SubscribeAt the request of a friend, I’m going to write about my experience with the game called World of Warcraft. Some call it “Warcrack”, others “The Plague”, but no matter its popular appellations, it is what it is.
Years ago back in 2004, my brother brought home a game called World of Warcraft. I won’t go into a long-winded story, so let it suffice to say the game had me at “hello”. I’d already been playing Warcraft 3 and its expansion for quite some time, so I was familiar with the universe but shocked to see it in such amazing detail. Since it was Christmas break I spent the greater parts of my vacation days playing on my brother’s laptop, and I was insatiable. I had unequivocally formed an addiction with the game.
Long story short, for five years(ish) after that I played WoW on a hardcore basis. During breaks I played almost all day, and last summer (’09) I played 16 hours a day almost every day. I ran the numbers at one point, and I figured that from that point back to December 2004, I’d spent 5 hours on average (at least) each day playing WoW based on my /played time. By no means did I become a complete shut-in or a sloth; I maintained some semblance of a social life and kept my grades up high. However, my time spent playing WoW left little time for anything else.
I won’t tell you that WoW is the devil’s work here on earth. In fact, I think it’s a great game; the quality is superior and Blizzard broke new ground by proving that marketing an MMO as a game for the casual masses is a viable business design. I made many friends playing WoW with whom I still maintain contact on Facebook. It’s a great way to meet new people and have fun doing it. I also won’t tell you that every WoW player is a no-life addict, because that simply isn’t the case. Like I said before, WoW scored big time by marketing outside of the usual hardcore MMO demographic, and these “casuals” hardly play more than ten hours a week. However, there are those who are prone to addiction to a game like this, and these addictions are especially virulent. Entire websites have been devoted to combating WoW addiction (wowdetox.com being the most prominent) and World of Warcraft players are often made fun of because of their tendency to play excessively (cf. the South Park episode “Make Love, Not Warcraft”).
In the end, it is the user who is to be held accountable for his actions, and you really can’t blame Blizzard for making such a piece of work. I won’t say I regret my time spent playing WoW, because I definitely don’t; all the experiences I’ve had and the friends I’ve made are great things. I definitely would not, however, do it again.