by Goran Levacic

Created on: January 19, 2009   Last Updated: July 31, 2010

MMORPG's are imaginative worlds in a box", an unique experience of achieving various goals in matter of minutes, hours, days and even years in a long run. They are built on basic idea to socializing with other players through various adventures in this world where almost everything we have seen in fairytales is possible. Many people are keen to get into their personal escapism and run from everyday routines; work that might not always be challenging and exciting, school that students find less interesting than spending fun times with friends, even those who have not much going on in their lives. MMORPG's offer an instant excitement and rewards for many completed tasks, in form virtual gold that can be used to purchase virtual items, in form of shinny items which enhance the ability of our virtual characters and make them more powerful, visually attractive and respected among gaming community. Achievements open the door to higher abilities in the game; our character with more experience gained in game gets into higher levels where the challenges are even more rewarding that on lower levels.

Personally, I have been into quite MMORPG's so far and sometimes felt how they slowly try to take over my life, my free time, my nights of sleep they even made me think about different strategies, enhancements, characters, places in a game.. Sometimes the first thing after working day was to switch on my computer and get fully into those fantasy worlds where I would be rewarded even for the smallest task completed, like finding three mushrooms around some bushes. In real life, rewards usually come after hard work, hours and hours of working or studying. They do not come often, sometimes on monthly or yearly basis, but definitely not as often as in MMORPG. Well, not for us, but for our character that represents our virtual alter ego.

Addiction to MMORPG's, the endless stories set in fantasy world is inevitable consequence for anyone who cannot find the real enjoyment in life and take most out of it. The easy route to achievements is just few mouse clicks away, and people tend to get more and more into those "fake realities", but that is simply some sort of self deception. Sometimes we develop fear, lack of self confidence as a part of our personality, and MMORPG's seem to be perfect tool to eradicate those attributes and create an imaginative feeling of power, self-assurance, respect and greatness. Maybe we could be a great warriors or rune priests respected by gaming community, but this would not really help us to be better people in real life. MMORPG should really be considered simply as games, entertainment and fun, and not replacement of our real-self. We, however, do really live in physical world. In virtual world, we could live and die thousands of times. But at the end of the day, we are just bunch of pixels that run around for fun and just for fun.

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