The Gamer's Quarter

GilloD · . Joined: 03 Feb 2006 Posts: 33

So, I played WoW last summer, had my fun, and sold it on Ebay just to rid myself of it. I went to Best Buy yesterday to pick up NewSMB and ended up with World of Warcraft. What's wrong with me? I already have a 12 Rogue. Help.

Let's discuss.

Shapermc · Hot Sake! Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279

That is kind of frightening.

Honestly.
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“The average man has a secret desire to be a swaggering, drunken, fighting, raping swashbuckler.”
-Robert E. Howard in a letter to a friend circa Decmber 1932

"There is no place in this enterprise for a rogue physicist!"

dhex · Posted: Tue May 16, 2006 1:56 pm Post subject:

huh.
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Lestrade · Posted: Tue May 16, 2006 2:36 pm Post subject:

Lestrade on the Eitrigg server. Look out for my (fo' realz) wife, Fellia. It does that.

Lackey · . Joined: 11 Jul 2005 Posts: 1107 Location: Canada

OtakupunkX · . Joined: 23 Mar 2006 Posts: 730

I started writing an article about how World of Warcraft ruins lives and how the people that play the game get their priorities messed up big time (I have a friend whose parents are getting a divorce and he's angry because their divorce stuff is cutting into his WoW time). I'm almost done with it but I'm not sure what I'll do with it when it's done.

Pijaibros · Posted: Tue May 16, 2006 6:40 pm Post subject:

Wasn't the same thing said about Everquest back in its time?

OtakupunkX · . Joined: 23 Mar 2006 Posts: 730

I think so. It was probably said about Ultima Online and every other MMO with a decent following too. WoW is the one that has affected the lives of people around me (and, inadvertently, my life) the most, though.

Pijaibros · Posted: Tue May 16, 2006 7:15 pm Post subject:

You're probably right, but for me it was Everquest that let this genre of titles be known.

The closest thing I got to a MMORPG was Diablo II. Man, a couple of friends and I were hooked on that game for like 2 years. It was a sick experience. Rushing new characters, experimenting with countless builds, and killing Mephisto for hours hoping for a fancy unique with better stats. It was insanity. Basrtering, selling, acquiring, twinking. I don't know if I will ever be that engrossed in a game again. I should be lucky that it at least didn't have a monthly fee.

helicopterp · . Joined: 13 May 2006 Posts: 1435 Location: Philadelphia

I did a semester abroad at Oxford last year. One guy on the trip with me brought his computer, and instead of doing the massive amounts of schoolwork or going out to the clubs or visiting Europe or London or something, he played WoW. The rest of us got our rocks off once by uninstalling it when he wasn't looking.
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Like you thought you'd seen copter perverts before. They were nothing compared to this one.

purplechair · . Joined: 28 Mar 2005 Posts: 378 Location: in my pants

One of my friends failed the last year of his degree because of WoW, and is retaking it this year. Recently, he complained that he just didn't have time to do both, so he was thinking about just dropping out of uni altogether.

Stop me if I've already said this: I think the trouble with WoW, and most MMORPGs, is that character development is the prime objective. It's an endless, unfulfilling loop, like drugs or something. You're always looking at the next few levels up and thinking they're going to be excellent, but by the time you've got them, you're already eyeing up the next few levels.

The only "fun" thing about these games is the social aspect - working in a team to beat the bosses, co-ordinating your skill trees, trading items and so on. And it's really not worth paying $15/month just to talk to your friends.

OtakupunkX · . Joined: 23 Mar 2006 Posts: 730

Shapermc · Hot Sake! Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279

My dad has had this friend for the past 25 and some odd years. He is the same guy who gave me Zelda once he finished it (I still have the same cart and map/tip book that he gave me). About 2 years ago he got WoW. After a couple months he was still playing it from the moment he got home 'till he went to bed. He stopped meeting with his friends (my Dad for one) and started canceling engagements. It got really bad to the point that his wife forced him to take a 3 week vacation to visit Isreal (although not Jewish, they do this somewhat frequently). I told my parents--at this point I had been enlisted to explain/help figure out what was going on--that the time away would probably snap him out of it if he realised that he was addicted. That was about a year ago, after he had the game for almost a year.

About a month ago now I was visiting with my parents and we somehow came upon the topic of WoW. I had to enquire what was going on with my dad's friend. Aparently he still played it. My dad has only seen him once over the past 2 years (at one point they use to get together 3 or more times a week) and the time they went out together all he did was talk about WoW, then show my dad his characters when they got back. He complains to his wife about how his "friends" can't play tonight because they are "grounded from the computer."

It is kind of sad and sick at the same time.

TheRumblefish · . Joined: 29 Jan 2006 Posts: 258 Location: Florida

Myspace is Hell's waiting list, and a lot of us are on it. Sadly, the newest generation will most likely be called the "Myspace" generation, instead of X,Y,Z, Alpha, Omega, Blah.

Anyways. I lost a good friend to WoW. I haven't fucking talked to him in almost a year because of that stupid fucking game.
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dhex · Posted: Thu May 18, 2006 6:24 am Post subject:

shapes: that's pretty fucking sad.
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Dracko · . Joined: 10 Oct 2005 Posts: 2613

dhex · Posted: Thu May 18, 2006 7:30 am Post subject:

yeah, but without myspace my friend tuda would never be able to look up everyone we went to high school with and show me the highlights.
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helicopterp · . Joined: 13 May 2006 Posts: 1435 Location: Philadelphia

TheRumblefish · . Joined: 29 Jan 2006 Posts: 258 Location: Florida

Shapermc · Hot Sake! Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279

Mr. Mechanical · Friendly Stranger Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 1276

helicopterp · . Joined: 13 May 2006 Posts: 1435 Location: Philadelphia

DonMarco · . Joined: 02 Mar 2005 Posts: 349 Location: 33903

Didn't Pepsi call us Generation Next or something to that effect? I thought the '85-95 was the MTV Generation.
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Collector of over 1,538 strategy guides. That's weird, right?

Shapermc · Hot Sake! Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279

Mr. Mechanical · Friendly Stranger Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 1276

TheRumblefish · . Joined: 29 Jan 2006 Posts: 258 Location: Florida

Persona-sama · Posted: Thu May 18, 2006 11:45 pm Post subject:

OtakupunkX · . Joined: 23 Mar 2006 Posts: 730

dhex · Posted: Fri May 19, 2006 8:00 am Post subject:

everyone's got to have hobbies.

what i wonder about folks who get sucked into wow/mmorgps in general; what were their lives like before they got engrossed?

maybe it's an improvement.
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OtakupunkX · . Joined: 23 Mar 2006 Posts: 730

dhex · Posted: Fri May 19, 2006 8:15 am Post subject:

OtakupunkX · . Joined: 23 Mar 2006 Posts: 730

GilloD · . Joined: 03 Feb 2006 Posts: 33

I play WoW because I've got a lot of free time on my hands at the moment. I have to say, if someone called me up and said "Hey, let's go see Les Savy Fav!", I'd drop my WoW game in a heartbeat. However, that hasn't happened and isn't happening and therefore I HAVE SOME GNOLLS TO KILL THANKS VERY MUCH.

It's just as bad as AIM, if you ask me.

sawtooth · . Joined: 02 Nov 2005 Posts: 419

helicopterp · . Joined: 13 May 2006 Posts: 1435 Location: Philadelphia

True story: I went to a flea market today. I found a stand for used games, poked around, bought a couple, and started talking to the guy running the operation. After a while, I asked, "So what do you play?" He told me that he plays World of Warcraft six days a week for six hours a day. I hope he didn't hear the thud my jaw made when it crashed into the floor.
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Like you thought you'd seen copter perverts before. They were nothing compared to this one.

dessgeega · Posted: Mon May 22, 2006 1:29 am Post subject:

OtakupunkX · . Joined: 23 Mar 2006 Posts: 730

So yesterday I dropped off a job application at a friend's house while he was in the middle of a marathon WoW session. The smile on his dad's face when he saw that I might have found a way to pry his son off of WoW made my day.

Shapermc · Hot Sake! Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279

dhex · Posted: Mon May 22, 2006 10:45 am Post subject:

i'll continue to play devil's advocate on this, cause why not?

- are they harming anyone?

- are they harming themselves? (judging harm to self is a slippery slope, mind you, since we should all be exercising and/or learning how to speak arabic or something useful rather than playing games, much less posting to a message board about playing games)

- is the problem more one of exclusivity than activity? (i.e. that they pull contact away from their local friends to concentrate on non-local relationships)

- what is "missing" from their lives that they find in this? what purpose does it fulfill?

- what should they be doing? if not this, why not? it's all essentially idleness, and therefore suspect in most of the popular civil, religious and political moral systems.

- some winners use drugs.
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purplechair · . Joined: 28 Mar 2005 Posts: 378 Location: in my pants

Shapermc · Hot Sake! Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279

I am only going to take a stab at a few here:

OtakupunkX · . Joined: 23 Mar 2006 Posts: 730

So I'm trying to get one of my friends that is hopelessly addicted to WoW a job at the same place I work at. I gave him an application (which I've been bugging the hell out of him to fill out) and I'm driving him over there today so he can check it out.

It should be interesting to see how this turns out...