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When WoW Interferes with Real Life
Something came up this weekend that made me want to discuss a
very important World of Warcraft issue. What I want to discuss
is the fact that there are things to do other than WoW. Let me
start by explaining how this came to be foremost on my mind.
I have a group of friends that have a ton of hobbies and gaming
interests in common. The group usually gets together once a week
to socialize and play games or do stuff. This group has been
getting together at east once a week for the last 5 years. Some
times they get together as many as 3-4 times in a week.
While I love getting together with this group, I dont get a
chance to hang out all that often. Over time I average only once
a month or so for several reasons, not the least of which being
that most of them now have cats at their houses and I am highly
allergic to cats. Besides that, they are all mainly still single
or at least without kids, which means they have a lot more free
time than I do. The group is a ton of fun, and we always have
something to do.
Anyway, I was out with the group this weekend and asked, What
ever happened to Bob?. I never see him around any more. To which
I was told that he never talks to anyone outside of WoW anymore.
It has gotten to the point that at recent birthday party, he sat
aside from everyone and only discussed WoW with one other
player, not socializing with anyone else or discussing anything
else.
I found out that over time he has withdrawn further and further
from the group. At this stage WoW is the only thing he does, he
doesnt participate in any of the weekly activates. Its gotten to
the point that none of the other friends even care, since if he
shows up all he talks about is WoW. This got several of the
friends really upset.
It has gotten to the point that even if he wanted to come back
to the group, Im not sure they would take him back. Thinking
about this, it has really made me evaluate the number of times,
I have passed up events in real life to play a game. While not
to a point I would call excessive, I will certainly be watching
in the future to make sure I keep taking time for real life
friends.
No matter how fun WoW is, the group of friends is always more
fun. I cant imagine giving up real social friendships and
interaction for those created in a game. Yet many people have
been giving up real life friendships for those in a virtual
world. Bob is the one that hits closest to home though since he
is someone I know.
Hearing and discussing what has happened with him, we figured
out that we know several other people like this that has drifted
away from our various groups, all for things in the virtual
world. We even discovered that one of our group had done this at
one point in time with the original EQ and it had cost him his
girlfriend at the time and two years of his education. He
eventually escaped his addiction to the game, but by that time
he had, he had to start all over socially and restart his
education.
Having talked about this over the weekend I felt a need to bring
it up and discuss it as a warning to players. I wanted to remind
everyone to take time for all their friends and family. While
games can be fun, it is always important to remember that no
matter how fun it is, it is just a game. Real life should always
take priority.. .
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