46 replies to this topic

[BustaNinja]

In my early days of gaming, I would argue against every Anti-videogame thing I could find. I would bitch on forums, yell on message boards and even write angry emails stating that videogames aren't messing with children's minds and they are not an addiction... Ha, that was about 5 years ago.

Honestly, yeah, videogames can make an impression on you, and yes, they are an addiction. At the time, I would have said stuff like "I can quit any time" and how it didn't affect my brain. Boy was I wrong.

Violent games really make you think different. I now laugh and joke about violence, using words like "cool" and "fun". Its kinda weird. Games really do have ill affects. As Swords said, just go out and hang with people.

Oh, and WoW turns you into a hermit. That is not open for debate. Anyone who tries to argue saying "I interact with people" is lying, and needs to be set straight.

[TED]

You all need to shut the fuck up.

I have 3 pieces of t7 bitch!

[Applefury]

This thread hasn't turned out what I wanted it to be, it has turned into just rants about gaming addictions. I will not argue back I don't want this to go any further.
/Thread

[Silencer]

Yo DS do you raid Nax?

[TED]

Yup 10 man on farm, and I've downed everything in 25 man except Saph and KT.

[Silencer]

Nice, my guild downed every boss in Nax, TOS, and EOE. One of the top in the world...

[VACC]

25 man raids are for sissies. Try keeping 40 assholes awake interested for 5 hours of trash mobs and wipeing with the promise of maybe 10 of them actually getting a drop they need. WoW has changed.

VACC

[Falcon]

WOW itself is a drop-dead awesome game. I can freely admit that while at the same time tell you that I've never sat down at a computer with it turned on. I've watched, I've seen how it works, and could easily see myself enjoying it. For those of you who play, that's awesome.

Some people just can't handle it. A guy who was a friend of mine in high school has basically disappeared off the face of the planet, and none of us ever really hear from him anymore. He has stolen WOW gift cards from Wal*Mart before, and rarely leaves his house. His sights are set on becoming a "Gravitational Engineer." Upon responding with "Umm...never heard of that..." his reply was "That's because it doesn't exist yet."

We don't try to stay in touch with him anymore.

The point is, WOW can be a brutally addicting game, but not to everyone. Some people get what is known as "hyper-focused" or "tunnel vision", and games such as WOW are so in-depth and detailed that they hang on its every 0 and 1 and are nearly incapable of pulling themselves away. It becomes a lifestyle because the storyline and gameplay are so in-depth. But for those of you who are capable of enjoying yourselves online in the game and can still maintain healthy lifestyles, I salute you.

Regardless, my wallet doesn't like paying monthly, so I'll stick to DOTA.

Edited by Falcon, 23 December 2008 - 11:33 AM.

[Foamfoot]

I heard that there is a dildo in the game that you can beat people with, is that true?

Gravity engineers for life bitch!

[silentsnipe]

Damn was I addicted to runescape... I would play 9 HOURS A DAY! Freaking sucked. I used to say in real life since I was so addicted, " Your a noob! You got pwned!" I used to always say that. Thank god I quit!

[Ambience 327]

Like most forms of entertainment (movies, books, board games, D&D, nerf, etc), WoW can be a very fun way to pass some time, blow off some steam, unwind, relieve stress, etc. It can, as others have mentioned, be a social experience, especially if you have RL friends/relatives/spouse who play and get on a Ventrillo/Teamspeak server while you play together.

Like most forms of entertainment, WoW can also be taken way too seriously, can be played obsessively, and can change your life in detrimental ways (socially, health-wise, etc).

It is all about the attitude you take towards it, and understanding that most things are okay if you deal with them in moderation. (Some things, like many illegal drugs, are so damaging even in "moderation" that they should be avoided no matter what, but I digress.)

To illustrate, consider alchohol. It is easy to bring up a lot of stories about how it destroys lives, how it consumes people, how it is very harmful. It is also easy to find doctors who recommend a glass of wine a day to help with stress, and to take advantage of the antioxidents and other beneficial attributes of wine. Heck, the US Government even outlawed alchoholic beverages for a while in the early part of the twentieth century, because it was "bad for you". However, thousands (if not millions) of people enjoy alcoholic beverages on a daily basis without ruining their lives, alienating their friends and families, or causing extreme, lasting harm to themselves.

It's really more about the person than the specific problem. If it wasn't WoW, the people who have "disappeared into Azeroth" would probably have found another way to fill that "void" that was discussed above. (Be it alchohol, food, drugs, promiscuity, etc)

I guess my main point is, don't play WoW while pregnant. Since alchohol can cause birth defects, exposure to Orcs, Trolls and Ogres probably isn't good for your baby either.

Ambience 327
a.k.a. Daltarian (on Arathor)

Edited by Ambience 327, 29 December 2008 - 12:30 PM.

[deadshooter711]

Wait, does the 10-day free trial only work for 10 days straight, or 10 days of playing? I ask because I'm about to try it out.

It's a 12 day break for me so, why not?

[Silencer]

10 days straight.

[deadshooter711]

10 days straight.

Thanks.
Guess I'd better wait till after christmas, I don't want to waste it if I'm not playing.

Anybody have tips on how the hell I play this thing? it seems kinda confusing.

[Rambo]

It's fairly straightforward. Find quest givers ( yellow exclamation points over their heads ), get the quests, complete the quests ( use Wowhead.com if you don't know how). If you can't find any quest givers you need to move on to a new town/area - if you're getting completely annihilated you've gone to the wrong town/area.

[Wes7143]

I heard that there is a dildo in the game that you can beat people with, is that true?

Gravity engineers for life bitch!

No, thats Grand theft Auto, San Andreas.

[keef]

25 man raids are for sissies. Try keeping 40 assholes awake interested for 5 hours of trash mobs and wipeing with the promise of maybe 10 of them actually getting a drop they need. WoW has changed.

VACC

http://www.wowinside...ke-a-come-back/

http://www.wowarmory...er&n=Trolleycar
level 34

http://www.wowarmory...&n=Trolleytrain
ret. pally level 15
Gonna respec him as a shockadin when I actually start questing, and stop leveling professions.

Edited by keef, 24 December 2008 - 01:32 PM.

[VACC]

They'd be silly to bring 40 man back. It was such a pain in the ass to keep a good guild going, and the newest end game content was only accessible to a small percentage of guilds on each server. I was in a big guild until I got a job in the city and the commute killed my time (right before Naxx came out the first time around). We weren't doing world firsts or anything, but we were #1 on server, and downed C'Thun weeks before anyone else. I'll tell you, it was a pain in the ass. You'd log on at 7 for a raid, log off at 12 (earliest) and never do an entire instance in one night unless you had the thing on real farm status. Though, a full set of current tier armor was actually something to brag about back then.

[Silencer]

Even though it was a pain in the ass, it was still awesome. Nothing beats classic WoW, BC sucked, and still does, and Wrath is alright/good. 40 mans were the shit, except for DKP and all that other confusing shit some guilds had to figure out drops. Also, as Vacc said, any Tier 1/2 items were good, I had almost a full set of Tier 1 before BC, and I was one of the best in my guild.

[VACC]

Even though it was a pain in the ass, it was still awesome. Nothing beats classic WoW, BC sucked, and still does, and Wrath is alright/good. 40 mans were the shit, except for DKP and all that other confusing shit some guilds had to figure out drops. Also, as Vacc said, any Tier 1/2 items were good, I had almost a full set of Tier 1 before BC, and I was one of the best in my guild.

Well, you simply can't run a top tier guild, built to run 40 man instances, without some manner of DKP. It's so difficult to get 40 people on the same schedule that you generally have to carry 50-60 people of varrying class. As such, 100% of your guild is not running every night. There needs to be some type of system to reward the players who come every night for their vigilence or else everyone would just show up for the kills and skip all the learning/wiping sessions. Though, the newer loot system would aleviate some of the problems. Sharding Effeminates when half the raid is in need of their own set piece was infuriating. For the record, I had full tier 2 and parts of 2.5 (they were crap unless you were a ret pally, and all good pallies were holy back then) among other non-set healing pieces before the first NAX came out.

I've fucked around since, and my pally is 70, but I just don't have enough time to make a real guild happy with my attendance anymore. It's a shame.

[CrazyIvan VI]

I'm an occasional WoW player. I only started playing because my cousin is moved to New Jersey, and its how we keep in touch while I'm at college and he's there.

I'm no where near 'addicted' to it. I only really play if I know my cousin is going to be online, or if I'm truly bored. But I will say this, it is THE BEST MMO I have ever played, and I've tried a lot.

I used to be a huge gamer, I could spend all day playing. But now, if my real friends aren't online, I don't even turn the xbox on. I don't really bother with Single Player games. The last single player game I bought was Ninja Gaiden II, and I never finished it. I laugh a little when people complain that the single player part of a game that has multiplayer sucked. I point and laugh at the little recluse.

[Silencer]

Well, you simply can't run a top tier guild, built to run 40 man instances, without some manner of DKP. It's so difficult to get 40 people on the same schedule that you generally have to carry 50-60 people of varrying class. As such, 100% of your guild is not running every night. There needs to be some type of system to reward the players who come every night for their vigilence or else everyone would just show up for the kills and skip all the learning/wiping sessions. Though, the newer loot system would aleviate some of the problems. Sharding Effeminates when half the raid is in need of their own set piece was infuriating. For the record, I had full tier 2 and parts of 2.5 (they were crap unless you were a ret pally, and all good pallies were holy back then) among other non-set healing pieces before the first NAX came out.

I've fucked around since, and my pally is 70, but I just don't have enough time to make a real guild happy with my attendance anymore. It's a shame.

I'm not saying DKP was necessarily bad, I'm just saying it was really annoying to keep track of sometimes, and as you said, when Effeminates were disenchanted while have the raid needed it, is was really annoying. A lot of people would like them back, but they just wouldn't be the same. Also, starting the raid at the beginning of the night, for MC especially was a pain in the ass, summoning everyone, getting buffs, prepping for boss fights, and everything else that had to happen.