Online Gaming Craziness

Nowadays, online gaming is a big business, not only to the games companies but also to people who spent massive amount of time on them. In the crazily popular Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG) World of Warcraft (WoW), the ‘gold’ in the game can be sold for really cash. At the point of writing, 1000 in-game gold can be sold for £50! Some people even earn a living by playing games. They spent hours and hours ‘farming’ in games and sell the farmed goods for real cash. The internet games section of Ebay saw more than $9m (£5m) in trades in 2003.

The business inside the game is more and more similar to real business. People actually apply real economics techniques to make money in game. Some look to maximise their returns by controlling the price of a particular item. Every time this item turns up on the auction house, the player buys it, then puts it up for auction again at a higher price to the keep the profits rolling in. Some people put a rare item in the auction house for a very high price for a period long enough for gamers to think that that’s the real price and then suddenly, the items are sold in a much cheaper price in abundance. People will respond by thinking “Wow…that’s cheap!” and grabbed them like there is no tomorrow.

A South Korean man has died after reportedly playing an online computer game for 50 hours with few breaks. There are addiction to gamble, addiction to alcohol, addiction to drugs,…etc and now there is addiction to gaming. This is no ordinary addiction and is as serious as drug addiction. People who have played Dota or Wow will definitely know the consequences. It is extremely hard to stop when you are into it and it is a total waste of time and life.

A Shanghai online gamer has been given a suspended death sentence for killing a fellow gamer recently. Qiu Chengwei stabbed Zhu Caoyuan in the chest when he found out he had sold his virtual sword for 7,200 Yuan (£473). There are more and more cases of crime resulted from dispute over virtual properties. People now treat virtual properties as real money and phenomena is getting more and more serious. The “Dragon Sabre” won by Qiu, was lent to his mate and been sold for real money. Mr Qiu stabbed his mate out of anger.

The influence of Gaming on people can not be treated lightly now. Although gaming is of great fun, we must know when to stop and not to go extreme.