Comments on: Why Do We WoW – Continued

By: Darchon

Darchon — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 02:39:53 +0000

Over the 4 – 5 years since I started playing MMO’s ive always had a rough time explaining the why. I have 5 other family members that are also playing WoW, and the rest of the family think we are all crazy lol. It took a great deal of time trying to get people to realize that we play to enjoy each others company. As well as a release of the everday do this and that and the 40 hour work week while going to school. 4 years later I can now say im busy! lol and get away with it, of course ive got to do it politely or they think ive gone evil. And for those that ask, how can you pay 15 bucks a month, its so not worth it. I simply explain to them that 40 bucks for a new game each month is alot more expensive. I think ive tried 4-5 new games in the past year compared to my standard 12-15 games.

People do think of video games and suddenly start to think negatively. The past year ive been doing some studies on video games (since im studying to become a game designer), and I do have to say… the break through is near, video games are becoming more and more respected through the educational value they can bring.

By: Phoemae

Phoemae — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 17:34:18 +0000

I’d definitely say WoW is more of a hobby than entertainment, especially as someone in a more social guild. Heck, a lot of the time people say they only still play WoW because it allows them to talk to all their friends online. If WoW (or any other MMO for that matter) was simply entertainment, that wouldn’t happen. You don’t watch movies or play other video games or watch TV simply because you want to hang out with your friends. Sure, you might want to do that, but there’s pure entertainment value that you’re all getting.

I think what most people don’t understand about MMO’s is the social relationships you develop, as you said. I think people would be more understanding if they realized how strong those relationships can become. I’ve been with a lot of my guildmates for almost 5 years now (we came from FFXI before some eventually moved to WoW), and I’ve met about a dozen of them in person, a couple of them several times. They don’t even play WoW, but I’m still friends with them from our time in FFXI. On Spring Break I went out to San Diego to meet up with a few of them. So anyone who says relationships you build online can’t be real has no idea what they’re talking about. You’re right though, the only way to prove that is for those people to experience it which…given the fact many people DO get adversely affected/addicted to WoW, isn’t going to happen.

By: Simon

Simon — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 23:07:19 +0000

I tend to agree with you that WoW has a negative image (as in most video games), somewhat unfairly. However, I do see the other side of the argument in the fact that WOW does encourage addiction over other forms of “hobbies”. For example, you might be addict to reading a book for days on end, but once you finish the book, the addiction sort of ends (maybe until you find the next great book), but my point is that, there’s some sort of a closure and an ending to that activity, the problem with WOW is that there’s no ending provided, there’s always something to do, so you end up spending more and more time on the game.

I guess my point is that society accept that people go in and out of addiction for an activity throughout their lives, but once that activity starts to take over your life and you are spending less and less time doing other activities, then it becomes a problem, regardless if it is WOW or reading or watching TV, or even you day-time job!

By: Dezdemone

Dezdemone — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 22:05:15 +0000

You make some really great points in this continuation, although the beginning post was enough food for thought to become a BA shared topic by itself!

For some reason the response I posted on my blog never linked itself through your site even though I showed the link luv =-( Maybe it only works with wordpress?

Anyway, I agree with you completely when you said “they dont understand we develop REAL relationships in game.” In fact I could almost write an entire blog about WarCraft as relationship-craft instead of crochetting LOL… good stuff!

You’ve totally earned your spot on my blogroll, hope you get a lot of other people who feel the same!