Relationships & The World of Warcraft...A Cautionary Tale
There's a reason I haven't played the biggest MMORPG in the WORLD...OF WARCRAFT(okay, that joke was lame even by my standards, sorry about that). The reason is quite simple and I'll explain using two anecdotes - both of these are true stories. The first was told to me by a rather nice chap called Matt who was on the Tomy UK/World of Warcraft stall at Kapow. He told Georgie and I never to join Charlie on the darkside because it cost him a relationship...
You see, Matt had a girlfriend who disapproved of the amount of time he spent on WOW, the raids in the middle of the night were just too much for her to take! I could make a rude joke here, but now you're all thinking it, I don't even need to. So, Matt's girlfriend was pissed at him and in order to appease her, he suggested that she gave the 30 day trial a go, if she liked it, he'd even buy her a copy. Fair enough, right?
It turns out that she LOVED it. She played and played and got to level 80 within a week (at the time this was the highest level). This was great, except, she had joined a guild and after a few weeks decided that she just didn't have enough time for WOW, the raids and her guild. She could quit WOW for a while, or miss out on a few raids here and there. However, she didn't want to, she was a team player and didn't want to let her guild down...she couldn't juggle playing WOW and having a boyfriend so she did the logical thing and let one go and she decided that it just wasn't working out with Matt. He was taking up valuable raiding time. Ouch.
It's not all failed relationships though...my sister's boyfriend came up with an ingenious plan early on in their relationship. She would whine about how much time he spent with his guild and accused him of not spending enough time with her. He's a pragmatic guy and so in order to ensure every minute of his time was allocated accordingly he devised a spreadsheet. On it, were the dates and times he would be raiding and unable to see my sister. Fortunately, my sister understands the value of gaming and the amount of time that was left for him to dedicate to my sister was obviously enough as they've been together for 3 years. Now, that's what I call love.
Two ends of the spectrum...the scary thing is, I'd be at the bad end. I have quite an addictive personality and know that I would want to play WOW every hour of every day...it wouldn't just ruin my relationship, it'd ruin my job, my sleep pattern and my ability to function as a human being. Maybe one day, when I'm stronger. Until then, I'll just continue watching The Guild for my fix and continue wishing I could get in on those WOW-only in jokes...
You see, Matt had a girlfriend who disapproved of the amount of time he spent on WOW, the raids in the middle of the night were just too much for her to take! I could make a rude joke here, but now you're all thinking it, I don't even need to. So, Matt's girlfriend was pissed at him and in order to appease her, he suggested that she gave the 30 day trial a go, if she liked it, he'd even buy her a copy. Fair enough, right?
It turns out that she LOVED it. She played and played and got to level 80 within a week (at the time this was the highest level). This was great, except, she had joined a guild and after a few weeks decided that she just didn't have enough time for WOW, the raids and her guild. She could quit WOW for a while, or miss out on a few raids here and there. However, she didn't want to, she was a team player and didn't want to let her guild down...she couldn't juggle playing WOW and having a boyfriend so she did the logical thing and let one go and she decided that it just wasn't working out with Matt. He was taking up valuable raiding time. Ouch.
It's not all failed relationships though...my sister's boyfriend came up with an ingenious plan early on in their relationship. She would whine about how much time he spent with his guild and accused him of not spending enough time with her. He's a pragmatic guy and so in order to ensure every minute of his time was allocated accordingly he devised a spreadsheet. On it, were the dates and times he would be raiding and unable to see my sister. Fortunately, my sister understands the value of gaming and the amount of time that was left for him to dedicate to my sister was obviously enough as they've been together for 3 years. Now, that's what I call love.
Two ends of the spectrum...the scary thing is, I'd be at the bad end. I have quite an addictive personality and know that I would want to play WOW every hour of every day...it wouldn't just ruin my relationship, it'd ruin my job, my sleep pattern and my ability to function as a human being. Maybe one day, when I'm stronger. Until then, I'll just continue watching The Guild for my fix and continue wishing I could get in on those WOW-only in jokes...
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