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Ok, sorry for that horrid title. It's a very bad pun.
So I'm wondering what exactly it is that draws so many people to become WOW addicts. How can logical, self-respecting people band together with other people and take pride and dignity in simply killing AI created stuff.
If I'm not mistaken most hardcore WOW'ers spend their time in guilds completing quests and doing instances (after playing WOW for a week I did finally learn what an instance was.)
I mean, during my 10 day free trial I enjoyed exploring and leveling up to level 20 (the max level allowed as trial) but I don't get what the draw is to band together and to just keep owning the new levels or w/e you wanna call them that blizz keeps creating to keep the WOW subscribers entertained.
Any current/past players or people who understand this want to offer their views? I mean there is the explanation that they are all huge losers who don't want to spend their time doing anything in real life so they spend it in a fantasy world. However, being a huge sc nerd myself and spending hours upon hours on this I don't claim the above reason to be why I play sc, so I don't want to jump to conclusions and label all avid WOW players as lifeless escapists (even if it's true!)
 
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thedeadhaji
39489 Posts
I mean I imagine it is fun to go around beating shit up in "epic" (i guess) fashion.
I think the feeling is similar to hack and slash games, like dynasty warriors where you go "OH MY GOD I AM SO GODLY I AM THE MAN"
There's a definite appeal to those kinds of games, and the variety of such sensation creating games has increased if anything over the years.
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It's a persistant RPG - you level your fictional character and make it stronger. It's like Diablo only in a persistant world. Proper question might be, why would anyone at all play games, when they could be out "saveing the real world".
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The desire to be of even higher level, and to get even better items.
Basically the same as with Diablo 2 but with much more players at the same time (so count in a "better social aspect" too).
And Blizzard knows that this is addictive for many players, so they always make sure there's a) a lot of items to find and that b) the good items are incredibly rare to find.
Then, players will do as much "grinding" or "$boss runs" as they have to just in order to get 1 slightly better item. When you do that, I'm not sure if that's really "enjoying the game" anymore.
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thedeadhaji
39489 Posts
it seems to be a sick, sick pleasure.
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It can also be an escape from your shitty life. Which is ironic, because spending too much of your time playing WoW will make your life even shittier. So if you get addicted, you get addicted hardcore.
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Although, I haven't played WOW itself, I have played some other MMOs. It a vast and impressive world to explore. It also rewards you for playing it by "unlocking" more of the world by you getting more powerful and able to survive these new harsh areas. It rewards teamwork. The better items in the game can only be attained by working together on a large scale. It rewards networking and organization skills. You find people who are good at the game and can be coordinated to play at certain hours for a certain length of time. It will make your progression much faster and easier. You eventually gain regular WOW friends and that in itself will be a reason to log onto the game.
Why I think WOW can be a dangerous drug is how it is only fun to play it if you play a lot. If you only play in short bursts, 15 minutes here and 15 minutes there, the game is unplayable at higher levels. So you end up commiting hours at a time to maximize fun. You also end up sacrificing getting off when you really want to in order to help friends (and so they will do the same for you). Personally I decided it wasn't worth it, and that's why I no longer play anything in the MMO genre.
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Also, I was part of a team of students that researched on the MMO phenomena. And there is a lot of material out there about what makes people play. Something that was interesting was how many different ways people approached the MMO genre. Some people are very competitive and play it to become as powerful as possible. Others play it as a way to bond with friends. Some people simply play it to immerse themselves in the warcraft universe etc...
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You didn't explore shit from WoW by leveling up to 20, and be glad about that. Otherwise it may have sucked you in.
As many WoW players would say: "The game doesn't even start until you hit 60 (now 70 then 80), a.k.a. the level cap."
And there's truth in that statement, to a degree.
Just avoid it alltogether 
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infinity21
Canada6683 Posts
yar, I played the 10 day trial too. It was really fun while it lasted but I wouldn't pay so much money to play it. *shrug*
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I am proud to say I have no idea what the hell WoW is  
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Physician
United States4146 Posts
I got bored way before I ever gave it a chance. click click click.. same bullshit as diablo..
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This is a really long post, so I'm just going to put spoiler tags to avoid having people run into paragraphs of text.
+ Show Spoiler +After years and years of lurking on these forums, I think I have finally found a thread to make my first post in. (I'm really sorry for the long post, but WoW is something I am very passionate about)
To answer the first question, there isn't really such thing as a "WoW addiction", but rather a problem of really bad time management and setting priorities straight. That's about the gist of it, I wouldn't say it's a "drug" like so many people claim it to be (though, that's just my opinion on the "WoW addiction" thing).
For the next questions, a more general response: I used to play WoW, and a lot of it. The first time playing it was a wonderful experience, the world seemed so huge and absolutely fantastic and just drew me right in. Days turned into weeks, weeks into months, and before I knew it, I've been playing for close to a year and 6 months. Now the level cap was easy enough, getting from 1-70 was easy. Any player that truly knows the game will tell you that the real WoW starts at level 70. That's where all the bleeding edge raiding is done and PvP happens, if that's your thing.
I was one of the "bleeding edge raiders". (Raiding, if anyone is wondering, is pretty much going into a pre-generated dungeon with 24 other people (9 other people for the smaller ones) to take down bosses and most are reset on a weekly basis to give guilds a week's worth of possible raiding nights to finish the dungeon since they're so long). Now before the most recent summer, I was just kind of a casual raiding, playing whenever I could spare time. However, during the summer, that's when things REALLY kicked off. I got sick and tired and being in fairly newbish guilds and applied to a high end guild and was accepted. Now I went from raiding whenever I could spare time, to almost a job-like schedule of three hours a night, 5 days a week for the entire summer. And eventually, we were able to "beat" the game (as in, defeat the hardest boss).
To the topic at hand: Why the hell did I play so much? I'll be looking back on this way in the future and be thinking "God, I was a dumbass". I had to dig deep to find the answer, but I realized that I played because it made me feel like I was part of something greater than myself. Spending hours a week, not just for the benefit of myself, but for the benefit of my guild, for other people, a greater good. I felt like I was with a community, joined together with other people from around the U.S. (and a player from the U.K.) to overcome huge obstacles. I know you're probably thinking I'm an idiot for devoting huge amounts of time and effort to people on the internet, and that's okay, but being part of a raiding guild was such a great feeling to me. I was being completely unselfish and wanted to contribute to the "greater cause", even if it didn't really have bearing on my real life circumstances. Plus, it felt so good to take down a new boss encounter and celebrate with your guild mates.
People could say that why didn't you devote your time and effort then to a sports team or something. Well, sadly to admit, I guess I was a bit lazy. WoW was right there in front of me (and I'm not very good at sports anyways, just not naturally an athlete), and it was summer, so eh...
Furthermore, (yes, there is more, sorry) I also played because of the friends I made. I really enjoyed playing with the people in my guild and socializing (enjoyed just casually talking on ventrillo about anything and everything (though, you could do that IRL as well, but I'm a really shy person and don't make friends that easily in person...)).
Now with school and everything being pretty rough this year, I've decided to take a temporary hiatus from WoW. But, when things die down, I plan to join the game again.
*phew* That's just my (very long) two-cents, I hope it helped out in your search.
(Started typing at around XX:15, it's XX:54 now, lol)
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On November 28 2008 15:54 Jonoman92 wrote:
Ok, sorry for that horrid title. It's a very bad pun.
So I'm wondering what exactly it is that draws so many people to become WOW addicts. How can logical, self-respecting people band together with other people and take pride and dignity in simply killing AI created stuff.
If I'm not mistaken most hardcore WOW'ers spend their time in guilds completing quests and doing instances (after playing WOW for a week I did finally learn what an instance was.)
I mean, during my 10 day free trial I enjoyed exploring and leveling up to level 20 (the max level allowed as trial) but I don't get what the draw is to band together and to just keep owning the new levels or w/e you wanna call them that blizz keeps creating to keep the WOW subscribers entertained.
Any current/past players or people who understand this want to offer their views? I mean there is the explanation that they are all huge losers who don't want to spend their time doing anything in real life so they spend it in a fantasy world. However, being a huge sc nerd myself and spending hours upon hours on this I don't claim the above reason to be why I play sc, so I don't want to jump to conclusions and label all avid WOW players as lifeless escapists (even if it's true!)
ummm... WOW and SC are both games and they are fun to play. Some people prefer WOW over SC, just like some people prefer football over chess or whatever. It depends on weather you are into strategy or not...
if you are going to label WOW players "losers" for playing WOW, then your a loser also for playing SC all day. They are both computer games... your saying WOW players are not doing anything in real life... is playing SC doing something in real life?? LOL your logic is retarted.
btw I'm not a WOW player, your post just pisses me off... just because you don't like WOW you act like it's some huge mystery why other people play it and then label them losers??
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On November 28 2008 16:54 Humbug wrote:This is a really long post, so I'm just going to put spoiler tags to avoid having people run into paragraphs of text. + Show Spoiler +After years and years of lurking on these forums, I think I have finally found a thread to make my first post in. (I'm really sorry for the long post, but WoW is something I am very passionate about)
To answer the first question, there isn't really such thing as a "WoW addiction", but rather a problem of really bad time management and setting priorities straight. That's about the gist of it, I wouldn't say it's a "drug" like so many people claim it to be (though, that's just my opinion on the "WoW addiction" thing).
For the next questions, a more general response: I used to play WoW, and a lot of it. The first time playing it was a wonderful experience, the world seemed so huge and absolutely fantastic and just drew me right in. Days turned into weeks, weeks into months, and before I knew it, I've been playing for close to a year and 6 months. Now the level cap was easy enough, getting from 1-70 was easy. Any player that truly knows the game will tell you that the real WoW starts at level 70. That's where all the bleeding edge raiding is done and PvP happens, if that's your thing.
I was one of the "bleeding edge raiders". (Raiding, if anyone is wondering, is pretty much going into a pre-generated dungeon with 24 other people (9 other people for the smaller ones) to take down bosses and most are reset on a weekly basis to give guilds a week's worth of possible raiding nights to finish the dungeon since they're so long). Now before the most recent summer, I was just kind of a casual raiding, playing whenever I could spare time. However, during the summer, that's when things REALLY kicked off. I got sick and tired and being in fairly newbish guilds and applied to a high end guild and was accepted. Now I went from raiding whenever I could spare time, to almost a job-like schedule of three hours a night, 5 days a week for the entire summer. And eventually, we were able to "beat" the game (as in, defeat the hardest boss).
To the topic at hand: Why the hell did I play so much? I'll be looking back on this way in the future and be thinking "God, I was a dumbass". I had to dig deep to find the answer, but I realized that I played because it made me feel like I was part of something greater than myself. Spending hours a week, not just for the benefit of myself, but for the benefit of my guild, for other people, a greater good. I felt like I was with a community, joined together with other people from around the U.S. (and a player from the U.K.) to overcome huge obstacles. I know you're probably thinking I'm an idiot for devoting huge amounts of time and effort to people on the internet, and that's okay, but being part of a raiding guild was such a great feeling to me. I was being completely unselfish and wanted to contribute to the "greater cause", even if it didn't really have bearing on my real life circumstances. Plus, it felt so good to take down a new boss encounter and celebrate with your guild mates.
People could say that why didn't you devote your time and effort then to a sports team or something. Well, sadly to admit, I guess I was a bit lazy. WoW was right there in front of me (and I'm not very good at sports anyways, just not naturally an athlete), and it was summer, so eh...
Furthermore, (yes, there is more, sorry) I also played because of the friends I made. I really enjoyed playing with the people in my guild and socializing (enjoyed just casually talking on ventrillo about anything and everything (though, you could do that IRL as well, but I'm a really shy person and don't make friends that easily in person...)).
Now with school and everything being pretty rough this year, I've decided to take a temporary hiatus from WoW. But, when things die down, I plan to join the game again.
*phew* That's just my (very long) two-cents, I hope it helped out in your search.
(Started typing at around XX:15, it's XX:54 now, lol)
Pretty much this.
For me, it was and would still be if I logged in, such an amazing feeling of awe that comes over you, when you realise just how big the game is around you. For you to be able to explore everything, does quite literally takes months upon months. And the game has been made so beautifully that you sort of want to explore everything and experience everything.
Beating a computer in Starcraft, you feel no sense of real achievement, but in WoW it rewards you by making you stronger and giving you better equipment for doing so. Progression and self betterment (if that is a real word) is the drug that is WoW that keeps you wanting more, bigger, better.
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On November 28 2008 17:39 stk01001 wrote:Show nested quote +On November 28 2008 15:54 Jonoman92 wrote:
Ok, sorry for that horrid title. It's a very bad pun.
So I'm wondering what exactly it is that draws so many people to become WOW addicts. How can logical, self-respecting people band together with other people and take pride and dignity in simply killing AI created stuff.
If I'm not mistaken most hardcore WOW'ers spend their time in guilds completing quests and doing instances (after playing WOW for a week I did finally learn what an instance was.)
I mean, during my 10 day free trial I enjoyed exploring and leveling up to level 20 (the max level allowed as trial) but I don't get what the draw is to band together and to just keep owning the new levels or w/e you wanna call them that blizz keeps creating to keep the WOW subscribers entertained.
Any current/past players or people who understand this want to offer their views? I mean there is the explanation that they are all huge losers who don't want to spend their time doing anything in real life so they spend it in a fantasy world. However, being a huge sc nerd myself and spending hours upon hours on this I don't claim the above reason to be why I play sc, so I don't want to jump to conclusions and label all avid WOW players as lifeless escapists (even if it's true!) ummm... WOW and SC are both games and they are fun to play. Some people prefer WOW over SC, just like some people prefer football over chess or whatever. It depends on weather you are into strategy or not... if you are going to label WOW players "losers" for playing WOW, then your a loser also for playing SC all day. They are both computer games... your saying WOW players are not doing anything in real life... is playing SC doing something in real life?? LOL your logic is retarted. btw I'm not a WOW player, your post just pisses me off... just because you don't like WOW you act like it's some huge mystery why other people play it and then label them losers??
they're very different games. i don't think i can describe it accurately here, but here's a shot. in sc, the game has a definite end point. most games do - chess, football whatever. from what i understand, WOW does not, you keep on leveling up, right? the problem is this - to get better at sc, football (anything within the first set of games), you have to orient your real life to getting better at that endpoint - there are various goals you can set "outside the game" so you can get at some discrete outcome (spending more time, learning whatever, etc). in WOW, you do as well, but because the game doesn't have an end, ultimately you can't compartmentalize goals without being "inside the game". the game is immersive enough to define and become the medium to carry out these goals.
the whammy is that it can become addictive because the game contains elements of real life - obtaining "items", beating up bad dudes (i.e. overcoming obstacles in life). it is much easier, i imagine, to also "level up" in WOW than to learn something in real life. there's an instant gratification aspect as well.
combine those two: the vague objective of the game, and the game as a proxy for "real life", and it becomes possible for someone to substitute the game for many aspects of real life and act upon it as if it were real.
by the way - you hear it in the news all the time, but i've known a few people who have become attached enough to the game that they have dropped out of college. one of them still doesn't have a job, just stays in and plays WOW all day. it is probably extreme, but not that rare - regardless of what somebody says about someone being a loser or not, it certainly is very sad to see someone unable to tell what they are doing to themselves.
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On November 28 2008 16:54 Humbug wrote:This is a really long post, so I'm just going to put spoiler tags to avoid having people run into paragraphs of text. + Show Spoiler +After years and years of lurking on these forums, I think I have finally found a thread to make my first post in. (I'm really sorry for the long post, but WoW is something I am very passionate about)
To answer the first question, there isn't really such thing as a "WoW addiction", but rather a problem of really bad time management and setting priorities straight. That's about the gist of it, I wouldn't say it's a "drug" like so many people claim it to be (though, that's just my opinion on the "WoW addiction" thing).
For the next questions, a more general response: I used to play WoW, and a lot of it. The first time playing it was a wonderful experience, the world seemed so huge and absolutely fantastic and just drew me right in. Days turned into weeks, weeks into months, and before I knew it, I've been playing for close to a year and 6 months. Now the level cap was easy enough, getting from 1-70 was easy. Any player that truly knows the game will tell you that the real WoW starts at level 70. That's where all the bleeding edge raiding is done and PvP happens, if that's your thing.
I was one of the "bleeding edge raiders". (Raiding, if anyone is wondering, is pretty much going into a pre-generated dungeon with 24 other people (9 other people for the smaller ones) to take down bosses and most are reset on a weekly basis to give guilds a week's worth of possible raiding nights to finish the dungeon since they're so long). Now before the most recent summer, I was just kind of a casual raiding, playing whenever I could spare time. However, during the summer, that's when things REALLY kicked off. I got sick and tired and being in fairly newbish guilds and applied to a high end guild and was accepted. Now I went from raiding whenever I could spare time, to almost a job-like schedule of three hours a night, 5 days a week for the entire summer. And eventually, we were able to "beat" the game (as in, defeat the hardest boss).
To the topic at hand: Why the hell did I play so much? I'll be looking back on this way in the future and be thinking "God, I was a dumbass". I had to dig deep to find the answer, but I realized that I played because it made me feel like I was part of something greater than myself. Spending hours a week, not just for the benefit of myself, but for the benefit of my guild, for other people, a greater good. I felt like I was with a community, joined together with other people from around the U.S. (and a player from the U.K.) to overcome huge obstacles. I know you're probably thinking I'm an idiot for devoting huge amounts of time and effort to people on the internet, and that's okay, but being part of a raiding guild was such a great feeling to me. I was being completely unselfish and wanted to contribute to the "greater cause", even if it didn't really have bearing on my real life circumstances. Plus, it felt so good to take down a new boss encounter and celebrate with your guild mates.
People could say that why didn't you devote your time and effort then to a sports team or something. Well, sadly to admit, I guess I was a bit lazy. WoW was right there in front of me (and I'm not very good at sports anyways, just not naturally an athlete), and it was summer, so eh...
Furthermore, (yes, there is more, sorry) I also played because of the friends I made. I really enjoyed playing with the people in my guild and socializing (enjoyed just casually talking on ventrillo about anything and everything (though, you could do that IRL as well, but I'm a really shy person and don't make friends that easily in person...)).
Now with school and everything being pretty rough this year, I've decided to take a temporary hiatus from WoW. But, when things die down, I plan to join the game again.
*phew* That's just my (very long) two-cents, I hope it helped out in your search.
(Started typing at around XX:15, it's XX:54 now, lol)
Ok I understand that the raiding and guild play was interesting, but what got you hooked originally? Like, what made you want to stick around until level 60 or 70? I played WoW until like level 15 and was bored of the world by then. Running from place to place tediously killing 10 or 15 of the same monster was extremely boring. Obviously there was more to explore, but I didn't feel like it was worth it to put in all that time to level up. So what was interesting in that period from 1-60(70)
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The original WoW was fun when I bought it 4-5 months before the expansion. Some friends of mine already played this before I have and thus I had the benefit of getting some help with this game.
To me, if you have no real life friends to play with, you will need a true boner for this game to enjoy it. But seriously, playing these types of games by yourself?
PvP was fun and more skill-based since getting epic gear was difficult back then. Low end epics also weren't always suited for PvP style so I always had a chance against weak raiders. PvE was also much more difficult in terms of Raiding from what I hear especially Naxxramas although I hardly raided past the first few raids (ZG, MC) in pick up games. The PvE Raids now I hear is a joke.. I was more of a dungeon person. The small dungeons were called instances ( 5 man) where me and my friends would try to figure out how to beat it sort of like a puzzle from the nooby ones to the more difficult ones. Many wipes but still.. good times. A lot of the pre expansion instances were really well designed in my opinion (brd)
I quit along with all my friends a month before the expansion. A few years later I leveled my friends 2ndary character from 60 to 70 to see how the expansion was like before helping him grind some honor through bgs/arena, etc and then quitting again, this time for good.
Everything made easier (getting good items, making money) basically for the not so bright masses while the people who valued the competitive parts of this game get hosed besides the not-so-competitive arena which they implemented. Everything also become normalized, horde and alliance specific classes given to both sides and stuff like that.
Oh yeah, they also nerfed undead shadow priests so that they no longer were one of the premier pvp classes
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as for the all WoW players are loner losers argument, more people around you play wow then you think. With these expansions coming out, WoW is truly a casual gamer's dream with the sheer easiness of making gold, getting "good" items, and other stuff. Plenty of people I know play WoW (casually or hardcore) and looking at them you wouldn't even expect them to be a gamer. They may want to play with real life friends or family and/or simply because it is an entertaining game. On the flip side some dudes on my dorm floor are hella obese and play WoW all day with their similarily obese girlfriends that also play WoW for 0420840824024082842 hours. For people like that, WoW is a sickness that needs to be cured to salvage what little soul is left in them.
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On November 28 2008 18:17 kNyTTyM wrote:Show nested quote +On November 28 2008 16:54 Humbug wrote:This is a really long post, so I'm just going to put spoiler tags to avoid having people run into paragraphs of text. + Show Spoiler +After years and years of lurking on these forums, I think I have finally found a thread to make my first post in. (I'm really sorry for the long post, but WoW is something I am very passionate about)
To answer the first question, there isn't really such thing as a "WoW addiction", but rather a problem of really bad time management and setting priorities straight. That's about the gist of it, I wouldn't say it's a "drug" like so many people claim it to be (though, that's just my opinion on the "WoW addiction" thing).
For the next questions, a more general response: I used to play WoW, and a lot of it. The first time playing it was a wonderful experience, the world seemed so huge and absolutely fantastic and just drew me right in. Days turned into weeks, weeks into months, and before I knew it, I've been playing for close to a year and 6 months. Now the level cap was easy enough, getting from 1-70 was easy. Any player that truly knows the game will tell you that the real WoW starts at level 70. That's where all the bleeding edge raiding is done and PvP happens, if that's your thing.
I was one of the "bleeding edge raiders". (Raiding, if anyone is wondering, is pretty much going into a pre-generated dungeon with 24 other people (9 other people for the smaller ones) to take down bosses and most are reset on a weekly basis to give guilds a week's worth of possible raiding nights to finish the dungeon since they're so long). Now before the most recent summer, I was just kind of a casual raiding, playing whenever I could spare time. However, during the summer, that's when things REALLY kicked off. I got sick and tired and being in fairly newbish guilds and applied to a high end guild and was accepted. Now I went from raiding whenever I could spare time, to almost a job-like schedule of three hours a night, 5 days a week for the entire summer. And eventually, we were able to "beat" the game (as in, defeat the hardest boss).
To the topic at hand: Why the hell did I play so much? I'll be looking back on this way in the future and be thinking "God, I was a dumbass". I had to dig deep to find the answer, but I realized that I played because it made me feel like I was part of something greater than myself. Spending hours a week, not just for the benefit of myself, but for the benefit of my guild, for other people, a greater good. I felt like I was with a community, joined together with other people from around the U.S. (and a player from the U.K.) to overcome huge obstacles. I know you're probably thinking I'm an idiot for devoting huge amounts of time and effort to people on the internet, and that's okay, but being part of a raiding guild was such a great feeling to me. I was being completely unselfish and wanted to contribute to the "greater cause", even if it didn't really have bearing on my real life circumstances. Plus, it felt so good to take down a new boss encounter and celebrate with your guild mates.
People could say that why didn't you devote your time and effort then to a sports team or something. Well, sadly to admit, I guess I was a bit lazy. WoW was right there in front of me (and I'm not very good at sports anyways, just not naturally an athlete), and it was summer, so eh...
Furthermore, (yes, there is more, sorry) I also played because of the friends I made. I really enjoyed playing with the people in my guild and socializing (enjoyed just casually talking on ventrillo about anything and everything (though, you could do that IRL as well, but I'm a really shy person and don't make friends that easily in person...)).
Now with school and everything being pretty rough this year, I've decided to take a temporary hiatus from WoW. But, when things die down, I plan to join the game again.
*phew* That's just my (very long) two-cents, I hope it helped out in your search.
(Started typing at around XX:15, it's XX:54 now, lol) Ok I understand that the raiding and guild play was interesting, but what got you hooked originally? Like, what made you want to stick around until level 60 or 70? I played WoW until like level 15 and was bored of the world by then. Running from place to place tediously killing 10 or 15 of the same monster was extremely boring. Obviously there was more to explore, but I didn't feel like it was worth it to put in all that time to level up. So what was interesting in that period from 1-60(70)
Well it's understandable that grinding isn't really everyone's cake. The idea of killing X monsters for Y number of quests and bringing this to him/her can get extremely repetitious. I was able to keep my sanity partially because I was extremely interested in the Warcraft lore from the previous games (it was pretty cool to see all the stuff "in person"), and I especially enjoyed the game because I had someone to play with, my cousin. That made the game SO much better, since I had someone to share all my ZOMG moments with. The grind doesn't seem too bad when you're questing with a friend and doing the small dungeon runs with. Plus, you can go do battlegrounds with them, which adds an extra level of enjoyment since you know you have someone to back you up.
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Here's what I think about it. Spoiler so you guys can not read it if you like.
+ Show Spoiler +Well, the one thing that got me hooked onto WoW for around 8 months straight(longest period of time that I've played WoW) was the fact about getting more powerful.
I ran WoW on a 384mb ram computer for 2 years and leveling was a pain with such leveling. School, exams and finances got in the way for me to get a new computer so I just gave the game up altogether back then.
When I got a new PC earlier this year, I kept playing and playing because you could get things done and start getting into end-game content, which was something I had always wanted since the days when AQ40 was out.
But for me, I guess WoW didn't really last very long much after. I got into a raiding guild but it was very tiring to adjust my own real life schedule to meet the demands in WoW. It sounds kinda stupid.
I find the comparison between WoW and SC not valid because SC on average takes much, much less time. I've played SC much less than I've had WoW since I got into SC around last year. SC is also much better because I find that every game is different with different scenarios with different outcomes.
WoW on the other hand was so repatitive. All I did everyday was get into the dailies zone and farm the same quests everyday, get ganked by horde all the time and find the occasional admantine nodes around. The raids weren't even as fun as I had expected. To get into a high end raid guild, my gear had to be of a certain level and that would mean more raiding and committing more time. Raids are very time consuming and after a while, I just sat down and figured that hey WoW was fun but man it just gets old after a while. The end rewards seem really great but in the end you find that its not really worth it considering the time that you need to put into it. At least that's for me. Its so demeaning to spend so much time doing the same thing.
Last note, I find that one of the greatest things in WoW was the bonding and friendships made. In all my instances, I find that guildie mates and friends are great company and one of the great aspects in WoW. I think that Blizzard has done a good job in designing content that's suited for good communication and coordination that's one of the major attracting factors in the game. Its like knowing that there are probably 9 to 24 other people with you fighting out on some boss and the idea seemed really cool.
But well WoW days are over and I'm not getting back into it.
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the way I played WoW was that I loved being in that consistent world that was totally huge. I remember my first visit to Ironforge (a capital city) with the music blaring from the speakers and me realizing just how many players were on the server. Or the first time I rode a Hippogryph and seeing the world under me pass and realizing how huge the world was and how great the game looked (this was like 4 years ago).
I also loved playing with friends that I couldn't be with because I had moved to another city. A couple of months ago I even played for 2 months with my girlfriend, but we took a very very casual approach to the game, not getting past lvl 26 in two months (you can do that in 2 days or maybe even less if you know what you're doing).
I never got to level 60 (like I never got past lvl 82 in Diablo 2) but I made a lot of characters to see how they play, and I played both horde and alliance to see everything the game has to offer.
What also feels nice is that you're always making progress, be it in experience, loot or gold.
What breaks the game for me is the social aspect as I would like to enjoy it but I really don't. If you can get 4 other friends to play with you on a regular basis I think this game is the best game ever to have a great time (only counting rpgs, otherwise game like Rock Band are a great choice). I had a great time alone but with 5 people you can run instances which are great for getting nice loot, feeling like you're accomplishing something big and feeling like being part of something bigger than yourself like Humbug mentioned.
If you just get 1 or 2 people that you have fun with and there's only one person in your group of 5 that somehow spoils the fun (and people on the internet have so many ways of doing that) the game will be very frustrating.
Also what makes it difficult for me to really enjoy these games is that I either want to take a very naive approach (not knowing what will come next, to explore and adventure) or, once that isn't possible anymore a very professional approach (beating dungeons as fast as possible and leveling as effectively as possible). Most people either break the immersion that the game provides by making lame jokes or claiming loot before it has even dropped or are so "professional" that I can't keep up with them in level because I just can't devote so much time to the game (and there's little sense in playing with someone that is more that one level apart from you).
I still think that the best way to play is getting a number of friends (ideally 4) to play with you on one or two evenings a week for a couple of hours (4-6) and don't play that character in between. that way the money you spend (the monthly fee) is well invested and you'll maximise the fun you get out of the game.
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Valhalla18444 Posts
world of warcraft has an intensely vibrant universe, blizzard is really really good at creating storylines and turning those storylines into shit you do in-game
wow keeps people interested by offering a huge, HUGE variety in terms of what you can do with your time
and some people have nothing better to do than spend 14 hours a day playing a video game
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1584 Posts
The warcraft universe is great, it makes for such a great mmo storyline too since there's always some bad guy that is even stronger than the currently baddest guy.
Plus it's kinda epic to play raids with 25 other people.
It's really addicting though and I'm glad my account was banned so I got out of that shit.
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On November 28 2008 17:47 Energies wrote:Show nested quote +On November 28 2008 16:54 Humbug wrote:This is a really long post, so I'm just going to put spoiler tags to avoid having people run into paragraphs of text. + Show Spoiler +After years and years of lurking on these forums, I think I have finally found a thread to make my first post in. (I'm really sorry for the long post, but WoW is something I am very passionate about)
To answer the first question, there isn't really such thing as a "WoW addiction", but rather a problem of really bad time management and setting priorities straight. That's about the gist of it, I wouldn't say it's a "drug" like so many people claim it to be (though, that's just my opinion on the "WoW addiction" thing).
For the next questions, a more general response: I used to play WoW, and a lot of it. The first time playing it was a wonderful experience, the world seemed so huge and absolutely fantastic and just drew me right in. Days turned into weeks, weeks into months, and before I knew it, I've been playing for close to a year and 6 months. Now the level cap was easy enough, getting from 1-70 was easy. Any player that truly knows the game will tell you that the real WoW starts at level 70. That's where all the bleeding edge raiding is done and PvP happens, if that's your thing.
I was one of the "bleeding edge raiders". (Raiding, if anyone is wondering, is pretty much going into a pre-generated dungeon with 24 other people (9 other people for the smaller ones) to take down bosses and most are reset on a weekly basis to give guilds a week's worth of possible raiding nights to finish the dungeon since they're so long). Now before the most recent summer, I was just kind of a casual raiding, playing whenever I could spare time. However, during the summer, that's when things REALLY kicked off. I got sick and tired and being in fairly newbish guilds and applied to a high end guild and was accepted. Now I went from raiding whenever I could spare time, to almost a job-like schedule of three hours a night, 5 days a week for the entire summer. And eventually, we were able to "beat" the game (as in, defeat the hardest boss).
To the topic at hand: Why the hell did I play so much? I'll be looking back on this way in the future and be thinking "God, I was a dumbass". I had to dig deep to find the answer, but I realized that I played because it made me feel like I was part of something greater than myself. Spending hours a week, not just for the benefit of myself, but for the benefit of my guild, for other people, a greater good. I felt like I was with a community, joined together with other people from around the U.S. (and a player from the U.K.) to overcome huge obstacles. I know you're probably thinking I'm an idiot for devoting huge amounts of time and effort to people on the internet, and that's okay, but being part of a raiding guild was such a great feeling to me. I was being completely unselfish and wanted to contribute to the "greater cause", even if it didn't really have bearing on my real life circumstances. Plus, it felt so good to take down a new boss encounter and celebrate with your guild mates.
People could say that why didn't you devote your time and effort then to a sports team or something. Well, sadly to admit, I guess I was a bit lazy. WoW was right there in front of me (and I'm not very good at sports anyways, just not naturally an athlete), and it was summer, so eh...
Furthermore, (yes, there is more, sorry) I also played because of the friends I made. I really enjoyed playing with the people in my guild and socializing (enjoyed just casually talking on ventrillo about anything and everything (though, you could do that IRL as well, but I'm a really shy person and don't make friends that easily in person...)).
Now with school and everything being pretty rough this year, I've decided to take a temporary hiatus from WoW. But, when things die down, I plan to join the game again.
*phew* That's just my (very long) two-cents, I hope it helped out in your search.
(Started typing at around XX:15, it's XX:54 now, lol) Pretty much this. For me, it was and would still be if I logged in, such an amazing feeling of awe that comes over you, when you realise just how big the game is around you. For you to be able to explore everything, does quite literally takes months upon months. And the game has been made so beautifully that you sort of want to explore everything and experience everything. Beating a computer in Starcraft, you feel no sense of real achievement, but in WoW it rewards you by making you stronger and giving you better equipment for doing so. Progression and self betterment (if that is a real word) is the drug that is WoW that keeps you wanting more, bigger, better.
WTF? So your saying wooping somebody's ass on Iccup doesn't make you feel better? So achieving D+/C-/C or higher ranks doesn't give a feeling of satisfaction?
Listen, a problem with people who play WOW is that they think it's the best shit ever. No it's not, everyone would be playing if it was. So please, play some more starcraft and you'll see why not only I but other people in tl.net like it too.
Edit: Besides, why are you playing with computers anyway lol?
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Netherlands19133 Posts
I played it for a little over a year with RL friends and had a blast then it became just more of the same. Played Burning Crusade abit again but didnt have the same feel to it so quit again.
All in all had alot of fun with it but it gets old.
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Its really fun playing with RL friends. Its fun while it lasted but in the end people just start quitting and slowly everyone leaves the game.
Also ganking back then and real world PvP was probably the funnest part.
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This isn't really true, people who get addicted to wow already play games all day and then blame their shitty life on wow, it's rediculous.
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On November 28 2008 23:33 ilistis wrote:Show nested quote +On November 28 2008 17:47 Energies wrote:On November 28 2008 16:54 Humbug wrote:This is a really long post, so I'm just going to put spoiler tags to avoid having people run into paragraphs of text. + Show Spoiler +After years and years of lurking on these forums, I think I have finally found a thread to make my first post in. (I'm really sorry for the long post, but WoW is something I am very passionate about)
To answer the first question, there isn't really such thing as a "WoW addiction", but rather a problem of really bad time management and setting priorities straight. That's about the gist of it, I wouldn't say it's a "drug" like so many people claim it to be (though, that's just my opinion on the "WoW addiction" thing).
For the next questions, a more general response: I used to play WoW, and a lot of it. The first time playing it was a wonderful experience, the world seemed so huge and absolutely fantastic and just drew me right in. Days turned into weeks, weeks into months, and before I knew it, I've been playing for close to a year and 6 months. Now the level cap was easy enough, getting from 1-70 was easy. Any player that truly knows the game will tell you that the real WoW starts at level 70. That's where all the bleeding edge raiding is done and PvP happens, if that's your thing.
I was one of the "bleeding edge raiders". (Raiding, if anyone is wondering, is pretty much going into a pre-generated dungeon with 24 other people (9 other people for the smaller ones) to take down bosses and most are reset on a weekly basis to give guilds a week's worth of possible raiding nights to finish the dungeon since they're so long). Now before the most recent summer, I was just kind of a casual raiding, playing whenever I could spare time. However, during the summer, that's when things REALLY kicked off. I got sick and tired and being in fairly newbish guilds and applied to a high end guild and was accepted. Now I went from raiding whenever I could spare time, to almost a job-like schedule of three hours a night, 5 days a week for the entire summer. And eventually, we were able to "beat" the game (as in, defeat the hardest boss).
To the topic at hand: Why the hell did I play so much? I'll be looking back on this way in the future and be thinking "God, I was a dumbass". I had to dig deep to find the answer, but I realized that I played because it made me feel like I was part of something greater than myself. Spending hours a week, not just for the benefit of myself, but for the benefit of my guild, for other people, a greater good. I felt like I was with a community, joined together with other people from around the U.S. (and a player from the U.K.) to overcome huge obstacles. I know you're probably thinking I'm an idiot for devoting huge amounts of time and effort to people on the internet, and that's okay, but being part of a raiding guild was such a great feeling to me. I was being completely unselfish and wanted to contribute to the "greater cause", even if it didn't really have bearing on my real life circumstances. Plus, it felt so good to take down a new boss encounter and celebrate with your guild mates.
People could say that why didn't you devote your time and effort then to a sports team or something. Well, sadly to admit, I guess I was a bit lazy. WoW was right there in front of me (and I'm not very good at sports anyways, just not naturally an athlete), and it was summer, so eh...
Furthermore, (yes, there is more, sorry) I also played because of the friends I made. I really enjoyed playing with the people in my guild and socializing (enjoyed just casually talking on ventrillo about anything and everything (though, you could do that IRL as well, but I'm a really shy person and don't make friends that easily in person...)).
Now with school and everything being pretty rough this year, I've decided to take a temporary hiatus from WoW. But, when things die down, I plan to join the game again.
*phew* That's just my (very long) two-cents, I hope it helped out in your search.
(Started typing at around XX:15, it's XX:54 now, lol) Pretty much this. For me, it was and would still be if I logged in, such an amazing feeling of awe that comes over you, when you realise just how big the game is around you. For you to be able to explore everything, does quite literally takes months upon months. And the game has been made so beautifully that you sort of want to explore everything and experience everything. Beating a computer in Starcraft, you feel no sense of real achievement, but in WoW it rewards you by making you stronger and giving you better equipment for doing so. Progression and self betterment (if that is a real word) is the drug that is WoW that keeps you wanting more, bigger, better. WTF? So your saying wooping somebody's ass on Iccup doesn't make you feel better? So achieving D+/C-/C or higher ranks doesn't give a feeling of satisfaction? Listen, a problem with people who play WOW is that they think it's the best shit ever. No it's not, everyone would be playing if it was. So please, play some more starcraft and you'll see why not only I but other people in tl.net like it too. Edit: Besides, why are you playing with computers anyway lol?
I'm not saying wow is the best game ever, but your reasoning is stupid since there are so much more people that put time into warcraft than there are people who actively play starcraft. there are 11 million subscribers for Wow. so yes, most everyone is playing.
And believe it or not, Energies loves starcraft, he was a referee at the WCG.
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On November 29 2008 00:06 mel_ee wrote:
Its really fun playing with RL friends. Its fun while it lasted but in the end people just start quitting and slowly everyone leaves the game.
Also ganking back then and real world PvP was probably the funnest part.
Agree with this. The only times I played were with a bunch of people I knew. Which leads me to playing only oh 2-3 months and then taking longer breaks
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From what I have experienced, you don't get WoW addict really, the game doesn't get that fun once you hit the maximum level. But you get "epic" addict, you know those purple items that you get in alte game? The people you talk of, the ones spending countless hours in their guild, just try to organize a 25people vs computer fight to gather more of these purple items. Thats pretty what PvE WoW is.
Some more people can play in the battlegrounds, or arena, then it comes down to PvP. This part of the game is really fun to me, WoW 2v2 and 3v3 is very intense at high level. There is an official ladder, so it can be tempting to break top 25 or something, like on iccup. That can also make people addict.
What I stated above also make alot of people to quit, all my friends and I left WoW because we felt it was a waste of time to fight the computer boss for 3hours every monday night just to get a chance to have those purple pixels... (the bosses are very fun to fight, don,t get me wrong, but it takes way too long to do a full run)
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I agree with humbug so much. The fact that most of my friends are really stuck inside their house, they simply resort to games in general. Then some poor beings resorted to RPGs. RPGs are extremely hard to stop playing, especially if there is nothing better to do. The good thing is that the change of heart when they quit usually makes them dislike RPGs as a whole, or at least strong motivation to quit that specific one.
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On November 29 2008 01:09 distant_voice wrote:Show nested quote +On November 28 2008 23:33 ilistis wrote:On November 28 2008 17:47 Energies wrote:On November 28 2008 16:54 Humbug wrote:This is a really long post, so I'm just going to put spoiler tags to avoid having people run into paragraphs of text. + Show Spoiler +After years and years of lurking on these forums, I think I have finally found a thread to make my first post in. (I'm really sorry for the long post, but WoW is something I am very passionate about)
To answer the first question, there isn't really such thing as a "WoW addiction", but rather a problem of really bad time management and setting priorities straight. That's about the gist of it, I wouldn't say it's a "drug" like so many people claim it to be (though, that's just my opinion on the "WoW addiction" thing).
For the next questions, a more general response: I used to play WoW, and a lot of it. The first time playing it was a wonderful experience, the world seemed so huge and absolutely fantastic and just drew me right in. Days turned into weeks, weeks into months, and before I knew it, I've been playing for close to a year and 6 months. Now the level cap was easy enough, getting from 1-70 was easy. Any player that truly knows the game will tell you that the real WoW starts at level 70. That's where all the bleeding edge raiding is done and PvP happens, if that's your thing.
I was one of the "bleeding edge raiders". (Raiding, if anyone is wondering, is pretty much going into a pre-generated dungeon with 24 other people (9 other people for the smaller ones) to take down bosses and most are reset on a weekly basis to give guilds a week's worth of possible raiding nights to finish the dungeon since they're so long). Now before the most recent summer, I was just kind of a casual raiding, playing whenever I could spare time. However, during the summer, that's when things REALLY kicked off. I got sick and tired and being in fairly newbish guilds and applied to a high end guild and was accepted. Now I went from raiding whenever I could spare time, to almost a job-like schedule of three hours a night, 5 days a week for the entire summer. And eventually, we were able to "beat" the game (as in, defeat the hardest boss).
To the topic at hand: Why the hell did I play so much? I'll be looking back on this way in the future and be thinking "God, I was a dumbass". I had to dig deep to find the answer, but I realized that I played because it made me feel like I was part of something greater than myself. Spending hours a week, not just for the benefit of myself, but for the benefit of my guild, for other people, a greater good. I felt like I was with a community, joined together with other people from around the U.S. (and a player from the U.K.) to overcome huge obstacles. I know you're probably thinking I'm an idiot for devoting huge amounts of time and effort to people on the internet, and that's okay, but being part of a raiding guild was such a great feeling to me. I was being completely unselfish and wanted to contribute to the "greater cause", even if it didn't really have bearing on my real life circumstances. Plus, it felt so good to take down a new boss encounter and celebrate with your guild mates.
People could say that why didn't you devote your time and effort then to a sports team or something. Well, sadly to admit, I guess I was a bit lazy. WoW was right there in front of me (and I'm not very good at sports anyways, just not naturally an athlete), and it was summer, so eh...
Furthermore, (yes, there is more, sorry) I also played because of the friends I made. I really enjoyed playing with the people in my guild and socializing (enjoyed just casually talking on ventrillo about anything and everything (though, you could do that IRL as well, but I'm a really shy person and don't make friends that easily in person...)).
Now with school and everything being pretty rough this year, I've decided to take a temporary hiatus from WoW. But, when things die down, I plan to join the game again.
*phew* That's just my (very long) two-cents, I hope it helped out in your search.
(Started typing at around XX:15, it's XX:54 now, lol) Pretty much this. For me, it was and would still be if I logged in, such an amazing feeling of awe that comes over you, when you realise just how big the game is around you. For you to be able to explore everything, does quite literally takes months upon months. And the game has been made so beautifully that you sort of want to explore everything and experience everything. Beating a computer in Starcraft, you feel no sense of real achievement, but in WoW it rewards you by making you stronger and giving you better equipment for doing so. Progression and self betterment (if that is a real word) is the drug that is WoW that keeps you wanting more, bigger, better. WTF? So your saying wooping somebody's ass on Iccup doesn't make you feel better? So achieving D+/C-/C or higher ranks doesn't give a feeling of satisfaction? Listen, a problem with people who play WOW is that they think it's the best shit ever. No it's not, everyone would be playing if it was. So please, play some more starcraft and you'll see why not only I but other people in tl.net like it too. Edit: Besides, why are you playing with computers anyway lol? I'm not saying wow is the best game ever, but your reasoning is stupid since there are so much more people that put time into warcraft than there are people who actively play starcraft. there are 11 million subscribers for Wow. so yes, most everyone is playing. And believe it or not, Energies loves starcraft, he was a referee at the WCG.
lol mostly EVERYONE? Trust me there are other mmorpgs that other people play. Maybe not as much as 11 million but still.
Besides, I wasn't comparing how many people actively play starcraft compared to WOW.. The game is 10 years old and people are still playing.
I was just saying that your playing with computers.Computer? Go on b.net at least and I'll say it again. People get hooked so badly on WOW that most of their time, that's what they're playing and every other games is shit.
Edit: Check out the cracked article on WOW , I'm sure that'll make you mad. And check out the comments too, your WOW buddies are defeding their game. lol...
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On November 29 2008 01:22 ilistis wrote:People get hooked so badly on WOW that most of their time, that's what they're playing and every other games is shit. Edit: Check out the cracked article on WOW , I'm sure that'll make you mad. And check out the comments too, your WOW buddies are defeding their game. lol...
funny how you say people defending WoW are pathetic on a forum where everyone is defending starcaft as if they are working for blizzard.
Face it, WoW is a fucking great game made by a fucking great company. you wonder why it's so popular? well, for the same reason as starcraft and diablo are still popular after more than 10 years: they are ones of the best games ever made. just because YOU don't like WoW doesn't mean it's a shitty game. I'm not crazy about starcraft but I understand that people plays it alot because they find it the best game they can waste hours on.
and why there are people thinking that wow=shitty game because it makes people addict? Is smoking weed the worst thing ever because it makes people addict?
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On November 29 2008 01:53 Xela wrote:Show nested quote +On November 29 2008 01:22 ilistis wrote:People get hooked so badly on WOW that most of their time, that's what they're playing and every other games is shit. Edit: Check out the cracked article on WOW , I'm sure that'll make you mad. And check out the comments too, your WOW buddies are defeding their game. lol... funny how you say people defending WoW are pathetic on a forum where everyone is defending starcaft as if they are working for blizzard. Face it, WoW is a fucking great game made by a fucking great company. you wonder why it's so popular? well, for the same reason as starcraft and diablo are still popular after more than 10 years: they are ones of the best games ever made. just because YOU don't like WoW doesn't mean it's a shitty game. I'm not crazy about starcraft but I understand that people plays it alot because they find it the best game they can waste hours on. and why there are people thinking that wow=shitty game because it makes people addict? Is smoking weed the worst thing ever because it makes people addict?
I never said it wasn't a good game and I never said I didn't like it. What I hate is that you people who play WOW get so defensive. I probably can't even mention another mmorpg with out you fanatics saying" wow is teh best or that game sucks..because it's not wow".
I didn't even say it was bad and your being defensive lol.
edit:Oh and your setting yourself in a bad position. Weed is BAD because it has negative effects on the body of the person and yes addiction is bad.
People do get addicted to wow and that's pretty bad. The most extreme cases have been where people have actually died because they didn't eat while playing wow.Not eating? Ok, but not everybody plays that much to the point where they die.
There probably are people who play casually but most people are addicted.
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On November 28 2008 15:54 Jonoman92 wrote:
Ok, sorry for that horrid title. It's a very bad pun.
So I'm wondering what exactly it is that draws so many people to become WOW addicts. How can logical, self-respecting people band together with other people and take pride and dignity in simply killing AI created stuff.
If I'm not mistaken most hardcore WOW'ers spend their time in guilds completing quests and doing instances (after playing WOW for a week I did finally learn what an instance was.)
I mean, during my 10 day free trial I enjoyed exploring and leveling up to level 20 (the max level allowed as trial) but I don't get what the draw is to band together and to just keep owning the new levels or w/e you wanna call them that blizz keeps creating to keep the WOW subscribers entertained.
Any current/past players or people who understand this want to offer their views? I mean there is the explanation that they are all huge losers who don't want to spend their time doing anything in real life so they spend it in a fantasy world. However, being a huge sc nerd myself and spending hours upon hours on this I don't claim the above reason to be why I play sc, so I don't want to jump to conclusions and label all avid WOW players as lifeless escapists (even if it's true!)
The real game starts on maxlvl. From a WoW-Player point of view you didn't see anything from the game yet.
IMHO (c)(tm)
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Contrary to most other people here, I actually preferred the leveling from 1 to 60 portion over the raiding portion at level 60.
I think part of that feeling is because I played when the game first launched, and there was always a lot of people everywhere around me. By contrast, if you level to 60 now, all the lower level areas are probably relatively barren because everyone is doing raids and instances.
The epic aspect of big raids taking down the final bosses was pretty satisfying too, but after the first time you kill a boss, it just becomes a grind again. That's why I stopped playing.
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On November 29 2008 03:21 ilistis wrote:Show nested quote +On November 29 2008 01:53 Xela wrote:On November 29 2008 01:22 ilistis wrote:People get hooked so badly on WOW that most of their time, that's what they're playing and every other games is shit. Edit: Check out the cracked article on WOW , I'm sure that'll make you mad. And check out the comments too, your WOW buddies are defeding their game. lol... funny how you say people defending WoW are pathetic on a forum where everyone is defending starcaft as if they are working for blizzard. Face it, WoW is a fucking great game made by a fucking great company. you wonder why it's so popular? well, for the same reason as starcraft and diablo are still popular after more than 10 years: they are ones of the best games ever made. just because YOU don't like WoW doesn't mean it's a shitty game. I'm not crazy about starcraft but I understand that people plays it alot because they find it the best game they can waste hours on. and why there are people thinking that wow=shitty game because it makes people addict? Is smoking weed the worst thing ever because it makes people addict? I never said it wasn't a good game and I never said I didn't like it. What I hate is that you people who play WOW get so defensive. I probably can't even mention another mmorpg with out you fanatics saying" wow is teh best or that game sucks..because it's not wow". I didn't even say it was bad and your being defensive lol. edit:Oh and your setting yourself in a bad position. Weed is BAD because it has negative effects on the body of the person and yes addiction is bad. People do get addicted to wow and that's pretty bad. The most extreme cases have been where people have actually died because they didn't eat while playing wow.Not eating? Ok, but not everybody plays that much to the point where they die. There probably are people who play casually but most people are addicted.
It's only natural for any gamer to get defensive when people are bashing the game that they play. If someone said "Games like Starcraft are so stupid, why do people play Starcraft?", I'm sure you'd be a little bit offended too.
In general, your posts have a very confrontational attitude, and it seems that you have some unwarranted anger toward WOW players. Why does it matter to you if some people think WOW is the greatest shit ever? There is no absolute scale with which you measure the goodness of a game. It's purely a matter of opinion.
Also, weed actually isn't really all that bad for you. The most harmful aspect of weed is the actual act of smoking, which negatively affects your lungs. But even that can be avoided by using other methods of consumption, such as vaporization or just baking it into foods and eating the food.
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it doesnt take skill but takes time so both skilled and unskilled people can play it and think they are hot shit. then there are "guilds" which are like support groups and off they go all together on a LOTResque mission to just do something. teamwork makes people feel wanted etc etc.
just a big flashy support group thing. same as religion which is also a big support group thing. im not saying wow is a religion, im saying you get the same feeling of being wanted and being valuable.
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You guys are looking too much into it.
WoW is really easy to play, so you can watch TV while playing it and just relax. Not everyone wants to play 'competitive' video games. There's also a really strong social aspect to it. WoW gives players a lot to talk about in the game and if you add that to normal conversation in general, it's very easy to have a conversation on WoW.
WoW is a great game, it's just not a competitive game, so people should stop trying to make it into one.
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The point is WoW can be anything you want. I'm not saying it is the greatest game ever made. I don't even play anymore -- However, if you want to be in a competitive guild racing for world firsts beating the hardest content with the softest gear etc; you can do that. If you want to hang out with 5 RL friends and just do casual shit and run instances after work; you can do that. The world is masterfully crafted by a company that makes billions of dollars. There is really limitless potential for that type of game since you are continually paying it for it, they continually make it better. Most games don't have that draw/capability.
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On November 28 2008 16:54 Humbug wrote:This is a really long post, so I'm just going to put spoiler tags to avoid having people run into paragraphs of text. + Show Spoiler +After years and years of lurking on these forums, I think I have finally found a thread to make my first post in. (I'm really sorry for the long post, but WoW is something I am very passionate about)
To answer the first question, there isn't really such thing as a "WoW addiction", but rather a problem of really bad time management and setting priorities straight. That's about the gist of it, I wouldn't say it's a "drug" like so many people claim it to be (though, that's just my opinion on the "WoW addiction" thing).
For the next questions, a more general response: I used to play WoW, and a lot of it. The first time playing it was a wonderful experience, the world seemed so huge and absolutely fantastic and just drew me right in. Days turned into weeks, weeks into months, and before I knew it, I've been playing for close to a year and 6 months. Now the level cap was easy enough, getting from 1-70 was easy. Any player that truly knows the game will tell you that the real WoW starts at level 70. That's where all the bleeding edge raiding is done and PvP happens, if that's your thing.
I was one of the "bleeding edge raiders". (Raiding, if anyone is wondering, is pretty much going into a pre-generated dungeon with 24 other people (9 other people for the smaller ones) to take down bosses and most are reset on a weekly basis to give guilds a week's worth of possible raiding nights to finish the dungeon since they're so long). Now before the most recent summer, I was just kind of a casual raiding, playing whenever I could spare time. However, during the summer, that's when things REALLY kicked off. I got sick and tired and being in fairly newbish guilds and applied to a high end guild and was accepted. Now I went from raiding whenever I could spare time, to almost a job-like schedule of three hours a night, 5 days a week for the entire summer. And eventually, we were able to "beat" the game (as in, defeat the hardest boss).
To the topic at hand: Why the hell did I play so much? I'll be looking back on this way in the future and be thinking "God, I was a dumbass". I had to dig deep to find the answer, but I realized that I played because it made me feel like I was part of something greater than myself. Spending hours a week, not just for the benefit of myself, but for the benefit of my guild, for other people, a greater good. I felt like I was with a community, joined together with other people from around the U.S. (and a player from the U.K.) to overcome huge obstacles. I know you're probably thinking I'm an idiot for devoting huge amounts of time and effort to people on the internet, and that's okay, but being part of a raiding guild was such a great feeling to me. I was being completely unselfish and wanted to contribute to the "greater cause", even if it didn't really have bearing on my real life circumstances. Plus, it felt so good to take down a new boss encounter and celebrate with your guild mates.
People could say that why didn't you devote your time and effort then to a sports team or something. Well, sadly to admit, I guess I was a bit lazy. WoW was right there in front of me (and I'm not very good at sports anyways, just not naturally an athlete), and it was summer, so eh...
Furthermore, (yes, there is more, sorry) I also played because of the friends I made. I really enjoyed playing with the people in my guild and socializing (enjoyed just casually talking on ventrillo about anything and everything (though, you could do that IRL as well, but I'm a really shy person and don't make friends that easily in person...)).
Now with school and everything being pretty rough this year, I've decided to take a temporary hiatus from WoW. But, when things die down, I plan to join the game again.
*phew* That's just my (very long) two-cents, I hope it helped out in your search.
(Started typing at around XX:15, it's XX:54 now, lol)
thank you for sharing that and im not trying to be rude but rather honest. that's what society labels as 'antisocial losers'... you think ur shy and is hard for u to make friends in real life.. then there is a real problem imo..
sometimes I think about life like this:
1) family/ real life friends/ work
2) sports/video games/going out(partying w/e)
and I know how good it feels though and im not judging you at all because I feel the same joy when I gather wit my online friends in gears of war 2 to rank up in public matches we have a lot of laughter and fun when we win matches etc.. but real life stuff are more important
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On November 29 2008 08:59 InfeSteD wrote:Show nested quote +On November 28 2008 16:54 Humbug wrote:This is a really long post, so I'm just going to put spoiler tags to avoid having people run into paragraphs of text. + Show Spoiler +After years and years of lurking on these forums, I think I have finally found a thread to make my first post in. (I'm really sorry for the long post, but WoW is something I am very passionate about)
To answer the first question, there isn't really such thing as a "WoW addiction", but rather a problem of really bad time management and setting priorities straight. That's about the gist of it, I wouldn't say it's a "drug" like so many people claim it to be (though, that's just my opinion on the "WoW addiction" thing).
For the next questions, a more general response: I used to play WoW, and a lot of it. The first time playing it was a wonderful experience, the world seemed so huge and absolutely fantastic and just drew me right in. Days turned into weeks, weeks into months, and before I knew it, I've been playing for close to a year and 6 months. Now the level cap was easy enough, getting from 1-70 was easy. Any player that truly knows the game will tell you that the real WoW starts at level 70. That's where all the bleeding edge raiding is done and PvP happens, if that's your thing.
I was one of the "bleeding edge raiders". (Raiding, if anyone is wondering, is pretty much going into a pre-generated dungeon with 24 other people (9 other people for the smaller ones) to take down bosses and most are reset on a weekly basis to give guilds a week's worth of possible raiding nights to finish the dungeon since they're so long). Now before the most recent summer, I was just kind of a casual raiding, playing whenever I could spare time. However, during the summer, that's when things REALLY kicked off. I got sick and tired and being in fairly newbish guilds and applied to a high end guild and was accepted. Now I went from raiding whenever I could spare time, to almost a job-like schedule of three hours a night, 5 days a week for the entire summer. And eventually, we were able to "beat" the game (as in, defeat the hardest boss).
To the topic at hand: Why the hell did I play so much? I'll be looking back on this way in the future and be thinking "God, I was a dumbass". I had to dig deep to find the answer, but I realized that I played because it made me feel like I was part of something greater than myself. Spending hours a week, not just for the benefit of myself, but for the benefit of my guild, for other people, a greater good. I felt like I was with a community, joined together with other people from around the U.S. (and a player from the U.K.) to overcome huge obstacles. I know you're probably thinking I'm an idiot for devoting huge amounts of time and effort to people on the internet, and that's okay, but being part of a raiding guild was such a great feeling to me. I was being completely unselfish and wanted to contribute to the "greater cause", even if it didn't really have bearing on my real life circumstances. Plus, it felt so good to take down a new boss encounter and celebrate with your guild mates.
People could say that why didn't you devote your time and effort then to a sports team or something. Well, sadly to admit, I guess I was a bit lazy. WoW was right there in front of me (and I'm not very good at sports anyways, just not naturally an athlete), and it was summer, so eh...
Furthermore, (yes, there is more, sorry) I also played because of the friends I made. I really enjoyed playing with the people in my guild and socializing (enjoyed just casually talking on ventrillo about anything and everything (though, you could do that IRL as well, but I'm a really shy person and don't make friends that easily in person...)).
Now with school and everything being pretty rough this year, I've decided to take a temporary hiatus from WoW. But, when things die down, I plan to join the game again.
*phew* That's just my (very long) two-cents, I hope it helped out in your search.
(Started typing at around XX:15, it's XX:54 now, lol) thank you for sharing that and im not trying to be rude but rather honest. that's what society labels as 'antisocial losers'... you think ur shy and is hard for u to make friends in real life.. then there is a real problem imo.. sometimes I think about life like this: 1) family/ real life friends/ work 2) sports/video games/going out(partying w/e) and I know how good it feels though and im not judging you at all because I feel the same joy when I gather wit my online friends in gears of war 2 to rank up in public matches we have a lot of laughter and fun when we win matches etc.. but real life stuff are more important
Yeah, I realize that as well, which is why I'm taking a VERY long break from it right now, since my real life issues right now are a lot more important >>. Thing is, that time was over the summer... and I didn't really have anything else to do really on a daily basis...¬¬ Though this school year I've been a lot more outgoing and engaging with other people, so I guess things are working out. I appreciate your concern though, thanks.
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On November 29 2008 10:03 Humbug wrote:Show nested quote +On November 29 2008 08:59 InfeSteD wrote:On November 28 2008 16:54 Humbug wrote:This is a really long post, so I'm just going to put spoiler tags to avoid having people run into paragraphs of text. + Show Spoiler +After years and years of lurking on these forums, I think I have finally found a thread to make my first post in. (I'm really sorry for the long post, but WoW is something I am very passionate about)
To answer the first question, there isn't really such thing as a "WoW addiction", but rather a problem of really bad time management and setting priorities straight. That's about the gist of it, I wouldn't say it's a "drug" like so many people claim it to be (though, that's just my opinion on the "WoW addiction" thing).
For the next questions, a more general response: I used to play WoW, and a lot of it. The first time playing it was a wonderful experience, the world seemed so huge and absolutely fantastic and just drew me right in. Days turned into weeks, weeks into months, and before I knew it, I've been playing for close to a year and 6 months. Now the level cap was easy enough, getting from 1-70 was easy. Any player that truly knows the game will tell you that the real WoW starts at level 70. That's where all the bleeding edge raiding is done and PvP happens, if that's your thing.
I was one of the "bleeding edge raiders". (Raiding, if anyone is wondering, is pretty much going into a pre-generated dungeon with 24 other people (9 other people for the smaller ones) to take down bosses and most are reset on a weekly basis to give guilds a week's worth of possible raiding nights to finish the dungeon since they're so long). Now before the most recent summer, I was just kind of a casual raiding, playing whenever I could spare time. However, during the summer, that's when things REALLY kicked off. I got sick and tired and being in fairly newbish guilds and applied to a high end guild and was accepted. Now I went from raiding whenever I could spare time, to almost a job-like schedule of three hours a night, 5 days a week for the entire summer. And eventually, we were able to "beat" the game (as in, defeat the hardest boss).
To the topic at hand: Why the hell did I play so much? I'll be looking back on this way in the future and be thinking "God, I was a dumbass". I had to dig deep to find the answer, but I realized that I played because it made me feel like I was part of something greater than myself. Spending hours a week, not just for the benefit of myself, but for the benefit of my guild, for other people, a greater good. I felt like I was with a community, joined together with other people from around the U.S. (and a player from the U.K.) to overcome huge obstacles. I know you're probably thinking I'm an idiot for devoting huge amounts of time and effort to people on the internet, and that's okay, but being part of a raiding guild was such a great feeling to me. I was being completely unselfish and wanted to contribute to the "greater cause", even if it didn't really have bearing on my real life circumstances. Plus, it felt so good to take down a new boss encounter and celebrate with your guild mates.
People could say that why didn't you devote your time and effort then to a sports team or something. Well, sadly to admit, I guess I was a bit lazy. WoW was right there in front of me (and I'm not very good at sports anyways, just not naturally an athlete), and it was summer, so eh...
Furthermore, (yes, there is more, sorry) I also played because of the friends I made. I really enjoyed playing with the people in my guild and socializing (enjoyed just casually talking on ventrillo about anything and everything (though, you could do that IRL as well, but I'm a really shy person and don't make friends that easily in person...)).
Now with school and everything being pretty rough this year, I've decided to take a temporary hiatus from WoW. But, when things die down, I plan to join the game again.
*phew* That's just my (very long) two-cents, I hope it helped out in your search.
(Started typing at around XX:15, it's XX:54 now, lol) thank you for sharing that and im not trying to be rude but rather honest. that's what society labels as 'antisocial losers'... you think ur shy and is hard for u to make friends in real life.. then there is a real problem imo.. sometimes I think about life like this: 1) family/ real life friends/ work 2) sports/video games/going out(partying w/e) and I know how good it feels though and im not judging you at all because I feel the same joy when I gather wit my online friends in gears of war 2 to rank up in public matches we have a lot of laughter and fun when we win matches etc.. but real life stuff are more important Yeah, I realize that as well, which is why I'm taking a VERY long break from it right now, since my real life issues right now are a lot more important >>. Thing is, that time was over the summer... and I didn't really have anything else to do really on a daily basis...¬¬ Though this school year I've been a lot more outgoing and engaging with other people, so I guess things are working out. I appreciate your concern though, thanks.
You are only 16 so I guess it isnt a big deal... and you know whats right or wrong so I think you are alright o_O
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Valhalla18444 Posts
the major problem here is that people assume WoW is the problem in people's lives
The problem is that some people have no time management skills, no social skills, no ambition, and are fucking lazy. People like that who find WoW will do nothing but play WoW, but if it wasn't WoW it'd be something else.
I fucking laugh when I see someone posting "hurrr rhuarhurhrr durrr wow steal ur life hahahahah". It's just a video game.
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In the cave man days, they were the ones who played in the dirt and sucked on their toes. Most of them died due to being used as bait for prey the hunters were hunting, but unfortunately some survived, and passed their genetics on long enough to reach a society that supported social welfare.
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On November 28 2008 15:54 Jonoman92 wrote:
Ok, sorry for that horrid title. It's a very bad pun.
So I'm wondering what exactly it is that draws so many people to become WOW addicts. How can logical, self-respecting people band together with other people and take pride and dignity in simply killing AI created stuff.
If I'm not mistaken most hardcore WOW'ers spend their time in guilds completing quests and doing instances (after playing WOW for a week I did finally learn what an instance was.)
I mean, during my 10 day free trial I enjoyed exploring and leveling up to level 20 (the max level allowed as trial) but I don't get what the draw is to band together and to just keep owning the new levels or w/e you wanna call them that blizz keeps creating to keep the WOW subscribers entertained.
Any current/past players or people who understand this want to offer their views? I mean there is the explanation that they are all huge losers who don't want to spend their time doing anything in real life so they spend it in a fantasy world. However, being a huge sc nerd myself and spending hours upon hours on this I don't claim the above reason to be why I play sc, so I don't want to jump to conclusions and label all avid WOW players as lifeless escapists (even if it's true!)
This post is a perfect example of straw man argument. There is a lot to WoW, it's a complex game. For you to simply deduce WoW as: "killing AI created stuff" is ignorant and pointless. You like Starcraft, I could simply state that Starcraft is just the repetition of memorized build orders, general theory and mechanics; and that would be ignorant too.
Your correct that most WoW players spend their time interacting with guildmates, questing and conquering dungeons and instances. It's a lot like Diablo; you want to strengthen your character and guild, that's the point. Repetition of instances are for getting better loot and the challenge.
Your last point is hilariously pathetic. It's a game, it's entertainment; that's why they play it. That's why I assume you play Starcraft, because in your free time you want to be entertained and have fun. I'm really hoping this is just a really shitty joke post you make, because I thought you were a lot smarter then this lmao.
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On November 29 2008 11:23 FakeSteve[TPR] wrote:
the major problem here is that people assume WoW is the problem in people's lives
The problem is that some people have no time management skills, no social skills, no ambition, and are fucking lazy. People like that who find WoW will do nothing but play WoW, but if it wasn't WoW it'd be something else.
I fucking laugh when I see someone posting "hurrr rhuarhurhrr durrr wow steal ur life hahahahah". It's just a video game.
agreed
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Salv I wasn't trying to flat out insult every person who has spent hours playing WOW... That'd be a pretty hypocritical thing for an addict like me to do.
I was just trying to get a feel for their motivations because I feel like I could never do something like that even though it's so similar to what I do now, and I got the responses and explanations Iwas looking for. Sorry if I offended you though. I thought I made my OP in a fairly light manner. It was a big over-simplification though, i'll admit to that.
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On November 29 2008 11:23 FakeSteve[TPR] wrote:
the major problem here is that people assume WoW is the problem in people's lives
The problem is that some people have no time management skills, no social skills, no ambition, and are fucking lazy. People like that who find WoW will do nothing but play WoW, but if it wasn't WoW it'd be something else.
I fucking laugh when I see someone posting "hurrr rhuarhurhrr durrr wow steal ur life hahahahah". It's just a video game.
QFT
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end-game raids are actually pretty hard and require a very coordinated team.
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On November 28 2008 15:54 Jonoman92 wrote:
So I'm wondering what exactly it is that draws so many people to become WOW addicts. How can logical, self-respecting people band together with other people and take pride and dignity in simply killing AI created stuff.
I've never played WoW for obvious reasons, but I expect that people do it for much the same reasons as we do anything. Human endeavour is nothing more than a long series of largely ridiculous activities. Why do tribal people dress up like mystical creatures and jump around dancing like fools? Why do billions of people drag themselves to some manner of magical house where they prostrate themselves and appeal to the sensibilities of an imaginary being? Why do millions of people gather around the world to watch a bunch of meat-headed brutes kick an inflated sphere around a patch of grass? Why do some people sit quietly on mountains for days on end? Most of what we do can't make sense in any objective context - if such a thing even exists. It's human nature to fabricate all means of structure which we can subsequenty put under our control. This seems to provide a sense of meaning to some. WoW is just an iteration of such a tendency, I think.
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EPT
