The Proteus Paradox by Nick Yee Read Free Book Online

These virtual worlds allow players to engage in very different kinds of gameplay side by side.
The Paradox of Escape
    Online games are like school in many ways. Both provide predefined rewards for a set of highly constrained and objectively measured activities. If you write all your letters between the rows of gray lines, you get a silver star. If you get ten silver stars, you can trade up for a gold star. If you want to get into a good college, you need to get a certain score on the SAT. Wherever you are in the education tread-mill,you know exactly where you are, where you’ll be next, and how to get there. For about sixteen years of our lives, this is the model of progress we are all taught. And then we’re let loose into the real world, where these rules go away. Goals are no longer defined for you. Performance in many jobs has no clear objective measure. Sometimes your boss takes the credit, someone else gets promoted instead, or you reach a dead-end within the company. The real world is tough, and it’s often unfair.
    Not so in online games. Everyone who kills the evil bandit gets the same amount of experience points. Goals are clear, predefined, and fair. Your achievements are displayed in a multitude of easy-to-read progress bars.
    In an MMORPG you can see a consistent progression of development in your skills. You are getting better at a steady rate. In RL you don’t level up when you get ahead, it isn’t as obvious. [
World of Warcraft,
male, 31]
    While I personally own and run a successful small business, and have enjoyed reaching milestones and goals I’ve set for myself, they come fewer and farther between than I NEED , and so, playing online games allows me to find a positive outlet for that need to achieve on a regular basis. [
World of Warcraft,
female, 37]
    We don’t play games just because they fit our gameplay motivations, we also play them for deeply human and cultural reasons. For many players, like the successful small business owner, this can be therapeutic. Online games can provide a cheap, convenient way of feeling progress. On the other hand, playing online games primarily to escape from real-life problems can easily lead to a vicious cycle.
    I have been out of work now for over a month and now find myself in a stressful, depressed state that is only quelled when I am playing EverQuest, because it’s easy to forget about real world troubles andproblems, but the problem is when you get back to the real world, problems and troubles have become bigger, and it’s a bad, bad cycle. [
EverQuest,
male, 26]
    I was having financial troubles and marital problems as well. I could ignore my real life and escape into EverQuest. This wasn’t for the fun, it was a “need” that I felt to not deal with my life responsibly and EverQuest was my chosen method of “drugging” myself into blissful ignorance. [
EverQuest,
male, 33]
    Studies have consistently shown that the gamers who are most at risk for problematic gaming—gaming that makes it difficult for someone to manage their life—are those who are suffering from depression and social anxiety. In this light, problematic gaming arises from failed attempts at self-treatment. Players who play to escape are precisely the ones who become increasingly saddled with reality. Crucially, once these psychological well-being variables are taken into account, the effect that game variables (such as gameplay motivations) have on problematic gaming is marginal. In fact, gaming can be beneficial when it’s part of a healthy palette of social interactions. Family members who play online games together report more family communication time and better communication quality. Dmitri Williams often uses a phrase that succinctly captures these differences in outcomes: “The rich get richer and the poor get poorer.” These findings underscore two related and important points: gaming can augment existing social