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Interesting article, Read it then tell me what you think
rmeyer
Member Posts: 151
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rmeyer
Member Posts: 151
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Seems to me he was blaming WoW for his own faults. For one, he makes some bold statements about the amount of time you need to invest in WoW to be successful. Being that this is a game I think too many of its players believe that they must attain some sort of status in the game rather than just have fun (it is after all, a game, not a job). The game may provide some sense of security to him and others, but this is once again a problem within themselves not a condition brought about by a game. To blame a game for his and others actions is the same arguement as saying guns kill people, not the person pulling the trigger. It was a well written article other than the displacement of blame.
If you take a game this seriously, you really can't place the blame on the game.
Just my two cents.
MMO Vet since AOL Neverwinter Nights circa 1992. My MMO beat up your MMO. =S
OMG this is some blah blah bullshit!
Poor guys... I don't even want to take the time to do a big reply on this crap because it's... crap! But I'll just say that people do whatever the **** they want and it's YOUR fault if you play too much WoW and if their was no WoW it would probably be something else, another MMORPG. There's in my opinion 100000 things worst than to play WoW 12 hours a week in this crazy world. I'd rather see my kid at his computer playing WoW than him doing drugs and being in a gang or something. I mean.... c'mon. It's the same thing with all the game... Even if the game as an end... IT'S A GAME!!!!
/slap
The same thing can be said for some people when they start dating the wrong girl and suddenly they aren't going to the bar and seeing their friends.
It is often the case that people are not fully cognizant and get lost in the moment. However WoW and games like WoW especially bad because they are purposefully designed to take advantage of this fact of human nature.
And he is right. Most all of this is about people running away from problems and their lives and in the end it is all just, well, empty. At least once you get some perspective.
When I have said in other threads that I regret paying blizzard money. This is why. They didn't need to make their raid game like this and indulge in this. The pre-raid portion of the game uses it but doesn't abuse it. The raid portion is full on exploitative and abusive. It is neither responsible not mature when it comes to the social aspects of their games.
The game was fun before the raid game. I did have fun. But I knew the other aspects and I wished to avoid them. I was under the impression so did Blizzard, but I was wrong. I am somewhat amazed that it takes people like this so long to realize it, but then again they really don't want to. The fact is they know it but choose not to be cognizant of it. Like he said runnign away. And the more you run the more you want to run, because if you stop you gotta deal with all the crap you left to rot.
I think they call this a "Moment of Clarity" in AA.
In the end though this is a very valuable lesson for this person. As these things apply across many aspects of life. This year he spent gettting fat and indolent may help him for many years to come. It should be nice splash of cold water. The stuff he is talking about, the running away, people do it all the time everyday in different ways. Blizzard just constructed a world that allows some people to get lost in that feeling. And the greed etc, frankly he should keep it mind whereever he works. No matter how buddy buddy the people are at whatever job he works for he should keep that guild in mind.
The same issues could be said of any game, MMO or otherwise. To blame anything, or anyone else, for problems you created is simply immoral.
Blizzard has implemented tools to foster casual play, such as rested xp and raid timers. If players don't want to take advantage of such tools, that's their responsibility not Blizzard's.
Ico
Oh, cruel fate, to be thusly boned. Ask not for whom the bone bones. It bones for thee.
I think this article is very important, but I agree that it is not WoW-centric. Any MMO can have this effect on people. In the days of UO and AC and EQ1 it was having this effect on people. By important I mean that we need to be aware of it, at the non-monetary expenses that we pay to be a part of these virtual worlds.
About a year ago I moved back to Maryland with the idea that I'd spend more time with my family and friends. Its funny that I've maybe spent 2 days with them ...and the rest of it behind a computer screen. It isn't just WoW ...its whatever, if you let it get that far. I'm currently "MMO-less" waiting for the next big Game, but I keep my self pretty busy with various beta tests and free trials. Fortunately my situation is such that my boyfriend shares my passion for gaming, and it has become something we do ' together ' - therefore the love of games is not affecting my marriage or social life or employment in the ways that it can and has effected people that I know.
I've seen many many friends 'leave' the online world because of their 'real world' obligations. They, like the author of this article, realize that things have gone too far and they have to take a step back. And thats all he's really saying, is to take a step back and look at your life. This type of game IS addicting, it IS time consuming, as they were designed to be. And you have to know that, as a player. Saying that games this all-encompassing do not cause real - life problems for people is just living in denial. Someday, you'll catch yourself and be like ...wow.....what am I doing? For me it was my best friend's 21st birthday but I had a raid that night.
I'm not saying these games are bad and we shouldn't play. Not at all. I'm just saying we need to understand what they can and do cause to happen to people who let them selves get completely sucked in, and not ridicule those people or be angry at them for stepping back and loosening the grip that the game has on them.
Gaming? That's not gaming!
That's just people sat 'round in costumes drinking...
Good link. Thanks for posting.
Know this, when you pick up a game, your willing to spare some time for it, there's no point buying a game and chunk it somewhere in the corner of your CPU. In addition to that, it takes up a huge space. As for the raiding part, I think raiding is fun and nice, people in guilds raid to get better gear, which ends up in PvPing against the best or the worst, and you always have two outcomes, victory or defeat. In your case, I'm thinking that you probably got defeated so badly you just don't wanna play on. Don't worry, happened to me too, but you have to bear with it, there are many things in World of Warcraft and other games that people do not like ALOT. But comparing good to bad, they still play, because there are more good things that benefit them.
Basically, whatever you do is a result of showing WHO and WHAT you are. It's an identity of yourself. The person who wrote that apparently, seemed to hate World of Warcraft a lot because it seems to be destroying his/her life, however, it was also him who chose to play the game, so kindly take a second thought about it, I'm not exactly asking you to come back and play or anything, your decision is final, it affects you and you only. Everything you do will only affect you, be it scolding another player or anything, the pain will still come right back up to you. So I hope you did have fun in World of Warcraft and I hope your having fun with other MMORPGs or your life out there.
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This blog isn't about WoW, its about whats wrong with America.
Americans are dumbasses who are always looking for a scapegoat. We spill coffee in our laps and burn our legs, rather than looking at ourselves as dumbasses for holding hot coffee in our crotch we sue the company that sold us the coffee because it was too hot. We slip and fall at the grocery store because we were preoccupied and not looking at the puddle of fluid on the groud, so we sue the grocery store. Our kids are violent little dumbasses and parents blame it on TV, radio, music, movies, video games, even socieity; parents accept no responsibility for having no control over their kids, for controlling what they are exposed to growing up, or for never teaching them the difference between right and wrong. Its always someone or somethings fault for our problems, we never cause any of our own problems, we're always the victim.
Here in this blog we have some dumbass who ruined his life over some pixes on his computer screen. Nobody made him play 10-12 hours a day, nobody made him farm, nobody made him raid 7 days a week, nobody made him ignore his other RL friends, nobody made him get rid of his girlfriend. These are all choices HE made, but just like the typical dumbass american he refuses to accept blame for his own faults so he looks to find someone or something else to blame....in this case its a computer program that somehow or another managed to tie him down and hold a gun to his head and made him play a game for 10-12 hours a day.
/rant off
Know this, when you pick up a game, your willing to spare some time for it, there's no point buying a game and chunk it somewhere in the corner of your CPU. In addition to that, it takes up a huge space. As for the raiding part, I think raiding is fun and nice, people in guilds raid to get better gear, which ends up in PvPing against the best or the worst, and you always have two outcomes, victory or defeat. In your case, I'm thinking that you probably got defeated so badly you just don't wanna play on. Don't worry, happened to me too, but you have to bear with it, there are many things in World of Warcraft and other games that people do not like ALOT. But comparing good to bad, they still play, because there are more good things that benefit them.
Basically, whatever you do is a result of showing WHO and WHAT you are. It's an identity of yourself. The person who wrote that apparently, seemed to hate World of Warcraft a lot because it seems to be destroying his/her life, however, it was also him who chose to play the game, so kindly take a second thought about it, I'm not exactly asking you to come back and play or anything, your decision is final, it affects you and you only. Everything you do will only affect you, be it scolding another player or anything, the pain will still come right back up to you. So I hope you did have fun in World of Warcraft and I hope your having fun with other MMORPGs or your life out there.
I knew WoW was a waste of time when I bought it and played it. Many things are a waste of time that people. Some thigns are done specifically because they ARE wastes of time. As a leisure actuivity as a break. Just for fun. The problem with WoW is they have taken their addictive mechanics and pushed them to the hilt with the raiding game for no good reason.
How many people are this obssessed with questing and doing normal instances? How many people think 1-59 is by far the better part of WoW?
The answers: few and most.
The way the random reward uber treadmill of the raid game is solely designed to take advantage of obessissve people; it is unnecessary and unhealthy. It has taken something that normally adds some spice and umph to these game to an extreme that these people (and many people) are not equipped to handle. I knew they would use these mechanics because these mechanics are an old RPG trick. But I was under the impression that they would keep reasonable limits on these thigns and keeping the raid stuff in check. I am sure you must have seen the NY times article that quotes the Lead deisgner saying raid rewards would jsut be visual effects. Instead they added a neverending gigantic cascade of complete uberness that requiers crazy timesinks to get your random reward pixelated crack.
I have no problem with the 1-59 game. And the fact is that 75% of the population doesn't even go after the digital crack. But they added the digital crack in. And they make the rest of the game revolve around the digital crack. This disgusts me.
And the really really sad thing is, that WoW would most likely be just as or more successful without it and almost certainly a more healthy experience for many. Still somewhat addictive but not just plain catass.
There can be no question that WoW's endgame does not meet the Golden Mean, in fact quite the opposite.
He never said WoW made them run from their problems.
Not a bad article, he does come off as a bit of whiner and I'd say this was his first MMORPG.
I've been a guild leader and officer on many occasions. I won't do it anymore because of the problems he's detailed here. I have a friend who's been a GM of a single guild for 5 years now..and I admire his ability to be criticised, whined at, and keep the peace through all this time.
I play a lot... at least 3-4 hours a day... 7 days a week. On rare occasions I've actually played WOW for 14 hours in one day..but I had to stop cause I started to feel sick... won't do that anymore.
My current guild is full of people who play much less, while my last guild was full of the 12 hour a day player (many were stay at home wives)
I've seen every extreme these games have...and experienced many of them. Sure, they can rule your life if you let them... but obessive hobbies go far beyond WOW and gaming.
My father was an avid golfer... 3 days a week during the season plus he played Bridge 2 nights a week.... he drank heavily, smoked a pack a day, and watched television every night and day when he wasn't doing the other activities. Endless hours watching football on TV..entire weekends in fact...
No, his obessions were the same as many folks...now we have new ones to keep us busy.
Games can destroy your soul, no doubt about it... but only if you let them.
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Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
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