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A World of Warcraft World
Posted by
CmdrTaco
on Sun Aug 14, 2005 07:27 PM
from the something-to-think-about dept.
from the something-to-think-about dept.
An anonymous reader writes "On ebay people are paying real money to buy WoW gold... while some guy in Korea murdered another guy over a rare sword that existed only in an MMORPG. This essay looks at the way more and more people are failing to draw a distinction between their real and online lives and takes it to its logical, yet utterly insane, conclusion." Amusing, and with more than a few ounces of truth.
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A World of Warcraft World
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Well (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://sitetheory.com/ | Last Journal: Friday October 24 2003, @10:59AM)
Re:Well (Score:5, Insightful)
The fact that people care so much about a silly game is, however, pathetic in my opinion.
Re:Well (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Well (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Well (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Well (Score:5, Interesting)
Now how many americans have gotten murdered over $3000 or less? A lot.
It IS arguable (Score:5, Interesting)
Stats [tinyvital.com]
Of course I am not going to quote you numbers, but I'm suggesting that this idea is not arguable.
In other words, you won't cite anything but will declare your argument inarguable. It's sad that this is what passes for insightful commentary on Slashdot these days!
Re:It IS arguable (Score:5, Informative)
Re:It IS arguable (Score:5, Informative)
(Last Journal: Wednesday October 24, @03:50AM)
Washington DC's homicide rate of 45.8/100,000 is more than a hundred times that of the capital of the European Union, Brussels
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/homicide/homtrnd.htm [usdoj.gov]
http://www.benbest.com/lifeext/murder.html#world [benbest.com]
Re:Well (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://www.kibbee.ca/)
Re:GP Score 2???? (Score:5, Insightful)
(Last Journal: Wednesday March 27 2002, @09:26PM)
GGP makes a statement. Thin skinned GP take offense at what he obviously believe to be an attack on the U.S. and P spouts inane trolling crap.
And here I am answering for some reason to that crap.
I'm not the GGP but I'll take the liberty to re-phrase what he said:
"A lot of people have been murdered for less than $3000 in almost every country in the world."
There. I believe it's still faithful to the spirit of GGP's post which was something like:
"The man wasn't killed just for an imaginary object in an imaginary world. That object had a value of about $3000 and that is why he died."
Disclaimer: I'm not american nor I live in the U.S. I don't hate America, tho I probably hate a few americans. I also hate people in several countries in all continents. I'm probably a very spiteful person. A country is an abstraction. I can't hate a country any more that I can hate the color blue. But that's just me.
Re:Well (Score:5, Insightful)
Nah, of course it isn't okay. What we're saying is, is that it is conceptually understandable.
If you say "some guy killed another guy for stealing his imaginary sword", the immediate response is "wtf?"
If you say "some guy killed another guy for stealing 3 grand from him", the response is more, "oh. one more murderer in this wonderful world of ours."
You don't condone it, but you can sort of see why he might want to do it.
Re:Well (Score:5, Informative)
(http://www.powerlevel.com/)
Other forms of obsessive gamer (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't know about murder, but people do suicide over it (a recent event in the stock exchange where I work confirmed this to me).
Come to think of it, there's an awful lot of commonality between an MMORPG and the stock exchange. Hmm... you listening, Sony? I can imagine my level 63 Vah Shir warrior wandering into the main bank at PoK, right-clicking the banker and investing in the international equities market. All on the credit card. Corporate takeovers could be PvP raids. Thwack!
Re:Well (Score:5, Insightful)
Or... (Score:5, Funny)
(http://prompt.newsvine.com/)
Re:Or... (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://www.jameshollingshead.com/ | Last Journal: Thursday June 02 2005, @01:40AM)
Renting dvd's also tends to end up being cheaper. Cost of getting to the theater, $10+/ticket in a lot of places, and soda, popcorn, etc. by the time it's all said and done, if more than one person is going to see the movie, it's actually cheaper just to buy the bloody thing in the store when it comes out on dvd.
Avoiding rude people is just kind of an added bonus.
Re:Or... (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://www.linux.com/)
Re:Or... (Score:5, Funny)
Is it impossible to watch a movie without buying popcorn and soda? With determination, one CAN go for two, or even three, hours withiou eating a snack. Work up to it, start by watching a 30-minute sitcom without eating.
If the monkey is really on your back, it's not hard to smuggle snacks into a cinema.
violence (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:violence (Score:5, Insightful)
I guess you could possibly say I was that 'stereotypical' looking jock/prep guy in highschool (just graduated, 3.6 GPA, so not a 'dumb' jock either). Yeah, I've done an assortment of drugs, not really to my regret either, started out small, escalated, and I still do them at parties on the weekends, though nothing really 'hard'. By hard, I mean essentially using a needle to do it, but used to snort 80s of OxyContin among other things.
However - I'm also what you would call a 'nerd' to an extent, I've worked in computer businesses for two years (two seperate businesses for a year each - both went out of business and I was with each from start to finish). I took state three times in wrestling, twice in collegiate and once in Greco-Roman, but I'm not a violent person at all, I party a lot but I don't get into fights, I don't rape women or anything like that, I adhor violence honestly.
So essentially, I'm a jock that plays MMORPGs (Lineage II, EverQuest, fyi), wears Abercrombie, uses Linux, used to do coke a lot, has never taken advantage of a woman, and yet still bound to these petty stereotypes? Sorry, but grow up and get your head out of your ass, the world needs stereotypes about as much as they need racism.
-Brandon
Re:violence (Score:5, Funny)
That is one messed up personal ad...
You fools (Score:5, Funny)
(http://www.realistic-dragon.co.uk/)
But we need a one hour break from 6-7, Mom will murder me if I'm not there to eat dinner with the familly. Don't worry, this "real world" instance seems to be pretty persistant, our progress wont be lost, just aa few minutes to clear the repop...
Re:You fools (Score:4, Funny)
Fuck man, it's not an instance! There's people there I run into over and over again, and I'm telling you, they're not in my team!
I was taking this article somewhat serious... (Score:4, Funny)
(http://audiostreet.net/orpheanwing)
"Just think of how porn changes when the user also gets to go in with the toned body of an underwear model. It'll make our current online porn look like just the tip of the assberg."
Was that really needed?
Anyway the article smells of someone trying to get posted on
Re:I was taking this article somewhat serious... (Score:5, Funny)
(Last Journal: Thursday August 05 2004, @10:39PM)
The Real Question (Score:5, Interesting)
sure its real... here's the line blurred for ya. (Score:5, Interesting)
(http://www.deftracing.com/)
These people have a very real connection to the entertainment, social, and self image (among many other things) aspects of playing this game. The ways you can gain prominence, excell, get friends, make a splash, whatever it is they are talking about (swords and money are prime examples).
When someone takes that from you or offers to sell it to you, it has real world implications to their lives that are no less real than anything else. It does not matter what social construct it is.
Going down to my local club where every girl is dressed up and dancing is also complete surreal to the normal world around me. And if I drive up in a nice car (+5 pimp/has money) and wearing a rolex (+3 nice job) it has effect on that world too. And it's the bsuiness owners job to make it as surreal as possible just like a game... with flashy lights to make the girls look better, and drinks to.... make the girls look better (and the guys too).
It's all about power and these people are just living it with a game as the medium. But it's no less real. Odd maybe, not so accepted, yes, but it's very real... as that guys rage in killing someone demonstrates quite well.
Mmm.... not so sure.... (Score:5, Interesting)
(http://home.swbell.net/kingtj | Last Journal: Saturday September 30 2006, @01:07PM)
The way "reality" works in our world, entertainment = escape. The entertainment industry probably prefers you not equate the two so starkly, but I think it's just the facts. All of us have a need to disconnect from our daily lives (the "daily grind" as we so often call it), so we crave some "entertainment" to whisk us away from all those worries and stress for a while. But some people live for the escape itself, not for their lives as a whole. And that spells trouble.
Just because while playing an MMORPG, one might have a real connection to the "social aspects" of the game and so on doesn't mean it's any more "real" than other forms of "escape". Most people hooked on cocaine, heroin, or other drugs tell you that all their friends are doing it, and it's "cool" and so on and so forth, too. It does let them become a part of a particular "social circle" and attain a level of "popularity" they might not otherwise have had
As Fark might say.. (Score:5, Informative)
(http://pyscrabble.sf.net/)
I'll be worried... (Score:5, Funny)
(http://www.craznar.com/)
And what sort of conspiracy that my verify word was 'sorcery'
It can become an addiction (Score:5, Interesting)
Take these stories as warnings. You might not think yourself capable of such things, and okay, I doubt you'll end up killing anyone, but even a stupid little game can become a major feature in your life if you're not careful. Especially when you have to pay per month, since it's so easily justifiable - you're only getting your money's worth, after all!
What Would Darwin Do? (Score:3, Interesting)
K, why would someone kill someone else over something as intangible as the way they honor their preferred deity? There are always people on the fringe of any group whose very fringiness make them outcasts. Online wealth is still wealth. People go to war for essentially the same thing; albeit on a larger scale.
I say, Let Natural selection decide who is the victor, People with intangible swords vs. people with tangible swords and questionable mental stability.Why distinguish online vs. offline life? (Score:5, Insightful)
Without these "hobbies," people would be little more than animals -- eating, sleeping, reproducing in the endless cycle of life that we share with even the lowliest bacteria. What distinguishes humans from animals (perhaps only quantitatively) is the extent that we can move beyond the mundane activities of "real" life and explore such a wide range of alternatives.
For the record, I, personally am not into online gaming or sports -- this post is not a personal rant -- but I can see how these activities can become a major part of a person's identity and daily life. As such, it is important to understand and respect (in a love-of-freedom sense, not a politically correct sense) the fact that different people value different things. Its not that some people go overboard on online life vs. real life, its that some people become immersed in a life that is different from the utilitarian vision of a standard life.
Re:Why distinguish online vs. offline life? (Score:5, Insightful)
Two things:
1) When the dog breeder stops going away for weekends, and starts dressing their dog and talking to it like a human being, they get plenty of ridicule. Same with sports fans that get so obsessed they riot, or that sail boat owner that won't even talk to their wife and kids and is about to lose his job (but hangs on to it JUST barely...so he can buy parts for the boat). No one's going to ridicule you for playing an online game occassionally. But when you start to shun friends and family and get obsessed you can rightly expect to be called a twit.
2) There is some feeling that because there is no tangible physical real-world gain, it's all just a waste of time. This is largely a point of view issue. Some see more abstract things as worthwhile. Others don't. But most people would agree that if you've got a great "online" life and a terrible real life, it's time to stop the escapism for long enough to give your real life a go.
All those wacky Asian countries are the same? (Score:5, Informative)
CHINA, not Korea. It happened in SHANGHAI. Geez, do a little research, tens of thousands of people are going to read your submission...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8143073/ [msn.com]
The Psychology of MMORPGs (Score:5, Interesting)
http://www.nickyee.com/daedalus/ [nickyee.com]
I've filled out his surveys for 4 or 5 years.
At the site you may find many tools for characterizing your personality type and how it relates to the alternate reality of the games. As well as analysis of how MMORPG's have affected people en masse.
Oh, yeah, it's 1979 D&D all over again! (Score:5, Insightful)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeons_&_Dragons#C
These people behave irrationally not because of the game, but because they are irrational, sick, or sociopathic people.
If these same individuals were in a knitting club, they'd be stabbing each other's eyes out with knitting needles and paying stupid amounts of money for fancy-assed wool to turn into butt-ugly sweaters and scarves. But we don't hear people telling us that knitting is evil -- probably because other people outside the knitting community understand what it's all about.
WoW is serious business (Score:5, Informative)
http://wowseriousbusiness.ytmnd.com/ [ytmnd.com]
This was recorded from a voice chat on WoW. All I can say is...WOW...
I know a guy... (Score:4, Interesting)
...who met a woman, and dated her, as much in the World of Warcraft as in the real one.
She ended up leaving her husband and moving to an apartment near him just to be with him -- a college kid. Talk about insane!
Poor guy didn't know what'd hit him.
She was po'-white-trash with no job and no education beyond high school. Finally he got enough sense knocked into him to get away from her.
The kid is still addicted to WoW, much to the detriment of his grades and his social life. For all I knock the crap that passes for a "social life," sitting by yourself in a dark room playing MMORPGs sure isn't healthy!
I've been in some bad situations, but man: What happened to him sure makes me feel normal.
The same people have always been there (Score:4, Interesting)
(Last Journal: Tuesday September 25, @04:26AM)
Of course, there now are regularly elements that are beyond the control of one person, namely other people; this is where the combination of fantasy and immaturity lead to "bad things".
Who is called Sulva? (Score:3, Insightful)
(http://gathman.org/ | Last Journal: Friday January 20 2006, @01:41PM)
In That Hideous Strength [amazon.com] , Merlin asks Ransom, "Who is called Sulva? What road does she walk? Why is the womb barren on one side? Where are the cold marriages?"
In part, Ransom replies, "... the womb is barren and the marriages cold. There dwell an accursed people, full of pride and lust. There when a young man takes a maiden in marriage, they do not lie together, but each lies with a cunningly fashioned image of the other, made to move and to be warm by devilish arts, for real flesh will not please them, they are so dainty in their dreams of lust. Their real children they fabricate by vile arts in a secret place."
Lewis had modernism pegged way back in the '40s.
There's no such thing as "real" money (Score:5, Insightful)
(Last Journal: Monday September 06 2004, @05:06PM)
"Real" money is just a fantasy substance that people barter for. Money is not a fancy piece of paper, it's a delusion, that we all politely buy into to make trading easier.
Like some third-world currency that suffers boutes of inflation and counterfeiting, MMRPG money is ephemeral and unstable, but from a mathematical standpoint, economics does not care if there the resources are real or imagined.
Markets have judged the supply and demand and the perception of inflation/permanence have assigned it a conversion rate. And because there are a great many unknowns in how a game will develop or be managed, the markets may from time to time exhibit irrational exhuberance, have pyramids and bubbles, just like the "real" world.
It's not entirely impossible that some day a court might rule that income tax will have to be charged on game money for the simple reason that there is a market for it - just as if it was money earned in another country.
No kidding. (Even though the article is a parody). (Score:3, Insightful)
I work a regular, decent job like any other normal person. When I come home, my wife and I play World of Warcraft together. This is opposed to sitting ourselves down in front of the TV for 6 hours like many people do.
We have formed a guild with other working adults who treat WoW as a game, and not a replacement for life. We have a great deal of fun when we play without needing to be pressured by others to be involved in raiding or other activites every waking hour.
Yes, there are some people we know who are in the game at least 18 hours a day and treat raiding Molten Core as if it were more important than life itself. Yes, it is pretty sad. But if it weren't WoW, they'd most likely be squandering all their time obsessing over some other activity.
Real money - right... (Score:3, Insightful)
(http://www.pobox.com/~kwerle | Last Journal: Sunday August 14 2005, @09:57PM)
"On ebay people are paying real money to buy WoW gold."
No they aren't.
They're connecting to a virtual auction house (ebay) to exchange virtual money (credit card/paypal/whatever) for virtual goods (MMO junk).
I'm half inclined to go an about the value of various pieces of paper (greenbacks) vs. blank pieces of paper and the implication of the phrase "real money" - which is a lot like saying "real promises of value", or even "virtual wealth". But I'm not going to, because I've already put more thought into this comment than I think the author of the article or the post did.
I can draw a distinct line (Score:3, Insightful)
And we take offense to these remarks.
Is the "value" of an online item more absurd... (Score:4, Insightful)
(Last Journal: Sunday January 11 2004, @03:55AM)
Of course, the bottom kinda dropped out of the sports card business, so maybe that's not a good example. :)
You know you're addicted to WoW.... (Score:5, Funny)
(http://home.netuse.de/~ms)
Regards, Martin
What's so unreal about it? (Score:3, Insightful)
(http://lar5.com/)
Computers are real, as are the people using them. I don't know why they should be considered less 'real' than any other human activity.