Causal Argument- Cover Page
What is the purpose of your paper?
The purpose of this paper is to address the growing gaming addiction, focusing on MMO’s and MMORPG’s (massive multiplayer online/ role playing games), specifically World of Warcraft (WoW), its causes, symptoms, and victims.
Who is your target audience?
This paper will be written so as to relate to a very broad range of readers. Former game addicts, current game addicts, friends/families of addicts, gamers, non-gamers, and the like, will all be able to read this paper and take away something from it, be it inspiration, knowledge, etc.
What is your thesis statement?
Though games have been around for over 30 years, gaming addiction has been a recent problem. What is gaming addiction, how is it caused, and who does it affect?
Did I learn/try anything new while growing this composition?
I can’t even begin to cover what I learned while researching for this paper. The amount of research, studies, first hand accounts, articles, etc. on this subject is astounding. I have thoroughly enjoyed reading and learning about this. I look forward to continuing the research even after this paper is finished.
What did I like best about my composition and the composition process?
Once again Kevin and I are collaborating. While our first piece focused mostly on WoW from our perspectives, this paper is more of a research based approach to the game. Kevin interviewed some of his WoW playing students which will add such a great point of view. I did an immense amount of research and was excited to incorporate it into the paper.
Where would you like to see the most feedback/advice on your final draft?
I would really like to hear that the readers of this paper became aware of the growing problem with gaming addiction. I hope that Kevin and I can do a good enough job that the readers can make their own opinions on the subject based on what we provide them.
Very Rough Draft.. well... part of it...
It started back in 1972 with the release of Pong. Even with its simplistic, two dimensional, graphics, the epic Atari game could keep playing occupied for hours at a time. Since then the gaming industry has seen quite a few advances in technology- Nintendo, Sega, Playstation, Xbox, and the like. Every time a new system was introduced more and more of the general population became ‘gamers’. With this, addictions to smoking, alcohol, and gambling were no longer the only vices affecting the masses. With the arrival of computer games, online games specifically, gaming addiction soon joined the ranks of the most common and unhealthy addictions, sweeping over youth like an epidemic.
It’s been over thirty years since Atari released Pong, spawning the gaming revolution. People have been gaming for years, so why is gaming addiction causing such an outcry now? Parents are setting up Gaming Anonymous sites, former gamers have Detox sites just for addicted gamers, and kids are committing suicide all because of games. Apparently games are no longer instruments of vicarious entertainment, but virtual drugs. Who knew? The gaming industry did, which is why they keep making the games and staying in business. In 2007 the gaming industry saw a 28 percent sales increase, a whopping 9.5 billion. An average of nine games was sold every second that year (http://health.usnews.com/articles/health/2008/05/07/addiction-to-video-games-a-growing-concern.html). Though parents see them as the corruptors of their children, are the game makers really to blame? Can a game be made purely to make a player addicted or is a lack of restrictions actually the cause? With massive multiplayer online (MMO’s) games like World of Warcraft (WoW) at the forefront of the mind of the lynch mob, online computer games will be the focus of this social inquiry. We will do some research, follow some studies, and look into the world of online gaming and figure it out.
Though MMORPG's (massively multiplayer online role playing game)were being played in the late 1980's and early 1990's, games like The Realm Online and EverQuest made the game genre popular in the late 1990's. Because of its need for Internet access the MMO was usually played solely on a computer. With the advent of the sixth generation consoles, like the Xbox and Playstation, consoles could host MMO's, as well. Games like Phantasy Star Online and Final Fantasy XI were some of those games. As the name implies, MMO's are games that support thousands, and now millions, of players at one time. Players interact, in game, with other players cooperating and competeting with each other. It is this aspect of gaming that entices so many people to begin playing. In 2003 an analysis from the Financial Times pointed out just how much an impact MMO's have. The analysis measured the value of all the virtual property in EverQuest and determined that its GDP (Gross Domestic Product) per-capita would, in real life, make it the 77th wealthiest nation, right up there with Croatia and Ecuador (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massively_multiplayer_online_game). Currently topping the MMORPG market with over 11 million players is the worldwide phoenomena known as World of Warcraft.
Launched in 2004 by Blizzard Entertainment, World of Warcarft, or WoW, controls over 60% of the MMORPG market, making it the most popular in the world. Despite its popularity, WoW has been at the center of many debates in the past few years. The topic: gaming addiction. Clinical psychologist Dr. Maressa Orzak claims that about 40% of WoW players are addicted to the game.
Peer Reviews Please!!!!
-Michele's Review
-Dylan A Peer Review unit 2
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