downtime will be almost insignificant. Furthermore, to achieve total havoc, we will be able to escape into private instanced zones where we will be able to truly rumble and still not ruin the fun for other players. The most important thing is the fact that WoW is going to be the Holy Grail of content. If we truly want to escape reality, we need an endless stream of things to do and WoW promises just that. With an emphasis on content, there will not be a dull moment for any of us. I can already hear myself telling my wife, "Honey, I have just one more thing I need to do before logging out."

Escapism is one of the core reasons for my MMORPG addiction. I tend to compensate several behavioral deficiencies, but total escapism is unwelcome. Online games offer me much more than a simple vacation from reality and a way to compensate for certain aspects of my personality that I can't show in real life. These other aspects far exceed the need for total sociopathic behavior. Fortunately, this is the case for the most of the online community. Also, there is a really good chance, in my opinion, that WoW is going to be the best alternate reality for us in the foreseeable future. So gear up, friends, and prepare for the ride of your life.

As mentioned, this is really only a teaser; the truly exciting stuff will be your stories on the board. Please share your views and experiences in regard to your escapism in MMORPGs. Since this is my first column on the subject, I am truly interested in reading how you guys became addicted to MMORPGs, at what stage of your life, how it affects everything else around you, and how you manage to cope with it.

Next week's subject will include our need for an alternate self and global online recognition.

Best regards,
Tal Beno (aka Beasty)


Article found at : WoW Vault