Finally got actually around listening the episode and this is maybe a historic episode. For once Scott has the reasonable view that I agree with and Rym talks out of his ass in his assumptions that LoL is somehow responsible or related to WoW loosing players.
Finally got actually around listening the episode and this is maybe a historic episode. For once Scott has the reasonable view that I agree with and Rym talks out of his ass in his assumptions that LoL is somehow responsible or related to WoW loosing players.
I only think it's a catalyst for a subset of players. The primary loss is still the depressives moving on to F2P grinds elsewhere.
I still find this assumption of WoW only being played by depressives and addicts a tad insulting and presumptuous. You can't assume that about an entire game because you don't find it fun. Despite you reducing it down to clicking, there's a lot of strategy and exploration in WoW. You can argue all you want that it's a bad game with no depth, and that's fine, you have some valid arguments. But saying that it's just a place for people that you're downing on? You can't presume to know why 8 million people are doing something that they're doing.
I say that because most of the people who I knew played it and would regularly complain that it wasn't fun in private conversations, but that they played primarily out of social obligation to other people who still played.
The question "how many of you keep playing an MMO you don't actually like?" is met with laughter and assent any time we bring it up at a convention.
I do think most of the people who regularly play WoW, aren't new players, and don't engage in hard core group raiding are addicted to the grind and sense of familiarity.
One big study found a significant correlation between regular play of MMOs and depression.
Among the 7000 players studied, a little more than 30% expressed depression, as opposed to 21% of the general population.
WoW is old. There's only so much to do alone. I can't imagine what someone who isn't deeply integrated in a guild or exploring as a newish player would do but grind alone in the dark, probably while idly watching some TV show and/or dicking around on Youtube. There are so many studies linking long periods of "idle" Internet use to clinical depression it's ridiculous. WoW combines that idleness with a sense of obligation and a sunk cost. It's a perfect storm.
I won't deny that there's a correlation, but I don't think it's such a large percentage of the players. I'd put it at between 10-30% of WoW's current players. It's difficult for me to play for very long without getting guild invites and people building up for raiding. For every raiding guild that's breaking down, I see lots of people still doing it. The majority of players are trying to seriously raid, that niche is the majority of people who go back to WoW.
Anyone remember these anti-piracy cards for the ZX spectrum?
" During the 80s, home taping was busy destroying music, and of course programmes on cassette tape were just as simple to copy, leading to major problems for the games companies. I remember my household being guilty of this, and having a C90 stuffed with games from some friend or another, although finding the gap between the games to actually load them was an absolute nightmare...
Inventive methods were needed to counter this, and the hugely popular Jet Set Willy was one of the first computer programmes to use anti-piracy methods, packaged with a complicated colour code chart that had to be inputted before the game would start. As colour photocopying was beyond the capabilities of mere mortals, it made an effective anti-piracy method, but, reflecting the lax attitudes to piracy at the time, high street magazine Your Computer actually published a method of circumventing the colour code."
Comments
The question "how many of you keep playing an MMO you don't actually like?" is met with laughter and assent any time we bring it up at a convention.
I do think most of the people who regularly play WoW, aren't new players, and don't engage in hard core group raiding are addicted to the grind and sense of familiarity.
Among the 7000 players studied, a little more than 30% expressed depression, as opposed to 21% of the general population.
WoW is old. There's only so much to do alone. I can't imagine what someone who isn't deeply integrated in a guild or exploring as a newish player would do but grind alone in the dark, probably while idly watching some TV show and/or dicking around on Youtube. There are so many studies linking long periods of "idle" Internet use to clinical depression it's ridiculous. WoW combines that idleness with a sense of obligation and a sunk cost. It's a perfect storm.
I'd love to read the full text of this other study on player motivations.
http://ge.tt/1gALpvg/v/0
http://ge.tt/96DRpvg/v/0
" During the 80s, home taping was busy destroying music, and of course programmes on cassette tape were just as simple to copy, leading to major problems for the games companies. I remember my household being guilty of this, and having a C90 stuffed with games from some friend or another, although finding the gap between the games to actually load them was an absolute nightmare...
Inventive methods were needed to counter this, and the hugely popular Jet Set Willy was one of the first computer programmes to use anti-piracy methods, packaged with a complicated colour code chart that had to be inputted before the game would start. As colour photocopying was beyond the capabilities of mere mortals, it made an effective anti-piracy method, but, reflecting the lax attitudes to piracy at the time, high street magazine Your Computer actually published a method of circumventing the colour code."
Edit - ZX spectrum anti-piracy chart, or the star chart. Though I would hang them on different walls.