Recently, Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPG) as a whole have experienced a boost in publicity and the number of participants with Blizzard’s “World of Warcraft” MMORPG hitting the German games market. In the wake of the release, multiple issues and questions arose among parents and teachers, often paired with puzzlement while they were and are still trying to understand the fascination online-gaming exerts on their wards.

To address this development, the German internet safety awareness node, klicksafe.de, has created a new section on their website, partly containing first-hand information provided by a gamer. The section features information about the typology of online games, their most popular representatives and how they work as well as articles on a variety of questions possibly arising around the issue. Topics range from the possible impact of gaming on empathy and violent behaviour to gaming addiction.

Additionally, klicksafe.de actively promoted the topic by exhibiting on the Games Convention fair in Leipzig in August this year. Klicksafe.de attracted great interest and the attending staff discovered first hand that there are indeed many questions to be addressed from the parents’ side concerning computer games and online gaming.

Jan Koschorreck, klicksafe.de