Gamepolitics.com has an interesting article:
http://www.gamepolitics.com/2008/12/09/wow-trashing-some-college-students039-grades

The core of it is the question: Are World and Warcraft and other MMOs leading some college students to neglect their studies?

I shall lay down my observations and opinion on this…

Let me tell you of a series of events I observed while I was at a college, lets call it…. IAD. IAD was the course I was studying. Now the moment I entered college, my parents, in their wisdom, has planned for this moment, and undertook a one year, short-term mission thingy over somewhere in the west. Following it, they took a 3(?) year mission engagement to the north, coming back sporadically due to its proximity. This effectively meant two things. My parents wasn’t around after my high school years, and I had to live independently since. Cool!

Note:  My parents raised me up to be able to live independently, and I can proudly say, the house is still standing after so many years taking care of it. For now. 😀

So, this IAD, it was among a few other colleges, in a commercial+residential… square(no western equivalent) that, over time, has learned to cater to the students. There is no less than four stationary shops with atleast two commercial-level photostatting machines, not to mention the many convenience stalls, all, with few exception, having their atleast one photostatting machine. This is not counting the professional printers. Not impressed? Fine, houses has been converted into rooms. A 60×20 two story house(upstairs may be about 40×20) can contain more than 10 boarded up rooms! Lord knows how the morning rush to toilet is resolved. Maybe by drawing sticks… or blood. Nothing out of the ordinary? I hear the USA has towns built and solely supported by the students of a particular university. This place wasn’t originally intended for it, but I have one more impressive card up my sleeve. Internet cafes.

Hooo yah, Internet Cafes.

Over here, original games are not cheap, and broadband sucks. Thus internet cafes has sprung up all over the country as an alternative for entertainment. So how many internet cafes? 10? Nah to little. 20 perhaps? Getting warmer. Thirty??? Only if you don’t count the small ones. This particular one I used to go, SS, has two shop lots and three stories full of computers on. Some year or so back, a giant internet cafe opened. One floor has about 300 computers. It is two stories of massive gaming. One other cafe has comfy couches and big stretch TVs for their customers. (this is like quite a while back, 42″ TVs were not in the average home then) During public holidays, unless you know someone, or are early, you would NOT have space. Does your university town have that? Bet ya it doesn’t. And all this inside… say a square kilometer, 1.5 km max. Well more a rectangle who longest side is 1, 1.5 km but you get the point.

So, the temptation is there. Bait is dangling from the string….

Now as many college goers may experience, they have to leave home for extended periods of time. A lot stay away from their family, usually for the 1st time. And sometimes while staying away, they get bored. Or waiting in between classes to start, a wait of 2 or 4 hours seems rather long. Gee what to do.
Play pool? ¤12 per table per hour. Movie? Gotta drive like 10 minutes and it costs ¤9 per student, but per two hours. Finding parking is hell, forget it. Smoke and chitchat? Government has been increasing the cost of cigs. %$@$@ Say, how bout ¤2 per hour of entertainment? And no health risk or headache of finding parking!

Needless to say, lots of college students play various games, mostly DotA and CS v1.6, or COD4. So what is so interesting? If you were to ask a random male 1st year student in IAD, he most likely will play with you on his free time. As a random second year, and a few replies will come out like: I cannot or will not play it. Either one of those two. Why?

😀

Cos they started failing. They would play before and after class, at home online (its bearable, but not to me) and on their hostel LAN/WAN. Scholarship students failing! It was an interesting observation to see how the students reacted to this. Of course not all failed, but many an A’s was discarded among late nights of glowing monitors.

  • Some stopped cold turkey. Not easy, but they did. Imo, their social circle suffered the most as birds of a feather…
  • Others attempted to manage their time. Regulate doses of gaming with studying. Some succeeded, others fell into the next category.
  • Still others could not discipline themselves. They played all the time, and scraped through. Not all managed to scrape through.

Now I’m not talking a few students here, there, I mean A LOT OF THEM had their 1st taste of the dangers of unsupervised lifestyle from internet cafes. And a lot of them were probably punished. Unless you were already a gamer who has learn’t where games are in your life, (woo a new potential blog post!) this is your baptism by fire. Well, fire from a CT behind that crate, but still.

Getting back on hand, Are World and Warcraft and other MMOs leading some college students to neglect their studies?
No, MMOs and WOW(ignoring the redundancy, they should be placed in that order) is not the sole or close to the sole time consuming games in the world.
Are games leading some a lot of college students to neglect their studies?
YES!!

Make no mistake, games are addictive. Like every other entertainment, be it TV, Novels, or Clubbing, its fun, and therefore desirable. Do enough of it and its addictive.

Quick story:  I once was asked by some psychology students if I would like to participate in their group project about addicts, particularly a game addict. By then, I built a reputation around a game, DotA, having being associated with me and the contests I ran. So I said yes, why not. It is an opportunity to learn something, including about myself. Later in the day, lo and behold, the Head-Of-Department-Of-IAD called me into Her Office. Shes actually cool. Imo she would be a really good youth leader of sorts if she wanted, but when asked, she said God wanted her to be in the college. Great lady, the kind you respect just cos she deserved it. Anyway, she was sounding out her PSY students, those 2 who came and accused me of addiction asked me to be their pet guinea pig. Apparently 4+ hrs of gaming a day on college days and 8+ hrs of gaming during holidays was not enough to consider me as an addict experiment. I was standing there, unsure if I should consider it as a complement as a human being, or an insult as a gamer. Hmm. There apparently are more parameters to indicate addiction. Needless to say, I’m still a psychology experiment virgin.

FYI: I’m close to 16 hrs/day on the comp now that I’m on holiday. End of story.

So, Gaming Discipline, ah yes, the point of the blog post. The bible says lots of things about discipline. But one of the greatest truths I found in my life, is this: “Moderation if possible, none or all if not.” -by me. Learn to moderate your gaming, and you won’t get in trouble. Granted, I would be getting more A’s if I did not game, instead of B’s, but I place academic achievements slightly above the ability to fart with your armpit. I’ve personally learn’t more from games than from school, but thats me. Marks is the standard that other people use to gauge your intelligence. How much that says about theirs is irrelevant to the fact that to win in life, marks equate to the opportunities given in life, and how some people precieve you. Kinda like your CHA and/or Luck score ingame.

I can’t stress this enough to my fellow gamers, Don’t Be Stupid. Just as you don’t get abilities that let you deal one hit KOs but not be able to move fast enough to get close to hit in a PVP game, don’t spend all your time in games. Play em when you can, the rest of the time, learn how to fart with your armpit. If you can’t or have already mastered armpit farting, go down the list to the next thing. Thats what I did!

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Links:

Minnesota University Sees Compulsive Gaming as Real Issue for Students (Original Story)
http://www.gameculture.com/node/949
World of Warcraft @ Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_of_warcraft
Massive Multiplayer Online (Games) @ Wikipedia. (WoW is a MMORPG.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MMO
DOTA AKA. Defense of the Ancients @ Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dota
DOTA AKA. Defense of the Ancients resource website:
http://www.dotaportal.com/