Question #173 Other Selves
In A Very Serious Conversation 21.1 Phil, Hadas & I touched briefly on the subject of World of Warcraft.
Are you currently-- or have you ever been-- involved in this or any other massively-multiplayer online video game or community (or do you know anyone who is/has), and what are your thoughts on such things?
BONUS: If so, tell us about your avatar(s).
14 comments:
I don't have any thoughts on this game (or online gaming in general), other than the addiction part is kind of scary. Here's an interesting article on how Korea is dealing with internet-addicted teenagers.
That's all I can contribute, other than my own story of Super Mario World addiction that took place over one weekend in high school. It's a boring story because it's about being addicted to a video game.
I never did that stuff. I feel like it is safer for me to not go that direction.
A friend of mine played one of those games but he stopped cause he realized that in the game he spent all his time hanging out by the docks approaching strangers who were new in town, trying to sell them low quality goods. He said he was disgusted with his fantasy life and more proud of the way he acted in real life.
I read a lot of economics blogs and it's trendy for economists to study the way goods change hands in these games. I'm really interested in the way that people can buy and sell virtual goods for real money. There is an exchange rate between US dollars and fantasy gold that fluctuates daily.
There are sweatshops in China where dudes joylessly play all day, accumulating gold and items to sell to players who can't spare the time.
I played WOW for about 2 weeks. Something about it just ended up not being fun. I think the main problem is that I don't really like playing games with strangers. I was essentially playing it as a single player game. The other problem is that I am old and prefer to play, say, nethack (http://www.nethack.org/common/index.html [Try it, its fun, you might be surprised!]). I still pay my monthly subscription fee though and I probably will until the credit card it is billed to gets canceled.
WRT Super Mario Bros. my girlfriend has beaten it on one life without warping. Think for a second what you have to do in order to do that. Like if you die on 8-2 you have to start over at 1-1!
Friends affected by WoW:
Chien: actually had to leave the University of Arizona to move home because he failed every class, due to WoW. He was having sleeping problems, was missing class, and stopped eating. Scary.
Logan: would constantly skip on lunch with me and his band's practice since he was waiting 6 hours with his guild to kill a dragon. His band is no more. Lame.
Brad: has "real" friends on WoW he considers family, considering he talks to them via Ventrilo 24/7. He is going to fly to see one of the girls in a few months. Desperate.
Myself? I just strip the Night Elf down and make her dance.
no way, all of that is way too internerdy for me. i like tetris. and super mario brothers. that's about as far as i'd go.
I have never played WoW but I am so into reading about it... It really boggles my mind hearing stories about people that have their lives wrapped up in an avatar and shit. It is way nerdy in my mind to have some midevil escape zone where you have to go on 'raids' and join guilds. Blows my mind.
Also, what is interesting is the people that develop avatars only to sell them on Ebay or craigslist. Some of them go for over $1k? That is madness to me.
I own a copy of WOW but was only able to play it once. Right after I bought it I had to move, and I have moved like 100 times in the last 2 years. My internet connection hasn't been stable enough for me to want to invest in the monthly fee, but I really want to play. My sister and another friend of mine have had to restrict their significant others as far as game play goes. They have to set up rules that restrict the hours and days they are allowed to play, otherwise they will spend all their free time playing WOW and never see the light of day. My favorite is the "only one raid a week" rule. My sisters ex-roommate who also had a bad temper had to be rushed to the emergency room at 2am because he broke a glass in his hand after losing his temper while playing WOW. I suppose it's best that I didn't get sucked in, because I have a really addictive personality and no self control. I already spend too much time playing video games as it is. I could see myself losing my job and not shaving my legs ever again over something like this.
I was hoping that responses to this question would get rid of my curiosity about WoW, but they've had the opposite effect. A second life as a ranger or something like that in a magical world sounds great. It's more tempting now that there's a Lord of the Rings version out (though I hear it's not as good as WoW).
Still, it's pretty unlikely I'd ever actually get involved in this phenomenon (unless, of course, I were to get married).
Yikes. The only reason I know what an 'avatar' is, is because it was the term used for uploading my picture to my BeerAdvocate profile.
Despite having played online games for a loooong time now....and often times far, far too much (see: Counter-strike, Quake, Team Fortress, etc), I never had the patience for MMORPG's.
These days I still play mainly FPS team-based games, ie. BF2, BF2142, etc. I am also just getting into Company of Heroes, which is a WWII-based Real Time Strategy game, and is the most awesome thing ever.
I play video games instead of watching TV for a couple hours each night, which is how I justify the habit.
I joined Warcraft because a bunch of my buddies were on there. Kinda like myspace but nerdier with more stuff to do.
I am a only a level 18, undead, rouge. I am in a guild and I have guild bros.
Also, there are dudes online that ask if I am a real girl and when I tell them yes they give me power up shit and hella gold and presents. I always thought that was kinda funny.
Also, it's only fun with friends. Alone it's pretty dull. I would go for Warcraft 3 if you want to play alone or just with one friend.
I never have played any of those games....
but i have several friends addicted to those games... in fact every single person i know who plays those games has dedicated most of their life to it...like no balance....
so i think its not for me and kinda dangerous to those that like it...
i play a lot of online scrabble..mostly against 13 yr olds from canada who are probably fielding sex requests from pedophiles...i'm not really part of the community..there's a lot of abbreves that i don't understand.
I thought from the title that this would be about shelves.
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