by Silviera

Created on: September 18, 2008

It is the nature of most mainstream MMOs to demand a large time commitment from their players. The average MMO requires you to spend inane amounts of time killing monsters to level up, fetch items and run them between towns, and run dungeons seeking more exp or rare items. Although all of these things have been present in single player games for decades, MMOs tend to make things progress extremely slowly and continually raise limits on your character so that you always have some goal to work towards. WoW is no different from the average MMO out there.

The reason? MMOs charge a monthly fee. If you were able to accomplish everything that the game offers in a single month, you'd put it down and go find something else to do. So MMO designers do everything they can to keep you busy for as long as possible. Some go about this in different ways, but the general idea is to reward people who invest the most amount of time and have the limit of power so high that you will never reach it without an incredible time investment.

In short, World of Warcraft is designed to be addictive. It makes you feel like you're accomplishing things as your level counts up and your equipment gets upgraded over and over again, but they're always dangling something new just in front of you that will keep you playing to the next level. The Player versus Player element keeps things very competitive. If you don't play long enough each day, someone else out who plays more than you will be able to easily kill your character.

Of course there are other factors as well, the large social setting and the ambiguity of the internet attract a certain type of audience. Some people simply enjoy the ability to communicate freely from behind a keyboard either playing as their true self or creating some persona they would never be able to act out in the real world. Some people naturally get caught up in those things even when the game itself doesn't hold them enthralled.

Truthfully, World of Warcraft isn't particularly more addictive than any other MMO out there. However, since it has become so popular it has effected more lives than all the rest put together. Thus it receives the brunt of the blame for a fairly dangerous genre of games that has the potential to destroy real lives and relationships in favor of online ones.

When it comes down to it though, any game is safe as long as you have the willpower to stop when you need to.

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