World Of Warcraft, Good Or Bad?

[TDUFreak]

*THIS THREAD IS NOT ABOUT GAMEPLAY, SO IT DOSENT NEED TO BE MOVED*

So, World Of Warcraft, good or bad?
Personaly, i think its good but then there are people who tend to take it out of hand a bit.

Like a friend i know, spent the 3 months summer holidays playing it. only went outside for general food and the foo fighters.
And a couple (i think in canada) neglected their baby which resulted in death.
Then we have this....
And then theres people who are just so addicted that they lose friends and a life

But then theres the good side of it,
Its a good place to meet new people, a realy fun game...and thats all i can think of.

Over all, what im trying to say is, is WoW a good game thats gotten a bit overblown, and is sometimes ruining peoples lives and socialability(sp)
Or is it just an MMORPG that in only a few 1000 out of the 7 million players that use it, has affected them? and that some of those people have given it a bad reputation?

Whats your opinion?

 

[DustDriver]

This should be in the PC gaming forum, since it's a game, even if you're not talking about the gameplay itself. (in my opinion)

And 2 persons in my class play it, and 1 even skipped classes/stayed up until morning to play it.
It isn't a surprise he failed a lot of classes (but so did i, and i don't play it)
As long as you don't hurt others by playing it to much, i don't mind.
It's your life and you do with it what you please.

 

[ceiling_fan]

Well, the video doesn't work for me, so I can't comment on it. I have, however, had a couple friends barely finish high school because of the game. I don't agree with saying it ruins people's lives and social skills, these people make a decision to ignore their real lives. It is nobody's fault but their own.

edit: It appears Duke moved this into Opinions. Good call. 👍

 

[Duke]

*THIS THREAD IS NOT ABOUT GAMEPLAY, SO IT DOSENT NEED TO BE MOVED*

Actually, yes, it does need to be moved - to the Opinions forum.

 

[Alex.]

*THIS THREAD IS NOT ABOUT GAMEPLAY, SO IT DOSENT NEED TO BE MOVED*

So, World Of Warcraft, good or bad?
Personaly, i think its good but then there are people who tend to take it out of hand a bit.

Like a friend i know, spent the 3 months summer holidays playing it. only went outside for general food and the foo fighters.
And a couple (i think in canada) neglected their baby which resulted in death.
Then we have this....
And then theres people who are just so addicted that they lose friends and a life

But then theres the good side of it,
Its a good place to meet new people, a realy fun game...and thats all i can think of.

Over all, what im trying to say is, is WoW a good game thats gotten a bit overblown, and is sometimes ruining peoples lives and socialability(sp)
Or is it just an MMORPG that in only a few 1000 out of the 7 million players that use it, has affected them? and that some of those people have given it a bad reputation?

Whats your opinion?

fixed the vid for you

 

[ExigeEvan]

I have a friend who's quite deep into it, though he's not as bad as his brother, and I've managed to shame him into playing less. I won't deny that that is quite a bad thing to do, but inbetween Xbox360, WoW and being addicted to MySpace I figured WoW would probably screw him up most.

 

[DustDriver]

Here's the movie:

edit: got tree'd

 

[zoxxy]

I've got soooo many examples on lives being ruined by this (for Blizzard) ridicoulously profitable game that it's insane. I've seen nice guys go to semi-apathic freaks because of it.
I deeply hate this game, not just because it's an RPG which I generally dislike, but also because it's so addicting and destructive.

 

[TDUFreak]

I dont hate it, but Thats what i mean. Half my friends have go that way

 

[FoolKiller]

WoW is just a game. To accuse it of being more is wrong.

There is nothing about this game that will destroy lives. There are plenty of things with the individual players that can cause them to destroy their own life.

If I skip work to play Gran Turismo and get fired is it PD's fault? No.

MMORPGs create a social structure within the fun of the game and so people who don't know when to stop having fun or have little social skills due to whatever plagues them in real life find it to have a huge draw. The combination of the social structure and the fun makes people not recognize the loss of real-life social structure.

It would be the same as someone coming on to GTPlanet non-stop and forgetting any friends they have locally. Sure we may be a fun group of people to hang out with but we are not a replacement for your friends. The same goes for WoW. A person needs to know when to walk away.


To me this falls in the same category as video game violence. The video game does not cause someone to become unbalanced. Rather someone who is unbalanced is drawn to the game. People with a violent nature like violent video games and people with troubles handling interpersonal social activity are drawn to virtual social activity, because it feels safer. The geeky kid picked on in gym class may be pure leet in WoW and so that is where he feels cool and accepted because others don't see the geeky kid, but a level 99 troll mage, or whatever (can you tell I never played?).


There are no dangerous games, merely socially unstable people.

 

[Joey D]

I used to play but never very much maybe 45 minutes a day if that even. I still have my character which I've been playing since April and I'm only level 29 or something...there are people who can do that in a day. Granted the game is entertaining at times but I don't think it's anything all that special. I can't see what is addicting about doing 5 million quests that require you to collect x amount of things so you can get a sword to go kill other things to get more swords. At least in some other RPG's it's more open ended...Oblivion for example has more to do then just killing x amount of things...

The guy that I room with plays it and seriously he gets home around 5 and plays it until 2 or 3 in the morning every single night. When I ask him if he wants to go out cruising, play golf, shoot some hoops...whatever he always tells me he has a raid or something. I don't know how you can raid every night and not get board with it. But then again this guy has 4 level 70's...4!!! I don't think I could ever manage 1. Some how this guy has a girlfriend that he drives over an hour to see every weekend at Michigan State University...and guess what they do? Drink and play that God forsaken game. Now I don't know what you guys do with your girlfriends but I tend to go to the movies, go out to eat, go to fairs and festivals, whatever. How they have a healthy relationship is beyond me.

On that video if that would have been my kid I probably would have beat his ass into the middle of next week for talking to me like that. But then again one should place blame on the parents for letting it get that bad. Video games are fun but I think the real world has a bit more to offer...like I don't know sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll .

 

[Swift]

I've got soooo many examples on lives being ruined by this (for Blizzard) ridicoulously profitable game that it's insane. I've seen nice guys go to semi-apathic freaks because of it.
I deeply hate this game, not just because it's an RPG which I generally dislike, but also because it's so addicting and destructive.

So, do you hate candy, TV, the internet(porn), Fitness Clubs, fast food or any other addicting product?

It's not the fault of the product, pure and simple.

 

[Joey D]

Fitness clubs are destructive?

 

[Swift]

Fitness clubs are destructive?

They can be. For some people they become a way to express their obsession with their fitness or appearance. This could become destructive to the people in their lives, cause that person to skip work to "work out", etc. Granted, that's a bit more on the extreme, but it still serves my point.

 

[livemusic]

Some people over here say the same thing about that "Second Life" game, saying it may ruin someone's live. Like it was said here already, it's not the game fault, it's the person's fault. Drinking and gambling can cause you the same problems these MMORPGs do if you can't control yourself.

 

[Stevisiov]

They can be. For some people they become a way to express their obsession with their fitness or appearance. This could become destructive to the people in their lives, cause that person to skip work to "work out", etc. Granted, that's a bit more on the extreme, but it still serves my point.

And Then they move on to steroids...

The game may 'destroy' people, but to the person in question it is their life, the game itself isn't bad, or naughty, just misused, but then again who am I to judge how they should live there life, is someone would rather play all day than go out, its no odds to me. I spend many of my hours playing racing games, getting fastest times, putting my time on the ranking boards, my latest conquest is LFS, I have just started trying to get my times down. This no doubt will consume a few days.

Can I stop, yes. If someone asks if I want to play football, what do I do? I go out and play football, some people may find they have no motivation to go out, this is where the problem lies, not the game but certain users, as stated by foolkiller and swift. The game itself just has highly addictive qualities, there is always a way to improve, therefore always the motivation to keep chomping away, that is how a good game works.

The only way to prevent this is prevent people who are likely to get addicted from using the game, and how do you go about that? Should people even be prevented? I say no people have the right to live inside a computer if it makes them feel happy.

 

[Danoff]

I think what's being left out of this discussion so far is the shear fun of the game. Yes, people spend a lot of time playing all kinds of video games, and yes none are more addicting and all-consuming than Blizzard games. But that's because they're seriously fun.

Personally I've never played WoW (damn monthly fee). But I did play Diablo II... and I played it a lot. It was the deepest most rewarding game I've ever played in my life. I could play that game for hours and hours, indeed years on end. And I loved it. I still love it, but I don't play anymore (one can only extract so much entertainment out of it).

My question is, what's so much better about throwing a basketball around than playing video games? What's so much better about playing in the lake or spending the afternoon on the jetski than spending it playing with friends on video games?

I don't see it.

 

[Joey D]

My question is, what's so much better about throwing a basketball around than playing video games? What's so much better about playing in the lake or spending the afternoon on the jetski than spending it playing with friends on video games?

It's real life and it's much healthier for you to be outside and active then sitting around all the time playing a video game.

 

[Danoff]

It's real life and it's much healthier for you to be outside and active then sitting around all the time playing a video game.

Healthier? What socially, physically or both?

Video games are real life too. You're enjoying them just as much as you enjoy a basketball game. And the results are just as meaningless. It's not like you didn't actually spend time playing a game and having fun just because it was on the computer.

Socially, I'd say they're equivalent. People play video games with their friends all the time. Yelling "Oh, you suck" at your friend because you shot him in the head is equivalent to "Oh, you suck" for making a layup in front of him.

Physically, as long as you're in decent shape I don't see why it matters.

Again, I'm wondering what the difference is.

 

[Joey D]

Healthier? What socially, physically or both?

Video games are real life too. You're enjoying them just as much as you enjoy a basketball game. And the results are just as meaningless. It's not like you didn't actually spend time playing a game and having fun just because it was on the computer.

Socially, I'd say they're equivalent. People play video games with their friends all the time. Yelling "Oh, you suck" at your friend because you shot him in the head is equivalent to "Oh, you suck" for making a layup in front of him.

Physically, as long as you're in decent shape I don't see why it matters.

Again, I'm wondering what the difference is.

Both, if you don't ever actually meet people outside a game you are not going to have any social skills therefore not be a functioning human being. I look at people that are self proclaimed gamers and they couldn't hold a conversation with you about anything other then games (obviously). That's not healthy, you have to know how to talk about other things to well get along in life.

Sitting in front of a video game system all day is not healthy and you won't be in good shape. You can't become fit by just smashing some buttons all the time.

 

[Danoff]

Both, if you don't ever actually meet people outside a game you are not going to have any social skills therefore not be a functioning human being. I look at people that are self proclaimed gamers and they couldn't hold a conversation with you about anything other then games (obviously). That's not healthy, you have to know how to talk about other things to well get along in life.

Sitting in front of a video game system all day is not healthy and you won't be in good shape. You can't become fit by just smashing some buttons all the time.

I'm fit. I'm adjusted. And I've been the guy glued to the game at 2am.

I'm here to tell you that it can be done. And half the time i was playing with buddies anyway. It's more fun when you can trash talk the guy on a regular basis anyway.

 

[Joey D]

I'm sorry but some how I think you do more then just play games.

 

[Danoff]

I'm sorry but some how I think you do more then just play games.

Not my point. My point is...

WoW = Fun

and

WoW is similar to playing basketball or tossing a football with friends.

 

[Joey D]

If you think playing WoW is like playing basketball you must live one sorry life, video games are not substitutes for actual activities.

 

[Danoff]

If you think playing WoW is like playing basketball you must live one sorry life, video games are not substitutes for actual activities.

A video game is an actual activity. You can't describe it any other way.

Give me some differences between playing video games online with friends and playing basketball. I think physical fitness is about all you've got - but as long as you're fit it doesn't matter.

Edit: Rule number 1 on the opinions board - try not to make it personal. The whole "you must live a sorry life" bit was uncalled for.

 

[Swift]

Not to mention you do burn a lot of calories playing some games(and I don't mean DDR). It's just that gamers also tend to eat to much junk food.

 

[Joey D]

You as in a general sense, you could be anyone, maybe I should said "if one thinks playing WoW is life basketball then that individual must live one sorry life."

Think what you want but kids being stuck in front of a video game system all day is contributing to the gross obesity in this country. No one is active and just because you claim you are fit doesn't mean the majority of other gaming Americans are. Rule #2 just because something is happening to you doesn't mean anything at all.

 

[Pako]

After watching that video, I can see that more education needs to be done for the parents TO SHOW THEM WHERE THE POWER PLUG IS. My gawd, that whole thing went on waaaaaay too long. The game isn't bad, but it is highly addictive as stated already. Guys have dropped out of school because of this game. It's worse then crack for some of these people, and not just kids, but grown adults.

Hey, if your a kid wants to game all the time with their buddies...what's the harm in that, but there will be a day when you need to unplug and actually get something done. Now some of these guys are smart in actually selling their fictional characters for real American money. Now how sweet is that?

Anyways, as with most things, moderation is the key. If you can't handle your responsibilities along with WOW, might I suggest http://www.olganonboard.org/?

For the record, I had to unplug......, to keep my marriage, job, and family.

 

[Pupik]

You can get addicted to just about anything. We could point fingers all day, and then we could sue the battery and electric power companies until kingdom come with no result.

Sometimes the need to fulfill a fantasy is a personality flaw that needs polishing, but some people get lost in the fantasy, and spend not enough time fixing the flaw.

 

[Danoff]

Sometimes the need to fulfill a fantasy is a personality flaw that needs polishing, but some people get lost in the fantasy, and spend not enough time fixing the flaw.

I say the inability or refusal to get lost in the fantasy is the real flaw. I'd prefer kids with an active imagination to sports nuts.

Think what you want but kids being stuck in front of a video game system all day is contributing to the gross obesity in this country.

I'd really like to see you back this up. The vast majority of the gamers I know are in good shape. Meanwhile many folks that I know who are seriously obese are not gamers at all. In my experience you're way off base. I'd love to see some sort of study that backs you up.