Online Role-Playing Can Zap Marital Happiness

H

HardOCP News

[H] News
Joined
Dec 31, 1969
Messages
0
A new study says online RPGs wreaking havoc on your relationship. Who knows? Maybe its the opposite, you are playing RPGs because your relationship is in the dumper?

Online role-playing games, typically of the massively multiplayer variety, have a reputation for wreaking havoc on real-world relationships. Now, researchers can back up that notion with survey results and can pinpoint the problems that result from such gaming. The survey, from researchers at Brigham Young University, is set to appear tomorrow in the Journal of Leisure Research.
Click to expand...
 
LOL how many rocket scientists did it take to figure that one out? I have played my share of mmorpg's and you really have to ignore real life to be productive in those types of games. That is unless you marry a girl that has not life as well ;)

I just decided to play FPS's and keep the wife :D
 
Crazy Chuckster said:
LOL how many rocket scientists did it take to figure that one out? I have played my share of mmorpg's and you really have to ignore real life to be productive in those types of games. That is unless you marry a girl that has not life as well ;)

I just decided to play FPS's and keep the wife :D
Click to expand...

LOL, this. Serious raiding = /end marriage :D

Something I can jump in and out of without big time time commitments = happy wife.
 
Wait, what? MMORPG players have relationships that last long enough to evolve into marriage?
 
What is even worse is when your wife is a WoW raider.

I do not miss that game. I get so much more accomplished since we both quit. We deleted our characters this time too... No regrets!
 
.....Journal of Leisure Research.....
Click to expand...

That stood out to me more than the actual article content. I'd love to have a badass job title like, 'Director of the Journal of Leisure Research'. The Dos Equis guy doesn't have anything on that.
 
canna said:
That stood out to me more than the actual article content. I'd love to have a badass job title like, 'Director of the Journal of Leisure Research'. The Dos Equis guy doesn't have anything on that.
Click to expand...
I don't always research, but when I do, I do it leisurely?
 
Renchan45 said:
MMORPG players have relationships that last long enough to evolve into marriage?
Click to expand...

Of course they do! Star Wars: ToR has its marrage system, and the amount of cyborz going on in WoW is quite shocking. Hell, there are even people that get married in game, just look at second life. ;)
 
Renchan45 said:
Wait, what? MMORPG players have relationships that last long enough to evolve into marriage?
Click to expand...

To tell you the truth, yes.

The two MMOs I have played the longest were Final Fantasy XI and EVE Online. In FFXI, I've known two people who were in my first Linkshell in that game. They met up in real life a year later, dated, and eventually married two years later. They slowly got busy in real life that they no longer play now. Plus, they didn't like how Square-Enix was handling the game at that time. However, that's another story entirely.

Another couple in FFXI play because it's like a day off for them from work. No kids yet but they tell me that with their current jobs, they can't afford kids anyway. They want to get a house first before thinking about children. However, they also met in the game, met up in real life and eventually married. They're one of the funnier couples I've met in the game.

The third couple, not married yet, but play on and off during the week. Both live in Alaska and the game to them is just something they do on the side. They still have their real lives to care for but unlike what the article stated, they are very much happy in-game and out.

In EVE Online, my last Corp Vice President (before the Corp broke up) was already married when she started the game. She eventually talked her husband into playing the game and he plays it every now and then. It gives them something to do when they're on the road. They're both truck drivers so they're on the road a lot. She eventually started her own corp because the last leader, my old Corp President, kept getting us in wars. I eventually left the corp and joined an ex-corp member's new corp in the game. I still keep in contact with her and her husband. I believe that the one aspect they like about the game is that it's a very "mental" strategy game and how the game is very open to players.

I believe the husband though now plays Star Trek Online since he hasn't had much time to devote to EVE at the moment, and it seems it doesn't take much effort to get far in STO anyway. Plus, it being free now was a bonus incentive for him.

Again, all those above are very happy outside the MMOs they play. Now, that may not reflect other married couples that play MMOs or spouses that play MMOs, but these couples do exist.

It's funny when I listen in on Vent chat and you can hear the wife in the background asking him to go to bed. :D And, for one guy I knew in FFXI, he would reply in Vent that he has to go to bed now to take care of the wife. :p He was so funny though. Very good memories having him in Vent chat, especially when his wife came on his character while he tended with the kids. She had no idea how to play his character, and his LS mates would joke around with her and she'd joke back, and how they'd tell her the wrong things to do in the game just to get him killed. Hahaha.

"Why, yes, you can tank that NM on his WHM (White Mage)..." :D

Good times, good times. ;)
 
This just in, abusing things / doing them excessively can end marriages too!

What a concept! I'll take my $500,000 research fee now.
 
I like 'disruption of bedtime rituals' as a reason. They're probably trying to be coy and intend "SEX" to be inferred by that, but I know plenty of guys who have to go to sleep when their wife/girlfriend does or a hissy fit gets thrown.

I'm a night owl, and my wife learned that back when she was just my girlfriend. So as long as I'm, *ahem*, "attending to my marital duties correctly", amongst other things, she's more than happy to fall asleep and let me stay up and let me have my time to do whatever.

I do need to curb that shit on the weekends though, because I've been dragging ass on Saturdays from staying up too late playing TOR. Friday night seems to be the only night everybody logs on.
 
MMO's are fine if played in moderation. Around an hour a day, run a dungeon, screw around, then LOG OFF. The people who RAID and spend hours on end in these games have issues.
 
So we have a new study... and did this new study basically do the same things as all the other studies that came before it that came to the same conclusions.
 
c71dae5a-5bee-40ee-b299-6c8352641d3d.jpg
 
FndTheRver said:
I know a couple mormons, and they rail against video games like they're the creation of satan. Probably what the church teaches them.
Click to expand...

I'm Mormon. I love video games and so does my whole family. In fact, most of my local congregation likes video games.

Also, not at FndTheRver, but what does the study being done by BYU (Mormons) have to do with the results?
 
FndTheRver said:
I know a couple mormons, and they rail against video games like they're the creation of satan. Probably what the church teaches them.
Click to expand...

Before this gets in a kill the Mormons thread, as one of the few Mormons on here...

The official church rules are is as follows:
1. Avoid Intense/large amounts of violence
2. Avoid games with large amounts of nudity

It is up to the members to decide where to draw the line. Some say its all games, others any M rated games. I know some members that don't watch TV at all. On the other hand, me and the majority of my friends, (good standing members) play (halo, mw3, gears of war3...) on a weekly bases...

The key is its up to the members to decide.
 
Hmm, play mmo a couple hours every few days together with wife. The time it takes to get a group together and run an adventure or two, or 1 raid on occasion(not 10). Works great, probably even helped us!

LOL on the other hand.... doesn't work so well.
 
Skolar said:
Also, not at FndTheRver, but what does the study being done by BYU (Mormons) have to do with the results?
Click to expand...

BYU has an agenda, as does most research, but that's what peer review is for. I mean the tobacco industry has plenty of research on the positive effects of cigarettes but none of it is peer reviewed thus completely useless.

Image research from BYU that explains how Nephites and Lamanites lived in america thousands of years ago and wielded metal instruments and yet somehow left 0 trace of their existence, would anyone trust this research?

This being said BYU can produce valid research within the restrictions of their agenda as can the tobacco industry.
 
The study is bullshit focusing on just MMO's when its just the latest incarnation of normal human time wasting activities such as watching tv, reading, writing, working, hunting, fishing, shopping, fucking, sleeping, running, drinking, drugs, etc.

If these things do not hurt other people please kindly fuck off and leave them alone to do as they please.
 
stevedave said:
BYU has an agenda, as does most research, but that's what peer review is for. I mean the tobacco industry has plenty of research on the positive effects of cigarettes but none of it is peer reviewed thus completely useless.

Image research from BYU that explains how Nephites and Lamanites lived in america thousands of years ago and wielded metal instruments and yet somehow left 0 trace of their existence, would anyone trust this research?

This being said BYU can produce valid research within the restrictions of their agenda as can the tobacco industry.
Click to expand...

I agree up to a point. I'm totally comfortable with research done by an institution with an agenda as long as they neutralize alternative hypotheses that would be destructive to their findings. I don't know if this research has been peer reviewed. I think it is being published today, but all I can find right now is news articles talking about it.

I can only speak for the Computer Science department of BYU, since that's what I study and do research in, but all of the research I've participated in at BYU has been peer reviewed when it was published.
 
Skolar said:
I agree up to a point. I'm totally comfortable with research done by an institution with an agenda as long as they neutralize alternative hypotheses that would be destructive to their findings. I don't know if this research has been peer reviewed. I think it is being published today, but all I can find right now is news articles talking about it.

I can only speak for the Computer Science department of BYU, since that's what I study and do research in, but all of the research I've participated in at BYU has been peer reviewed when it was published.
Click to expand...

Sounds like you agree with me 100%.

I was just explaining how people might view the results as skewed because of the agenda.

But it's unlikely that there is an agenda against video games by Mormons as a whole. This research is probably fueled by its simplicity, obviousness and popularity of topic. If there is any type of agenda to this it would be a pro marriage agenda helping explain the high divorce and infidelity rates and that marriage is a good thing external factors cause the problems.
 
stevedave said:
Sounds like you agree with me 100%.

I was just explaining how people might view the results as skewed because of the agenda.

But it's unlikely that there is an agenda against video games by Mormons as a whole. This research is probably fueled by its simplicity, obviousness and popularity of topic. If there is any type of agenda to this it would be a pro marriage agenda helping explain the high divorce and infidelity rates and that marriage is a good thing external factors cause the problems.
Click to expand...

concede
 
They conveniently left out the fact that online games creates Marriages and relationships.
 
I used to play an MMO with my now ex-wife, who left me for someone she met *in* the MMO. I want to claim prior art on this study...
 
Keiichi said:
They conveniently left out the fact that online games creates Marriages and relationships.
Click to expand...

Yep - my wife and I met in City of Heroes about 7 years ago. Been living together for half of that time and married just over a year ago. We still play the game sometimes. There's been a few weekends lost to that game still, but it most definitely did not ruin our lives.

My best friends in person were all met through car forums. These are people I've driven hours out of my way to help drop an engine in their car or they have given me parts I needed in an emergency to get my car back on the road.

Online relationships can very easily be transferred to real life so long as you are not putting up some idiotic front on the web (I've known more than one person who was completely different in person than online - those are people I don't consider friends).
 
My uncousin dedicates several hours, 6 nights a week to Rift, relationship solid and they are expecting their second child. She even used to play occasionally. You just have to find the right combination, I guess.

There is hope, gamer nerds. Just don't expect to marry a supermodel. ;)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top