Yesterday I detailed why I ended up getting sucked into WoW, but I guess I didn't really explain how detrimental it was. My typical daily routine involved staying up to 3-4 am playing WoW, sleeping until noon, going to whatever afternoon classes I had (morning classes had no chance), working from 5-9, and then playing WoW until I went to bed. Needless to say, I didn't do so well in school that semester; I ended up with two Ds and a C- ... the first time I'd ever gotten a grade below a B in my life. Additionally, I spent most of my time in my room with the door shut, refusing the offers from my friends to come hang out. It became a running joke that I still hear about to this day, 9 years later.
After that semester, I canceled my subscription. I went through the Spring semester feeling much more like myself and then ended up coming back to play during the summer, since my Dad and Brother had transferred servers to play with my Aunt/Uncle/Cousins. I proceeded to play for a long while in a much more responsible manner - I hung out with my friends, I went to classes, I studied, and I stayed in shape. Heck, I even managed to have a non-gaming girlfriend and play at the same time!
So the questions I have are:
1) In the past I've shown both the ability to completely lose myself in the virtual world and to play games in a (mostly) responsible manner. Will I be able to play responsibly this time around? I'm recently married and a new home owner so I certainly have less free time than I used to. Additionally, I've been really into working out lately and I'd like to continue that trend rather than replace it with gaming.
2) One of the reasons that WoW is so "addicting" is that there's almost always something else in the game you could be doing. Whether that is raiding, PvP (Arena or BG), harvesting resources for crafting, playing the AH, leveling an alt, doing daily quests, etc ... there's almost always something to do. Since I would have less time to dedicate to playing, my character's progression would suffer. Would I be happy just being a "casual" (often used in a condescending manner)? Would I be okay with not having the best gear and not being able to partake in all the PvE content? Would I be okay with not being able to compete with the top PvPers?
On the other hand, maybe knowing that the time I was putting into the game was going to eventually pay off would make the couple hours of play time I have during the week seem much more rewarding. I might get there slower than before, but I'd still progress every time I played.
3) The sense of community I felt when I played WoW was very strong. Obviously when I played with my family we had good times and I felt close to the people I was playing with on a regular basis. But even before that, before we transferred servers to be with them, I was "well known" on my server. I know, I know, it sounds like I'm just Anchorman-ing you, but people knew who I was (some random person PMed me after I posted on the server forums that I was quitting) and I had a good group of online friends that I played with. If I start playing again, I won't know anybody. MMOs can be a pretty lonely experience if you're stuck playing by yourself. That sounds awful.
Then again, I have had good experiences making friends in other games as well, so perhaps making new friends wouldn't be out of the question.
4) I am such a noob. I used to know things. Now? I haven't played in over 4 years. I've missed two expansions (third is coming up). There is so much I don't know about the game now. I've gone from being an "elitist" to a complete noob. It's seriously daunting. Intimidating, even. And yea, I know, those things come back pretty quickly, but still ... it makes me nervous just thinking about it!
5) The cost. As you may or may not be aware, not only do you have to buy the actual WoW game but it costs $15 a month to keep your account active. There are two ways to think about this in my mind:
The first is that $15 for the amount of time you'll be playing is actually a relatively cheap form of entertainment. Consider that movie tickets for my wife and me would cost ~$20 for a 2-3 hour show. Add in popcorn and a drink and you're talking $10-$15 per hour of entertainment. WoW, on the other hand, would be a much smaller figure - if I played just 10 hours a month, then you're looking at $1.50 per hour of entertainment. Totally reasonable, right?
On the other hand, there are a lot of quality games out there that don't have a monthly fee. In fact, of all the games I've played since WoW, only one had a monthly subscription fee. So it's certainly possible to find entertainment in games for much cheaper than WoW.
So those are the questions I've been kind of tossing around in my head. I guess it all just basically boils down to, can I play in a responsible manner and still have fun? I'd like to think yes, so I am leaning toward picking it back up.
I will not be posting over the weekends, so look for a post on a different topic on Monday!
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