More WoW Casualties

I've only had this past 9 months experience of online multiplayer games and I'm still surprised by the number of casualties they seem to rack up.

Firstly, we had Makai who left and went back to Eve (another MMO). Then Bolbit, who we were hoping would be our end game warrior and then my "retirement" over the Xmas period. After a while, you realise the toll games like World of Warcraft can take. I'd come to the point where I couldn't handle the attitudes of some of the players and being ignored for a few instance runs was the last straw.

And we've seen even more examples this week, when a character called Noobster blew his top pretty spectacularly, causing himself and others a lot of hurt and upset. He quit the game for a whole 3 days. Yep - he got over his problems in just 3 days. Gotta hand it to him, that's some recovery and I'm still wondering how he did it. Except he hasn't, in the few posts he put in on his "comeback", he was still displaying the same stressed addiction that causes his blowup. That's the thing about addiction, you aren't aware of the damage it's causing.

We've also seen it with Sarai, who has announced that she wants to step back from the position she's had with Guildlink for the past few months. With the Mercenaries (well, me and Zaphyr) immediately jumping in to say Good on ya. I see it as a recognition of what I've been subtly trying to tell Sarai over the past couple of weeks, that WoW is a game that consumes you. Not just your time but your soul as well. It turns you into a pale shell of what you should be. Especially if you have the weight of expectation on you, which is what Sarai has. She's the one who sets up the website and Teamspeak server, as well as the one who pays for it. The "I abdicate" came after one too many ungrateful so and so's complaining at not being picked for raiding activities taking place over the next 3 days.

I'm on Sarai's side on this one and have tried to pass on the message. However, I think she's still ignoring me still for some reason I'm not telempathic enough to receive. Heh - maybe I have guessed the reason ;-)

Why am I still playing ? I've found and got back some of the fun, now that the GL Responsibility weight has been lifted. And I've had a definite feeling of being wanted, which is far better than the feeling of being ignored that I had before Xmas. Maybe I just don't care anymore if that particular person wants to talk to me. But I'll still worry about her all the same, because that's who I am.

And, I still have Eve. Eve's set in a completely different world, with different people. Because it has more complex groundings in how it works, it attracts a fair more mature crowd. It probably attracts them because it's slower as well. All the kids go to play the flashy stuff like WoW, EverQuest and City of Heroes, so all the mature people go to Eve to avoid the kids.

So tonight's message is - Have fun ! Ignore Responsibility.
Cos Responsibility is a heavy weight that should be left at places like work.

PS Must remember to see if I'm still subscribed to Eve - the free period runs out soon ...