Forums | MacLife

Guild arguments happen.  You're going to get some of that in every guild.  After all many players are fat, antisocial 13 year olds from South Park that won't go outside to play.   But seriously, just try and stay above it all and ignore most of it.

fastman wrote:

Anyway, this makes me wonder: are MMORPGs like WoW really, truly escapist pursuits or, given the human element, are they simply an extension of real life with many of the problems we face in real life showing through in the game?

Discuss.

I'll bite.

MMO's are not just escapist pursuits, but they are also a simplified extentions of real life as well. Everyone wants to be a hero, to be powerful, to succeed, these are basic human qualities and taking time out of your real life to create a character that allows you to feel these things with greater ease, and less risk than in real life. Feeling success, to climb the social ladder or pecking order that you may or may not be able to climb in real life, but you can climb through a more simplified medium such as the game is appealing. This game's mechanics are simple, its principles are not hard: you group up with X amount of other players, you kill Y Boss, different times to get Z loot. The extensions of real life are there because your key to success in this game, as well as your enjoyment in the game, come out of your interactions with the other people that you meet.

This is both good and bad, because if your relationship with your guild or group of in game aquantainces is poor, your experances, and enjoyment in the game, will reflect that. Inversely if you have an amazing guild, whether it's progressed or not, with amazing friends, you will log in every night and enjoy your time spent.

For me, I realized over a year ago, that I play this game only for my friends I have in the game. I dont play this game any longer to kill X boss for Y loot, I dont care about the "tier" of gear I have on my character... I've played this game since Beta, the game wont change at this point and for the most part its the same thing with twists thrown in. I play this game for the feeling of adrenaline attempting a new boss with my friends, the amazing feeling of success that absolute rush you get when you and 39 other people achieve something greater then you all are together, and conquer a task you've been working on for weeks, put hours upon hours of time into. There is no other type game I have ever played that gives you that feeling of accomplishment or that rush. Inversely there is no other game type that I have played that gives you the lows that this game does. When you can't seem to come together as a guild, or morale is low, people bitter ect. Two examples I'll give and I'm sure most of you can relate..

The first being your first Ragnaros kill. The feeling of conquering something truely "epic" with your closest friends in game. That feeling I will never forget, the amazing sensation of that accomplishment for me, has only been shadowed by my guild's C'thun kill. Another boss that had taken months and months of work, to kill him finally was a feeling of euphoria only bested by our first Ragnaros kill.

On the flip side, you have nights in this game that make you so angry/depressed/upset you can't think straight. Last night, my guild went into Naxxaramas with 40 flasks of titans, 415 Greater Shadow Protection potions, 160 soul shards for healthstones, 15,000 gold total worth of consumables spread out through the rest of the raid, World buffs (Rallying Cry, ZG buff, Echo's of Lordaeron), with the intent of killing Loatheb (Last boss of the Plague wing in Naxxaramas and would be our third wing clear). We got him to a crushing 3%, with those world buffs, then again 1% wipe without the world buffs, with Loatheb at 31,000 hp left. I wanted to keep going, if we can get him to 1% we can kill the boss, but we were out of consumables. The fact remained that due to one priest jacking his heal, we were shortchanged the first kill, and we had been prepping for weeks for this encounter. I dont remember ever being as frustrated as I was last night.

I guess the point I am trying to make is, this game has its ups and downs, and real life issues do come through, because no matter how thin you slice it, this game is about the people at its core, and nothing can change that. For better or for worse, where there are other people, there will be drama, love, hate, fun, laughing, crying, moods, attitudes, and success and failure... its just how it works.

I love lamp.

christophillis wrote:

Last night, my guild went into Naxxaramas...... I dont remember ever being as frustrated as I was last night.

I have deleted this experience from my memory.