Just like it's taken us a while to reckon with the fact that texting or yakking on the phone while driving can be seriously unsafe, it is taking a while to figure out what to make of our sometimes heedless obsession with all things online.
At least one psychiatrist says that, for some of us, online fixation can be serious a problem--a compulsive-impulsive disorder whose sufferers endure gadget cravings, broadband-deprivation withdrawal, increasing tolerance for spending extraordinary amounts of time online, and no apparent embarrassment when they wake up in the morning with a keyboard imprint on their face.
An article in The Ottawa Citizen cites an editorial on the subject in the March issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry by Dr. Jerald Block, a psychiatrist at Oregon Health and Science University.
Another set of symptoms typically accompanying online addiction, Block writes, includes argumentative behavior, lying, social isolation, and fatigue. He also notes that Internet addiction typically accompanies other types of mental illness, argues that it should be included in psychiatry's official dictionary of mental illnesses, and points out that it already is considered a serious public health issue in South Korea and China.
Look around you. You probably see at least a few people in need of Net-addiction therapy. Assuming you're not holed up at home, staring for hours at your computer screen.
Henry Jenkins, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor who is perhaps academia's leading fanboy, spent part of January in Shanghai and has been posting observations on his blog. I want to highlight one of his better contributions: on social responsibility in Chinese video game culture.
Video games, "freedom," and "addiction"
Jenkins was attending the International Games and Learning Forum, organized by MIT and Beijing University. There, the focus was on "serious games," those that might potentially be used to promote learning. His most frequently repeated observation was that, while U.S. experts on game learning tend to focus on pedagogy in game play, the Chinese experts he heard from focused mostly on creating historically accurate spaces for games to take place in.
Jenkins writes that some people were concerned that Chinese gamers would miss some measure of socialization in Chinese history when exposed to foreign-designed gaming spaces, and he contrasts the online gaming experience mostly concentrated in Internet cafes where there is minimal face-to-face contact between players with the commonplace sight of usually older Chinese playing chess, mahjong, and card games in the street or in homes. The older games happen face-to-face and often come with a small crowd of spectators remarking on strategy and shooting the breeze. Online games include a large amount of interaction through chat, but most of the non-text interaction is absent.
He also writes of concerns that game addiction, or hype about addiction, should require game designers to tread with caution, lest they be marked as unwelcome cultural influences. Jenkins is not a longtime student of China, but his observation is interesting, if not particularly well-supported by data. (He doesn't claim hard evidence.) He writes:
The addiction rhetoric, though, carries force within China where it is connected to a number of concerns which the Chinese have about their children's culture. First, at a time when aspects of capitalism are reshaping Chinese society (especially in Shanghai), addiction rhetoric gives the Chinese a way to talk about the impact of leisure culture and consumer capitalism on their lives. Playing games is problematic precisely because it is unproductive (or seen as such).
If corporate social responsibility were extended to the point of asking corporations not to contribute to unproductive activities, otherwise known as recreation or entertainment, I suspect corporate heads would fall nationwide. I'm also skeptical that this concern goes much beyond the realm of the rhetorical. Far more consequential to social change in China, in my view, are two factors: (1) the proliferation of direct and near-anonymous interaction online, including in gaming environments, among some Chinese youth; and (2) the divide between those Chinese with access to this sort of high-intensity Internet use and those with little or no online time.
Jenkins notes the latter concern as a challenge to using games as an educational tool: If you're not frequently in front of a computer, it's difficult to engage in learning with one. Research on the "digital divide" in China is at an early stage, but I suspect it will be of growing importance as times passes.
For people wanting to design their own 3D virtual world, or online game, doing so just got a little bit closer to reality.
That's because the Multiverse Network has announced version 1.0 of its development platform, a system that allows anyone to create a fully functional massively multiplayer online game based on a common set of tools.
Until now, the platform had been in beta, but over the last year or so, more than 11,000 teams of designers have begun using it.
Multiverse's model provides the platform free of charge to anyone who wants it. The company will charge a revenue share fee on any money its customers make with their games.
In late May, the company announced that it received $4.75 million in Series A funding.
From GSN, the creative minds who brought us such enduring game classics as Kim Jong-Il: Missile Maniac, Rosie vs. Trump and Foley's Follies, comes The Prison Life: Paris, which offers players a behind-the-bars peek at the hotel heiress' life in the clink.
Wanna join Paris Hilton in jail?
(Credit: GSN.com)Orange is the new pink in this online title, in which an animated Hilton in stiletto heels, designer sunglasses and an orange jumpsuit attempts to undertake her prison duties under the watchful eye of a baton-wielding warden. "Paris is in jail and the warden has assigned her to design and build license plates. Help her with her job and watch out for her little dog "Clinkerbell"! explain the directions on GSN.com.
Players position the smirking Hilton between levers that "stamp" the blank California vanity license plates as they roll by on a conveyor belt. Line up the stamper with the plates using arrow keys and win a point. Miss and get slapped with an insult like: "Ouch--Lindsay Lohan plays better than you!" In a nod to Hilton's celebutante existence, the plates sport such phrases as PRTYGRL, DUI4ME, DRV2FST and PRVTCEL.
The tabloid story du jour started last year, when Hilton was arrested for driving under the influence and sentenced to probation. She also had her license suspended. In February, the paparazzi favorite was stopped for driving 70 mph in a 35 mph zone and charged with violating her probation. That occurence led to her current 23-day stint at the not-so-glam Century Regional Detention Facility in suburban Los Angeles.
World of Warcraft publisher Blizzard Entertainment has filed suit in U.S. federal court against a popular gold-selling operation for spamming players with ads for virtual gold, according to the Warcry Network and other sources.
In its post, Warcry's Razorwire blog quoted a Blizzard employee as saying, "We felt that it was important to share with the community just how serious we are in our efforts to combat (in-game gold spamming). Blizzard has filed a federal lawsuit against the operators of Peons4hire, a popular gold-selling organization."
Blizzard spokesperson Shon Damron, in an e-mail, confirmed the lawsuit.
It's interesting that the company is going after a small outfit like Peons4hire. After all, huge outfits like IGE are making enormous profits buying and selling WoW gold, as well as virtual assets from other online games.
As Warcry put it, "Don't worry, Blizzard and the rest of the (online game) companies still don't have the (guts) to sue (outfits like IGE) for actually selling gold."
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