When the average person thinks of video games the old classics come to mind; Mario, Tetris, etc. However, the “hardcore” gamers of the world today can tell you there so much more to the gaming world you don’t know. MMORPG stands for massively multiplayer online role playing game, which is quite a mouth full. Unlike most normal games, these games are played online, in real time with other players all over the world. One of the most popular MMORPG’s is World of Warcraft. World of Warcraft debuted in 2004 and is now up to over 10 million registered players around the globe.
One of the major attractions to these games like World of Warcraft, is the idea that you can play with friends, roam freely around a new fantasy environment, and you can be who ever you want to be. This game is honestly a whole other life to the player. While you maybe an average guy with a low income job and a difficult life, in the game you can be a female warrior with an over abundance of wealth and power. The game is an outlet for people to have fun, meet player from around the world, and escape from their normal lives.
However, like anything online you shouldn’t trust everything or everyone. A lot of people use the internet and MMORPG’s as a way of hiding themselves behind a computer and spouting negativity, aggression, or fake personas. Its one thing to live a fictional persona in the game, but its once you carry that persona out of the game that creates trouble.
While I myself have been sucked into to games like world of warcraft in my early high school years, I used the game as a place to make friends, have fun, and the guilty aspect of escaping to a new life outside of my own.