Breakfast Topic: When your gaming gets emotionally charged
by Cynthia Castellon 
Jun 4th 2010 at 8:00AM
It was going to be a regular Tuesday night for me: Get home from work, have dinner, lounge around on the couch with my hubby before bed. I didn't even really want to log into WoW that night, but I logged in just out of habit. Once there I thought, "Ah, I'll just queue a random and get my two frosts; hopefully it's a quick run." And then, almost half-heartedly, just because I had to find something to do during the 20-minute DPS wait, I hopped on a flight path to my favorite fishing ground, the lake next to Camp Winterhoof.
Exactly four casts later, I'm whooping at the top of my lungs like I had just won a million dollars. I hadn't just won a million dollars -- I just happened to fish up the Dark Herring, an achievement that had been evading me for the better part of a year. I look over at my spouse, eager to share the fantastic news. I can't blame him, the poor guy is looking at me like I just lost my mind. ... At which point I more or less simmered down, got a grip and proceeded to my dungeon. I was still ecstatic, mind you. Days later, I was still ecstatic. I would be sitting on the couch with my hubby, calmly watching TV, and all of a sudden I'd burst out giggling, "Can you believe I caught that fish? I can't believe I caught that fish! Heehee."
If that's not having an emotional stake in this game, I don't know what is.
Another example: I had only been playing WoW for a few weeks, after my spouse finally got me to try out the game. I was only level 20 or so, questing in Ashenvale, when I got a random group invite -- my first ever. I figure, "Why not? He wants help on the same quest I'm doing; it can only go faster." Being new to the game, I hadn't quite grasped the concept of rez sickness ... Two minutes and five mobs later, my new-found friend and I were both dead. Two seconds after that, my new-found friend dropped group without saying anything (probably for the best, given the choice words he could have had for me if he'd wanted). I was devastated. I felt like I had let this person down. I started bawling -- tears, sobs, the whole bit. I turned to my hubby for comfort and he immediately burst out laughing. (OK, right now I'm laughing, too, but at the time it was very distressing.)
My point is, I often find myself emotionally invested in this game. And while my husband can laugh and raise eyebrows and roll his eyes, he's felt it too; he rerolled on a PvE server two weeks after Wrath of the Lich King came out because leveling in a PvP environment was stressing him out too much.
How about it, fellow gamers? When has this game had you jumping for joy, crying in sadness, seething with anger or wringing your hands in desperation?
Have you ever wanted to write for WoW.com? Your chance may be right around the corner. Watch for our next call for submissions for articles via Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW.com. The next byline you see here may be yours!Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Guest Posts
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 8)
david_maurice Jun 4th 2010 8:07AM
That's nice of him to laugh at you, hopefully he slept on the couch that day!
donatilh Jun 4th 2010 8:10AM
Oh absolutely! I tamed Loque'nahak within the first few days of him being in game. To this day, right now as I type, I'm grinning ear-to-ear, my heart is pounding and my hands are shaking.
vertigobliss86 Jun 4th 2010 8:12AM
I used to get super stressed and angry when one little mistake would cost me my life in the 3 hour AVs. I got over it after hurting myself punching the wall enough times. Now I don't care and been happier since. Used to get stressed out about loot too, but it'll drop again (and joining the raid scene later means you get all the stuff in fewer runs as everyone else has it!).
My heart will still race a bit with a good random pvp encounter. That's what makes it exciting! Especially when you take out two or three of them =P
siikalord Jun 4th 2010 8:15AM
I had the same feeling when I managed to fish up Blacktip Shark. You can bet that my falimy was a bit confused when I ran trough livingroom yelling something about sharks and heriloom rings.
Twilit Soul Jun 4th 2010 4:38PM
I had my heart pounding a little bit when I tried the contest for the first time...I caught the shark, rushed back to Dalaran and seconds before I could reach the turn-in, someone else won. I was disappointed lol.
Joakim Jun 4th 2010 8:15AM
When has this game had you jumping for joy - when I finally reached my own personal goal with my first 80, a paladin who earned the fitting title Cruader :)
crying in sadness - every time I see a Death Knight and a cow in Elwynn Forrest. Leave them cows alone!
seething with anger - when people in a PuG is more interested of the MSN chat they also got going while ranting about how lousy this PuG is ... and when the tank drops threat due to mentioned MSN chatting and cause a wipe ... and when we've all rezzed I get kicked for being "intolerant" upon mentioning that either they chat or the play the game. Oh well.
wringing your hands in desperation - PuG:s, more PuG:s, even more PuG:s. Oh, and PuG:s.
Thats why I'm leveling another paladin - the only viable one man army.
Talaamu@Spirestone Jun 4th 2010 11:33AM
Join a Guild?
Paciphae Jun 4th 2010 12:05PM
Hunters make pretty good "one man armies" too; and warlocks aren't bad either. ;)
Gamer am I Jun 4th 2010 8:17AM
I was ecstatic for days after I finally earned my Violet Proto-Drake. I didn't understand the people who fly around Krasus' Landing Landing in Dalaran with the rare mounts until that day, when I did the same thing. I probably would have felt similarly after I bought Artisan riding if I hadn't immediately started going for my nether drake afterwards; it left no time for the satisfaction to sink in.
The one time the game made me angry was when I went into Ironforge on my old piece-of-crap computer. My frame-rate fell down to about one frame every thirty second to a minute (no lie), and I fell in that mote-like thing by the entrance five times because of the lag. I was honestly screaming, wondering aloud why they put that mote there, what possible purpose it could serve. I just had to walk away before my hand went through the computer screen.
Trilynne Jun 4th 2010 8:24AM
My most frustrating moment was definitely after our guild downed Azgalor in the Hyjal raid in BC. I was the pally tank. I was the new official pally tank of the guild because I had proven through raw ability that I was better at pally tanking than their previous one. I was one of the most crucial people in our success in that raid; they had literally been beating their heads against the wall until I started tanking for them. We used loot council for drops, and I was first in line for the tier 6 gloves. I was the doom-guard tank. Everything was going perfectly. The boss went down. The pally-etc. tier 6 token dropped. My guild leader announced over vent that I was getting it... and then he couldn't loot it to me. I had not touched the boss during the fight. I had ONLY touched the doom-guards. So I wasn't counted as being on the loot table.
I was really mad, but there was nothing anyone could do. I did eventually get them, but it would have been much cooler if it had been on the first downing.
Djinn Jun 4th 2010 4:27PM
Forgive me for this reply but I can't help myself. You say you were a better pally tank than the previous one. Does your face have some unique shape that rolling across the keyboard just made work better? I have tanked with about every thing in the game and Pally tanking is zzzzzzzz oh crap i fell asleep thinking about it. Again I do apologize for this but I couldn't help it.. Im a smart@#$ its just my nature.
Trilynne Jun 4th 2010 4:58PM
No, that's fine, I understand your astonishment. :P I don't know how to put this nicely... The other tank was truly terrible. So when I saw I had 'raw ability' I mean just that, I had it, he didn't; all he had going for him was senority, and a rather tight-knit, friends-and-family based raiding guild. I, to this day, do NOT know why this guy couldn't get the hang of pally tanking, which, as you said, can be a bit of a face-roll. :P My gleader at the time, who had a warlock main, even tried it himself to see what the problem was, and he picked it up just fine. *shrug* Some people are incompetent, I guess.
jealouspirate Jun 4th 2010 8:25AM
I'm going to admit something here: my first character to ever reach the level cap was my DK.
I had been playing extremely casually since 2007, but was really excited about Wrath. Got my character to 55 the day before Wrath launched, and rolled a Horde DK on day 1. I had so much fun leveling through Outland (for the first time), and then through Northrend. It was so epic, and I was so happy. Some of my best days of playing WoW.
Then... I hit the level cap. Later than everyone else, of course. I was invited to a heroic. I had absolutely NO IDEA what to do. I had never been in a 5-man before. Somehow, I got roped into tanking. I was nervous, confused and excited. Needless to say, we wiped horribly on the first pull.
Then my WoW-world came crashing down. My party members launched into me with anger, hate and insults like I'd never seen before. I was angry, confused... devastated. I had been having so much fun playing WoW, and they tore it all down in seconds. I didn't log on for weeks, and I almost stopped playing completely.
When I came back weeks later, I started completely fresh. New character, new class, new server, new faction. To this day I have not played my DK, since that first dungeon over a year ago.
Aggrajag Jun 4th 2010 8:41AM
This story saddens me so much. There's such anger and hatred in this game and there's really no need for it. I would guess that, before the LFD tool arrived, a seriously high percentage of new level 80s would have no real idea how to work in a group role.
My hunter, druid and rogue were all exactly the same and even to this day I would still have no clue how to group with my rogue.
I hope you've discovered that not all players are like your first, unfortunate, group encounter.
quasarsglow Jun 4th 2010 9:03AM
A week or so ago, I got into Occulus on a random dungeon group and was blasted for never having been in there AND not being level 80. Swore at, told to leave, etc. I said, it's a random dungeon, either tell me what to do or /leave yourself and get the debuff because clearly the game says im geared *enough* for it.
Three of the other four left and the only person who stayed said it was pretty pointless for me to stay anyway, and when the next group of randoms showed up 2 more first timers came in and the healer/leader who had stayed said. Okay get on dragons and go and then stayed put where she was.
I ended up leaving in frustration and being incredibly upset. I still haven't cued for a random or completed any more quests on my main. She's so close to 80 and I just cant bring myself to put big-girl pants back on. If I hadn't already faction changed and server transferred on her once, I would leave the battlegroup entirely.
alyxx Jun 4th 2010 9:24AM
My guild has two folks who tank who refuse to queue for the Dungeon Finder because of similar thoughtless and petty behavior. Is it any wonder we have a shortage of tanks?
Killik Jun 4th 2010 9:41AM
Unfortunately, tanking for Pugs means you often grab real-life aggro.
JoeRandom Jun 4th 2010 9:44AM
What a sad story, thank you for sharing that experience jealouspirate. Stories like yours are vivid examples why these r0XX0r kids with their flames and hatespeech-just-for-fun are really bad. This internet-tough-guy talk is getting worse and worse, sometimes it seems there are just not enough ignore slots on your character. The good news is, there are easy ways to deal with these people:
1) Ignore them. Your Ignore List is a more powerful tool than you might think. When ignoring people, even from other servers, apart from not hearing their brainless flames *you will not see them ever again in a random LFG*. While it might seem you are missing out on something when ignoring people, really, you are not. People with ITGS (Internet Tough Guy Syndrome) usually have no friends.
2) Votekick them. In many groups, the very vocal ITGS person is not only being disliked by you, he's disliked by pretty much everyone else. If there are single, lone cases of ITGS in your group, a votekick can restore sane conversation without causing much trouble. Sometimes though, ITGS is like a mass phenomenon, and people gangbang on a single sane victim. In that case, leaving might be more appealing.
3) Report them. Sometimes, ITGS people cross even their line. Over the course of some years of wow I've seen my share of things in the chat: death threats, racist slurs, ugly sexism. Things like that are being taken *very* seriously by Blizzard Support. Write a petition with their name, server and the time, and they will find themselves with a forced wow pause within little time.
4) Drive them to a frenzy: stay friendly! This, I have to admit, is one of the harder things to do when facing a severe case of ITGS. When expletives are rolling through the chat, everyone is getting tense. Simply try to stay friendly. Even overdo it a little, enrich your language with diminutives, and refer to the ITGS folks as "happybunny" or "my friend". Really, while this is, of course, sarcastic - nothing can compete with its effectiveness in shutting an ITGS person up.
Finally, don't assume people are generally rough on new players / folks without to much experience. If you are a new tank (and I've been down that lane), simply state that at the beginning of the group. Many sane folks will play much more considerate, even help you out with some helpful tricks. ITGS isn't everywhere, even in the new LFG times.
JustPlainJim Jun 4th 2010 9:53AM
Ya know, I really don't understand some people sometimes. I have to say that your experience is not the only time I've seen this happen.
I used to be a very casual prot warrior and played WoW about the same way I played any other game. I looked up stuff when I got stuck and otherwise just went with what felt right. Play by instinct and have fun. I didn't get into dungeons until I was in the upper 70's, and then only because my friends were doing it. Being a prot warrior, they expected me to tank. It didn't go so well. Thankfully, my friends showed infinite amounts of patience and helped me learn.
The raiding guild I joined with them, however, haven't been so kind. They expect me to just know how it's all supposed to work and rip me apart when I don't.
So, in short, I feel for you.
Chetti Jun 4th 2010 10:05AM
I feel your pain as a fellow DK that refuses to queue for another random. My only 80 is my first toon ever, a night elf druid (balance/resto duel) that I leveled pretty much solo with very few dungeon runs when friends were available (pre-dungeon finder). Now I run the lowbie dungeons doing rep quests, but thats aside from the point. I've tried dungeon finder, but after 2 failed attempts at healing because I was the one dying, I refuse to try again there too unless I manage to find myself better gear.. because I'm told gear score matters. Whatev.
I rolled a tauren druid (resto) with a friend of mine and she queued us in the dungeon finder almost every time we met to play. We'd quest as we waited for groups. I thought this was great. Getting through the dungeons was fun, quests got done, I thought it would be nice to try it on my other toons. So, I started playing my abandoned blood elf mage till she reached the level to queue for dungeons. I met some great people, groups are hit or miss, but generally not bad. Its fun, I still queue on that toon when I play.
So, I decide to attempt a dungeon with my DK. She is level 70, but I think at the time was about 68-69. I queued as damage because I didn't want the responsibility of being a tank with my overall general inexperience with dungeons. I know that Dks are usually tanks, especially blood DKs, but I didn't want to drag a group down by not knowing what to do. So I wait (what seems like forever) in queue and finally get into a group. I say hello, they say hello and I thought all would be fine. We go along killing a couple mobs, no one died, no aggro was taken, it all seemed just fine. Out of no where the group leader says 'can you please leave'. I wasn't addressed by name, but I knew she meant me. I didn't ask why, and I guess I didn't leave or respond fast enough when she addressed me by name and in a second line added 'no one wants you here'. Now, none of the other members had said a word (doesn't mean they weren't whispering or talking on vent or something). Not wanting to cause issue, I just said sure. As I was teleporting out, I saw that someone in the group had offered to pay me 10 gold to leave. I had clicked the name before the teleport took me out to say no one had to pay me, but being on a different realm once I was out of the party I couldn't say anything to them. I was so mad. I didn't understand what made her ask me to leave because there were no problems through at least 3 mobs. I was doing my part, but not taking aggro from the tank or causing problems for the healer. Bloods have enough self heal that I can't see how that would be an issue. I could see if I was hurting the group, but again, Whatev. I still play my DK, but I won't queue again.
With your new character, try it out from the lowest level it lets you in, I think 15 or so. There really are some good groups and helpful people that will give you tips. I know its discouraging when you're new and rather than experienced players being helpful they get mad because you dare to be new and not an expert. But there are some nice ones out there. I try to be helpful to lower levels I see around if they're in trouble. Don't give up! :)