MMO games, an addiction or fulfillment of own needs – what keeps us playing online?

“MMORPG, Massively multiplayer online role-playing game – it is a kind of game everyone has heard about. These games gather enormous number of people searching for entertainment, meeting new people or even relax. They are often called the most addictive time consumers. Has anyone considered what makes us hold on to them for so many years? What makes us spend each month a significant sum of money and play for even 97% of our time each day (in China even 100 %)? Is it really only an addiction to the game? What do big corporations rely their marketing strategies on to attract, to keep us playing, and convince us to pay for it? Is it always about product features and a good scenario of the game, graphics or the contest? Or something completely different? I will try to explain this to you from the point of view of: a long-term player of these games (11 years’ experience in online games, including 8 years spent playing one game I continue to play), also from the point of view of someone who monitors the market of online games, someone who was fighting for a good place in the rankings., someone who spent a lot of money playing these games. I have also exchanged views with many players and people working in companies editing these games and- what is most important- I have learnt about surveys conducted between Metin2 players. Let me give an example of the abovementioned game in this article, which was once very popular not only in Poland (in case you don’t know it well, I have described the history of this game).”

Author: Daniel ‘zoNE’ Gabryś

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