Slashdot is pointing to this blog post, written by a guy who just quit WoW, about how it completely ruined his life. According to him, WoW and the time "required" for even casual raiding were responsible for him gaining weight, losing his girlfriend and friends, wrecking his health, and generally causing him untold anguish and pain. On top of that, after he's quit, he even complains that his guild-- gasp-- moved on without him.

Listen to me, right now: if this game is ruining your life, stop playing. If your girlfriend is telling you to choose between her and WoW, choose her, you idiot. If you're about to lose your job because you play this game too much, stop playing this game. It's a game. It's not responsible for any of the stuff that happened to this blogger-- he is.

We've heard the arguments he makes before-- blah blah blah, the game is addictive, it becomes an obsession, Blizzard is rewarding farming and time investment instead of skill. And all those things are true, to a degree. But coffee is addictive, too, and so is smoking, and so is alcohol. Is it beer's fault that college students do stupid things on the weekend? Of course not-- it's the students' fault for drinking too much beer. And if this guy is overweight, girlfriendless, and a loser, it's his fault, not the game. WoW is just that-- a game. Shame on him for forgetting that when most of the seven million other players don't seem to have a problem with it.

And the worst part... is after the jump.

And the worst part of the article is the sheer arrogance and snobbery that comes along with it. The piece itself is called "A View from the Top" (as if he's trying to brag how awesome he was ingame before he realized he was clearly playing too much). He brags about writing "actual mathematical proofs that allowed for fair and effective (yes, both) raid distribution according to efficiency, speed, and guild class population" when even his own guildies told him not to do it. And at times, you just feel like he's got to be making things up-- children "forced to play and grind for their parents"? What idiot parents would ever do that? Shouldn't he have given DCFS a call? And after having the nerve to "help" guildies who didn't want it, he's distraught that they left him behind without even a wave goodbye-- as if the whole guild should stop raiding because he quit the game.

Finally, he's so smug about quitting, as if it's a mark of honor that he was able to "fix" his life and get away from WoW. If you want to quit the game, fine. If you choose to stop playing because you can't handle dividing your work and play, great, more power to you. But don't take it as a point of pride that you were able to step away from the game-- you lost that when you chose to play the game too much in the first place. Even after you've quit, it's not the game's fault that you couldn't make good choices about what to do with your time. You're not better than the people still playing because you were able to "escape the terrible WoW monster." If anything, they're more stable than you are, because they were able to play the game without problems, and you couldn't.

If you play the game too much, it's your problem-- not your guildies for "forcing" you to play, not Blizzard for making an addictive game, and not the other players for pushing you to raid for epix. You made the mistake-- not to play the game (that's not a mistake at all), but to play too much. Accept a little responsibility for it.

Update: The blogger has replied here (the author of the blog, Soul Kerfuffle, wrote that post and the original guest blogger writes the first comment). He draws back a little bit, but still says that it is impossible to be a high-end raider and have a normal life. I absolutely disagree. The fact that he didn't have a normal life while trying to be a high-end raider is his own fault, not a fault of the game.

He also makes a point of saying it was the people he played with, not the game, that pushed him so hard. I can see that happening, but it's not like there aren't enough high end guilds here-- if you're playing with jerks, leave them. If they're asking you (and in his original post, it didn't sound like this was the case) to do things you aren't comfortable with (change your spec, leave your girlfriend, quit your job), then get a new guild. If you stick with those people, again, that's your fault.

Finally, I wanted to point out that he hints (says he "play[ed] the market"-- not sure if that means AH or something else) that maybe he was involved in gold buying and selling as well. That is a whole other issue, and my opinion on that can be found here. If this guy was also a gold buyer, then I have other issues with him. Anyone who buys gold because they "have to keep up" isn't just a cheater, they're a bad player.

Tags: addiction, blogger, slashdot, wow

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Fan stuff, News items, PvP