This "World of Warcraft" RPG thinggy

[Gazwag]

Does anybody on here do it.

It seems to have passed me by, not being a computer role playing person, and I know nothing much about it.

Lots of strange people seem to have camped out for days to get the latest upgrade which was released last night, apparantly the person first in line collapsed when the doors opened due to exhaustion and dehydration.

A friend of mine mentioned last week that her son, who is 11 or 12 is doing quite well, if fact he is doing so well that he sells tips to other players at £10 a go.

 

[Mendoza]

Leeeeeeeeerroooyyyy Jenkins

 

[Bad Ash]

These sort of games can be highly addictive. There are stories of players having died, pooping into socks and peeing into bottles because they didn't dare leave their screen for a couple of minutes.

My advice is to not get involved, they can make you extremely anti-social (especially if you're already slightly so).

 

[John Dorian]

WHAT a load of TRIPE.

that is all.

 

[Gazwag]

My advice is to not get involved, they can make you extremely anti-social (especially if you're already slightly so).

The women on TV this morning did look a bit weird dressed up like something out of Lord of the Rings.

It seems to cost money as well even after you have bought the game, all very strange.

 

[Falmer Flutter ©]

Don't know what the fuss is about to be honest. Not really my cup of tea (the closest I ever came to this sort of thing was playing those Fighting Fantasy books when I was a kid), but what's the difference between wasting your time playing World of Warcraft, Football Manager, or posting on here? Of course, there'll be one or two who take it to extremes, but you can say that about almost everything in life. Horses for courses, innit?

 

[The Spanish]

I expect the police welcome them, as I am sure the number of rapes drops significantly when a new one is released.

 

[Marc]

EverQuest II is better IMO

 

[Mellotron]

WHAT a load of TRIPE.

that is all.

What is? The stories about addiction, or the games themselves?

The games themselves are probably rubbish, but the stories regarding addiction are totally true. There are helplines you can ring and courses you can take in Korea specifically dealing with games addictions.

 

[Razi]

Yeah, I used to play WoW for a bit for 5 or 6 months whilst I was working overseas in France. It's just another in a long line of 'massively multiplayer online role playing games (MMORPGs). The cost involved is that you buy the game, as you would any other from the shop, but there is a monthly fee of around £8.99 a month that you pay as a subscription. This is because the game itself ONLY runs online, you cannot play it without logging onto the game servers, so this subscription goes towards the server running costs, bandwidth and customer service staffing costs.

In terms of MMORGPs themselves, the idea is that you create a character that you will continue to play - give them a unique name, choose from a number of faces/body styles etc, and then head on into the online world. Your character progresses as you complete quests (e.g. "Take this bag to this person at this place") and also as you kill monsters and animals around the world. This 'experience' that you collect adds up, and when you get a certain amount, you reach a new 'level' - as simple as that. When you reach a new level, you can choose a new skill or improve certain stats so that you character is a little more advanced.

And that's pretty much how the games work. You meet other characters online, particularly since some quests need you to group up as doing it 'solo' would be nigh on impossible. If the group works well, you seek them out in future and friendships are formed. You might come across a 'guild' where a big group of people have a formal association and you can join their guild to wear their particular colours and tabbard with pride.

The addictive element comes from various ways, really... firstly, the escapism that it allows, much the same as playing something like Football Manager for hours on end, except this is generally a little more social. Also, with the time that you put into a character, it can make it hard to suddenly give up on it. If you've spent, say, 100 hours investing all that 'experience' in a character and getting it up to level 20 with all kinds of enhancements and improvements, to suddenly stop bothering with it would seem as a complete waste of those 100 hours. So people carry on, investing more time.

It's certainly seen as being geeky by the vast majority of people, but it has slowly become a bit more mainstream - i've been playing these games, on and off, since about 1996. So they've been around for a long time - even going back way beyond that, if you consider the pen & paper roleplaying games (dungeons and dragons) as the early days, and text based Multi-User Dungeons (MUDs) in the early days of the internet. The main problem with this geeky appearance is the genre in which they're generally set, when you're fighting undead, wizards, dragons and goblins. But there's plenty of other MMORPGs out there that have a more modern day or futuristic setting.

Anyway, I think I went on a bit. But they can form part of a normal, healthy gaming lifestyle so long as you don't take them to extremes and know when to stop. Despite playing them for 10 years, I've lived a normal life with real girlfriends, buying my own place, living abroad for 3 years etc.

Much love. x

 

[Kosh]

... Island of the Lizard King... No7 (if my addled memory serves) was best... but poor old Mungo got killed no matter which route you took. I used to cheat anyway... Great books, great days... just like it used to be on here he he he wind, wind, stir, stir, whatever next me wonders?!?!

kOsH

 

[Skint Gull]

My mates 55 years old mum does not leave her PC screen because of WoW!

Nothin wrong with a hobby but that's an obsession! What a crock

 

[Marc]

Gaming obsessions are mad, I've seen people lose their jobs over staying up all night playing games and phoning in sick!
Personally I find a game I love and play it whenever I get PC time....right now its Football Manager Live and I have 3 Wage auctions that will close before 5pm!!

 

[Shizuoka Dolphin]

...apparently the person first in line collapsed when the doors opened due to exhaustion and dehydration.

Hahaha, that just made my day.

 

[Falmer Flutter ©]

... Island of the Lizard King... No7 (if my addled memory serves) was best... but poor old Mungo got killed no matter which route you took. I used to cheat anyway... Great books, great days... just like it used to be on here he he he wind, wind, stir, stir, whatever next me wonders?!?!

kOsH

No 5 City of Thieves and No 6 Deathtrap Dungeon were magic. Loved the covers. No way could you do them without top Skill and Stamina.

 

[skipper734]

Jnr. (12) plays, I pay. Thanks Razi for a longer more explicit explanation than I have managed to get from him. His Mum had to buy him his own laptop as I complained I couldn't get on NSC at the weekends.

 

[wehatepalace]

Leeeeeeeeerroooyyyy Jenkins

At least I got Chicken !

 

[wehatepalace]

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=LkCNJRfSZBU

 

[Easy 10]

I think I'd just be too ashamed to actually QUEUE for a computer game.
I did a fair bit of running around (online and in "real life") to get Mario Kart and Wii Fit as I was quite keen to get hold of those, but I draw the line at actually camping out and queing up outside a store with a gaggle of spotty, buck-toothed social inadequates with bad skin and BO.

 

[Muzzman]

I used to play Neverwinter Nights.

That is all.