Topic: Blayne & World of Warcraft, now with some new Art
Blayne Bradley
unregistered
posted
I think I found the proper way to play it, make the assumption that instead of thinking of it as a MMORPG, think of it as a RPG with MMO elements and play it only for about 1-2 months to "catch up" to the newest content/story.
I like story and the Warcraft Expanded Universe is decent so I don't mind getting into it, so play it from 1 to 80 do all the content and then stop until the next expansion and then reactivate finish the content and get into the story again and then stop etc.
A little expensive for a game I am treating like a single player rpg like say The Witcher but is probably the healthiest way to play it.
Right now I have a linked account with a friend, so from level 1 to 60 we get 3x the experiance as long as were parties and near each other.
Playing a female blood elf mage as im told people make fun of you if your a male blood elf because they're a little bishunen lookin'
Will probably eventually make a Dwarf hunter and thatll probly be it for characters.
posted
There is no healthy way to play it. It is an addiction that will steal valuable minutes of your life that could had been spent with real people.
Posts: 131 | Registered: Dec 2004
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posted
I think if you're playing with actual friends, having fun, and only play for a month or two each expansion set, then you can consider that "healthy" as far as "I'm playing a game with my friends and having fun" goes. Which isn't the most healthy thing you could be doing but isn't the worst either. Playing it by yourself (or with random strangers) is about as healthy as playing any other game (which isn't that much).
I currently wish I had time to play and friends to play it with, but I have neither, and I got other stuff to do.
Posts: 4136 | Registered: Aug 2008
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Blayne Bradley
unregistered
posted
Beyond semi regularily meeting people from the local board games and table top roleplaying club and interacting with my friends with skype/teamspeak and IN the games themselves I think I interact often enough with real people, why is it people assume that your only healthy if you have more friends then you can count on two hands whatever happen to quality over quantity, having like 2-5 is sufficient. Easier to remember their names.
And I don't find WoW addictive, in fact aside from a compulsive need to stare at my computer doing whatever I dont find anything particularily addictive anymore, I play it and eventually lose interest.
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posted
You may not consider it addicting, but WoW is an addictive game. I have a friend who was accepted to the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities and received a large scholarship. He wanted to do well in school but could not stop playing the game. He missed class because of WoW, his grades fell low enough that the scholarship committee did not renew his scholarship and put him on academic prohibition. Without the scholarship he was forced to take out a loan to continue his college education but still played WoW for hours. He's no longer going to the school and now has a large loan that he needs to repay. It happens. Maybe it would be better to look at the nature of Video Game Addiction instead of WoW MMORPG versus WoW RPG. Then again, I've had the same experience with RPGs that they will eventually lose my interest.
Posts: 131 | Registered: Dec 2004
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posted
WoW is definitely designed with addictive gameplay. Jeff Vogel (an indie game designer I admire) had a column on the subject here. The important quote is here:
quote:if a game uses rewards of any sort to entice you to experience highly repetitive content, you should see what it's trying to do and which of your buttons it's trying to press. If you don't mind, that's cool, but you should understand it.
Different people experience different degrees of addiction to WoW. WoW has measurably impacted more lives than many other video games and yes there is a particular quality to WoW that makes it more effective than, say, a first person shooter. But there are plenty of people whose lives it doesn't ruin.
Posts: 4136 | Registered: Aug 2008
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posted
Of all the MMORPGs out there, is there any particular reason why WoW comes up in conversations of this nature? Is it simply because of the size of its user base?
I don't play WoW, but I do play EQ2 a lot. Nobody ever talks about that game, even though it has some of the same characteristics and I personally know some people that seem to be on almost all the time.
Posts: 3486 | Registered: Sep 2002
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Here is a chart showing MMO usage over the past few years. WoW blows everyone out of the water, largely because they keep retooling it to be more and more casual.
Posts: 4136 | Registered: Aug 2008
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posted
I play WOW once sometimes twice a week, my wife plays a varying number of times a week, but not too much. We always find time to do things together. I only log on to raid with my guild and enjoy end content while spending time with people I like. It's nice that Blizzard realized that in The Burning Crusade very few people got to enjoy the end content and have rather designed encounters so that they are not too hard, but that there is a hardcore mode you can select if you are a die hard raiding guild.
Blayne's strategy for playing WOW seems like a perfectly viable approach to a game as long as he sticks with it. As with many MMORPGs it's very easy to start out one way, and end up completely different.
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
I used to play quite a bit, though much of that was at a game store where we regularly met and played together, in the same room. That was fun, particularly because we played on the manly PvP servers rather than the candy-ass PvE servers;).
The only real gauge of whether it's addictive to a person or not is their playtime per day or per week. How much time do you spend each week playing the game?
Posts: 17164 | Registered: Jun 2001
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quote:Originally posted by Griffin: There is no healthy way to play it. It is an addiction that will steal valuable minutes of your life that could had been spent with real people.
That could be said of TV, Books, or any other solitary pleasure.
Posts: 305 | Registered: Jan 2008
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quote:Originally posted by Griffin: There is no healthy way to play it. It is an addiction that will steal valuable minutes of your life that could had been spent with real people.
That could be said of TV, Books, or any other solitary pleasure.
That could be said for posting on an internet message board.
Posts: 1407 | Registered: Oct 2008
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quote:Originally posted by Griffin: There is no healthy way to play it. It is an addiction that will steal valuable minutes of your life that could had been spent with real people.
That could be said of TV, Books, or any other solitary pleasure.
That could be said for posting on an internet message board.
Agreed. people who say that video games are a waste of time and that people should go socialize instead are not thinking clearly about all the other things that are a "waste of time"
Posts: 305 | Registered: Jan 2008
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quote:Originally posted by Griffin: There is no healthy way to play it. It is an addiction that will steal valuable minutes of your life that could had been spent with real people.
This isn't true. Not all world of warcraft use constitutes a case of addiction and/or life dysfunction, so it's strictly incorrect to say that it is categorically an addiction or that there is no healthy way to play it.
Posts: 15421 | Registered: Aug 2005
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posted
I got a subscription in August and have managed to avoid addiction so far Part of the reason for that is I mainly play it solo and occassionally with a friend. I'm also not in a guild so I have no time obligations.
Posts: 1327 | Registered: Aug 2007
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quote:Originally posted by Griffin: There is no healthy way to play it. It is an addiction that will steal valuable minutes of your life that could had been spent with real people.
This isn't true. Not all world of warcraft use constitutes a case of addiction and/or life dysfunction, so it's strictly incorrect to say that it is categorically an addiction or that there is no healthy way to play it.
File this with "there is no safe level of exposure to cigarette smoke."
Posts: 4287 | Registered: Mar 2005
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posted
I currently play on Blackrock Horde as a 6 season Gladiator, having held rank 1 multiple times and for long periods of time. I only play on the weekends playing arenas as they are what I enjoy most about the game, and can still maintain my competitive level while wearing sub-par gear to the hard core raiders.
People don't understand that behind all the addiction, which is entirely up to you, are people that you are actually interacting with. Some of my fondest memories are playing the game with people I've known for years, or even just chatting on Ventrilo, and in some cases even doing my homework together with friends from different States.
It is entirely possible to be competitive in the game, while still having healthy relationships with other people. Remember also that WoW constitutes to a person's natural growth. Being immersed in anonymity, as I was, is a good way of diving into the deep end of social interaction and emerging victorious with a substantial increase in your maturity. I was 13 when I started playing, and I can safely say that I became more mature as a person due to leveling in a guild full of couples and adults - People from a world that I had not even glimpsed, much less understand.
People will always blame their inability to regulate themselves on something else.
Posts: 11 | Registered: Oct 2009
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Your story reminds me of a news article I read some years back. A perfectly normal kid finished 5th grade and his final testing of the year indicated he was perfectly normal -- all skills at a 5th grade level.
His parents let him play WoW over the summer. They supervised his play and also made sure his guild knew he was only 10 and the guild watched their language/subject matter while he was online with them.
Summer ended. Kid started school again. Placement tests were taken. School people called parents wanting to know what kind of educating their son they'd done over the summer. Parents said "None. Why?"
Kid now scored at 12th grade level for reading, that was why.
But of course, he was playing a video game and was therefore rotting his brain Posts: 1323 | Registered: Aug 2001
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Your story reminds me of a news article I read some years back. A perfectly normal kid finished 5th grade and his final testing of the year indicated he was perfectly normal -- all skills at a 5th grade level.
His parents let him play WoW over the summer. They supervised his play and also made sure his guild knew he was only 10 and the guild watched their language/subject matter while he was online with them.
Summer ended. Kid started school again. Placement tests were taken. School people called parents wanting to know what kind of educating their son they'd done over the summer. Parents said "None. Why?"
Kid now scored at 12th grade level for reading, that was why.
But of course, he was playing a video game and was therefore rotting his brain
And then there's Blayne.
Posts: 431 | Registered: Jul 2001
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I think this calls for someone to step up to Blayne's defense. Although I don't read a lot of his threads or get involved in a lot of discussions with him, I have seen a marked improvement in his writing skills and ability to communicate since he (or I?) first started posting here.
Posts: 3149 | Registered: Jul 2005
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Im in Univeristy just for the record, Concordia University, sure its not McGill but its alright.
Generally my writting style goes up and down with my mood, theres time Im sorta infected with some form of ADD which makes me go back on my progress to indulge in some kind of fanboyish meme I discovered.
I have a short temper made worse by my insecurity with trying to determine the mood of an online conversation which by its anomynous nature makes it difficult to determine intent, this resorts to be almost as a sort of twisted ¨on the side of caution¨ to lash out to save face if I feel that I am being infringed on in some way.
However I am trying and there are plenty of times... just not recently where I showed my overall improvements with moments of insanity.
I should also point out that video games, or at least the ones I primarily played were all historical set piece games that got me into studying and enjoying history and politics as a hobby leading me eventually to science fiction and fantasy making me the well read man I am today.
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posted
What are those two little symbols at the top?
Posts: 1794 | Registered: Jul 2002
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Blayne Bradley
unregistered
posted
I have no idea actually. I am on my brothers girlfriends laptop while we are correcting my midterm paper and her laptop is kinda french and the keys which while are in english when I type them instead type the french equivilent.
quote:Originally posted by Griffin: There is no healthy way to play it. It is an addiction that will steal valuable minutes of your life that could had been spent with real people.
This isn't true. Not all world of warcraft use constitutes a case of addiction and/or life dysfunction, so it's strictly incorrect to say that it is categorically an addiction or that there is no healthy way to play it.
File this with "there is no safe level of exposure to cigarette smoke."
Haha. Well, I was not aware that world of warcraft was a carcinogen.
Posts: 15421 | Registered: Aug 2005
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posted
There are good and bad things about the game. I will admit before I go into this that I am a hardcore raider. The guild I am in raids 2 to 4 nights a week for four hours a night, and I try to attend all of them.
The good things:
It is social: I have met a lot of people on there, some I have now known for years. I've developed relationships with them and many of them I know by their real first name. We talk about real life stuff all the time. I've had people that are going through deaths of family members, divorces, loss of children, etc. that (as strange as it sounds) I have been able to help by just being there for them when they feel they don't have anyone else. I know that may sound strange, but understand that some of these people I have known and spoken to for hours every day over the course of three or four years.
Leadership: I've gotten over my fear of public speaking by playing Wow. I was part of a guild for over a year when I suddenly found myself in charge of leading raids. That means gathering 24 other people into a group, logging onto ventrilo, and try to get them to do what you say so you can kill stuff. If someone was having a difficulty, I'd pull them aside and talk to them and try to help them through it. Luckily I don't have to do this anymore.
Its fun: Yes, it really is fun to kill the same stuff every week. You always hope that the one item you need drops off of the boss you are fighting. You feel a sense of accomplishment when you finally down that boss you have been working on for three weeks.
Bad stuff!
Family: If you don't have a spouse that enjoys the game like you do, it can affect your relationship. When I first got married 3.5 years ago, I was in a REALLY hardcore raiding guild that raided 6 days a week for 6 or 7 hours a day. I never spent time with my wife. I however knew what I was doing and cut back.
I actually got her to level with me, and she loved it. She plays every once in a while with me still. I don't raid nearly as much as I used to, and always make sure to go to bed when she does, so things are fine now. She is from Europe, and at night when I raid is the only time she can talk to all of her friends back home in Albania. She enjoys chatting with them, I enjoy raiding, and it works for us.
It can consume your life!
The game is addictive. I know people that have been divorced because of it, have gone on welfare and quit their jobs to play more, and even neglect their children. I will admit I have almost fell into this pit.
I am able however to take a step back and say
"Wait a minute. I have other responsibilities that are higher on my priority list than a video game."
Some people simply don't have that.
In short, WoW is a hobby. You can either leave it as a hobby or make it your life. It is no different than someone who fixes up cars for fun or someone who makes model train sets, or someone that participates in mock battles in full chain mail armor! You can do it for fun, or center your entire life around it.
Moderation is the key
Posts: 1937 | Registered: Nov 2006
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posted
That's a very good summation of the matter Geraine. I too used to be in a hardcore raiding guild, I met my wife, and while she likes WOW too we've both made adjustments so that we are still enjoying each other, and taking care of other obligations.
Now that I've got a child coming, I'll probably have to make further adjustments, but I don't feel WOW is impossible to enjoy when one has a family.
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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Blayne Bradley
unregistered
posted
There was enough comedy potential in our day to day casual playing that I feel I'll make a webcomic about it.
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Part of the reason for that is I mainly play it solo and occassionally with a friend. I'm also not in a guild so I have no time obligations.
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