VL better than RL?

I was interviewed by the Seattle Times for a story they ran on my company recently. The journalist was very interested in exploring how virtual worlds were in danger of being more exciting than the real world. My response was “What would you rather your kid be doing, eating chips in front of a television by himself or having a heart pounding battle with his friends online?” I worry about my kids spending too much time in front of a screen but I’d rather it be an interactive one than a passive one.

Castronova brings up some of the same concerns in his book Synthetic Worlds. I definitely recommend the book to people interested in the subject of virtual worlds but I don’t share the concern. I’m quite happy that there are virtual places for me to visit and explore even if it’s not quite as tactile as the real thing. I guess the main thing is that I know the difference and enjoy both RL and VL for different reasons. Both are a great break from the other.

WarCraft Addiction?

I just read a stat that 40% of people who play WarCraft are clinically addicted. This is according to a psychologist who polled users behavior to determine if they showed addictive traits. Most of these people didn’t think of themselves as addicted but they responded YES to questions like, “have you ever stayed home from work to play WarCraft,” “have you ever had a fight with your significant other over too much time spent playing WarCraft,” etc. The tone of the article was very stern.

I would have answered yes to some of the questions they had asked and I’m a confirmed WOW addict (I removed it from my laptop for my 2007 New Years Resolution). But when you think about it, what is all the fuss about? Playing computer games is a lot like any other time consuming hobby. I have plenty of friends that don’t play computer games but they do play golf. Many of the golf nuts I know will regularly take a day off to play golf with the guys. And my wife is actually very happy that I suck so bad at golf that I’ve never seriously taken it up. She’s got friends who are “golf widows” and rarely see their husbands during the day on a Saturday. I don’t see anyone writing articles about the terrible golf addiction that’s sweeping through the ranks of over 45-year-old men!

Casual RPG?

Sounds like an oxymoron but I’m impressed with the new Puzzle Quest game that recently came out for DS and PSP. I’ve played it on both and actually like it on PSP better. It’s a pain to have to look at the stats on the upper DS screen to keep up with how you’re doing against your opponent.

What’s most impressive about the game is that it does a great job of taking casual gameplay into the RPG realm. Basically the entire game is a match 3/Bejeweled mechanic but you play against mobs just as you would in a traditional RPG. All the other elements of an RPG are there as well — quests, spells, leveling, professions, etc.

Mainstream casual gamers (ladies over 35) will probably find it too thematically true to the typical RPG genre — dungeons, ogres, etc. Handheld gamers who like RPGs and are looking for a game that actually works on a handheld device versus a console game that was squeezed into one will probably enjoy it.

I’m particularly interested in it since at flowplay we’re working on straddling this same line — creating a casual RPG experience.