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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsBreakfast Topic: WoW on the go
by Josh Rose 
Nov 20th 2010 at 8:00AM
All of us have a life outside of Azeroth. People always say how much more important real life is than the game. However, if we say we are going to be somewhere in the game, shouldn't we take that commitment as seriously as one in the real world? If we tell our guild or friends we will be there for a raid or to PvP, shouldn't we do our best to not let them down? Isn't telling your WoW friends that you will be somewhere and simply not showing up without any notice just as bad as if it were your real-life friends?
Since I am a tank for my guild, I pretty much have to be at almost every raid. In order to make raids when not at home, I have raided on laptops and at other people's houses, just so I don't let people down. By not always playing on my home PC, I have learned to be a minimalist with mods as well as learning what the minimum settings I can still effectively tank with. This has allowed me to maintain most of my real-life and in-game commitments.
Have you ever had to play WoW outside of your own home to fulfill your social obligations? Do you have a gaming laptop for this purpose? Have you played at a friend or relative's house on their PC? Do you have different UIs or mod setups for your PC and laptop?
Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Guest Posts
Reader Comments (Page 4 of 5)
Saz Nov 20th 2010 9:33AM
I am one of those types who will do anything and everything to make a WoW commitment happen. I've gone over to my mom's house to raid when the internet at home was down, sat in a freezing car in the middle of winter to borrow internet from the local university that I was attending to make a guild meeting, and I've been using a incredibly horrible laptop to run around Azeroth in order to keep in touch with my WoW friends.
When it comes to commitments on WoW, they are just like real life commitments, but translated into a digital media. You may think "It's just a game. The guild can find a replacement healer for tonight" but what's really happening when you no show is that those other 9/24 people that were in that raid are now sitting around, wasting time trying to find your replacement. More often than not I think folks forget that while WoW may not be real, it's still a time commitment on everyone's part. Time is a real thing, no matter which world you may be involved in at the moment. There's real people on the other side of that avatar, along with real feelings and real effort.
Jejin Nov 20th 2010 9:33AM
Asus gaming laptop=win.
Calaana Nov 20th 2010 9:49AM
WoW is actually really portable. As well as the patches, you can copy the interface folder, and the wtf folders. Just make sure you deleted config.wtf and launcher.wtf in the wtf folder, and wow will remake them for the next computer.
As for plans, I don't go anywhere, but the rare events where I do, it's non-wow time, excepting tri-hourly checks of mmo-champ when I can for upcoming expansion info, obviously.
Mike Nov 20th 2010 10:12AM
I keep my interface and WTF folders synced to my dropbox so I can grab them any time I may need/want to play away from my primary computer at home.
Brock Nov 20th 2010 10:14AM
I Agree to a extent, I wouldn't take my laptop to my Friends house if i wore going over, but if i am going to a mates house ( adult way of saying Bestfriend) then yeah i would or family, but i am the same i am the main tank in my guild, but also i am lucky because we are 200+ strong and run 5 ICC at the same time 10man, but there is always spares that log in we just have to give 2 hours notice, But i do disagree taking your laptop to a friends house, i would be a little like wtf if my friend turned to me and say, "ohh wow brock its 7:00pm I need to log on my laptop and Raid, i'll be 1 hour or so, I be like umm yeah thanks, i'll just..." I just think thats kinda, rude,
But love the site :) good job,
and Was there a Wowinsider talk this week, My itunes hasn't told me, so i was just thinking did you guys do one this week?
Brock
El Cabong Nov 20th 2010 10:19AM
A few years ago, I made the decision to completely move from a desktop to a laptop. It was a great decision. I could never go back. I got a nice Asus machine, for relatively cheap, that plays WoW at max settings, 1920x1080. I also have a MiFi from Verizon, so I'm able to play WoW anywhere I please. Honestly, that sort of portability is the only way to go.
level1paladin Nov 20th 2010 10:26AM
I have a gaming laptop and a virgin mobile broadband stick to play on the road. I'm not usually on the road anymore, but it sure is handy to have when you're out and about.
neminem Nov 20th 2010 10:45AM
I generally try to make sure that when I'm home for the holidays or somesuch, I'm not signed up for raiding, cause stuff could always come up. I do, however, have a gaming laptop as my primary computer, and it is *awesome*.
I think your guild needs another tank or two, though. :p
Bahamut Nov 20th 2010 10:48AM
My RL friends are WoW players, also. So I play with them in their houses. I sometimes bring my PC (but I will buy a laptop ASAP) or a little USB pen with my Addon and WTF folder inside.
Beside that, I consider my RL friend equal to my WoW friends, and I have rights and duties with both of them. If my RL friends invite me to watch a movie, I'll go and don't raid. If I sign up for the raid and later a RL friend call me to hang out, I simply say that I can't go with him because tonight I'll raid. Is just a matter of respect for the others, and for the duties I have taken.
Obviously, WoW is still a game, so if a very important RL thing or a family matter comes up, /logout.
llaw_grimm Nov 20th 2010 11:10AM
I often dont use my laptop anymore, but its very minimalist, seeing its a few years old, and seeing the recent graphics upgrades to the game. The parasite *as is it's name* has brought me azeroth from every corner of my family world. hell, It even has brought my bored stepdad WoW one christmas afternoon, leaving him in DunMorgh with my level capped blood DK.
Now Azeroth comes to me live from the Host - A Few month old Compy that is a Titan amongst Olympians in my family unit. It runs wow on full settings, with a fair load of addons *15mb ish load?* with minimal difficulty, only hinderance is the rural setting I live in restricts me to wireless internet, so latency can be a bit of a bitch....
Salubrious Nov 20th 2010 11:25AM
I was played on a train in Sweden.... I was backpacking through Europe and happened to find out the 6 hour train ride had wifi, so I figured why not?
Chetti Nov 20th 2010 11:26AM
I don't have wow commitments, so really it doesn't matter.. its more of play or not play. I do carry my laptop when I'm going to spend the weekend visiting a friend. Of course, this friend plays wow, so chance are she's booting up her laptop while I'm booting up mine. Now, if I'm spending the night or the weekend at my boyfriend's house, I might bring my laptop with me, but I might not use it to play wow. He used to play, but hasn't in a while. If I do anything on it, it might be facebook or checking wow insider. But, if I'm just going to visit family for a few hours or whatever, I won't pack up the lappy. To me, there's no point, I'll be home later and can play if I want.
As for the actual topic, I think there are always shades of grey. The people in the guild are real people, with lives and commitments of their own. I don't think its asking too much for the members to mention when they know they can't raid, or like someone else had said, if there is a forum or something, post there if something comes up. Of course there are emergencies that will make both impossible, I mean if someone is being rushed to the hospital, there is no way a player would say yeah go ahead, lemmie post to my guild forum and i'll be right behind ya.. thats just not possible.
Harvoc Nov 20th 2010 11:40AM
I don't raid because of time constraints (I can only play about 2 hours a day and never during my server's raid times) so this isn't a problem. Thus, I haven't ever played WoW on someone else's laptop.
Russell Nov 20th 2010 12:03PM
These days I mostly just play with my uncle once a week for a couple hours or so. I actually really like playing on my mom's big iMac when I'm visiting her because the graphics are so much nicer than on my (2007) MacBook. So even though I could play on my laptop at her house I usually choose to play on her computer.
Rufin Nov 20th 2010 12:02PM
ZOMG ITS LIKE MY BUDDY NOSOR!! cept he really is a trucker who plays WoW xD
Astalnar Nov 20th 2010 1:00PM
If you sign up for raid, you come to that raid. But if you are going on vacations you notice officer/guild master/one who needs to know and forget everything that has any conection with job/school/wow. That is the purpose of vacations, to get rest and energy for all those comitments. What you wrote up there seems as if WoW is your second job (wich in this case you are actualy paying for and not that you are payed for it).
One question: So when you visit your friends and its raid time you just say: "sorry got raid, I will be busy for next 3 hours, just ignore me please." ?
If that is so, it is realy sad.
Dale Nov 20th 2010 1:11PM
I do telephone support and when it's slow I log in to do a daily or 2 from work. I have a dell xps m1730 that I use with an ATT aircard. When I used to work nights and it was a raid night I would main tank icc25s from this. Fries of Lightbringer us
Dale Nov 20th 2010 1:14PM
My addons mirror my main system at home. I use the Tukui stock interface with a couple of additional addons.
Cav Nov 20th 2010 1:14PM
I travel for work and I carry a gaming laptop, I was out of town and my appendix ruptured, I was rushed to the hospital in an ambulance. I had an emergency appendectomy and my appendix was removed, I checked myself out of the hospital later that evening, took a cab back to my hotel and was able to get online so I could MT and lead the raid.
In hindsight, not my brightest idea.
Roxstar01 Nov 20th 2010 1:55PM
The newer gen laptops are becoming smaller and smaller...my sister just got one maybe 1/4 screen size of what I bought at full price a year ago. Although its convenient, we will see a drop in laptop gaming simply because that industry is catering to people who want them smaller, not gamers who want performance parts and bigger screens. Laptop gamings days are numbered.