MMORPGs to close at summer

After serious criticisms directed to the latest gaming development of massive multiplayer online role playing games (MMORPGs), a suggestion happily greeted by Blizzard is to close the World of WarCraft during the most sunny days of the summer - but limited to two or three hours per day, otherwise it would be a economical suicide, Blizzard representatives stated March 31.

“ "They let the youngsters play the betas for free and once the full games are released, people are already addicted!" ”

Not only World of WarCraft, but also games such as Dark Age of Camelot, Lineage 2, Final Fantasy XI and Anarchy Online has been seriously critized for the addiction to the games causes to young people. "Open betas are one of the most dangerous tools used by companies developing these games", Erica Brathzoker says, CEO for the Health and Care Organization in Oxford. "They let the youngsters play the betas for free and once the full games are released, people are already addicted!". A group of organizations under the leadership of the Health and Care Organization has gathered up and signed a petition where they require the games to close their servers during summer time. The e-mail was sent to Squaresoft, NCSoft, Mythic Entertainment and Blizzard Entertainment. Apart from the counter-suggestion published by Blizzard, none of the companies have chosen to officially reply to the requirement from the health organizations.


Suggested schedule for summer server down time around the world.

Close WoW two hours during summer time?

[s]wow[/s]As a counter-suggestion to the requirement, Blizzard suggested a system where the World of WarCraft servers would go offline for a couple of hours in each country depending on time zones. During the day's most sunny hours (suggested from ten to noon or noon to two), the realms would force a idle period where no one could chat nor move, fight nor trade. This suggestion as made because Erica Brathzoker and her fellow employees believes that summer should be spent outside - not infront of a computer living a life that do not exist in the real world. Blizzard counters by stating: "More than two hours a day would be an economical suicide", Blizzard representative Mike Thander stated - "People payed for playing and it's got to be their responsibility to decide when! We can't close down the servers for whole days!"

The rest of Battle.net remain the same?

The petition did not include any requirements whatsoever regarding the Battle.net service as a whole. It was directed to the massive multiplayer online games specifically, and because of this Blizzard's reponse seems to be affecting World of WarCraft only. Whether the suggestion actually will be implemented or not is still in debate within the company and will be announced in March 25th, at Blizzard's annual press meeting.

Read the public statements at the organizations' respective homepages.

Links
Blizzard.com - Counter-suggestion to the requriement
Health and Care Organization - Official homepage