This is an attempt at a serious post. You have been warned.
The blogs I read tend to be a step ahead of my own thinking. As soon as I think about a subject, I check up on my favorite blogs and what do you know, they just wrote about that. It’s slightly unnerving.
A few links:
http://criticalqq.wordpress.com/2010/02/16/escapism/
http://gnomeaggedon.net/2010/02/16/wow-is-no-better-than-a-holiday/#more-6043
http://www.pinkpigtailinn.com/2010/01/bubble.html
http://www.righteousorbs.com/?p=1286
These are all actually posts I found within the past 2 days. What really sparked me on this line of thought was Jacque at Dots and Hots.
I was about to comment with “I play WOW to escape”… and that hit me hard. Really? Is that why I play? Hours and hours of thought later…
Yes. I play wow to escape. It’s a chance to live in another world, a world with fewer responsibilities and problems. And with more fun. Is this a good thing? No and yes.
Fewer responsibilities: I don’t have to take out the trash in Azeroth. I don’t have to clean up my house (well maybe my bank space). But no one gets on my case for having a messy bank!
More fun: Yeah, when was the last time you divided someone by zero IRL? (love that quote, Euripedes)
When a distraction becomes an obsession though, therein lies the danger. When real-life responsibilities take a back-seat to WoW responsibilities, that’s a problem. Your raid team can handle it if you have to miss out on a night. If your family needs you they may not be able to.
I’ve been unemployed for the last 2 weeks. I have put in a ridiculous amount of WoW time in. Even I say it’s ridiculous. Ridiculous to the point where… it’s *all* I’ve done except eat and sleep for at least 3 days. My chauffeuing responsibilities were nice while they lasted, it gave the appearance that I wasn’t just an unemployed bum on the computer all day. (my apologies if that offends any unemployed bums out there)
Is this a reason? Is this an excuse? Am I really that desperate to justify myself… to who? Who gets to determine how I spend my time?
And why is sitting on the couch in front of the TV watching the Olympics in any way more “productive” than sitting in front of a computer playing WoW? The logic does not compute.
Last night wasn’t all that fun for me. It was on the verge of miserable. I have a very good friend that I haven’t gotten to hang out with in awhile, mostly due to conflicting work schedules. I worked earlier and he worked later, had other things on evenings and it just didn’t work out for awhile. Oh yeah, and he just quit WoW so I don’t even get to see him on Azeroth.
Then he texts me yesterday around lunch time asking if we could hang out that night.
“Um, sorry it’s raid night? But I’m available any other time this whole week…”
“LOL wow you play that game too much. Cya.”
…
Due to my unemployment, I have had so much free time this week it’s not even funny. At any other time I could’ve just dropped whatever I was doing on an alt or whatever and gone to do something with him. But I had a previous commitment. I had signed up for a raid with my guild and I decided that would take priority.
Am I wrong for this? Yes it’s “just a game”… no. It’s not. These people are my friends too. I am not going to ditch my friends that I already had plans with just because some other friend wants to play.
Am I an idiot? I’m not saying “I’d rather play a game than hang out with you” although I’m pretty sure that’s how he’s taking it. I’m saying “I’ve already got plans with other friends.”
If I had just said that, would he have gotten as upset over it? I doubt it. Unless he guessed (correctly) that it just meant I was raiding.
If I had said that I had a ping pong tournament to go to. Would he have been upset? NO! I had a previous commitment! WHY does WoW not qualify as any other hobby out there.
The fact that I spend a lot of time on it? Nope. That’s not it. Some of the people (freaks) in the Olympics would exercise and practice for 12+ hours a day. For a hobby. I don’t care wait you say, it’s not much more than a hobby. In order to be in the Olympics, you cannot be a “professional”. Sure they get sponsored or whatever, but that is not their “job”. Something that is not a “job” but you put in time and effort into I qualify as a “hobby”. And we freaking worship them. The community as a whole worships these Olympians who set aside their personal and social lives in order to excel at their “hobby.” WoWers? Haha no. We’re laughed at, insulted.
I think the line has to be drawn at this: what do you sacrifice in order to give preference to something else? If I don’t ever spend time with my RL friend ever again because I’m playing WoW, then I’m wrong. But if I give up on my Guild friends because I’d rather do something else, I feel wrong too.
And I need to apologize to my guild for that too, last night when I heard we weren’t doing ICC I decided to text my friend back and see if he still wanted to do something. I stepped out of herding kittens because I wanted to do something else. You could try and paint it as “stepping out to let in undergeared raiders come” but no, that wasn’t my intention.
I. Ditched. You.
And I’m sorry. You guys did great in ToC and ToGC and had a lot of fun without me. I could tell. And yes, others who wouldn’t have gotten to raid if I had been there got to raid, but that doesn’t make me feel any better about it.
And of course my friend said “nah, it’s too late now” even though it was only 8 o’clock and he usually stays up until 3. Jerk.
Bottom line: I got left out of the raid AND left out of hanging with my friend. I ended up picking herbs in wintergrasp. Not my idea of fun.
Until I ended up questing on my pally again and chatting with Jacque and helped her out with a group quest or two. Thanks for talking with me!
I believe this may be my deepest and most thought-inducing post yet. Please share your thoughts in a comment, or write your own post. There should be some good discussion in here.
-Del
You were fine Del..at least in my eyes. Just like IRL, if you have a friend you haven’t seen in awhile, then telling the people who you see all the time that you would like to go see him is fine. Hell, it is more than fine, it is understandable.
You pay to play this game, you are not paid to play it. You don’t have to make EVERY raid, imo. You have to balance your offline social commitments with your online ones.
WoW has a social stigma attached to it. People liken it to that guy in the basement of his grandma’s house eating ho-hos, Joe Schmoe getting divorced over it and all the other WoW related horror stories around the world. Hell, underwater basket weaving is a hobby and how many people do you know that do that?
Either way, choose IRL over WoW any day of the week and don’t feel guilty about it. As much as we need your 1337 heals, your real life is what matters most. Any good raid leader knows this. Of course, my opinion doesn’t matter, for I R a peon, but this is just my $0.02.
I actually used to be an underwater basket weaver. Don’t hate on it.
=P
Don’t feel bad about last night. That post was directed at the officers.
Since we had 15 people accepted/logged on we needed a couple to sit out, it was the perfect night for your friend to call. Sorry that it didn’t work out.
Now that everyone else is writing about this… is there anything left for me to say? I feel like I should say something about the whole “why I play.”
Bandwagon! Jump on it!
If it makes you feel better, I didn’t know everyone else had been writing about the same thing. It was just something I had been thinking about and decided to blog about it.
You and I talked about this last night. Why is WoW so vilified? Drives me up the wall.
I don’t have much going on in my life at this time. I am single, I don’t have kids and not many friends outside of the game. The friends who don’t play dont live anywhere near me anymore. I have all this free time and am essentially alone with no restrictions towards me spending my free time in game and yet I still get flack from people for spending my free time playing.
I enjoy myself more joking in vent with my friends in game than I do going out.
I am also a big homebody, but yeah.
I enjoyed chatting with you too. Especially when you moved the mic from your throat and I could understand you.
Thanks again for the chat =) I needed it!
Anytime hun
WoW is evil. It is the devil’s child.
“Especially when you moved the mic from your throat and I could understand you”
ok Del…I dont want to know what you do in your spare time anymore.
WoW Vilified because:
Ever hear of Baby Grace? Not going to go into it. Can’t stand thinking about it actually since it happened in my own back yard technically (I live on the Texas gulf coast). Be warned if you look up the name. It was a one in a million thing but it only takes one…you know one bad apple. The man and woman involved in that case met through/blamed World of Warcraft.
I believe that is why WoW was villified above all other games to the general public.
Wow, that was just sick. I was warned… oh well.
It’s sad how anyone can immediately assume that WoW was what made them do that. And that (of course) reflects on everyone else.
3 nights in the last week I haven’t played wow.
- I was too tired (from work and playing wow)
- a mate spent the weekend halping me on my house, I kind of wanted him to go, I kind of wanted to play, I’m glad he stayed.
- last night I went to have a couple of drinks to farewell a workmate, 5 hours later I stumbles through the front door to drunk to find the pc.
This is unusual for me, if I do have the opportunity to play I will push things aside to do it.
WoW looks fresher this morning… Well considering I think I am still drunk.
If you knock your mate back because you are booked in for a raid – all good.
If you knocked your mate back because you wanted to farm, run a few heroics or play the AH… Well that would need a closer study.
Sounds to me you rook a nice balanced approach.
No to friend because I am going to raid….
Not going to raid, yes to friend…
Not going to raid or see RL friend, then see RL friends in WoW instead.
GL with the job hunting!
Thanks for commenting Gnomey! =)
And I found the job, I start Monday! =)
Whoo Hooo.. grats!
Sorry about sucky timing thing…grats on job! And WoW is a personally reasonable excuse to ditch IRL friends…beats my original excuses…I got kidnapped by aliens? Not really good with people IRL. But seriously…if you make a raid commitment you should follow through with it IMHO. Of course it sucks when you get sat after all that.
Try dating non wow people during a 4 raid night week – + add any other availabilities that crop up, and you don’t get to see them much.
Woot on the job! A guild commitment was as important as saying I would meet a friend – some of my friends didn’t understand that – but they have been trained.