Just read this on BBC about some Dutch kid being charged in the real world for a theft in an online game:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7094764.stm

I've always considered myself a bit of a nerd, but I can never understand why people would splash out real cash for something that absolutely doesn't exist in the first place. Everybody enjoys a bit of escapism now and again - TV nowadays is that for me and many others - but spending money on these online worlds?

Can any Bedlamites explain this one? "Gullible" is the only word I can use to describe it so far...

Its big business, these online games can take hours and hours of 'play time' to get to the end level, and then days worth of time to get the best equipment to become the best. People see a few dollars to buy some in-game gold or equipment a quick route. I personally prefer to actually play the game, do it myself. I'm in no rush, i play these things to pass the time in a way i find enjoyable.

Back in the days of Ever quest (one of the first MMO's) it used to be called 'Ever-crack' as the games were highly addictive and people ended up playing these games 20+ hours a day. Forever searching for some rare 'drop' (piece of equipment) off some rare spawn (creature) that would only appear once every 7 days real time. To them, its serious business.

A recent published statistic showed that the average age of computer gamers wasnt the young teenager you'd expect, but people in their mid-twenties. I cant remember the source, i'll see if i can find it

I love online gaming. Have payed for membership a few times too, although i mainly play private servers (Lynch me, I dont care ). I havent ever payed for extra items or privileges however. Have even been a Game Master for one of the biggest private servers ahaha.

Many people pay for satalight tv then veg in front of it for hours, but may sneer at a person actively enjoying playing a game (and spending money on it). Dont really understand the difference in logic there.

Its the social interaction i mainly enjoy, esp because i often get insomnia or have odd working hours. The main game i play, i have played for 4 years and many of other people i 'know' online have been around for that length of time also. Friendships develop even though we are behind computer screens. Some people meet up, some have even ended up together in relationships. I know a few that even got married. Personally im not looking for that, i just enjoy the light relief of messing about, joking, etc. Ive also found it useful for introductions into other cultures, and have learnt a lot of different snippits of various languages.

Id pay to play a game rather than veg infront of a tv anyday. Any info/programmes/news/documentaries i wish to see, i can get from the net in anycase.

A friend of mine was 'addicted' to Fantasy Star Online (a while back on the Dreamcast) he'd spend all day and night and pull sickies just to keep on battling with his buddies online. With the three different time zones Europe, USA and Japan there was always someone to do battle with.

It was quite easy to hack the system with quirky effects and gestures and the controllers where constantly patching up the leaks, it all came to a bit of a head when some unscrupulous gamers were trading hacked and powered up equipment, attracting the derision of the die hards that had spent months honing their skill and kudos.

Who was responsible for this cunning cheat and dishonorable deception?

British gamers...!! the servers got shut down for several days while the code got rewritten

Oh and my friend eventually lost his job.

I love online gaming. Have payed for membership a few times too, although i mainly play private servers (Lynch me, I dont care ). I havent ever payed for extra items or privileges however. Have even been a Game Master for one of the biggest private servers ahaha.

Many people pay for satalight tv then veg in front of it for hours, but may sneer at a person actively enjoying playing a game (and spending money on it). Dont really understand the difference in logic there.

Its the social interaction i mainly enjoy, esp because i often get insomnia or have odd working hours. The main game i play, i have played for 4 years and many of other people i 'know' online have been around for that length of time also. Friendships develop even though we are behind computer screens. Some people meet up, some have even ended up together in relationships. I know a few that even got married. Personally im not looking for that, i just enjoy the light relief of messing about, joking, etc. Ive also found it useful for introductions into other cultures, and have learnt a lot of different snippits of various languages.

Id pay to play a game rather than veg infront of a tv anyday. Any info/programmes/news/documentaries i wish to see, i can get from the net in anycase.

Well said EEK I also play online games and have even paid for game subscriptions , its a great form of entertainment far better than TV or a movie, sure it can be addicitive but no more addictive than a good book that you cant put down.

I personally think the type of person to lose their job over a game would lose their job with or without video games in their lives anyway.

I too have developed good friendships through gaming and have met quite a few of these so called "virtual" friends in real life over the years.

Actually Im not quite sure how they can be called virtual friends. If I always speak with them using VOIP with mic and headphones, what's the difference to speaking with them over the telephone? Plus I also know people that I have only previously met through internet forums too, what's the difference?

I've never played gaming on line. In fact the last computer game i played was Pac-Man. Am i out of touch, or should i be thankful i've never bothered and become addicted to it all.

I've never played gaming on line. In fact the last computer game i played was Pac-Man. Am i out of touch, or should i be thankful i've never bothered and become addicted to it all.

Mine was something called, 'Asteroid', anyone remember that?

Moss

I've never played gaming on line. In fact the last computer game i played was Pac-Man. Am i out of touch, or should i be thankful i've never bothered and become addicted to it all.

Mine was something called, 'Asteroid', anyone remember that?

Moss

Oh yes indeedy. And the tennis one

I too have developed good friendships through gaming and have met quite a few of these so called "virtual" friends in real life over the years.

Plus I also know people that I have only previously met through internet forums too, what's the difference?

Sweaty palms.

I too have developed good friendships through gaming and have met quite a few of these so called "virtual" friends in real life over the years.

Plus I also know people that I have only previously met through internet forums too, what's the difference?

Sweaty palms.

Robbo,

You go from the sublime to the ridiculous

Moss

It's not as easy as it looks.

I have no idea what this online gaming is but I supose with a full time job, modding on here & having an ever increasingly active 6month old it's a bloody good job I don't as I can do without the distraction.

I do pay for sky tv though & spend most evenings vegged out in front of it so I wont knock anyone spending their cash on virtual gaming.

Moss didn't you mean Space Invaders...???

“Vodka, the poor man's Nintendo.”

-Alexei Sayle

I'd go for the tv any day

I too have developed good friendships through gaming and have met quite a few of these so called "virtual" friends in real life over the years.

Plus I also know people that I have only previously met through internet forums too, what's the difference?

Sweaty palms.

touche!!

I've never played gaming on line. In fact the last computer game i played was Pac-Man. Am i out of touch, or should i be thankful i've never bothered and become addicted to it all.

Mine was something called, 'Asteroid', anyone remember that?

Moss

Oh yes indeedy. And the tennis one

hehe, i think you mean "pong".

I grew up with video games, and would battle it out with my brother, either as two player or trying to beat each others scores. I remember playing Asteriods on a tabletop game and later when Spectrum became king the tension of listening to the game tapes going "eeerh-eh..erhhhh-klas;lfj;lfjlj;fj;ldf" when loading, praying it doesnt crash. The main craze at school at one point was Daily Thompson's Decathlon, where everyone ended up with busted keyboards from punching so hard on the long jump.

As each new console came out I was at the front of the queue! Its no wonder really that I ended up working in game graphics. And when online gaming took off, it was like this whole other dimension that blew my mind. (Also, my bro used to have a net cafe. Thus playing online games was one way to interact with my nephew and niece, who are Argentine. At the weekends I would set aside some time to chat and play with them from the UK, whilst they would be playing in my brothers cafe in Argentina.)

I feel no embarrassment to say i love games. I dont sit 24/7 playing them (although i must admit occasionally i have gone on crazy addict mode if im trying out a new game, or desperate to achieve something.) I agree with quiksilva regarding the person who lost their job over gaming, could just as easily have lost their job over something else.

As adults, I think we should do what we want with our free time, and money, so long as its not having detrimental effects on our lives or those close to us.

Thanks for all the responses so far. I was a big gaming addict when I was a kid (loved F19 on the Atari ST), up until my late teens. Dunno why exactly but never really regained interest from that point on.

Comparing purchasing items to purchasing any form of subscription TV is a good analogy. Just wondering what the average cost of items purchased is right now in these virtual worlds. That article mentions 6 million people - total guesstimates here but lets say a third a splashing out $20 EUR per month - that's over $40 mil per month

Just read on Second Life you can buy land (which is actually a few million bits of data on a hard disk in a server in a server room somewhere, but still...)

I'm off to write InsightWorld.

Did anyone play 'Starwars'? You sat inside it and had to kill loads of enemy crafts, then you went into the deathstar when a voice behind you said 'Use the force Luke'?

When you got good you could play for hours for just 20p!!!

I used to play it in an all night snooker hall while waiting for a table. When your table became available, there was always someone willing to carry on where you left off.

It was fun at the time...

I'll get a xbox 360 when GTA IV comes out, play it to death inside and out, maybe pic up PES for a game of footy and then sell it all when summer comes around. Love it.

When I was a lad a new coin operated video game came out called 'Lunar Lander'. You had to use buttons to manoeuvre and thrust the lander to a soft descent before running out of fuel. It was just a trace outline thing on a B&W screen - very simple game design (though probably state-of-the-art in those days), very difficult to play and very addictive. There is no way that we could have foreseen the games that are around now - much less multiplay. Oddly, Wiki talks about a different version (using a light pen) that came out in '73 (whereas I was playing it several years before then, since I was still at school). The java version at the link below is similar, but smaller in section (less manoeuvring required), far easier and therefore totally NOT addictive (but it will give you the basic idea).

http://www.frontiernet.net/~imaging/lunar_lander_game.html

I have no idea what this online gaming is but I supose with a full time job, modding on here

is there a difference between modding and online gaming?

ouchouchouch.....<running for cover>

Moss didn't you mean Space Invaders...???

No Seonai Asteroids, a completely different game.

Moss

Thanks for all the responses so far. I was a big gaming addict when I was a kid (loved F19 on the Atari ST), up until my late teens. Dunno why exactly but never really regained interest from that point on.

I too gave up on games when I was about 16 or so, I have only recently got back into it. I started playing again about 4 years ago, looking for a fun alternative to TV and boozing down the pub.

Comparing purchasing items to purchasing any form of subscription TV is a good analogy. Just wondering what the average cost of items purchased is right now in these virtual worlds. That article mentions 6 million people - total guesstimates here but lets say a third a splashing out $20 EUR per month - that's over $40 mil per month

Considering that one of the world's most popular Massively Multi player Online Role Playing Games (MMORPG) is World of Warcraft, that currently has over 8 million subscribers paying 15 US$ per month in subscription fees, its really no surprise to learn that the video game industry makes more money than Hollywood. For example Halo 3 is a first person shooting game that launched exclusively on the Xbox 360 last month and made over 170 Million USD in its first weekend and continues to top the sales charts!

Just read on Second Life you can buy land (which is actually a few million bits of data on a hard disk in a server in a server room somewhere, but still...)

You sure can, and think about you are buying this 'land' from. In 2004 Ailin Graef started an experiment to discover if a young kid could support themselves in the real world using the 'cash" made in Second Life. Two years later and her Anshe Chung Avatar became Second Life's first real world money US $ Millionaire!

Today she has a real world office that employs over 80 people developing virtual real estate for inhabitants of this Second Life application. Just like life itself other people are finding new ways to make money whilst others rely on methods that have worked in the real world since the early days, such as designing clothes for people's in game avatars, running pubs and nightclubs, and yes, even prostituting their avatars. (It makes the mind boggle!)

Second Life is totally free to download and install if you want to try it, I did but I recommend that you don't bother, because the graphics are antiquated, there never seems to be anyone on the servers and frankly its just not much fun.

I'm off to write InsightWorld.

Cheers quiksilva, fascinating read! Sheds a lot of light on the issue.

Clearly that BBC article will be the first of many...

Wolvie mentioned something about the age of gamers in a post above, I have a link on that and a few more bits of trivia about computer gaming from the Entertainment Software Association (A body representing the video gaming industry in the USA), that may be of interest:

TOP 10 INDUSTRY FACTS

1. US computer and video game software sales grew six percent in 2006 to $7.4 billion – almost tripling industry software sales since 1996.

2. Sixty-seven percent of American heads of households play computer and video games.

3. The average game player is 33 years old and has been playing games for 12 years.

4. The average age of the most frequent game buyer is 38 years old. In 2007, 92 percent of computer game buyers and 80 percent of console game buyers were over the age of 18.

5. Eighty-five percent of all games sold in 2006 were rated "E" for Everyone, "T" for Teen, or "E10+" for Everyone 10+. For more information on ratings, please see www.esrb.org.

6. Eighty-six percent of game players under the age of 18 report that they get their parents’ permission when renting or buying games, and 91 percent say their parents are present when they buy games.

7. Thirty-six percent of American parents say they play computer and video games. Further, 80 percent of gamer parents say they play video games with their kids. Sixty-six percent feel that playing games has brought their families closer together.

8. Thirty-eight percent of all game players are women. In fact, women over the age of 18 represent a significantly greater portion of the game-playing population (31%) than boys age 17 or younger (20%).

9. In 2007, 24 percent of Americans over the age of 50 played video games, an increase from nine percent in 1999.

10. Forty-nine percent of game players say they play games online one or more hours per week. In addition, 34 percent of heads of households play games on a wireless device, such as a cell phone or PDA, up from 20 percent in 2002.

Game Player Data

How Many Americans Play Games?

* Sixty-nine percent of American heads of households play computer and video games.

Who Purchases Computer and Video Games?

* Ninety-three percent of people who make the actual purchase of computer games and 83% of people who make the actual purchase of video games are 18 years of age or older. The average age of the game buyer is 40 years old.

How Long Have Gamers Been Playing?

* Adult gamers have been playing an average of 12 years. Among most frequent gamers, adult males average 10 years for game playing, females for 8 years.

Will Gamers Keep Playing?

* Fifty-three percent of game players expect to be playing as much or more ten years from now than they do today.

For Computer Gamers...

* Thirty percent of most frequent game players are under eighteen years old.

* Twenty-six percent of most frequent game players are between 18 and 35 years old.

* Forty-four percent of most frequent game players are over 35 years old.

For Console Gamers...

* Forty percent of most frequent game players are under eighteen years old.

* Thirty-five percent of most frequent game players are between 18 and 35 years old.

* Twenty-five percent of most frequent game players are over 35 years old.

What about Women Gamers?

* Thirty-eight percent of game players are women.

* Women age 18 or older represent a significantly greater portion of the game-playing population (30%) than boys age 17 or younger (23%)

How Much Time Is Spent Playing Games?

* The average adult woman plays games 7.4 hours per week. The average adult man plays 7.6 hours per week. Though males spend more time playing than do females, the gender/time gap has narrowed significantly. Whereas in 2003, males spent an average of 18 more minutes a day playing games than did their female counterparts, in 2004 they spent ony six minutes more each day doing so. Females spend an average of two hours more per week playing games now than they did a year ago.

How many Gamers Play Games Online?

* Forty-four percent of most frequent game players say they play games online, up from 31% in 2002.

Who Plays Games Online?

* Fifty-eight of online game players are male.

* Forty-two percent of online game players are female.

What Other Activities are Gamers Involved In?

* Gamers devote more than triple the amount of time spent playing games each week to exercising or playing sports, volunteering in the community, religious activities, creative endeavors, cultural activities, and reading.

* In total, gamers spend 23.4 hours per week on these activities, compared to 6.8 hours per week playing games.

* Seventy-nine percent of game players of all ages report exercising or playing sports an average of 20 hours a month.

* Forty-five percent of gamers volunteer an average 5.4 hours per month.

* Ninety-three percent of game players also report reading books or daily newspapers on a regular basis, while sixty-two percent consistently attend cultural events, such as concerts, museums, or the theater.

* Fifty percent of gamers are regularly involved in creative activities, such as painting, writing, or playing an instrument. In addition, adult gamers exhibit a high level of interest in current events, with 94 percent following news and current events, and 78 percent reporting that they vote in most of the elections for which they are eligible.

Linked from the article in the OP, this is going a bit far I think!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4397159.stm

The game I played to semi-addiction levels is the one depicted in my avatar, Street Fighter II.

Guile I believe

Even as i type and browse the forum im semi-afk using win mode, whilst casting es on my MG, on a private MU server.

Guile I believe

Yep, the best character in the game when mastered properly