The Social Impact of Online Games: The Case of Germany

Abstract

The increasing uptake of broadband Internet connections not only involves a growing number of Internet users; increasing numbers of computer gamers are also using the Internet for online gaming. In addition to the continual increase in Internet use, the impact of the ‘breakthrough hit’ (Ducheneaut et al., 2006) of the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), World of Warcraft (WoW), which made online gaming a mass phenomenon, can be considered a major factor in this development of online gaming. In spring 2008, WoW was reported to have ten million paying subscribers.