On the upside, or wait, on the downside, I think this is going to make me go home and re-up my WoW account, which has been sitting dormant these long 8 or 9 months. posted by kbanas at 2:21 PM on June 8, 2010 [1 favorite]
Cool. I don't know why, maybe it was the plaintive piano soundtrack, but that video just made me a little sad for all the loneliness and social isolation that sometimes underlies the WoW phenomenon.
My 2010 New Years resolution was "No more mmorpgs." I want the 5 years of my life I wasted playing WoW and CoH, Champions Online, and all the other crappy online games back. posted by crunchland at 2:40 PM on June 8, 2010 [3 favorites]
I think this is going to make me go home and re-up my WoW account, Cthulhu which who has been sitting dormant these long 8 or 9 months. millenia.
Still works. posted by griphus at 2:54 PM on June 8, 2010
The Guild is pretty damn funny, and there's three "seasons" out. Each season is about half an hour. posted by Pope Guilty at 2:54 PM on June 8, 2010
... and the other kinda ability that makes her unique is that she can turn enemies into sheep.
My guild is full of these people - regular people, older, jobs, careers, family. I consider myself to be pretty casual, but I am comparing myself to other WoW players. That's like an alcoholic observing they don't drink more than their friends do...*cough*.
I think we are beginning to see the real life social marginalization of gamers disappearing as more people understand, accept, and best of all - play. Blizzard has done more for this than any other game company by making the games so accessible*. Some purists deride WoW for exactly the thing that has made it so successful. That's too bad. As a friend of mine once said, just because something is popular doesn't mean it's bad.
*in many different ways - gameplay, learning curve, interface, balance, replayability, economy, etc. Oh yeah, and fun. posted by Xoebe at 3:46 PM on June 8, 2010
I wonder what an eve online version would be like? posted by AElfwine Evenstar at 4:39 PM on June 8, 2010
I wonder what an eve online version would be like?
Thousands of people screaming as they're crushed to death by spaceships. posted by Pope Guilty at 4:58 PM on June 8, 2010
"I may have, on a bad day, made a dwarf very miserable."
By the way, lots of gamers play socially (real life socially). I know that's what got me into gaming - my RL friends and I would get together with our computers and hang out in both worlds at once. Is it a substitute for face-to-face interaction about relationship-specific issues? Nope. Is it more interactive and just as fun as watching a movie together? Hell yeah. I have great memories of those times.
So yeah, not all gamers have isolated, depressing lives. posted by funfetti at 1:45 PM on June 9, 2010
true, funfetti, and I did strive to say "some" when referring to the social isolation aspect. I played WoW for about 9 months (my lvl 70 druid rocked), but was fairly social during that time outside of WoW.
I have a friend, however, who will not come to any parties, won't come out to dinner with us (or anyone), etc., despite having a ton of discretionary income. He spends his evenings nestled at home in front of TV or his computer or an incredible gaming system, playing WoW or whatever. He's a poster child of how some folks have become more isolated even as they become more networked.
The stark, plodding-down-the-street scenes with avatars going about their otherwise humdrum, socially disengaged lives made me think of that isolation and loneliness. The Guild video actually plays on that theme and makes a joke out of it (where it's so much easier and interesting to date in virtual reality where there are not the complications of actual human-to-human interaction). posted by darkstar at 1:54 PM on June 9, 2010
I really wanted to hate another video by someone with talent wating their time on yet another shitty fanboy type thing but I was wrong, that was just great. posted by ciderwoman at 4:53 PM on June 9, 2010
Doh, wasting. I would have spotted that mistake if I hadn't been so busy grinding. posted by ciderwoman at 4:54 PM on June 9, 2010
posted by blue_beetle at 2:13 PM on June 8, 2010