The GHZ Forum

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^Gawell, a level 60 Mage, reached Burning Crusade's new level cap in 28 hours!

And thus, misses the whole point. Dickhead.

Wow.

Some people have no life. This man wastes his non-life in new and spectacular ways.

Bet he quits in a month because he's "bored".

I can't decide if I'm impressed by such skill in dedication, planning, and persuasion... or if I'm disgusted by such a massive amount of failure.

Coin flip!

I'd say something burning and witty, but he's French. I think living with that is enough.

This whole WoW thing has been a matter of debate for me lately. On one hand I hate people who waste their time living in their room doing nothing but clicking the same mouse button over and over. On the other hand I'm glad those people aren't at the department store standing in line behind me sniffing at the beef jerky, trying to decide if they'd rather have original or teryaki flavor.

And the 28 hours thing? I'm not surprised in the least. I've seen far, far worse.

Who cares what they choose to do with their lives? How many hours did we spend playing PSO? There is far less to do in that game than there is to do in WoW. I know cause I've played the crap out of both and now deem both of them evil.

I certainly am an advocate of rights that should be a given in our society. If you want to smoke, drink, snort, inject, screw, or do whatever you want as long as it hurts no one else? Go for it.

But the line isn't black or white on either side; it's surrounded by about 15 shades of gray before you get to one or the other. Like any vice it should be used in moderation with the user being conscientious of the consequences. Unfortunately games like Everquest and World of Warcraft are overlooked in the stead of greater wrongs for society.

I view someone addicted to WoW the same way I view someone addicted to heroin or pot. Addiction is defined by continued use in the face of adverse consequences; be they social, financial, romantic, or educational.

It's just like any other substance that you can abuse. And while the consequences aren't quite as obvious as other sources you go to for a fix, they are there. I know plenty of people who have trouble with keeping jobs, relationships with their spouses, or otherwise. I ran into a ton of people who failed at something in their real life setting, and submerged themselves in a fantasy world just to get away from problems they should be dealing with.

So playing PSO for 380 hours is a long time but it's nowhere near the 128 days plus that most people have logged on characters in other MMO's (actual play hours by the way.)

So sure, I like MMO's but I don't like the addictive quality they represent. And Blizzard, SoE, and other companies specifically market to these poor individuals in an attempt to get them hooked and keep them. That's where the sinister quality of these games come from. And it's largely a reason why I don't play anymore.

Or they might just be good games.

WoW is fucking brilliant.

Also, I have a girlfriend.

Draw your own conclusions.

But you're pure sexy.

j-man wrote:Draw your own conclusions.

Your girlfriend is a night elf.

I hate elves.


There, I said it.

Hybrid wrote:Your girlfriend is a night elf.

False. But that would be pretty hot. I must have a thing for seven-foot, purple-skinned women with glowing eyes.

Zeta wrote:But you're pure sexy.

Shut up baby, I know it.

Isambard wrote:I view someone addicted to WoW the same way I view someone addicted to heroin or pot.

I stopped taking you seriously when you pointed out how little you know about drugs.

He must be one of those people that thinks caffeine addiction is the same as heroin addiction.

Not exactly...I'm talking about psychological dependency versus physical dependency. Like if you were to get hooked on morphine from a hospital for pain? If don't have the qualities of an addict you'll get on the drug, get off the drug, go through withdrawl, move on and never think of it again.

If you have an addict quality in you, you can become dependant upon the drug and it will quite literally consume you.

Many of my friends and myself played WoW for the first year of the release. We had fun. And as soon as it stopped being fun we all quit. But my roommate constantly complains about the game and continues to play to this day.

That's the group of people I'm referring to. The people who use it despite the consequences. He didn't go back to school after his summer break because he was too busy raiding in WoW to go to the tuition office. Or he wouldn't even go socialize with his flesh and blood friends because "Friday night is a raid night."

WoW isn't a drug in the literal sense of the word. It's psychologically addicting. You become dependant on it like..."What would I do without it?" And when you get off it you become depressed, you get moody, and (hopefully) you move on after a time.

That's all I'm saying.

And no I'm not telling you to not play WoW. I'm just saying I understand the addictive quality it represents to some people.

Oh and also:

He must be one of those people that thinks caffeine addiction is the same as heroin addiction.

No. But I recognize that all things that have addictive qualities have varying degrees of effect depending upon the person using them. I can drop a cigarette or soda habit in a day and not feel adverse while another person could get headaches that are quite disabling. And the higher the concentration of an addictive substance you have the more profound the addiction.

Also...there's no drive to use caffeine like there is to use heroin since they've got entirely different effects. Caffeine isn't as pyschologically altering as a narcotic.

I'm glad you're all thinking I'm an idiot by the way. It's awesome to be the underdog.

Actually, despite not really agreeing with you I totally see where you are coming from. I'll also admit PSO was a bad example. In the two or more years I played PSO I logged maybe a 1000 hours. That's like forty days. In the 11 months I played WoW I logged 65 days I think between all my characters. I finally quit because I bombed a math test and was tired of putting raiding 5 nights a week over hanging out with my friends who all quit several months prior. Of all the people in my guild, I probably had the lowest amount of time logged, which is insane cause I played for the first 11 months of the games existence. That means everyone in my guild played more during the same time frame, some up to twice as much. I did the math at the time and my guild leader had logged 8+ hours a day every day (on average of course) to be able to log that much in game time in that short a period. The game is obviously addicting, one of my friends failed a class, then decided to drop out of school for a year and go work at an orphanage in Ecuador to sorta restart his life after playing WoW.

I wouldn't compare it to heroin though, that drug is physically addicting and after you've been on it long enough you can't just quit cold turkey or it will have some pretty adverse affects.

Also to j-man (not to single you out, I'm just to lazy to use the quote command), obviously not everyone is going to have the same sorta experiences with WoW, just like not everyone has the same sort of experiences with drugs.

I'm just glad I had enough sense to quit back in October of '05.

Izzy, I'm just pushing buttons. Don't worry, I still like you. <3

Delphine wrote:Izzy, I'm just pushing buttons. Don't worry, I still like you. <3

<3<3<3<3

You seem like a nice fellow, if a bit daft. I find your e-company enjoyable and would gladly treat you to an e-draft if I had any e-money.

Isambard wrote:I can drop a cigarette or soda habit in a day and not feel adverse while another person could get headaches that are quite disabling. And the higher the concentration of an addictive substance you have the more profound the addiction.

I had no problem when I quit drinking soda (after being literally raised on it; silly parents), but I can't quit smoking for the life of me. And don't tell me that it's because they're more addictive or harmful or blah blah blah, because my doctor says they're perfectly fine for you. He would know. He's a doctor and he shares my belief that all medicine should be ignored after 1920.

So.

EXPLAIN THAT, EXPERTBARD.

Bah! Humbot! wrote:EXPLAIN THAT, EXPERTBARD.

Easy. You're a moron.



EXPLAIN THAT, STUPIDHEAD.

edit: and you don't even have to "believe in medicine", just statistics.

You know what, all I see is a bunch of t-bone steaks up in this noise. Except the one on the right is more exotic, more appealing. The jagged edges indicate that this isn't your father's t-bone steak.

I ran your numbers by my doctor and he had some good advice about not trusting statistics. In fact, he said not to trust any word ending in "tic" except narcotic, which seems like pretty sound advice to me. He also told me not to trust guys named Rolken or any young brat and a wild-eyed old man talking gibberish about a sports almanac. Shows what you know!