World of Warcraft

[ruotwocone]

LFG! I iz need to finnish qwest!

sounds to me like we need to start a D&D quest on the forum that we'll all lose interest in after a week and never finish!

[Lethal Interjection]

Speaking of MMORPGs, I just tried out the one that was advertised in the sidebar there.
It is interesting, and kind of fun.
I doubt I'll spend much time on it, if I play it again.
What is funny, though, is that it actually doesn't let you play ridiculous amounts to level your character. There is only so much you are allowed to do in a day. I think that's pretty cool. So you don't go in and get beat up by some kid who spend the 72 hours immediately following signing up leveling his character.

[Frostbite]

Don't you know thats the best part? Having the people that play nonstop beat up on you.

[Neglected Shoe]

What World of Warcraft Means to Me (A Personal Essay)

I started playing World of Warcraft two years ago, mostly because my friends were playing and enjoying it. I picked it up in April, and once the semester was over and the summer began, I was playing about six hours a day. It wasn't such a horrible thing that summer. It allowed me to spend time with college my friends, as I could hear their voices and interact with them daily. I grew closer to them while fighting monsters, NPCs, and players. I always knew that if I got in a bind, there would be someone that would have my back. Considering that most of my home friends were horrible people, having a group of friends to connect with on a daily basis was a positive thing for me that summer.

The trouble began when I got back to school. I'm very academically driven. I take academics as seriously as I would a job, as how I perform drastically impacts my future career prospects. However, I also have an addictive personality, mostly when I'm avoiding things. I became more and more addicted to the game as my friends abandoned it for parties and social lives. It took away from my academics, my fencing, and my relationship at the time.

What made it so addicting? While the game isn't that original or wonderful, it is encourages camaraderie and player interaction by ensuring that difficult conquests require multiple players. Within the game, there are also two separate player factions, the Alliance and the Horde, which are viciously pitted against each other by the lore of the game. This made it particularly interesting for me, as I love the feeling of fighting real players as opposed to the computer.

I was addicted to the Battlegrounds, in which I would join up with other players (10-40) and beat up on the other guys. The battlegrounds were laid out in several different ways - some had a "capture the flag" type of play, others required defense and conquer of player bases, and some required defeating the other team's NPCs. It was exciting - every game was different. I was fighting against real people, working with real comrades. There were real strategies involved, and as an armored healer, I was often a key player for the offensive.

Avoidance for me has been a lifelong issue. I face most of my life problems head on, and yet when it comes to my mental and emotional stability, I avoid it like it's my job. For me, there is no better distraction than going and beating the crap out of the "enemy" surrounded by "friends." At the time, the gaming kept me from addressing my relationship troubles. When my relationship ended, I canceled my account. It remained canceled for a long while after, until recently, when my personal life went to shit.

Right now, I'm back to playing with the full knowledge that it's a coping strategy. I'm pouring my heart and soul into things I don't care about, because the things I do care about are too painful to think about. And that's what World of Warcraft means to me.

[Sahan]

Yes, well the financial cost has always been my deterrence from me picking up the game and I have seen first-hand one of my friends waste a lot of potential because of a WoW-addiction. I get addicted to games too, particularly MMORPGs, so that also made me think twice about getting the game, because being addicted to something with ongoing costs is pretty much substance abuse, without the substance.

[Lethal Interjection]

Yes, well the financial cost has always been my deterrence from me picking up the game and I have seen first-hand one of my friends waste a lot of potential because of a WoW-addiction. I get addicted to games too, particularly MMORPGs, so that also made me think twice about getting the game, because being addicted to something with ongoing costs is pretty much substance abuse, without the substance.

I absolutely love your phrasing there. I will probably use that in the future.
The cost was my initial deterrent. Seeing people ruin their lives over it was the second, and the one that put the issue to bed completely.

[Oldrac the Chitinous]

I played for a while. Mercifully, I was really really bad at it. If I weren't, I might never have got myself free.

[Fleshcakes]

I recently quit after playing for almost 4 years. Oh god. Now I'm MMO free. I feel like I got over a bad drug addiction, except I still miss my kodo mount

[Neglected Shoe]

I recently quit after playing for almost 4 years. Oh god. Now I'm MMO free. I feel like I got over a bad drug addiction, except I still miss my kodo mount

You'll go back. They all do.

[mountainmage]

Or, you'll start playing a new MMO. That's what I did.

Everquest II > FFXI > MapleStory

[doctoracula]

I completely agree. I've been playing since beta and this game is my first MMO experience. Without a long explanation about how many time's I've joined and quit, I've recently noticed that it's a lot like smoking. I've never been addicted to smoking but I can see my patterns with WoW mirror my boss and his attempts to quit smoking. We'll be good and quit for a couple months, sometimes a year and one day in a moment of weakness and boredom start back up.

[AHMETxRock]

God. Instead of playing for ten hours a day for a week, trying to quit for a week, then playing 12 hours the week after to make up for lost time, play about 5 hours a week. You won't be epic in anything, but it'll be a way to kill time. Or just buy a Nintendo game, seeing as they have actual replay value.

I'm sorry, that was uncalled for. I shouldn't fanwhore my consol preferences on you. It's just that, you can be addicted to pokemon and still be cooler than most mmorpg addicts.

[doctoracula]

I don't actually make up time if I don't play for a week. I was just relating it to friends that smoke and quit. I'm actually on the verge of quitting again (meaning I've stopped renewing my subscription) just because I don't have enough time to dedicate to the game.

[Avalant]

I play casually while I find the game interesting, then stop playing until new content is released. I haven't played in probably 6 weeks, after about a month of only logging in for 3-4 hours on Sundays for raids. Once you've done all the dungeons/raids/quests and gotten the gear you want, there's no reason to play unless you want to PvP or create another character. *Edit: Unless real life friends are involved. They always find a way to suck you back in.* I honestly don't understand the people that have played the game for 30+ hours a week the past 4 years...

[AHMETxRock]

OH F yeah! I found my gameboy again! I was at gamestop and they had a decent collection of GBA games for cheap, but I said my sp was missing and I couldn't go out and get another one. DS isn't worth the investment, and SP is aiming too low. Well, the DS might be worth it, but no thanks anyways...