Games of Social Control: A Sociological Study of 'Addiction' to Massively Multi-Player Online Role-Playing Games

Massively Multi-Player Online Role-Playing Games (i.e., World of Warcraft) are highly popular amongst adolescents. In comparison with console games, they are played three times longer and are allegedly 'addictive': 20 percent admits that playing MMORPGs has a negative influence on their social relations in everyday life. The project deviates from social psychological studies, often concluding that insecurity, low self-esteem and weak social relations explain compulsive playing. Elaborating on research emphasizing the social character of MMORPGS, it theorizes instead that social networks in the game and the social pressure these exert, accounts for much of the neglect of (non-gaming) friends, family, school and work. Research questions are: 1) How are players socialized in/outside the game and develop a social identity as a gamer? 2) In what game-related social networks and secondary institutions are they embedded? 3) How and why do these impede on/compete with social networks of non-gamers? To answer these questions, 40 players of MMORPGs neglecting 'real' social life are selected on high-schools in Flanders and the Netherlands. In phase one, 'ego networks' are visualized (VennMaker software), followed by in-depth interviews with gamers and participation in their guilts. In phase two, non-gaming parents and friends are interviewed individually and in a focus group with their gaming child/friend to assess the tensions between social networks of gamers and non-gamers.