The Addiction of Living Without Consequence in Online Virtual Worlds.

When I first read my assignment for my internet-based communication class, I was stunned to say the least. I am not an online gamer and I felt that this assignment would take me days to complete since I have no prior knowledge on World of Warcraft and Second Life. I began thinking of my other classmates and how those who are not as computer literate as me could possibly complete this assignment. So I gave it a try and created an account on Second Life. As many of my other classmates I’m sure, I was completely lost; so I turned to Wikipedia, which usually answers my questions. When I read that people actually make real money creating items within this virtual world based on their computer technical skills, I immediately knew why my professor gave the class this assignment. Once again, the internet has been used to create another innovation which stretches our imaginations. What will they think of next?
I have heard of World of Warcraft before, which is supposedly very addicting among gamers to say the least. I asked my neighbor who is in high school how often he plays and he said to me “at least four hours a day”! How could this be? What seems to be the motivating factor in the popularity of these online role playing games is communication. In order to successfully play the game, you must interact and talk to other real people, which means there is no pre-determined effect, just like in real life. This helps people live out their own fantasy life and pretend to be something they are not. In fact, I don’t think the creators of Second Life could have come up with a better name because you are essentially living a second life. You can make friends and enemies, join groups, sell items, buy land and so on in these online role playing games.
What sets Second Life apart from World of Warcraft is the use of real money and that there is no physical competition among players. The use of real money is the perfect ingredient to encourage computer literate individuals to contribute to the game. Instead of paying computer programmers to develop the game, you make it free for all to contribute. This idea of open source software has become very popular among internet users as a way to challenge expensive fees that would normally be involved, like in World of Warcraft. Although Second Life isn’t as sophisticated graphically as other online role playing games, it could eventually become so.
It is true that in order to take full advantage of Second Life, you must pay around $72 per year, which enables you to purchase upgrades like a car, land, or clothes for example. In fact some people can make thousands of dollars off their own creation and give it a type of copyright so that you are the only one who can profit from it.
In order to play World of Warcraft, there is a fee, which for a limited time gives you access to everything the game has to offer. Real money is not being put into the virtual world in this game; it is being put into the hands of the game developers. Putting money into the virtual world can raise certain problems, like taxing, according to Wikipedia. People are obviously profiting from this game and it is supposed to be taxed, but how?
The lack of consequence in these role playing games stimulates an addiction among many gamers. For a little fee, you can have everything you have ever dreamed of. With the increasing popularity of these online games comes more innovation and realism. If there is money to be made with these games, then computer programmers will create. I believe more realism will produce even more popularity among these games.