Borrowed from george.
http://www.statenews.com/article.phtml?pk=33842
frankly, while the article may be entertaining, i dont know, something about it bugs me. its so full of he said she said between the parties, and very negative. sure im probably just getting defensive, but 9 out of 10 people who play the game are casual players, and in some cases they can strenghten the relationships. Many married couples play, and i play with my girlfriend quite regularly.
im also inclined to disagree with the "killing the social life" aspect. i guess i feel like im a bit more of a "foreward thinker" in this department. On a different level than actual physical interaction, these games are a social life, they are designed to be. in a wierd convoluted way, there is nothing that i can do in world of warcraft that i really cant do in the wide open spaces of the real world. granted, WoW paints it in a fantasy cover, and i dont walk down michigan avenue to kill murlocs that are threatening the nearest entrance to one of the 3 Victoria Secrets within a block and half (thats serious, 3!), but as far as social interaction is concerned a lot of it is there.
We already have online dating, and you can buy/sell goods online. Humans are becomming more and more wired by the minuite, and i feel like that these games could really be an avenue of the future as far as social interaction is concerned. Already our characters are an extension of ourselves. We pick avatars that we feel we would enjoy playing, a class that appeals to us as a person, and further customization through extensions in the game. We organize our groups on Ventrilo, voice over ip software, so often that we are able to discern each others voices from another.
This is not to say there arent dangers, because frankly, there are. but in my opinion this article is one sided and really only trys to portray the smallest portion of the population of people that play this game.
frankly, while the article may be entertaining, i dont know, something about it bugs me. its so full of he said she said between the parties, and very negative. sure im probably just getting defensive, but 9 out of 10 people who play the game are casual players, and in some cases they can strenghten the relationships. Many married couples play, and i play with my girlfriend quite regularly.
im also inclined to disagree with the "killing the social life" aspect. i guess i feel like im a bit more of a "foreward thinker" in this department. On a different level than actual physical interaction, these games are a social life, they are designed to be. in a wierd convoluted way, there is nothing that i can do in world of warcraft that i really cant do in the wide open spaces of the real world. granted, WoW paints it in a fantasy cover, and i dont walk down michigan avenue to kill murlocs that are threatening the nearest entrance to one of the 3 Victoria Secrets within a block and half (thats serious, 3!), but as far as social interaction is concerned a lot of it is there.
We already have online dating, and you can buy/sell goods online. Humans are becomming more and more wired by the minuite, and i feel like that these games could really be an avenue of the future as far as social interaction is concerned. Already our characters are an extension of ourselves. We pick avatars that we feel we would enjoy playing, a class that appeals to us as a person, and further customization through extensions in the game. We organize our groups on Ventrilo, voice over ip software, so often that we are able to discern each others voices from another.
This is not to say there arent dangers, because frankly, there are. but in my opinion this article is one sided and really only trys to portray the smallest portion of the population of people that play this game.