3) I Got So Engrossed in Slashing

One and a half hour into MS, I was totally engrossed in slashing and hacking away at all the monsters that came in my way. Why I said I was engrossed? Because something happened and my reactions justified that I was pretty immersed in the game already.



Server Maintenance! Argh!!

Suddenly the feeling of being let-down just came into me. A couple of thoughts just popped into my mind then... "Gosh! Why can't this happen later? I'm almost reaching Level 8 already!"; "Not fair! At least let me level up first!"

Driven by a sense of urgency to reach Level 10, fuelled by the let-down feelings, I tried to re-log in back to the game server. Not once, not twice but five immediate times and all unsuccessful. Each try with greater frustration arising in me, boiled over by the sense of unfulfilment. But everything was to no avail.

Every 5 minutes interval, I would try to log in again. And finally after 45 minutes, the game server was up and I was in again! I had to buck up and catch up on the lost time....

Analysis: I could experience for myself the fun factor of the game. The thrill of just slashing away at the monsters and deriving mesos and items out of them is just so fulfilling. The great fulfilment comes from the seeing your experience points chalking up. Once immersed in the game, it would be really frustrating when things happen that stop me from playing i.e. the game server was down for this instance. The frustration showed when I furiously kept punching away at the keyboard trying to re-log in.

This is a first clear indicator of computer games gaining a grip on kids. No wonder many kids show their frustrations by throwing tantrums, flare temper or become moody whenever parents exert restrain on them from playing games.