The background for this post can be read here and here.
WoW is an escape for many people, myself included. I daresay the majority of WoW players are using WoW as an “escape” from “real” life. Quite a few of them probably feel guilty about it, or type /played and have this hollow sensation of time wasted. Probably even more WoW players have family and friends that constantly deride them for spending so much time on a “stupid game.”
I don’t really understand why liking WoW and playing it a bunch is somehow a bad thing. The stigma held by outsiders and many insiders is utterly perplexing to me.
Tell me. If you weren’t playing WoW in your free time, what would you be doing?
Watching TV? Movies? Reading a book, perhaps? Baking cookies? Building model airplanes and flying them? Getting drunk with friends all the time? Gardening?
How, exactly, are any of those different from WoW?
A videogame is just an enabler, an outlet, for any number of things. It’s just a hobby, something you do to pass the time, to have some fun, to provide an outlet for some emotional trouble.
The difference between fishing in the real world and fishing in a virtual one are all semantic. At the casual end, it is an easy, relaxing, meditative experience. Bring some friends, have some laughs. At the more hardcore end, you can start getting into arguments over differing types of baits and hooks, discuss different types of lines with other experts, spend time planning maps and memorizing mob spawn points, bringing consumables or even a DK to optimize fishing routes. Both activities at any level are exactly the same deep down, the only differences are in the details.
WoW is a hobby, just like any other of the millions of hobbies out there.
How, exactly, is escaping into a world of hardcore rose gardening any different than hardcore raiding? How is escaping into the newest Terry Pratchet novels any different than immersing yourself in a character and some solid RP on Feathermoon? How is paintballing with friends on the weekend any different from stormtrooping Arathi Basin with the same people? How is collecting Pogs any different from collecting non-combat pets?
They aren’t, of course. Hobbies are hobbies, escapes are escapes. Arbitrarily deciding that some hobbies are normal and others are destructive doesn’t change anything and makes you look foolish to boot.
And yet, the stigma persists, because somehow WoW isn’t “real”. It’s all fake, therefore any time spent on it is wasted. What an absolutely absurd conclusion to reach.
It’s a game, yeah. It isn’t real in the sense that I am actually ripping people apart by dividing their bodies by zero (what did you think arcane blast did?). When I rescue some helpless peasant from certain death, returning him to his sobbing wife, those are just NPCs, something written by someone else somewhere. Therefore you are all idiots for spending so much time with this fake, not real stuff.
Following that logic, anyone who cried during Titanic is an idiot for getting caught up so much with fake stuff. If you have ever felt any sort of emotional attachment to any fictional character, something is seriously wrong with you because it’s all FAKE! Derp a herp!
I believe I have made my point.
We all seek “bubbles”, little things to take our minds off our lives. Anyone who doesn’t is clinically insane. Why? Simple.
Real life is hard. It is brutally hard. Many people die trying to get through it. And worst of all, there are never answers to anything. Life is uncertain, by mere merit that it can’t be certain. It is physically impossible to have complete certainty in any situation. You can have all the confidence in the world, but you are never certain.
This is why we escape to our little worlds, our little gardens, our hardcore raid guilds, our books, novels and movies.
Things make sense here, within the bubble.
We can be certain.
We have no idea how we’re going to get the bills paid; we fear the coming of Valentine’s Day and feel nothing but crushing, unwavering despair; we watch our mothers die and have absolutely no idea how the room got so dark and so blurry.
But then you can type in a password, wait a few seconds, select a character, and experience absolute surety for hours on end. Everything might be wrong and horrible in the real world, but that doesn’t matter. In this world, all is right, all makes sense. A desperate new guy asks a question, and you can answer with absolute certainty “don’t bother stacking crit, stack haste instead.”
In real life, you could easily face the decision “well… should I fall in love or not?” How do you answer that? Create a pros and cons list?
PROS
- Complete and total emotional shitstorm
CONS
- Complete and total emotional shitstorm
Then the next morning it turns out you didn’t even have a choice anyway. Incoming emotional shitstorm, and there is dick all you can do about it and you left your shit umbrella behind at age four.
In WoW, you could easily face the decision “well… are these pants an upgrade or not?”
PROS
- Three sockets instead of two
- Almost 2% more haste
- More intellect
CONS
- Lose 3% crit
- Lose 90 spirit
Then the next morning you can theorycraft, plug the stats into a machine who spits out various numbers at you, you can manually test, and reach a definitive, correct, and absolute certain conclusion with no doubt in your mind whatsoever.
Fucking Emotional Shitstorms. Not even WoW can provide a good escape from them sometimes ;_;
Yes, but which shitstorm has more sockets?
Today in my English comp class I was listening to people describe their personal Utopias.
So many time I heard video gaming refered to with a lot of disdain, as if they were saying a curse word. They even believed that video games -hindered- imagination. I was in complete disbelief of what I was hearing.
I stood before the class, describing my personal Utopia, where things are just as they are now, nothing different. I quoted the butterfly effect, tying in how one small change can alter any number of larger things.
I said that I play online games, and in particular WoW. I said I speak with people from far and wide, and just a couple of which I consider real life friends. I told them that while gaming has its set structure, its set of rules, this does not hinder the imagination. I did say something about how one can get really into their movies and other fictional things, and how it is just as true for the game, but I didnt go as far with that as I would have liked.
Right now I am writing compare/contrast paper for my Comp. class and it will be “Personal Ideals/Utopias vs. What is Possible” or something of that nature.
I am usually the optimist but it’s good for the mind to play the cynic as well. I’d be narrow minded to not.
Also: every time I see someone use the term “shitstorm” I always visualize what I think that might look like. Never a pretty sight.
I use the term shitstorm precisely to evoke that visual.
It is apt, is it not?
Another fantastic thing to read. I feel this stigma is affecting gaming as a whole (although WoW cops alot of the flak in most cases) and that it seems like an easy target for those silly ignorant people who say it’s a waste of time.
I like your example here; Lets say this free time was spent elsewhere ie; not gaming. Maybe this could result in learning the guitar or something like that but likely the result would be more like chronic drinking for myself (and a few of my friends too, I’m sure).
You gotta consider though, how can we remove this stigma? Is it ingrained too deeply? The only time “true RPG’ing” was hip and cool was in the big boom days, and that dissipated nearly overnight. I think the link between gaming being a “passive” exercise (I believe your own words) and therefore a waste of time is very powerful. By the same token, how often do you see Wii owners get chastised about gaming..?
Anywho, rant over. Great to know I’m not the only pleb throwing my fists in the air.
Perhaps a hundred years ago, give or take, reading fiction books held the same stigma as total waste of time.
Gaming will slowly but surely become socially acceptable too. It’s just a matter of time.
If nothing else, the older generation who derides gaming will die off and the younger, gaming generation will simply replace them.
Great post Euripedes, shame you dont post more often:)
My only thought: Some hobbies create physical things as a “goal”, what does WoW create in the long run? What do you have after you’re done? If you make little ships in a bottle, you will have the ships to look back at and think: “I made those”. Whereas in WoW you cant really materialize anything.
Sure, you have your memories, but in the end all that matters is physical things.
If I have more stuff than you when I die, and you die, I win!
Define “physical”? Then next earthquake, tornado, or garage sale that comes along, your ship in a bottle is gone. You don’t have it to look at. You can try to recreate it, but it’s gone. It no longer exists.
Every time I play WoW, something real manifests. A memory. No matter what, barring something that affects my memory, that experience will ALWAYS exist for me. It endures.
So what is more important? “Physical”, or “Enduring”?
I think that’s the point, Lajos.
Our society is still extremely focused on pointless materialistic things. We have the french revolution to thank for that, and really France in general for birthing and nurturing the idea of materialism.
Capitalism hasn’t exactly helped, either.
That’s exactly the point, and it’s the focal point of why people “don’t get” video games. Imagination is something that all too often is discouraged by “practical” people. It’s the same principle as your post on incompetent people. Since they don’t have the ability to see the benefit, they believe it is of no benefit, and try to discourage it.
You’ll also have way too much of those stupid ships in bottles. Cluttering your house. Every time you get up to go to work, you have to claw your way through hundreds of ships in bottles. Not to mention cost. Unless it only costs $15 for one insert-ship-in-bottle and takes you one month to complete.
For some reason I’m reminded of a book I read wherein a man would buy those little dollhouse kits and make a perfect and highly detailed dollhouse, then stomp it to bits with his bare feet.
Before I played WoW, I sewed. A lot. Like every spare moment. Great gods that cost a lot more than $15 a month, not to mention all the space that takes up (both in areas/objects to produce garments and actual garments produced).
I take this argument with my mother frequently, who seems to equate WoW with playing barbie dolls, ie something I should have left behind in my childhood long ago.
Presumably, this is because it is silly and juvenile to play games in an imaginary world.
Pause now and consider that my mother is a hardcore Civil War re-enactor. That’s basically RP. She’s pretty much a historical LARPer. Playing games in an imaginary timeline.
Funny the distinctions people draw sometimes, huh?
WOW has been the cheepest hobby I have ever had no doubt about it. I play guitar and I dropped more money on one guitar than I have the entire time playing wow. I use to practice in my room up to 10 hours a day, really no difference…well I did pick up more chicks playing the guitar, but I’m married now so it doesn’t matter.
It’s my hobby.. one day I will grow out of it like I did with Lego (the construction only lasted 10 minutes… unlike WoW), school and work…
That?
T
hey aren’t hobbies… no, but in some ways they too are escapes (I went straight to Uni from high school purposefully to avoid the “real world”… when I did get a job, I spent the 1st 20 years of my working life in University bookshops… can’t tell me that is real life….)
The big thing to remember (which I think people outside of gaming can’t imagine gamers understand) is that it is a game, a hobby and escape.. but it’s not a solution to RL things.
ha! I love reading about Cynwise’s morning walks on the (Tanaris) beach… it can be a great holiday
Look, I play WoW more than I should, and I get most of the arguments….well I GET all of them, but I only agree with a few. When people say “you play WoW too much” its not b/c you spent 2 hours after work and maybe 4-5hours on the weekend playing. It’s because its all that was done after work aside from eating, pooping and maybe a shower.
People who garden or read books do so in moderation. I’m sure if someone spent 50+ hours a week in their yard and weren’t classified “farmer” people would prolly rag on them too. Same could be said for someone locked in their room building models all day long coming out only to work and/or go to school. None of this is good. No extreme is good.
As to the ‘escaping’ aspects of WoW, how it can help you ignore emotional trauma in your life…yes, I suppose that’s true. Same could be said for alcohol, no honestly. Get mad if you want, but I’ve heard the “Everything might be wrong and horrible in the real world, but that doesn’t matter.” comment come from people with drinking problems and drug problems. I’m really not trying to compare this to such unhealthy and extreme habits, but that line is almost verbatim to what I’ve heard so I can’t just ignore it. Sure, I can see WoW helping take the edge off situations but in the end the problems in life need to be faced.
WoW isn’t evil, all people that play it aren’t crazy. Sure its the same as reading/watching fictional books/movies. But doing so to extremes is still an issue for SOME. So while you want them to understand your side, try to understand theirs.
I never said that playing WoW to excess is healthy, nor have I ever defended such a position.
It is an escape, something a person can enjoy doing significantly more than whatever their real life is. Is it really so hard to understand why people decide to spend as much of their time there as possible?
Me saying “Everything might be wrong and horrible in the real world, but that doesn’t matter.” isn’t defending playing WoW 14 hours a day, it is simply a statement of why people play 14 hours a day.
Why would I get mad over drawing similar lines to drugs, alcohol, and eating cheetos until you can’t walk anymore?
Those are all escapes too, aren’t they? They serve the same function.
“How is collecting Pogs any different from collecting non-combat pets?”
Two words: ALF pogs.
Heh. Now I really want an ALF non-combat pet. 😛
Make it happen, Blizz!
He would have to try and eat non-combat pet cats! Even Lil’KT!
Your post is overly simplistic.
As I have gotten into a discussion over at Larisa’s in a post dating from May2009, I pointed out my opinion which basically stands for your argument.
check it out here:
http://www.pinkpigtailinn.com/2009/05/stories-that-cant-be-told.html
TL;DR: wow is a toxic hobby, unlike many others who actually support your real life (with acquiring useful skills and experience), this game basically severs any link with the physical reality of your body and mind.
Certainly its a hobby… and aside any time-investment consideration which are certainly as valid as my claims, you can easily put it on the same category of judgement like standing all day on the couch watching tv or playing pen and paper RPGs.
Now you cast your judgement on those and you’ll see how others judge you.
Your reply is overly simplistic, and your arguments are inaccurate.
Currently, WoW is being used as a tool in universities to study things like social interaction, economy, and various other subjects which contribute to valuable real life skills.
ANY hobby carried to extreme is toxic. I have participated in fantasy sports leagues, from the usual rotisserie league, to an actual sim league, using the Diamond Mind Baseball simulator. The typical General Manager in a sim league spends far more time researching players and statistics that most people play WoW. And incidentally… very few people play WoW while they are at work. However, most of the research done by fantasy sports fanatics – at least the ones I’ve dealt with – was done at work. It cost me far more actual real-life productivity than WoW ever has.
Take the typical angst-ridden teenager, who does not fall into the usual social cliques. Not only will his social skills be stunted, but he may well be subject to physical abuse while trying to learn social skills.
Certainly you CAN play WoW solo, but inevitably, you will be forced into situations where you have to interact with others. How you handle those interactions can and will affect your success in the game. There are tangible real life rewards and consequences involved. For example, some maladjusted little prick who interacts the wrong way will find himself written up on CriticalQQ or some other blog, and held up to the world as the prick he is. Conversely, a person who interacts effectively may find himself written about on CriticalQQ or some other blog about how great they were. It doesn’t matter that the “person” is represented by a virtual avatar. We all understand that there are real people behind those avatars.
In the end, at least as I understand your arguments, you suffer from what is the primary reason that WoW and other video games are stigmatized: Lack of ability to think outside a very finite box.
Hey now, borderline hostility in here. Let’s keep it civil and polite.
Now that said, I disagree with you Okrane. Well, on the point of WoW giving no tangible skills.
Take a raider. They have to carry out research of their class, more than likely have spent time theorycrafting and running sets of numbers through various sim engines, are required to have numerous variables taken care of and be ready at a set time (quite a few guilds penalize being late), and then they have to maintain split second reflexes to a huge variety of inputs for hours on end.
Those all sound like easily transferable (and ridiculously important to boot) skills for any person.
Civil and polite? What fun is that? 😛
I’m not sure that the point of any hobby is to acquire useful skills. In fact, I was under the distinct impression that hobbies were tacitly classed as “not very useful, but fun”.
Naturally writing or reading or, I dunno, making cupcakes could give you skills with feasible applications IRL But when will I ever have to fish for my food? When will my ability to create realistic 1:32 scale models of werewolves out of putty ever translate into cash? When will I ever put my SCA combat skills to practical use? These are fun things. They may have tangible side benefits, but so does every hobby.
WoW has allowed some people, particularly those who suffer from crippling social phobias or physical disabilities, to interact with others and participate in a group and set and accomplish goals. In those cases, severing the link with (painful) physical reality can be awfully therapeutic. Perhaps knocking the boss down to zero hit points means absolutely nothing to you, but if it gives their lives meaning and provides a healthy sense of accomplishment, who are you to call that illegitimate?
It’s can go too far. Of course. But it can also be a tremendous boon.
I hope those who bothered to reply to what I have written have taken the time to head over to the PPI to read my answer there so that I don’t have to write it all over again.
I observe that the main flow of arguments supporting the claims in this blog-post and contradicting mine are primarily of two flavors: the first seems to be “hey, its a hobby, we are having fun, so its all good”, and the second is more like: “It has social implications and some educational value.”
One of our main preoccupations as human beings in our society is without a doubt our personal development. While its not my right to critique the concept of “fun” for any individual, we can assert objectively that some activities provide a more efficient development than others.
We can safely assume that the guy who gets his kicks out of programming iPhone apps (as a hobby in his basement, mind you) will most likely have more money than the one building lego-castles in his free time. Similarly, the guy who, as a hobby, plays tennis 3 hours a day will lead a healthier life than the one who likes to catch up to the latest TV shows on his living room couch.
While all these activities, relative to the person practicing them are providing the same amount of “fun”, we can create a hierarchy in function of their beneficial “side-effects”. In this categorization, video-games stand way behind.
I see constantly people trying to invoke the facts like playing in a social environment, interacting with others, participating in the virtual economy, researching your class and theory-crafting, and even the development of reaction times, as educational boons of playing.
I wont even bother commenting on its social value, because I believe that those who consider wow and online-relationships as genuine are heavily deluding themselves. Granted, it can be a proxy for social relations, for those with major handicaps in the matter, but let’s leave it at that. More on that here(just as an example of what I mean):
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/the_web/article5139532.ece
About the educational value of researching your class… First of all not even 1% of the player base has actually run a simulation in respect to their class. Not even 1% of the population has ever written an addon or even know what .lua is. Even more, even this small minority has most likely learned the skills of simulation and coding from someplace else and applied them to the simplified case of wow. For the most, wow-class learning and theory-crafting is equal to copy-pasting the latest EJ information and practicing the hell out of that rotation… some learning that is.
Well said, well said.
I had been pondering those articles myself, but you’ve put it far better than I could have.
One tiny nit to pick: the difference between fishing for real and fishing in WoW? You get to eat any fish you catch, assuming you CAN catch them 🙂
(that’s also a downside, in that you have to clean and gut the things, too …)
Thanks for the excellent ponderables.
I agree that WoW can be considered an escape, in fact it was a time consuming escape for me for a long time. (I still play it; however, not as much as I had before.) But I also consider it a form of social networking… much like the sheeple that follow the mainstream and are Facebook fanatics. They spend their time on Facebook, just as I would on WoW. Though on WoW, you can get a sense of “accomplishment”, though hollow in substance, a still satisfying feeling.
On a side note, I wouldn’t consider WoW a “toxic hobby”, nor a stagnant mind erasing hobby. In my own personal experiance, I have become a better programmer thanks to WoW. I’m not going to go into details; however, the calculations, the categorizations, the organization and modification of data in WoW has changed how I do things in my own job, and in fact made my life and job easier.
Lastly, WoW has also opened up some of the other creative sides of me. I’ve thought myself somewhat of a geek my whole life, and I’ve always been into story and lore, whether it be real or fictional. I would have never thought that I would have written a book, or even a short story without having it assigned to me, yet I have written nearly 17 chapters in a “book” about the story of my main character’s life. I don’t RP, nor do I RP in real life, but it was another escape that extended from WoW.
Alrighty, I’ll end this wall of text… Good article though.
Farmville players are gamers too!
No, really. Deriding someone for playing Farmville rather than a “real game” is probably the stupidest thing ever.
I don’t really “get” a lot of things about Facebook (why write on somebody’s wall? Can’t you just call them?) but at least I can see why you would game there. The application system (whatever it’s called) is rather robust for a social networking site.
Gaming has never been more social than it is now, and I’m pretty sure that’s a good thing.
Things like Dragon Age are pretty excellent too, but easily a bunch of fun in single player games is the water cooler discussions you can have with friends later on.
In WoW, as a Fire mage… I can set my problems on fire, until they’re a pile of ashes. 🙂
Hello all,
Just my two cents,
I think is problem of addiction and in my humbly opinion wow is very addicted. I not say that playing wow is bad thing itself, but if you neglect other duties or responsibilities…, in this case you do something wrong.
I’m 42 years old, I’m married with two lovely kids, I’m manager in a multinational group and I play wow since 2005. It is my hobby and for it I spend around 30 hours weekly and several other looking on net for some information needed or ideas. If it is help me or not is lot of questions to debate here, my explanation is that is help me to not think at the real life problems for the time played. If other activities or hobbies are better or not, that depend what you like more.
Definitively I like the game, I like the PvP and the sensation is great, but sometimes I ask myself if this time spent in wow world is not the time stolen from my family. If other hobbies steal you the same amount of time, then these are not good in the same proportion.
/have fun this is the most important thing
If you’re worried about, if YOU, the addict (you claim) are worried, chances are pretty good you are right to be worried.
This post made me smile as it was reminiscent of a heated discussion we had in the pub a few weeks ago. One of my friends partners said that WoW was sad, not a hobby, in fact a complete waste of time, and geeky!
On examination of the other peoples online activities / gaming we came to the conclusion that this simply wasn’t so, on a comparible basis several others spent as much time playing either Modern Warfare 1 or 2, or Football Manager (were in england ftw), and in fact a lot of the fairer sex probably spent more time online than anyone, but gossiping on facebook or twitter.
We concluded that the attitude to WoW was simply a prejudice to it’s fantasy RP subject matter, and the somtimes less than favourable image the media portrays of people into fantasy. Yet it was completly legitimate to spend hours creating a fantasy football team and trying to emulate Alex Fergurson, or to play as a soldier and delight in team death match (not so different to BG’s).
I say, if you like warcraft, play warcraft, it’s fun, it’s recreation!
The second if feels like you must play, have to play, can’t think about anything but… then it’s not fun anymore and you should take a break.
WoW can be an escape, a relief from life, sure. It’s fun, it can make you think, engage you in a way other hobbies cannot.
But let’s answer the question you posed: “If you weren’t playing WoW in your free time, what would you be doing?”
Your assumption in the remainder of your post is that people use their free time on hobbies, all of them being equal with another. I think you either asked a really bad question or gave a really bad answer.
If you’re just talking about hobbies, than I would agree mostly. Although, it’s a completely ignorant statement to compare video games to reading quality books. Books not only engage your mind, but they address real world/life issues that are important for individuals, communities, nations and cultures to survive and persist. Sure, there are many works of fiction that are nothing more than trivial and fun, but there are others that have led to human rights movements. To compare wow to the latter is rediculous, and everyone here that can’t see that, well, I sure hope I’m not in your guild.
However, if you are actually talking about what people do with their free time, hobbies being nothing more than a choice, than I can’t believe your prejudice. To assume that playing wow or watching tv or fishing is equal to feeding homeless people or spending time with your family, being a role-model for children, that the argument is not only ignorant it’s also dangerous. Maybe you could clarify what you mean. Or at least make less prejudice arguments without considering all sides to the issue.
Does WoW not bring you to question real-life issues? What about all those players who refuse to do the “torture quest” or the “kidnap babies quest” or the “help make the New Plague quest”? What about the ongoing feud between the Alliance and the Horde (should we fight? Who really has the moral high ground here)? What about the falls of Arthas, Kael’thas, Illidan? Are these not subjects we can sink our teeth into? Writers at wow.com certainly seem to manage just fine.
When Marshal Windsor marches stoically through the gates of Stormwind, when the guards disobey their orders and kneel at his feet, when he’s accompanied by two dozen players as he goes to his doom … does that mean nothing? Why do people comment about the emotional content of the Wrathgate cinematic? What about the sunsets in Desolace? People react to these in a very real way.
Naturally a game will always have that game element, and sometimes, to some people, the boss is a featureless blue cube with Ability 1 and Ability 2. Naturally (most) video game writers haven’t (yet) managed to create a story as engaging and interesting and compelling as that found in good literature. But they’re getting there. And in the meantime, their games are not completely void of intellectual or emotional content.
And I’m pretty sure that feeding the homeless isn’t a hobby, too.
I agree with your perception of WoW bringing you to question “real life issues”; however I also disagree with your statement:
“Naturally (most) video game writers haven’t (yet) managed to create a story as engaging and interesting and compelling as that found in good literature. ”
As I feel that there is some incredible literature, created for the game (whether it be in game or outside with the many novels written). The points that are made are morals, honor, life, love, even environmentalism (look at the spoof group of D.E.H.T.A).
This is all brought out in layman’s terms, and a “fun” light, rather than the endless propoganda or rhetoric that fills the media.
Now in agreement with you, each of the points made in these stories, as quests or physical books, bring about emotions and thought provoking concepts in the real world.
Che, what if you don’t enjoy reading?
Some of the things you listed, I just don’t want to do. And if I don’t want to do it, but do it anyway, it is a chore, and I don’t consider it part of my free time. I have read books, and it brings a very strange feeling. In a video game, I am in control, and all of my decisions wil cause a certain reaction. In a book, the adventures have already been told. I can’t pick which path rincewind is about to walk down. Ol Terry already gave us that bit.
Also, any hobby is bad if it makes one neglect things that need to be done. ANY hobby will do that. It isn’t supposed to accompish much, unless that is a side effect of the hobby.
Society has decided which hobbies are better than others, and it will stay that way.
If you are getting everything done, and still have a hobby, that’s completely ok. I know that, if not for WoW, I would just be sitting around watching reruns of some western movie.
I live in Colorado, but I can’t drive myself to the slopes, and it’s too stinking cold to go outside too much, so what is there?
WoW is the answer for me. I can have fun while waiting on my main hobby and passion to come back into season.
Is it any surprise that I play a Druid?
If you don’t like reading, fine, I didn’t like it for the first 22 years of my life. And I agree with just about everything you are saying. I guess it’s up to each person how he/she defines “free time”. For me, it’s any time not at work. For others it’s probably different.
It doesn’t matter to me what you or anyone does in your “free time”, everyone enjoys different things and I think that’s a GREAT thing. All I am saying is that not all activities are equal. Whether you enjoy reading or not, one thing is certain, there has been no video game that changed the course of how people view slavery, but there was a book that did that. There was no game that actually formed a belief system, many religions have those from Christianity to Islam to Confusianism. I take issue with the comparison that reading a book is no different than wow.
I don’t care if you or anyone “enjoys” reading, but please don’t tell me that books and video games are the same. It’s rediculous to make such a statement because it’s false.
I’m all for doing whatever you want to do in your free time, whatever that is, I don’t care. Let’s not, however, compare apples to oranges.
When I want fun, I read frivolous mass market fiction.
By your scale, I suppose the frivolous fiction is BETTER than WoW, but serious socially weighty literature is BETTER than the lighthearted fiction.
Why must we always rank things in terms of what’s better, when I don’t do any of those things for self improvement anyway?
It seems like people who want to take this tack eventually start making the argument that you should never do anything that doesn’t lead to bettering yourself in some way.
What are we, Puritans, that the hands must never be idle?
I do agree with you in many aspects, and I have also the feeling that this subject is more or less like discussions on religion, no matter how addictive is or not, how much you care or not, there will be always people to tell you what you should think, feel and more that their opinions are the true/best ones. Still, as religion, is a matter of choice. We are more than 6.700 millions on this earth, and each one has the right to decide how he’ll spend his time. Yes, I agree reading things is really beneficial, it makes you smarter, more interesting for others but also for you. Still, I don’t see why I should feed the homeless?? I’m sure that there are other people which will get some satisfaction being self-righteous and kind, but that’s their choice and I have mine. I do think that one gets what one wants, depends only on one’s efforts, time and energy invested. But, as I would never impose my opinions to them, I’m expecting also that the others would keep their life-principles for themselves. Which, usually never happens.
I’d like to take a second and leave a post here that takes a different perspective on this article than some of the prior posts. I raid in a very hardcore guild (we’re up to saurfang in h icc!) and have played this game to the extent that most would consider excessive for some time now (10 hrs a day usually).
However, I am currently in college at a school that I dislike and feel out of place in. Without Wow, I honestly think I’d be having serious thoughts about suicide or doing something reckless and stupid like dropping out. Instead, I am responsible enough to recognize that I need to go to my classes and pay enough attention to make decent grades, but that afterwards I can go back to this escape until I either graduate or transfer at which point I may end up quitting.
To sum it up, my lifestyle is unhealthy, I play way too much and it is the center of my life. I make fun of newbs and spreadsheet my gear and have 2 alts on achievement mounts. But without this game who know what I’d be doing. I’d rather be addicted/abusive to/of Wow instead of drugs, alcohol or partying.
one thing 😛 some hobbies generate money e.g. my mate from ages ago used to do a bit of photography, now he can make some money taking pics at weddings etc. 😛 and yes i know that there are cash prizes in the arena tournaments but its like few out of 10 millions that get it….
anyway
Wow kicks ass 😛 (though i keep it secret i play it :P)
It’s the cheapest hobby I’ve ever had.
It’s something my husband and I can share.
It lets me keep in contact with friends and even family that I don’t get to see very often.
It lets me be social and make use of my leadership skills.
There’s a whole spin off post for me in here.
Am I the only one who noticed that he confessed to killing his mom in this post?
Watching someone die does not mean they were responsible for the death.
It was a joke on his comment. It sounded like he was trying to make a joke.
*sigh*
Watching one’s parents die is very, very different from killing them.
DOUBLE POST!
I blame the dragons, swords, magic and dungeons.
Of you take these design elements away you are left with the foundations of many other acceptable persuits.
When you add the above elements it becomes evil and bad for the mind, body and spirit.
Car racing game – good for you.
Flight simulator – never know whenyou will need that skill.
Dungeons and dragons – satanists lurking in family rooms selling souls to the devil and destroying brain cells.
Ultimately it comes down to the veiwera perspective.
I used to read a crapton of fantasy books. Sure I would read others, but I could and would consume 1-2 fantasy novels a day.
I used to work in the book trade. The sneer on peoples face when they asked (and I answered) what I was reading was incredible.
Hell my exwife reads socially acceptable Mills & Boon – my fantasy leanings are unhealthy.
Yet every day in the papers I read articles by relationship experts stating that M&B and romantic movies are destroying relationships in their masses die to unrealistic expectations.
I don’t have unrealistic expectations about WoW and the fantasy genre… It’s fantasy… Maybe less so than Mills & Boon… But still fantasy.
Quite a few of us play WoW for more than 4 hours at a time. That’s the stigma I guess, that sitting in front of a computer controlling a cartoonish figure is not a healthy hobby.
I doubt people read or garden for 8 hours. Whereas I can easily spend a Saturday or Sunday on WoW. Although people can shop for a whole day or sit in fornt of a TV for a whole day.
Hobby is essentially an activity that keeps the mind and body occupied in an enjoybale manner. Is typing out nerd rage in a BG enjoyable?
1st time poster, despite following this really interesting blog for a loooong time.
After Uni, I ‘cleaned up’ my act and started to do basic management of my finances and discovered I spent on AVERAGE $400 every friday on nightlife.
possibly another $400 if I chose to head out on Saturday.
I was never a gamer, and most importantly, vehemently against MMORPG’s especially those that are paid subscriptions.
A generous friend let me use his paid account and I realised the real-life benefits of $15 per month vs $1700 to the bartender.
As far as I was concerned, toxic hobby or no, it was pure win.
More to the point, although I understand there are different forms of escapism, I could never see it and still don’t when it comes to WoW…but fully agree with your point, that it probably is the equivalent of the latest Terry Pratchet novel.
🙂
As I read this article, I typed /played for the first time. 63 days on the mage. I switched over and found another 11 days on the priest, a day or two each across maybe a dozen alts and bankers, 13 days on a DK, and 32 days on a level 70 warrior. That’s around 140 days of escapism, or addictedness, or whatever combination you want to call it.
Wouldn’t be so bad if I had a job or something like that.
Dungeons and Dragons is probably the ultimate example for the stereotyped “evil” and “degenerate” hobby that kills minds and all social life. Anything taken to the extreme is bad (and I mean that quite literally – everything), but the idea that people are repulsed by D&D baffles me. (I realize this post is about WoW, but, well, whatever.)
If a hobby is “bad” in the sense that you learn nothing, come up with nothing lasting, enduring, physical, or anything else, it seems fine that some people would disdain it. However, with D&D you not only come out making memories, but you learn valuable life lessons that are perfectly applicable to real life.
Example:
You are trying to kill some powerful monster that lives in its lair (generic.) Some people barge in and fight it, others carefully lay down a strategy, and others might even set up a trap outside, waiting for the monster to come out. Each method provides different results, just like would happen in real life. Some less effective, some more effective, some less risky, others more so.
It’s not the best example ever, but then again this entire post was written on the spur of the moment. And yet it’s perfectly socially acceptable to sit on a couch, turn on the television, and watch games of soccer 24 hours a day, doing nothing, moving nothing, growing fat, and truly lacking in imagination.
Ah well, life goes on. I still like WoW, and no amount of QQ from people around me will take my gaming habits away. Also, I don’t like soccer, but that doesn’t make my statement less true.
I believe “Word.” is the only response to your analysis.
[…] QQに面白い記事が載っていた。要約すると、 […]
I couldn’t agree more.
I… Can’t… Read it!
Aarg
The argument that WoW is a toxic hobby when compared to more socially acceptable alternatives seems based on the amount of time generally involved.
I believe it helps to consider playing WoW not as one specific hobby but rather more of an umbrella term for a number of different activities. Just as I could say that I was “going out” and mean that I was either meeting up and chatting with friends, going shopping by myself, or playing football in a team, so “playing WoW” could mean that I was either chatting with friends on Vent, playing the Auction House, or raiding.
WoW is broad and varied enough to satisfy a range of different needs which might otherwise require a number of separate hobbies. Thus, the time spent on WoW can seem disproportionately large to the outside observer.
[…] of Critical QQ reminds us that gaming is a hobby and ponders why it isn’t always viewed that way by outsiders and even some […]
For Okrane: I’ve read your arguments, I’ve read your replies. Statements like “not even 1% have” are not statistics, when not backed up by sources. Here’s a quick source. I’ve read follow up elsewhere.
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1385158/world_of_warcraft_as_a_college_course.html?cat=9
I’d say a accredited college professor is a more authoritative source than you.
I’m not sure the debate is worth continuing. Remember the adage about arguing on the internet.
The crux of it, I think, is that Okrane believes that hobbies (or anything that consumes a large chunk of time) should be healthy or directly develop some clearly marketable skillset or have some other very tangible value.
The issue of whether or not WoW is beneficial aside, I think it’s everyone’s responsibility to maintain a healthy lifestyle and develop skills: if WoW is actively preventing them from doing that, then they need to reevaluate their play time; if they manage to be healthy and fit and have a good social life and a steady high paying job despite 20 hours of raids a week, then more power to ’em.
There are at least a dozen tangental issues and specificities here, but touching on even a few would merit an essay.
good info .. I am very interested with your article …
Do I know you?
You seem to blog about the exact subjects I was just thinking of… and then I come hear and you just wrote about it… yeah.
I’m starting to get creeped out now.
Great post btw, will have to write my own follow-up now.
/cry you hit it on the head for me! I have struggled so much with this perceived stigma of spending so much time (doing something fun for me?) with WOW. The guilt.
I wish to say to you – that the way you write goes into my heart and head. Your talent is amazing.
[…] https://criticalqq.wordpress.com/2010/02/16/escapism/ […]
Great post…I used to have this aurgument with my girlfriend all the time.
I would spend an evening playing wow and she would spend it watching reality tv….how is that any different than what I was doing? For some reason she just couldn’t rap her head around it.
Its pretty simple actually, you just do things that you enjoy. Thats it. Thats all there is to life. When its all said and done and your dead, you don’t get to bring your money or material things with you…so its all about enjoying the time you spend while you are alive.
If that happens to be sitting in front of a computer for 10 hours a day controlling a fictional character who cares?
I have since cancelled my account because I have a music career and don’t draw enough inspiration from playing wow to write new songs but its still an awesome game and I would never look down on someone who enjoys playing it.
Also, as some other people mentioned, wow is a great game for a bad economy. You can spend $15 dollars a month and basically have all the entertainment you need. I don’t know how else you could possibly spend $15 dollars and get that much enjoyment out of it.
Bottom line, do what makes you happy…unless its chopping up little girls and putting them in the freezer…but other than that, I’d say you’re good.
[…] Euripedes discussed how WoW as a form of escapism is a lot more healthy than a lot of people would have you think, that escaping into any other hobby is just the same. Personally, I’d go so far as to say escaping into a book can be more unhealthy than WoW, as then you’re left alone with your thoughts, it’s much easier to wallow when you don’t have people around you, whether they’re online friends or not. […]
The Argument is, that the social connections you make in WoW is not good but bad. Why? Because the social pressure to play the game is actually what makes it so addictive 😉 “I can’t go out tonight because my guild needs me to heal/tank/whatever”
Okay, whatever… at least scientists have proven that WoW increases the potential of visual thinking – needed in many of todays jobs.
PS: LOL @ Shitstorm xD
I think youve made a very good point in saying that WoW and the stigmas attatched to it are unfair as it is just another hobby.
Hobby being the key word. If we look at our hobbys as a form of escapism from the reality of our world, there is both healthy and very unhealthy addictive escapism in which the hobby whatever it may be prevents the person from surviving the world. take my boyfriend and his brother for example. My boyfriend plays Hon or Wow for a few hours each day after work, just as i might watch Tv or read a book, a means of escaping for a while. However , his brother started playing WoW and a year later it is not an escape from everyday life, it has become his life. He plays up and over 17 hours a day, lost his job, is frail and emaciated and only leaves his room to eat and go to the toilet. I think the trouble with any video game and it becoming apart of extreme escapism is that it isolates the person. Yes i understand your talking to people through a headset but that is no comparison to proper social interaction with the world and human contact that is so vital to living a healthy and happy life. What is also a concern with Wow as a form of escape that there is an enormous pressure from other users to keep playing or participate in raids and also in the fact that the game never neccesarily ends. From my experience whenever you try and communicate to a person who is addicted to this sort of thing, its like you have inconvenienced their time on WoW and theyre not even interested in interacting with you. this dosnt happen when you interact with someone reading a book, they can put the book down or re read the bit they might have missed. From my personal experience, Wow addiction as a result frome escapism has a serious effect on the person addicted physically and emotionally and it has really affected those around them. I guess this could happen with any means of escape or hobbies however it seems more prominent in this type of game due to the reasons suggested above. There are special rehab centres for gaming addiction do you see any rehab centres for fishing or reading addiciton?
Why even care about what fools think of video games? Just stick with people who mind their own business and avoid someone who complains more than you can tolerate.
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