Impacts of MMORPGS on an Individual’s Connectedness to Others

by Josie Butler

Every day I pick up two boys from school, help them with their homework, and cook dinner for them. Galen, who is eleven, is the boy that I interact with the most. We spend most of our time together driving to and from his practices, activities, and school. The average day usually involves him running to my car with a smile plastered on his face. At the beginning of the semester, he would jump in the back seat of my car and start talking at a rapid speed. His hands vigorously flew around as he imitated and explained something hilarious that one of his friends did that day. I always laughed. He always chuckled. After his enthusiastic rant about the day he would always ask me some type of random questions about my life. “What is your favorite kind of fruit? Why? Are you good at math? Oh - you’re bad at math? Really? Why?

Do you know much money Bill Gates makes in a second?! How do you feel about driving in Chicago?”. I think you get the point – we are friends. Even though I am technically his babysitter/ nanny, I still consider our relationship to be more of a friendship than a responsibility. We both enjoy talking, hanging out, and laughing. However, about two months ago our relationship very abruptly changed. Galen stopped asking me questions, stopped helping me cook dinner, and for the most part, he stopped laughing with me or even talking to me. In the last few weeks, when I glance into the back seat of my car I see a pale freckled face that is illuminated by a screen. His eyes are always wide and thumbs moving faster than my eyes can follow. It has become increasingly difficult to convince him to finish his homework or get more than one-word answers for any of my conversational questions. So I asked him, “Galen, do you think you’re addicted to Fortnite?”, to which he replied, “Yeah, probably”.

For a few days, I didn’t worry a lot about him. I assumed the distance that was now in our friendship would be a short-lived stage and he would soon be reacquainted with life off of the screen. I assumed that he would notice how much he changed, and how he seemed to lose his joyful composure. I assumed that if he noticed those changes in his personality that he would want to change back to his joyful self. Yet, as the days go by and I approach my last work week with this family, I am losing hope that reality will triumph over fantasy in my friendship with Galen. Something about this game has grabbed the entire attention and affection of an eleven-year-old boy and all of his friends and it is stripping all of them of their desire to be in reality with other people. They seem to prefer virtual community over reality.

This is not the only friendship that has abruptly changed or ended because of the Fortnite epidemic, specifically, and other MMORPGs. A lot of my male friends, specifically, are trading in their face-to-face interactions with people for their virtual communities on MMORPG games. Three of my friend’s names would fit into the story I shared, and as I walked around campus today I overheard a handful of different conversations about the epidemic. “They even know all of the music and dances. Seriously, they are so addicted…you don’t understand”, said a female student talking to a peer about Fortnite. “The boys are so mindless when they play the game. I cannot believe I am actually going to get them a gaming computer for Christmas, but that is all they wanted and asked for! They don’t want board games or books this year.”, explained Galen’s mother. I find these comments, and my personal experience alarming. Although the MMORPG social effect is not entirely new, Fortnite has captured the loyal attention of millions of teenage boys around the world. With a movement as strong as Fortnite, it is important for gamers to understand that MMORPG games cannot fulfill a person’s fundamental need for community in a healthy way.  

The Virtual Void

Communicating virtually is very different than communicating face-to-face. While discussing a friendship that existed over email, Joseph Epstein said, “I felt he was a touch nervous when we spoke over the phone. His preferred medium is, apparently, the computer, specifically e-mail” (Epstein). A majority of the people who use technology would admit that something is just different while communicating virtually. Communicating through a device leaves most conversations lacking in the emotional structure of a face-to-face conversation. At the same time, it has never been easier to connect with people. Technology users can call anyone at nearly any time, or text, or talk on headsets as they play video games. We can connect faster, with more people, and with less effort. Quick communication is not just for the businessman in a conference call or the middle school girls who start group chats with their friends, but these quick connections are also very prevalent in MMORPG games through the use of headsets with microphones and speakers. This technology allows the gamers to talk freely as they play games. Unlike other forms of technology that is meant for communication, there are no “rules” for conversation over a headset while playing an MMORPG game. By “rules” I am referring to the way that specific technologies are normally used. For example, during a phone call, people generally talk about something for either a long period of time or a short briefing of information. It is not normal to be on the phone with someone and not to actually talk with them. There is an expectation or “rule” that communication will look a certain way over different mediums.

In an online discussion about headsets, one player said that he uses his headset to talk to his friends and to catch up with them occasionally. He said these conversations are very similar to the average phone call conversations that he has with these same friends. Another commenter said that most of his headset feed is static noise or the occasional comment from another player. He does not use the headset to have conversations, but rather he just listens to random and indirect noises from other players without engaging. Someone else said the majority of his conversations are with his opponents and they primarily trash talk each other through the headsets. This form of virtual communication is very unique because it has no “rules”. There is little to no boundaries for how the technology should be used. The user can sit idle on their end without saying anything, or they can engage with full force and say whatever they desire. 

This type of virtual communication is not the problem in itself, although the lack of communicational boundaries for the headsets is a little unnerving to me. However, talking to someone on a headset is very different from talking to someone face-to-face. It is also noticeable that using a phone or an email or a text message for an extended period of time changes the way you interact with someone face-to-face, just like talking to someone over a headset over an extended period of time alters the relationships interactions in reality. Take, for example, the previous commenter that I mentioned who uses his headset to trash talk his opponents. Outside of the game, and away from the headset, the conversation between this commenter and his opponents would likely be entirely different.

Technology, in general, provides an avenue of comfort in communication. The easy access to communication with others through a headset creates apathy in how people talk to each other, and apathy can result in damaging speech or a fake persona. “It’s easy to have charisma and confidence online, even if they’re [the gamer] lacking in real life. These relationships and companionships that are formed online are very temporary, however. They’re not strong and secure; they are short-lasting relationships that can easily disappear at a moment’s notice” (Doan). While talking through a headset might help the non-confrontational type of person face conflict, this type of virtual interaction is a careless way to communicate and does not build a healthy community. Characters come and go as they please without any repercussions because of the virtual cushion, which changes the way that conflict is handled. These changes are not normally beneficial to either person because they encourage an unnecessary aggression with words. Players on MMORPG games can say anything into a headset and never see the facial expression of who they are speaking to, which is detrimental to long-term interactions and mental health.

The physiological effect of this confrontational in communication is also harmful when gamers do not learn how to read social cues or know how to deal with the repercussion of visibly seeing hurt as a result of their words spoken out loud. For the Christian, Ephesians 4:29 speaks very clearly to this, “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.” If MMORPG games create an environment where the participants are ruthlessly using their words instead of building each other up then should Christians participate at all? I do not think so. Christians should find their community apart from these games, especially the ruthless gaming communities. Matthew 12:36 also says, “I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words, you will be condemned.” The technological divide creates enough distance that gamers can communicate however they please without facing the consequences of face-to-face conversation, but this distance does not justify using careless speech. Christian gamers should not add to the apathy of speech, and they should not find their main source of community in a virtual world where conversational apathy is so easily obtained. If MMORPG games become the Christians main source of community for an extended period of time, they forfeit a Biblical way of connecting with others.

Face-to-face conversations offer something that virtual conversations do not, otherwise they would not entirely change the way that we communicate with one another. Another problem with the prolonged use of virtual communication without any face-to-face relationship is that the gamer could create the inability to function with other people in reality. This is not healthy either. The average in-person conversation has very tangible boundaries and has more of an expectation for structure than communication over a headset. In a press release, Alan Teo, the lead author and assistant professor of psychiatry at Oregon Health & Science University said, 

“Research has long-supported the idea that strong social bonds strengthen people’s mental health. But this is the first look at the role that the type of communication with loved ones and friends plays in safeguarding people from depression. We found that all forms of socialization aren’t equal. Phone calls and digital communication, with friends or family members, do not have the same power as face-to-face social interactions in helping to stave off depression.”

Specifically, this article makes a connection between depression and social interaction. Other research and studies prove that complete and prolonged isolation is mentally deteriorating to the human soul. This information should be alarming to people who primarily communicate and find their source of community from MMORPGs. People are created by God to be apart of communities (Colossians 3:13, Romans 12:5, Hebrews 10:25), but gamers should not seek after virtual community because it is not the same. Virtual communities cannot fulfill the need for connection that all people need. Even the most introverted person experiences loneliness and depression due to the absence of human connection. Knowing that tangible community is tremendously important to the health of a person’s spiritual state, mental state, and physical state, people should seek to understand where they are finding their satisfaction for human connection and community. While virtual communication through MMORPGs might feel like it is fulfilling the gamers need for human connection, this type of connection is not enough to fill a persons need for community in a healthy and lasting way. 

The Difficult Task of Loving Reality

While it is important to understand the relationship between meaningful interactions and headsets conversation, I believe it is also important to engage with the addictive nature of MMORPG games. Playing video games, like many other activities, can offer people with an escape from reality. For a few minutes, the average teenage boy becomes the buff military man who saves the world. The lonely teenager creates the perfect escort. The failure, in reality, becomes successful in their fantasy. MMORPG games, when used to shut out the real world, can be destructive to the mental health of gamers. In an article by Psychology Today, Romeo Vitelli wrote, “People who game for fun or socializing are less likely to become addicted than people who are caught up in the need for status or simply to escape from the problems in their lives. If you’re dealing with real-life failure, escaping from that stress by playing games that give you a sense of victory or control over your life can be a helpful way of coping. Spending too much time online or “shutting out” the real world with intense gaming can be a different story, though.” The prolonged “shutting out” of the real world is not Biblical. Christians are called to be a part of the church, which is very much a part of the real world (Acts 20:28, Acts 2:42, Ephesians 2:19-22). This is no simple task. Learning to engage with reality instead of escaping to a world of fantasy is a selfless and difficult effort. 

Anyone who has at least one friend or any kind of interpersonal relationship knows how difficult it can be to connect with other people. Engaging in a tangible community is not an effortless endeavor for anyone, even the extrovert. People are unpredictable, moody, and hard-headed, but that is no excuse for the Christian to disengage from the church or from their reality of life. The Christian should be encouraged to engage with a face-to-face community because God does not merely command us to, He also led by example when he sent His son, Jesus, to experience humanity in the flesh. God thought it to be necessary to be physically present with his people which speaks to the importance of being physically present with others. Jesus physically walked with people, he talked with people face-to-face. He, who is God, was physically close enough to others to touch them. Occasionally he separated himself, but this was for the purpose of prayer. Jesus never physically isolated himself from others, so we should not be isolated either. We should engage in connecting with people in face-to-face interactions like Jesus did. We should strive to be like Christ in all things, which involves being physically present in the church with people.

For the addicted video game player, this task might seem even more daunting. It is difficult to leave a world of fantasy, where everything is the way you designed it, and enter into a world of complicated and imperfect relationships with other people. However, as I have already written about, this task is necessary for the long-term mental health of people. The individual that is consumed with fantasy must relearn how to love reality. I recognize, from my own experiences, that departing a world of fantasy and expecting to love the strain of real life seems nearly impossible. At the same time, there is an unexpected joy that comes from the bonding that takes place over a shared meal or experience. Being present, physically, with a group of people has a lot of theological significance and it bleeds into every aspect of life itself. The importance of physical presence is ecclesiological, psychological, eschatological, and so much more. Christians should recognize the importance of this, and recognize how it affects every aspect of life. The addicted gamer should leave behind their fantasies and learn how to enjoy reality. 

Breaking the Barriers

Video games were never intended to be isolating. From the beginning, computer games and video games were meant to be played alongside other people. Even the single player mode on games are frequently played with others who are present in either watching or assisting. In the duration of my research, I have talked to several people who play video games frequently, and they all ensured me that it is okay for gamers to unite with a common interest and form friendship over those interests. I agree with them because I believe that it is good for people to find others who share the same interests. However, my proposition is simply that gamers do not find their primary sense of community in a virtual fantasy. A community should be sourced in the real presence of real people, and this reality should be enjoyable. If reality is no longer enjoyed by gamers, I believe they should seek counseling and become re-engaged with reality. There is a deeper rooted issue of isolation when gamers cannot unite in a world apart from fantasy. Communities should not be dependent or addicted to the comfort of a virtual divide.

A simple solution for the person who enjoys MMORPGs, that my gamer friends agree with, is to play location-based games. It is still important for Christians to have a group of friends to hang out with apart from fantasy and games, but location-based games give the opportunity to play games in a healthier way. Playing location-based games is one solution for the isolation and virtual disconnect that MMORPG games create. Location-based games satisfy the human’s fundamental need for the tangible community while also producing the thrill of playing a game. Take, for example, the success of the Pokemon phenomenon. Virtual social groups cannot fill the void for the human’s fundamental need for community and healthy connectedness, but location-based games give the ability to mix the virtual and reality in a healthy way. Pokemon Go promotes physical activity, social engagement with reality, and it is an easy game for inexperienced players to pick up on as well. The culture and the common interests will not be eradicated amongst gamers. Instead, location-based games might actually grow friendships into a healthy and stable connection. Gamers should play together instead of in isolation with the reliance of a headset for communication. What we are all searching for is other people, and a headset fully of static noise and trash talk will not fulfill our communal needs. God created us to be in community, so if we are going to play, we should play together, but our primary source of community and connection with others should be in person. People should develop a healthy relationship with the fantasy world, while still engaging in reality.    

Sources

Dill, Karen E. How Fantasy Becomes Reality: Seeing through Media Influence. Oxford University Press, 2009.

Doan, Andrew P., Hooked on Games: the Lure and Cost of Video Games and Internet Addiction. F.E.P. International, Inc., 2012.

Epstein, Joseph. Friendship: an exposé. Mariner Books, 2007.

Schut, Kevin. Of Games and God: a Christian Exploration of Video Games. Brazos Press, 2013.