Tibia from psychological point of view: Influence of Tibia on people's personalities and Tibia as cure for stress and anxiety

Hi everyone! I am Divine'Angel and I would like to present to you a new series of articles about Tibia from a psychological point of view. If you are psychology freaks just like me and also as passionate about Tibia as me, sit comfortably and I will do my best to provide you some good reads!

In this work, I will focus on the psychological aspects of Tibia to support the thesis that Tibia has a great deal of impact on the player's personality and life. Moreover, I will try to prove it that Tibia has got a lot of factors that not only help the players cope with social anxiety and depression but also shape their personalities in a way that helps them in their real lives.

I decided to divide this work into the following paragraphs:

1. Introduction: Why is Tibia important for us?

2. Adolescence and personality traits: Did Tibia influence us?

3. Does Tibia affect us in any way?

4. Tibia as medicine for anxiety and stress

5. Conclusion

6. Survey visuals

1. Introduction: Why is Tibia important for us?

There is no doubt that Tibia differs from many other games. First of all, the medieval-themed MMORPG online has one of the most devoted communities which means that Tibia can boast a very long playing span of their particular players. The reason why it takes place will be discussed in my future works however, for now, let us focus on how long Tibia players have actually remained in the Tibia community.

She survey I held on my social media says that 88% of the respondents have played Tibia for over 5 years and only 12% of them for less than 5 years. Having researched a little I have to admit that this result is very good and if it comes to the players' loyalty, Tibia can take its spot right next to the most trending MMORPGs online.

Now, there is a very interesting issue I decided to take up in my survey. I risked asking Tibians if they would agree with the statement that Tibia is just a game. I expected some of them to answer negatively to that question but to my surprise, 43% of them disagreed with the statement, which is a very interesting result and I would like to elaborate on that in my future works.

I think tibia is more then just a game because of all the different things you can do. For example, sometimes I don't even feel like 'playing' but I just login to talk with my friends some, while doing things in real life meanwhile. Some of my friends play it also to earn some cash, and some people chill while decorating etc.. For me this is the reason why I like Tibia. Because, even though it's a game, you are completely free to play it how you like it - Kimmiey

I Think Tibia is more than a game because it helped me through alot difficult stages in my live. Mostly because I found so many friends which are a huge blessing! I also learned English in a very young age. - Oleevia

Tibia gave me the most important things for my life. It gave me my personality, my friends, (most of them are Argentinian and I've finally met them IRL), funny and sad moments... Also, I learnt two extra languages which is very important for me and I can't consider it 'just a game' - Lady Elixir 

We should take into consideration the reason why so many people find their place in Tibia. Regardless of its great adventurous vibe, there must be other reasons behind it. For now, let us focus on the most important one: a kind of personality. I decided to ask Tibians if they consider themselves introverted or extraverted. 37% of the respondents claimed to be extraverts and 63 % of them claimed to be introverts. Based on the information provided on numerous forums it is certain that MMORPGs enjoy much more popularity among introverts than extraverts.

As can be seen, one could elaborate on every psychological aspect of the issue and in the future, all the listed aspects will be taken into consideration. However, for now, let us focus on Tibia's influence on our personalities.

2. Adolescence and personality traits: Did Tibia influence us?

Throughout many years of playing, I have figured out that the most of Tibians were born in between 1985 - 1997,  which means the most of Tibians are either in their early 20s or their middle 30s and the average age of a Tibian nowadays can be estimated as 27 up to 29 years old. If we take into consideration the previous result of the survey concerning their playing span, we find out that 88% of the respondents have played Tibia for over 5 years. This means that a great number of them played Tibia during their puberty time. As we know from psychology, the period of puberty has a significant impact on shaping a person's personality and further perception of the world. I, myself, am aware of the fact that Tibia had a lot of impact on me while growing up and becoming an adult woman. I asked Tibians if they have a similar impression and 64 % of them answered positively.

Following on from that I asked them if they would assess Tibia's impact on their personalities as good or bad and 83% of respondents claimed that Tibia has a good impact on their lives overall, which sounds very optimistic.

I started playing Tibia when I was 8 years old, and being so introverted as I was, Tibia shaped my personality since I found a way to speak up my mind and find where I could fit and what I wanted. Tibia shaped my sense of justice and my positive attitude to the world that helped me to be open and leave my shyness behind. - Mirius Anyr

Tibia shows how different the people who play it are. You may find good people but you have to be careful. What I mean is that one day someone might like you but you might be just someone from Tibia for them the very next day. There are women who might confess love to people just out of interest in material things and the men fall for that. Also, I had a lot of 'friends' in my guild who changed sides and would insult me for no reason the next day. So, the influence of tibia on my personality is that I know that everyone is a good person, until they have interest in you - Dumon Von'terryer

Out of pure curiosity, I asked Tibians if they would install Tibia again if they could have traveled back in time to the day they had done it and 77% of them said they would.

3. Does Tibia affect us in any way?

Due to the fact that a significant number or Tibians claim that Tibia did have an influence on their personalities I asked them if they believe that Tibia develops good personality traits such as responsibility, honesty, and loyalty. Only 27% of them answered negative and 73% answered positively. Following on from that, I strived to find out if Tibia might develop skills useful in everyday life such as economic thinking or diplomacy, and 69% answered that it does.

Obviously, it can not be that Tibia has only had a positive impact on us and our mental well being. Because Tibia is part of our lives, there were situations when we found ourselves feeling bad due to it. According to my survey, 77% of Tibians experienced feeling sad or angry due to death in Tibia, which may sound absurd but if we are familiar with the way Tibia works, we know that such death causes us to lose a lot of time (and sometimes money) invested in the game. As trivial as a Tibia death is, I decided to approach the issue from a slightly different perspective. I asked Tibians if they have ever felt sad or angry due to conflict they have had with someone from inside the game and it turns out that 69% of them have.

If we take a look into playing Tibia as a long-term experience of our lives, we might try to look for what it taught us. I decided to ask the community if they believe that Tibia taught them a real-life lesson. The result is thrilling because 86% of them believe that the game taught them a lesson they have afterward used in their lives outside the game.

Tibia taught me to be suspicious. Not everyone who claims to be your friend is your friend. There are many false people and only very few who you can trust. - Chiltozky 

What Tibia taught me in real life is that relationships can be as good as we take care of them and it is up to us how serious that can be. I met my boyfriend in Tibia, we decided to meet irl, and now we have been in a relationship for four months and honestly, I've never been happier with anyone. This may sound silly, but it is all about love and our feelings and I think that many people in Tibia would understand what I mean. - Thurianx

Although, I believe I can risk saying that the biggest lesson Tibia has taught us is communication in foreign languages. I asked Tibians if Tibia had been any of help while learning to speak tongues and 93% of them claim it had. As an interesting fact, I would like to add that 29% of the surveyed Tibians believe that Tibia had an impact on the choice of their real-life careers.

I met a guy on the university that learned English and Portuguese because of Tibia, same as me and both of us were on the same career, the languages. - Oscar Emmanuel

4. Tibia as medicine for anxiety and stress

Last but not least, not only does Tibia influence our personalities but what's more important, it also plays a great role as a support in our mental well being. According to the survey, 74% of the respondents claim that Tibia helps them cope with anxiety, stress, and everyday problems.

I suffer from anxiety and chemistry depression because my brain doesn't produce dopamine and this helps me a lot, even when I have a lot of bad days tibia is always the cure. - Dasitho Rush

I usually play solo, so when I go hunt I put on a music playlist to make myself go "AFK brain" and it relaxes me a lot. And if I go with the team, we usually talk about tibia problems or hunt or strategies and that makes me forget about the problems for a while. - Dark Bombox

That may result from the fact that over 80% respondents asked whether their experience in Tibia throughout the last month was positive, or negative, claiming that it was positive. thus, we can clearly state that Tibia plays a significant role in reducing stress and coping with anxiety which, unfortunately, is very popular nowadays among people in our age.

To add up, 70% of people find such aspects of Tibia as hunting and questing much more relaxing than PVP and war. This may result from the fact that PVP usually connects with more intense feelings and also intense social relations while taking sides in a war

5. Conclusion

In conclusion, I'd like to emphasize the fact that regardless of that Tibia is just a game, it is a whole separate virtual world where we found ourselves as teenagers and grew up in. As can be seen, based on the survey conducted on social media, Tibia undoubtedly had and has a lot of impact on our personalities.

6. Survey visuals