Adept or addicted? War of words on the World of Warcraft

Readers differ on computer games

From offplease (for new readers, this is Feedback's own Department of You Can Please Some of the People All of the Time, etc), concerning last Saturday's free gift (in London and the South East) of a trial version DVD and introductory guide to World of Warcraft, the world's biggest computer game.

On the one hand, professor Richard Bartle, of the Department of Electronic Systems Engineering at the University of Essex: "I'm writing I'm writing to congratulate you on your 8-page pullout concerning World of Warcraft: finally, a national newspaper has realised that computer games are an important part of our culture, that most of its readers will have played or are players of them, and that they can be a force for good. Bravo!

I was particularly pleased that in Ben Macintyre's piece he explained that MMORPGs [massively multi-player online role-playing games] such as WoW have their roots in a virtual world called MUD [multi-user dungeons]. The reason I'm pleased is that I co-wrote MUD (with Roy Trubshaw at the University of Essex, 1978).

It may therefore amuse you to learn that, as with the world wide web, virtual worlds are a British invention."

On the other hand, a reader e-mailed from Surrey: "I am writing to protest about the inclusion of the World of Warcraft DVD and supplement in today's edition.

The addictive and damaging nature of this and a handful of umer multi-player internet games is well known, particularly, it seems, for the academic achievements of some teenage boys. My own son has become addicted to the game. In the course of visiting various crammers to try to resurrect his academic career, I was amazed to hear time and again of boys who were badly underperforming because of this addiction.

World of Warcraft gives a lot of pleasure to many people, hut it also creates many addicts along the way, for whom the consequences are almost always negative."

We take the views of all our readers very seriously, especially when concerns arise from what was intended to be a source of information and entertainment. However, as this reader acknowledges, computer games are played and enjoyed by millions of people worldwide.

Our supplement made it clear that WoW is designed for children aged l2 and over, and the game incorporates many parental control features. More than l,OOO "game masters" are employed by its developers to scrutinise the action for suspicious or unwelcome behaviour.

Beyond that there is not much we can do to police the behaviour of individual players. This was a gift that if course requires responsible use, but will in our view be hugely enjoyed by the majority of our readers.