Are MMORPGs really a waste of time?

MMORPGS, millions of people play them and why? There are goals on there that people try and reach just like real life.

Example:

Real Life – Further your career

VR Life – Reach a new level

Real Life – Get a new car

VR Life – New epic weapon

The main reason we play them is because it’s another life you can escape to whenever you please. The biggest MMORPG of course is World of Warcraft and some of the servers include RP (Role-playing) and I have played on one of them and I must say some of the people on there take it the whole way, all the way up to WoW Marriage.

People dedicate their life’s to games like WoW, I myself play WoW and for some a few months I will be very much addicted to it but I then find myself pulling away from it and I shut down my account for a couple months before going back. There are legends in the game for example, one player completed the game without using any weapons only his fists and he was called a legend for doing this. If I joined the Army and went to War without using a weapon I would not be called a legend I would be called a moron. One of the biggest legends of WoW is Leeroy Jenkins (aka Ben Schulz) He was made famous for running into a room full of enemies without the rest of his team being ready and for shouting out the name of his character, Leeroy Jenkins. Once Blizzard caught light of how popular he was they contacted him and he has appeared at Blizzcon and many other events which relate to WoW.

Sometimes people can take it too far. Tianjin, China- A thirteen-year-old boy played Warcraft for 36 hours straight and then jumped from a building to his death in order "to join the heroes of the game" as indicated by his suicide note. This shows how games can affect peoples mind but I believe people who do kill or commit suicide after playing a game must have some mental instability.

Here is one thing that you should all think about when playing an MMORPG, once you reach the highest level what else is there to do apart starting all over again until the next expansion comes out. I reached 80 the other week on my Death Knight and I got all the gear I needed and now I can’t do anything else until the next expansion comes out until Autumn 2010 which is when the Cataclysm comes out, Blizzard’s new expansion. What did I do? I started a new character, rinse and repeat.

Basically most of us play MMORPGS to take up our spare time which inevitably takes up all our time. Some believe they are a waste of time but if you get joy out of it then I don’t think it is.