So.... World of Warcraft. Some game hey? I was reading a forum thread recently which linked to a video, which shows a  hopelessly addicted World of Warcraft gamer. This young boy is without a job, without money, and no longer attends school. But he can still spend a whopping 16 hours of the day staring at the screen. That is scary beyond imagination.

Addiction? Believe it.

Child dies as parents play World of Warcraft.

Expert believes 40% of all World of Warcraft players addicted.

China imposes online gaming curb.

And, putting myself in the picture, I too was incredibly addicted, playing for hours at a time, even when I realised, "this isn't fun".

So I read through the forum thread, and then read up some others. I visited the Official WoW site, and checked out their forums. Looked at what they had planned for their upcoming expansion. Saw how they created a game which has such a great pull. Over 7 million gamers and growing. How they kept things interesting by opening some dungeons at particular times, and holding occasional festivals.

It truly is a game designed to be played for the ages. But is it really fun?

Well, I thought it was. World of Warcraft is a very fun game. But looking back, and here it is, I found it to be a game where you are trying to one up the other player. And if you know them personally, all the better. What I mean to say is, World of Warcraft is just a showcase for pretty armor pieces. It's a platform for well crafted avatars that you have to constantly work on. Nothing else.

There is some research into this.

The Palo Alto Research Center has been studying how people play Massive Multiplayer Online games, and have been particularly keeping close dibs on World of Warcraft. Their preliminary results are rather shocking.

We play World of Warcraft primarily by ourselves.

So, here's the million dollar question. Why the hell would you be paying to play online only to have a solo experience? There are many great role playing games out there which don't make you pay to play, and there is even a MMO known as Guild Wars, which is probably the biggest competition to World of Warcraft and doesn't charge you a cent after you purchase the game. Then there are games like The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, which exemplify a solid well rounded solo role playing game without skipping on detail.

My thought on this? Playing an MMO is different to playing a single player role playing game because there is a passive social element there. It's lurking in the background. It's something you notice on occasion, and while your gaming session may not require you to use the emote button or pose a question, you appreciate it being there, all the same.

Let us skip all the Chuck Norris talk (we know they're playing on their own) and those who speak 1337, and get to the refined local chit chat which is so endearing. It's like playing cards only it's fantasy based. You build up a collection of friends, and before you know it, you're chatting. But once you have reached end game, level 60, things rapidly change.

What a Massive Multiplayer Online game does have over it's solo player brother is the ability to show off gear and have it appreciated, remarked upon and even awed. There are times when even I got a little over questing and grinding my level, and checked out what people were wearing in any given city.

And of course, once I reached end game, got decent armor and weapons, I found myself being the object of affection, instead of being the spectator. Of course, Blizzard keep updating their database with ever increasing hard to get and find gear, but that won't stop those of us who have fell in love with this game.

Going back to Oblivion, you can see how this game would serve well as a MMO. Look up any Oblivion fan site, and check out some of the messages on the forums. People are dying to show off their equipment, and are hastily putting together the best possible outfits and creating character screenshots to show off just how awesome they are.

If they can show off, they will.

This isn't exclusive to World of Warcraft, though it is most prevalent there. Those of us who have played City of Heroes or City of Villains know exactly what I'm talking about. There's been many instances of people creating virtual avatars just so they can show off a new outfit. At the drop of a hat, someone will even suggest a costume comp, and competition is fierce to be approved by your fellow game players.

This is no longer about social play. This is virtual penis measurement.

The real play (for the most part) is done on your own. Imagine it, you're using an MMO to just show off, and the real gaming that you're doing you can get without having to pay the fees. Preposterous? Or is this a little too close for comfort?

So what does this mean for the future of games? Well.. how about it's legitimised? People seem to be happy taking screens of their characters and plastering them anywhere they possibly can while they can, so how about we give them a place where they can actually have that virtual pissing contest without resorting to spamming boards left and right. Windows Vista, Live Anywhere and Windows Live offer a mountain of ways that gaming and competition become more integrated.

Take the example of Oblivion again. How about a way in which people could socialise, trade and show off with gaming avatars based on their game characters? All without closing the program? Anyone play Project Gotham Racing 2? Wasn't it cool that you could download a players ghost car and learn how they passed a challenge? Or what of Project Gotham Racing 3? People were easily able to heckle gamers they didn’t even know, and yet it added to the experience in innumerable ways.

Could there be pressure on the subscriber base if a publisher were to go to the lengths to allow gamers to show off their virtual selves in a game normally reserved for playing on your own? It couldn't hurt to try, could it?