Introduction
Second Life is an online virtual world in which the users called Residents interact (secondlife.com, 2012). Client programs (softwares that enable users to access a service being availed by a server) enable the Residents to interact through Avatars. Avatars are graphical representations of users’ characters in three or two dimensional forms appearing in games and online communities. In Second Life, Residents explore, socialize, create and trade in virtual property as well as participating in other group and individual activities (secondlife.com, 2012). Second Life was created by Linden Lab in 2003 and is meant for users above 16 years.
Since its launch in 2003, the number of people subscribing to the game increased steadily until 2010 when several complaints of addiction surfaced. Statistics from secondlife.com (2012) show that in 2008, an average of 38,000 residents could be found online at any one moment. In January 2008, residents spent more than 28,000,000 hours inworld (online status) (secondlife.com, 2012). In November 2010, Second Life had 21.3 million registered accounts. Many people who overly stay online interacting with friends in the virtual world complain of losing touch with their Real Life (RL) (Cole & Griffiths, 2007). This has had adverse effects of many users and hence the need to campaign against addiction to Second Life and other online games.
This research is important to me and to others as well. At the end of my research on this topic I will be in a position to make an informed decision prior to involving myself in Second Life or any other online gaming community. Using information gathered I will be able to help friends who are addicted to the game in their efforts to revert to normalcy.
In conducting this study, I will interview people who have participated in Second Life for different lengths of time and others who have dealt with a friend or relative who were or are addicted to Second Life. I will also interview experts in human behavior such as sociologists and psychologists. I plan to conduct this research at a time when many people spend a lot of time outdoors. I think summer would be a good time for the research. I expect to find the extent to which some people have been addicted to Second Life and the effects this has had on their lives. Moreover, I expect to find ways of overcoming addiction to Second Life and other online games.
This paper presents a comprehensive literature review on addiction to Second Life and other games, a methodology to conduct the research, a presentation of expected results as well as a conclusion to sum up the research topic.
Literature Review
Since the advent of computer games in early 1980s, several studies have been conducted on addictions to computer games. In the 1980s, games such as Space Invaders, Centipede, Donkey Kong and Pac Man were popular as single player games (O'Reilly, 1996). According to Shotton (2001) the games were said to improve eye-hand coordination and getting good at the game meant scoring high. In the 1990s, games such as Quake and Doom came into being. These games allowed players to create and customize characters, create new rooms and specify the weapons that characters used in say a fighting game (Moody, 2001). The gaming evolution continued and in late 1990s, manufacturers such as Sony and Microsoft came into the gaming industry. The invention of the internet as well as mobile internet enabled mobile devices such as iphones and tablet computers has dramatically increased involvement in online games such as Second Life. This has increased the number of people addicted to such games (Block, 2008)
Linden lab began working on a virtual world gaming community (Second Life) in 1999. The game was launched in 2003. It was equipped with sceneries, currencies to trade virtually in a variety of goods and services. To date Second Life has more than 22 million registered users with about a fifth of these people being constant or regular users of the site. These people spend at least 8 hours each day inworld. According to Young (1998) spending more than a third of the hours in a day is a big indicator of addiction to the game.
Addiction to Second Life can be attributed to the game’s high interactivity (Barnett & Coulson, 2010). The software for the game has an inbuilt 3-dimensional modeling tool that makes use of simple geometric shapes to allow residents build virtual objects. A procedural scripting language developed by Linden Scripting lab helps add interactivity to the objects (secondlife.com, 2012). Unlike other games where there are game play mechanics and players lose or win, Second Life involves people interacting in a multi-user virtual world. According to Mundell (2007) creating and controlling avatars that interact on their behalf in the virtual world can be deeply absorbing.
In 2007 the American Medical association estimated that up to 90% of American youngsters play online games and that more than 15% of them (5 million children) may be addicted (Tanner, 2007). Like addictions to drugs or alcohol addicts of Second Life and other online games have exhibited classic signs of addiction (Thaleman, Grusser &Griffiths, 2007). Addicts to Second Life and other computer games become so preoccupied with gaming that they lie about their addictive habit, withdraw from family and friends just to game and lose interest in other activities or as a means of psychological escape (Block, 2008; Ducheneaut &Moore, 2004)
This study was prompted by the increase in the number of people getting addicted to the numerous online games being developed currently. I and my friends love video games and it is fair enough to research into this topic as a precautionary measure. The risk of imposters with false accounts looms large. There are thousands of accounts bearing false information such as gender, age, residence among other informational aspects. People using pseudo Second Life accounts could be pedophiles, rapists, murderers, witches, among other psychopaths (Peris, 2002). Addicts of virtual world such as Second Life are the most vulnerable to such psychopathic people (Kelly, 2004).
Addiction to Second Life has also been shown to be economically draining. Some residents pay membership fees of US$9.95 per month or US$72 annually to access increased technical support. Such members earn an automatic stipend of L$300/week. However, most members never upgrade beyond the “basic” account and they do not enjoy these stipends. Addicted persons therefore spend many hours per day engaging in an activity that does not bring them returns while they could be gainfully working.
Negligence of loved ones is one of the biggest problems of addiction to Second Life. Residents spend more hours with their friends in the virtual world at the expense of spending quality time with real friends and family in the real life. Most of the studies into this topic have relied on interviews, questionnaires and observations to gather data and as evaluation tools. After diagnosis of the problem, the interventions have been many and varied. People addicted to Second Life can overcome by rehabilitation, exclusion from the access to computers, engagement in a different activity or cultivation of a hobby, reframing, enhancement of family relationships, counseling among others.
Going into the future, people will continue to overly rely on computers. Detecting and diagnosing addictions to Second Life and other online gaming addictions may become very difficult for psychologists and other experts (Mundell, 2007). Symptoms of addiction may be camouflaged by a legitimate use of the internet. However, there is hope for addicts as various organizations have been set up for this purpose. In addition, addiction to Second Life and other computer games has been recognized as a legitimate addiction problem. This has led to massive research and increment in experts who are knowledgeable in helping addicts revert to normalcy.
Methodology
The methodology adopted for this study shall be aimed at answering three basic questions:-
- What are the signs of addiction to Second Life and other online virtual worlds?
- What are the effects of Second Life addiction?
- What mitigations measures can be employed to prevent addiction to Second Life and what are the remedies to full-blown addiction?
Data for this study shall be collected through interviews and questionnaires. I will send questionnaires to 10 people, and personally interview 5 others who are addicted to Second Life. I will also interview 5 people who have closely interacted with a person addicted to second world. I will also interview 2 experts (1 Sociologist and 1 psychologist) on the topic. In addition, I will request to stay for some time with a self-confessed addict of Second Life in order to make personal observations.
Some of the questions in the questionnaires shall be: When did you join second world? Approximately how many hours a day do you spend inworld? Are there basic activities such as eating, answering calls and bathing that you forego when you are inworld? How do you feel when you are interacting with virtual people inworld? If asked to stop using second world immediately what would be your response? I hope that these and other questions directed at regular users of second world would help gather crucial information for the research topic.
Some of the questions posed to people staying with Second Life addicts shall include: What can you say of your relationship with the person addicted to Second Life before and after they got hitched to the game? If you have noted changes in your relationship, what have you done to try and restore a healthy relationship? These among other questions will further help to respond to the research topic.
Experts shall respond to the symptoms of addiction to computer games, and specifically addictions to virtual computer world. I shall also quiz them on the effects of addiction and the remedies that have been proven to rehabilitate addicts.
I opt for a combination of questionnaires ad interviews in order to increase the credibility of the information I obtain. Questionnaires present respondents with the privacy and freedom to express themselves freely. However, they are restrictive in terms of the amount of information the respondent may share because they are rigidly structured. In an interview I will have the opportunity to create a rapport with the respondents, empathize with them, seek clarification, and thereby obtain credible and exhaustive information.
It would be fruitful to conduct this research at a time of the year when people spend most of their tie outdoors. This way, I will be able to obtain credible information from the “real” addicts of Second Life since they would rather spend time “inworld” than participating in any other outdoor activity.
Results expected
I expect to obtain information that will respond to the objectives of the research. The numerical information obtained such as number of hours a resident spends inworld, in comparison to attending to other activities shall be presented as a pie chart. In cases of numerical data showing progression of a given involvement with time say an increment in the number of hours spent per day inworld over a month; such data shall be presented as a line graph.
Information yielding facts shall be compiled and harmonized with the deductions made from the graphs in order to come up with a comprehensive report on the research topic. I expect to find the symptoms of addiction to not only Second Life but generally all computer games. I also expect to establish with certainty the effects of addictions to Second Life and other computer games. Finally, I expect to offer mitigation measures to online gaming addictions and offer remedies to those who are already addicted.
Conclusion
Addictions to computer games are on the rise and there need to curb this form of addiction. The results obtained from this study are expected to help mitigate against addiction and offer practical solutions to help those people who are already addicted to second life and other games. Other areas that the research will touch on include highlighting some other additive online games besides Second Life.
References
Barnett, J. & Coulson, M. (2010) Virtually Real: A Psychological Perspective on Massively Multiplayer Online Games. Review of General Psychology.
Block, J. J. (2008) issues for DSM-V: Internet addiction. American Journal of psychiatry 165,306-307.
Cole, H. & Griffiths, M. (2007) Social interactions in massively multiplayer online role playing games. Cyberpsychology & Behavior, 10 (4): 575-583
Ducheneaut, N & Moore, R. (2004). The social side of gaming: A study of interaction patterns in a massively multiplayer online game. In proceedings of the 2004 ACM conference on computer supported cooperative work (Pp. 360-369).
E.J. Mundell (2007). Video Game Overuse May Be an Addiction: Experts. HealthDay. Retrieved 9 Jan 2013 from
Kelly, R. (2004) Massively multiplayer online role playing games: The people, the addiction and the playing. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc.
Moody, E. (2001). Internet use and its relationship to loneliness. CyberPsychology & Behavior 4:393^01.
O'Reilly, M. (1996). Internet addiction: a new disorder enters the medical lexicon. Canadian Medical Association journal 154:188-189.
Peris, R. (2002). Online chat rooms: virtual spaces of interaction for socially oriented people. CyberPsychology & Behavior 5:43-51.
Shotton, M.A. (2001). The costs and benefits of "computer addiction. Behavior Information and Technology 10:219-230.
Tanner, L. (2007). Is video-game addiction a mental disorder? Associated Press. Retrieved Jan 9 2013 from
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Thaleman, R., Grusser, S. M. & Griffiths, M. (2007). Excessive computer game playing: evidence for addiction and aggression? Cyberpsychology & Behavior, 9 (5), 14-25.
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Young, K. (1998). Caught in the net: how to recognize the signs of Internet addiction—and a winning strategy for recovery. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
