I knew a man once who essentially destroyed his body drinking "for his health", it eventually killed him. Along the way he lost his job, his family, and his friends. There is a great deal of that same sentiment in this thread, and it will also lead to emotional and physical problems.

I somewhat agree with DrjonesDW3d.

I'll compare hardcore WoW playing to hardcore sports playing. As stated earlier WoW can and has ruined lives but so has sports. Plenty of sports players dont have time for their family especialy not during their playing season. Some sports players have been injured and/or overworked and some will never recover ... but thats insignificant because sports players are widely excepted. Im sure most of the great sports players spend plenty of time in the gym training and whatnot and occasionaly responsibilities are pushed back or mabey even ignored.

So those are the simularities but what are the differences. Money of course. If the amount in your bank account is a measure of your worth then everyones right sports players are awesome and WoW players are pathetic. But if thats not the case what is the measure of a persons worth? If you cant clearly state it then you cant call someone a failure, you cant call them pathetic.

Im not saying playing WoW 8 hours/day is a good idea. I dont think that leaves much times for other matters that are important in life. All im saying is that other people who ignore those same matters are idolized while WoW players are frowned apon.

thats my .02

Quote:Original post by ForeverNoobie
So those are the simularities but what are the differences. Money of course. If the amount in your bank account is a measure of your worth then everyones right sports players are awesome and WoW players are pathetic. But if thats not the case what is the measure of a persons worth? If you cant clearly state it then you cant call someone a failure, you cant call them pathetic.

Im not saying playing WoW 8 hours/day is a good idea. I dont think that leaves much times for other matters that are important in life. All im saying is that other people who ignore those same matters are idolized while WoW players are frowned apon.

thats my .02

You answered it yourself. Playing WoW is not a job, playing professional sports is. That's the difference. Playing WoW 8 hours a day is basically taking a second job you're not getting paid for while still giving up a huge portion of your time. I'm sure you can understand why people find that unacceptable.

That being said, whatever you do in your free time is up to you. But personally I think structuring your life around a game is more than a little pathetic.

I'm sorry, raiding in WoW doesn't teach you time management any better than working at McDonald's flipping burgers. Your time management amounts to showing up at a set time at a set place. Most pre-schoolers know that. Mommy and Daddy run on a fixed schedule and junior learns to follow along. Even the guild leader isn't learning jack about time management. He doesn't have schedules of availability for 100 people and have to figure out how to schedule a raid so he can get 40 there at the same time. So he isn't even learning to schedule shifts at McDonalds. He just declares this is the time and everyone be there or else.

Founding and leading one of these guilds does say something about the guildleader. He, apparently, can mediate inter-personal disputes since the guild did not spontaneously collapse. He must be able to delegate responsibility since you can't single-handedly supervise 40 people. Tracking the DKP system says something about his record keeping abilities. He could, most likely, handle tracking the details needed to schedule shifts and restock at McDonald's.

That someone founded and lead such a guild might influence me in a hiring decision for an entry level management position. If he's going to argue his qualifications because of that then he best be prepared to stand behind that. If I research the guild and find they have a reputation for less than ethical behavior and for being, all around, a bunch of arrogant assholes then mention that accomplishment is most likely going to be a big mark against him.

When it comes to average grunt in the rank and file, I'm sorry, you, at best, learned some skills that might help you flipping burgers at McDonald's. Let's see, the monitor says Cheeseburger with mayo, no ketchup. Oh look, the timer on the frier lifted the basket out of the grease, I need to empty it and refill it for another batch. I'm sorry, spare me the valuable skills. What you have learned to do is a shadow of what teenagers all across this nation are getting paid to do. If you're a 16 year old that never worked then this might be a point in your favor getting a job flipping burgers. Hell, if you can keep to a raid schedule then surely you could show up for your job on time and prepared to work.

Then again, you might not since we don't really know how often you actually show up for raids. We also have a good reason to be concerned that you would quit because your job conflicts with your raid schedule. Sorry, I can't work the evening rush because it conflict with WoW. Realistically if you've been playing WoW eight hours a day then we have to seriously question your sense of responsibility since you, most likely, let a lot of shit slide.

When it comes to raiding in WoW specifically, I'm sorry, it isn't that impressive. That you beat uber boss #574 says that you did all the lesser bosses and geared up. You killed those lesser bosses repeated using the exact same tactics until you could do it so drunk you could barely remain sitting up straight in your chair. It isn't about coordination, it's about gear. Walk into Naxx in a party decked out in greens and you'll wipe repeatedly on trash mobs no matter your "skill" and "coordination". It's all about collecting the gear and training the motor skills to repeatedly kill a boss over and over.

Problem solving? With most guilds that's reading how other guilds did it. You aren't solving any problems, you're just training motor skills. Give me bot control of 40 characters and I'll beat every boss single handedly. That would involve some problem solving. Learning to start/stop spamming on command to maintain the rotation is not problem solving. The only thing you prove is that you can endure endless hours of monotoneous and boring behavior requiring a casual level of attention. Casual? Yeah, if you're wiping repeatedly then you're spending most of your time preparing to give it another try. Farming actually takes more attention.

Then there's the whole issue of just what are you farming for? Where does all that money go? Material, supplies, haha. Try a gold selling site. Do you actually have any verifiable accounting of just what happens to what? We just give everything to the guild and guild gives us what we need. Yeah, right, and you just break even. Look at how much you make from raiding then think about how much the guild is generating. Virtually ever raiding guild sells gold and most members of those guilds are completely unaware of it.

Quote:Original post by Moe
Please, give it a break. It's a freaking game. If you try and tell me that you have learned time management skills by playing a game with 1/3 of your time, I would tell you you are full of crap. It's a game - a form of entertainment, and that is all it is. Sure, you can learn things from a game, but you can just as easily learn things from a movie, or from socializing with friends, picking up a new hobby, enjoying the outdoors, spending time with family, or volunteering your time to help others.

Don't get me wrong - I enjoy playing a game (whether it be an MMO or an FPS) just as much as the next person, but I know what is healthy for me - physically, emotionally, and mentally. Spending 1/3 of my waking hours in one form of entertainment isn't healthy (at least for me).

I am really with frizzlefry and capn_midnight. I have seen gaming destroy people, not help them learn time management. Lets take the examples of two of my previous classmates. One was so addicted to Starcraft, that he had to take his first semester of college 3 times because he would be constantly playing starcraft or watching starcraft related videos. Or, my other classmate - married with a kid, and a full time college student. He would stay up until 8 or 9 pm with his kid, then do his homework, then play WoW with some of our classmates until the wee hours of the morning. He nearly failed his last semester of college because of it. By the last week or two of the semester, he looked like a zombie, and would fall asleep in class.

Quote:
P.S. Name me one (successful) game that doesn't use "psychologically addicting elements to hook players and keep them playing"

Solitare? Minesweeper? Sudoku? Crossword puzzles? How about many of the more recent "casual" games? Compare the number of those games played with the number of people addicted to them.

What people need to learn is a little self control. Playing games isn't a bad thing. Playing games excessively, or being addicted to them is. Same with anything else in life.

Thank you.

Quote:Original post by Way Walker

Quote:
Im not saying playing WoW 8 hours/day is a good idea. I dont think that leaves much times for other matters that are important in life. All im saying is that other people who ignore those same matters are idolized while WoW players are frowned apon.

Actually, I frown upon it in sports players, too. Watching the Olympics and hearing how this person has been doing essentially nothing but this since before they can remember does not make me envy them in the slightest.

it is an extremely lonely lifestyle.

Not to mention that a professional athlete's activities maintain their body in a great shape. As opposed to someone who plays a videogame like WoW fulltime, who's addiction is a detriment to their health.