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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 5 of 5)
Jeff (Not that one ^ ) Nov 20th 2010 2:49PM
I played once when I was trapped in a training meeting. If the speaker had been little less boring I wouldn't have wanted to log in.
Frejan Nov 20th 2010 3:16PM
Simple: I don't commit to something I know I won't be able to go to.
If my guild said "Hey, we're raiding next week and we need you to come." and I wouldn't be available, I'd say "Nope, sorry, not going to be home those days." If I have enough notice that I won't be able to make it to something I've said I can go to I'll log on long enough to let people know so they can find a replacement, but if something comes up suddenly in real life and I can't make it, that's too bad.
And if my guild didn't understand such things and threw me out for not attending guild events as a result of real life things happening? Good. That's not a guidl I wanted to be in anyways.
yarf Nov 20th 2010 5:27PM
Most guilds have a website with a forum on it.
Many guilds have one or two people who can text or call or email someone else because they are irl friends, or shared that info.
Most cell phones have the ability to connect to the internet and use a web browser.
WoW HAS in-game mailing.
Just based on those four methods, there is no reason that you can't let your guild know you can't be on for a raid. If you have notice.
You're on your way home from work and get into a car accident. OKay, you probably can't get on to let them know, and calling some random person from WoW is not your top priority.
Child falls and gets injured and you're going to the hospital. WoW is not your top priority and you won't leave your child lying in a pool of blood to log on or to look up a phone number and call someone.
Real life friend calls up and says "We're going to go -insert activity-, want to go?" You say yes. You have no reason to NOT be able to log on and just pass on a simple message.
If you say you're going to be there, show up. If you decide to just get ready and go to that activity you have just said that you don't care that 9 or 24 other people are waiting on you and don't know what's up.
Sure, in an emergency situation, the same thing happens. The other 9 or 24 people don't know what's going on, wait a little bit before replacing you and just start late. When you get home, you can log on and then inform the GM, an officer, or a raid leader that "Sorry I couldn't make it, -insert emergency- happened."
Of course it could take a few days for you to do that. I was in a guild where the main tank was in a car accident and didn't log on for two weeks because he was in the hospital with a fractured spine and had to have several surgeries to fix it. When he didn't log on within 48 hours of missing two raids, we figured something happened. Our first notice on what had happened was actually a friend who logged onto the forums for him and told us what happened. We didn't actually have our main tank back for about two months while he recovered.
The point is, there is no reason you can't pass on the information. Even if it's an emergency, you can always have a friend or family member log on (if it's something like this where you'll be gone for an extended period and can't log on yourself.)
Even if it's during a raid, there's no reason to AFK without warning. If you're in vent, hit the push to talk "gotta go." The rest of the raid would be able to hear the urgency in your voice and know it's important.
Anyway... /rant
Rob Nov 20th 2010 7:03PM
I kinda wonder how many truckers or frequent travelers raid consistently, ie Tue/Wed/Thur or whatever. My friend is a trucker but he has bad access when on the road. I don't know if you can raid with 3G signal.
Rajinnu Nov 20th 2010 9:21PM
As much as I love WoW it doesn't control my real life at all. I have two kids who come first and if I am away for work or holidays - wow misses out.
The people I play with just have to accept that and they have always mostly done so. I tend to avoid 'hardcore' raiding these days as I just don't feel the need to raid 2, 3 or 4 sometimes even 5 times a week when I have other stuff to do. Its not that i don't want to raid but I am far to busy to commit to that kind of time.
I usually just PUG things now and pvp.
I think perhaps with less the need to 10 and 25 man in Cata I will be able to 'raid' once again and not have people expect me on as much.