COM125 Week 13: Where the Greatest Imagination Can Make You Rich

I have strong opinions regarding virtual online gaming and its effects. It may seem weird at first, but I have witnessed first hand how multi-player online games can ruin and lower someone's aspirations in life. My roommate came to college last year with very high goals of one day working in the medical technology field, something that was close to his heart. He always went to class and did his homework as well as studied for days before his exams. He was then introduced into an online game called World of Warcraft. His life went downhill. He became instantly addicted and skipped class on a regular basis to play all day and all night. Literally, he would stay up for sixty hours at a time and then sleep for twenty hours; this became a cycle until he got a reality check and saw his grades for the first semester. He was failing almost everything and he needed to get a GPA of 2.2 in his second semester to stay at the University at Buffalo. When the second semester rolled around, he promised himself he would not play the game as much and would go to class more. He knew how ridiculous he sounded when he said, "I cannot stop playing the game it is so addictive." He once again, continued playing the game for hours on end and would play through the night. When the sun was starting to rise, he would get tired and go to bed and would sleep through all of his classes for that day. Reality is setting in again because he has realized that he probably wont get that 2.2 and he will be forced to move back home. This is not because my roommate does not care about school or his future, but because the game has addictive nature and many people fall into this tornado of online gaming, never to come out alive.

Online virtual worlds and real-life should have steep boundaries. I believe that computer games should be played strictly for fun and amusement and people should not be suing other online gamers because of stolen virtual merchandise. I understand that anything can be made into a business however; lines should be drawn around where and where not the business can explore. This may be hard to accomplish because of the merging virtual and real-life adventures. Jim Giles (2007) writes, "Elsewhere in cyberspace, economies are springing up that, superficially at least, seem to mirror the real world." I love in the end of this essay when Giles explains how social scientists are going to use people to demonstrate economics through a virtual reality game. He says, "To run economic experiments of interest to Castronova, Arden will need to develop an economy that features aspects of the real world, such as inflation." I believe that this in an ingenious way of looking at many aspects of the economy, such as supply and demand curves. If people are going to be playing anyway, social scientists might as well get some useful information out of the gaming. The only problem which may seem controversial is that the virtual world would need to simulate the real-world and certain aspects of it in general.
Who knew that one could make real money in exchange for virtual merchandise? Steven Levy (2007) writes, "An eight-hour day collecting game loot can yield 100 gold pieces, worth about $30 on the black market." Thirty dollars a day may not seem like much but I have read about multiple people who have gotten very far in virtual multi-player games and have accumulated millions of dollars. 'Open' virtual economies in which people are purchasing virtual merchandise for real cash is one way that online gamers get ahead in a game. If the desire to get that merchandise is strong enough, one can actually pay someone in cash for that product, whatever it may be. 'Closed' virtual economies differ in that people can not get ahead in the game through money, but through talent and time alone. Even though the games may be extremely similar, one virtual economy is not better than the other, rather they are two very separate categories.
Online gaming explores a reality of computer animated graphics and online communication. Millions of people have found this virtual gaming technology home. I believe that before someone decides to play one of these ultra popular games which seem very low risk, they should evaluate their priorities.

References:

Giles, J. (2007, January, 4). Life's a game. Nature, 445, Retrieved April 2, 2007, from https://ublearns.buffalo.edu/courses/1/200701_256304/content/_687574_1/giles_2007_lifes_a_game.pdf?bsession=20639061&bsession_str=session_id=20639061,user_id_pk1=182478,user_id_sos_id_pk2=1,one_time_token=

Levy, S. (2007). World of Warcraft: Is It a Game?. Newsweek, Retrieved April 2, 2007, from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14757769/site/newsweek/page/3/print/1/ displaymode/1098/