MMO's and Their Impact on Productivity

*Originally published on 7/2/09


With the immense success of the video game World of Warcraft, game companies are spitting out a bunch of online games in an effort to get their own piece of the pie. World of Warcraft was notorious for it's addictive gameplay. People would devote as many hours to that as they did to full time jobs and some even went so far as to neglect their families. While the individual games may not have the same massive success as WoW, productivity is sure to take a swan dive.

We've got a Star Wars MMO coming out in the near future. It ties into the popular, and also addictive, Knights of the Old Republic games released for the Xbox. I'm on the fence about this. The trailer did look pretty good, however I am also highly excited for the DC Universe MMO set to come out in the next year or so.

The DC game is still in early phases of production. I have, however, seen video clips and game demos, each of which filled me with excitement. Luckily, I'm able to keep my mind off the topic ninety percent of the time, but when I do stumble across mention of the game, I want it to come out that much more. While I'm somewhat disappointed you don't play as, but play alongside the major DC characters I suppose it makes sense. There can't be 20,000 Batmen running around, though I would love to see all the Hal Jordans gather together and declare war on the Kyle Rayners just to see the fanboy war manifest itself in digital combat.

Trekkies and trekkers will be able to come together under the banner of the upcoming Star Trek MMO. Each being given command of their own starship. It's every Trek fan's dream come true. If you aren't a fan of the federation and want to teach them a lesson, you can also play as a Klingon. In keeping with the show's theme of exploration, you will be able to beam down to various worlds as well.

Given my propensity for procrastination, I have no doubt that the addictive MMO will impact my work ethic. Even people who don't have a problem will find themselves glued to their computers for hours with these games. How on earth are we supposed to get anything done?

What of the people who buy more than one? If one MMO is able to take up 40 to 60 hours a week, a person running two games will be utterly screwed. There aren't enough hours in the week and while some of us try to fight it, we all need to sleep sometime.

There is an upside, with the economy the way it is. People who are out of a job will now have something to do, hooray? Better yet, let's turn it to our advantage. Most video games have you collecting coins of some sort, let's make it legal currency. The money can be deposited into your bank or paypal account online. I know the companies have to make a profit, but putting some money back into the players pockets will help in these hard times. If Halo players can make a living playing their video game of choice, I don't see why we shouldn't be given the same opportunity.

I think we should learn from WoW. Rather than giving into the highly addictive nature of the game, we should keep control and limit ourselves to only a couple of hours a day at most. I know video games are fun and can be hard to pull yourself away from, but MMO's operate on a whole different level. We all need to channel our willpower for the sake of our work ethic and make sure these games don't consume all of our waking hours.