Thesis and Ideas - Paper 2

As far as my thesis and such, I don't have one as of now but I do have a few ideas for the paper.

I was thinking I would do it on World of Warcraft.

Directions to take it:
1. The game overall is not an unethical game, however since the game is role-playing, one could choose to play the game outside of moral standards making his/her realm of the game unethical. in order to successfully/or to make it entertaining... the player has to kill or steal (do whatever the quests require) in order to continue. if you choose not to you basically walk around aimlessly... what are the ethics involved in a game where the only way to receive entertainment or to successfully engage in the game is to do unethical acts

I'm not sure how to structure that into a thesis statement or if that is the actual direction I will take the paper, but as for now, that's my idea.

http://www.fatbabies.com/fatstories.html

This article talks about the difficulties of getting "The Sims Online" game to be as successful as its offline counter-part. The creators of EA games have said that they are working on ways to advance the game and make it more entertaining. The sales for the game have not been very successful and EA creators are looking for ways to promote "The Sims Online". The Sims game (offline) has remained in the top 10 games being purchased according to NPD Group Inc., and executives of EA were hoping that the online game would be just as successful; with their owners of the offline version taking interest in the online version. The fact that EA creators are attempting to widen their game reach to more main-stream gamers is ambitious, but as commented on by players who tried the free trial, you run out of things to do. Unlike the offline version of the game, players have the opportunity to interact with other real people who are also playing the game, but there is only so much you can do in the online version aside from meeting new people. EA continues to work on re-shaping their online version of "The Sims" and hopes to becomes more successful as the time progresses.

http://www.theparentreport.com/resources/ages/preteen/kids_culture/130.html

This article explored the potential "addictiveness" possessed by video games. According to the article, video games can be addictive in the sense that a child will want to learn more about the game, solve whatever needs to be solved to continue to the next level. This makes a lot of sense when you think about it. If video games were extremely simple to beat, and didn't present the gamer with a problem, there would not be as many children playing video games because they would have beat them all and there would be no entertainment value left in them. The article also touched base on how video games can expand a child's way of analyzing and strategic thinking. Which again, makes sense. The situations commonly brought up in video games requires players to think strategically and analyze the situation in order to defeat, or solve the presented issue. In addition to that, the article recommended parents that if their child seems to become addicted to video games, to make a schedule so that there is limited usage allowed. In other words, monitor and restrict how much time, daily, can be spent on playing video games. Also keep in mind other important activities to children as well, such as reading and exercise.