The Game Dame

Ya think?? HAHAHAHAhahahaha… woooo… boy, I crack myself up.

Still, below is a quote from the Battle.net email that Blizzard sent out, and here’s the blog post I wrote after Wrath came out. Your assignment: compare and contrast.

Our goal is to create the premier online gaming destination for Blizzard gamers, with new community and communication features like cross-realm World of Warcraft chat, real-life friends lists, cross-game communication, and much more.

You decide.

Notes for a next generation MMO

A little part of me has died today. Our guild master told us that he was taking several months off from the game, with an eye toward quitting altogether. Last week, another key guildie, also from For The Horde, announced his intention to take a financial vacation from the game. As I mentioned in my last post, the game is also getting old for me. My main point was that Blizzard has failed to bank on and expand what makes the game most addictive and fun: its social aspects. 

I’ve looked at other MMOs, and have been pretty bored by what they offer. All of them seem to be copying WoW. None of them is really thinking outside of the software box. The only differences among them are graphics style/quality, content (storyline), and play style (PvE, PvP, strategy, sims). Even the genres are limited to Sci-Fi and Fantasy. Nothing new. All you have to do is paste those labels onto some dice, roll them, and *POOF!* you’ve got a new MMO! Of course, by “new” I really mean “same old, same old.” How can these MMOs compete with Blizzard if they are only imitations?

Way back in the dark ages, I interviewed with Blizzard for Subscription Marketing Manager. It was essentially a customer loyalty job: how do we keep current subscribers and bring back former ones? I was (and still am) uniquely qualified for that job, but they passed on hiring me. I gave them a list of things both in my interview and follow-up emails which I thought they should use for customer retention. If they’d only have listened to me…

Here are just a few of the things that Blizzard could’ve spent time and money on to improve the game, rather than just crank out new dungeons  which are merely mish-mashes of old dungeons:

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Date of goodbye post: March 30, 2009.

Date of “official” last post: April 8, 2009.

Now, look at BRK’s Achievements listed in the armory. The date of his most recent achievement is April 18, 2009. Also note that Argent Aspiration and Dual Talent Specialization could only be accomplished after the release of 3.1 which came out on April 14, 2009.

I say all this not to be critical; BRK’s life is his own and he owes us nothing by way of explanation. (One obvious explanation is that he gave his account to someone else, like one of his kids or a friend.) However, if it really is BRK himself, I bring it up to ask this question:

How addictive really is WoW?

It’s one thing to become bored with the game or to discover a new hobby to replace it (another game, a different activity, etc.). In those cases, I think addiction to the specific game of WoW is not very difficult to overcome. There are plenty of cases of people transferring their addictions (e.g., smokers or drinkers become overeaters).

However, it’s a completely different ballgame to quit something addictive when you have nothing to replace it. Now, I’m not saying that BRK or anyone else who quits WoW to spend time with their families doesn’t really love their families. Of course they do. And 99.99999% of the time, they love their families WAY more than they love WoW or even their WoW friends. But desire is not enough to overcome addiction, is it? It’s like saying in a marriage “all you need is love” when we know that’s a huge oversimplification and marriage really takes a lot of work and effort on top of the love. Plenty of people desire to quit smoking, narcotics, and alcohol, but cannot do it by willpower alone. Sometimes they can never do it at all, even with help. 

So my big questions are:

1. 1. Is WoW an addiction like the ones used in examples above? 
2. 2. Is gaming itself an addiction? 
3. 3. If no, then why is it so hard to quit, no matter what’s at stake (e.g., your marriage, your job)? 
4. 4. If yes, then how do we address this as gamers (whether we are at risk or our friends are) and as a community of concerned humans?

Click to enlarge.

I blame BRK. Thank you!!

http://flickr.com/photos/cayusa/

Hm. So the biggest jerk who writes the most trollish comments on WoW Insider also has a website to promote.

Coincidence? I don’t think so.

Busted.

It’s a time-honored tradition in America: the bigger the ass, the more people want to look down its crack. I’m laughing at myself that I didn’t realize this before. Just another in the long line of people who sacrifice their dignity and compassion for fame and money. What a tool.

I hate my new Wordpress theme. I need to change it back. Look for that tomorrow.

Update: I changed it. Still not 100% happy but at least not angry. I don’t think I’ll like any themes until I’m able to get my own self-hosted Wordpress.

Following the leads of Kestrel, Two-and-a-half Orcs, and JustOneAnna, here is my progress on the National Education Association’s list of Top 100 books. (Why can’t I find a link for this list??) As has been the case with the meme, I’ve bolded things I’ve read. However, my list offers a twist. Green underlining means it’s an all-time favorite; red means that I hated it. I put asterisks in front of my top, top favorite books on this list.

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Someone might possibly be punking me. I can’t prove it (yet) but I’m beginning to suspect that something’s not on the level with one of the 128 blogs I read. Let’s just say that a dramatic marriage was announced and, despite my having a relative in the office of the county in question, no marriage license exists. My conclusion can only be one of the following: (1) the names or the city of the married people mentioned were incorrect or changed for privacy purposes, (2) the writer himself has been fooled by the people he’s writing about, or (3) the entire blog story line has been faked.

How can you tell if you’re being hoodwinked? Here are some things that make me suspicious of a person’s self-narrative. The more of these that are present, the more suspicious I get.

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