As I have been saying in class, MMORGP’s are much more than a game. They tend to suck you in and break the barrier between the fantasy and the real world. Not only are you playing with REAL people (in avatar form) but you utilize communication, business, tactical, and social skills in order to succeed and progress within the game. These communicative and social skills that are required in the game, humanizes your avatar and brings YOUR, as a person, personality into the game. Essentially, YOUR personal skills as a person (not as a player) come into play and affect how successful you are within the game. Due to this personal intimacy with the game or character, the game tends to become more real, or at least more attached to the real world. More specifically, players reach into their own lives and finances in order to further themselves in game, or even to purchase or sell an entire character. If you didn’t believe me that you can buy and sell characters and items in the game, and actually make a killing (because players are so connected to their character) take a look at this site: www.playerauctions.com . Another indication of how attached people are to their character is the site www.magelo.com . This is a site where players can enter their character onto this site as a member, which recreates the character’s inventory, stats, and levels in order to show off their rank and compete against other characters in the game to achieve the highest rank.
Much more than just hitting arrow keys and hitting action buttons, MMORPG’s take the game far from the screen and pull the player into a world where real life skills and media merge with fantasy.