Lately I’ve been doing a lot of thinking while playing World Of Warcraft. Most of my thinking has been about why I enjoy playing WoW. I came up with this simple list.
- It reminds me of my younger college days. Sure they were (cough cough) thirty years ago, but WoW brings back some of those feelings. After all, five things I loved about college were: women, baseball and softball, judo, computers and playing Dungeons and Dragons [Ed: Cheat! That's six!]. WoW brings me back to three of these things. (Yeah, I know I was kind of geek who happened to be good at throwing things, albeit baseballs or people…) I would have loved a game like WoW in college but the computers of the time obviously couldn’t handle it, which is good as I would have played too much…
- I’m a writer. I sit at home a lot in front of my computer writing things. It is a lot of time with myself. Playing WoW let’s me meet people, sort of. It also virtually gets me out of the house. Yes, I know this isn’t as good as actually getting out of the house, but I do that too. Just ask my dog.
- The game really looks beautiful on my Mac. Sure the iMac’s graphic card may not be the best, but for an all-in-one machine it works fine. The 27″ monitor really makes the game look beautiful.
- It gives me another way to interact with my son. It’s kind of cool doing heroics with him now that his character has popped 80. It’s nice to know he still needs me to help.
- I get to think a little with no real pressure. My day may not be as tense as it was when I worked as an EMT running on ambulances and facing real life or death situations, but I still do have certain tensions in it, making deadlines, figuring out plots, dealing with agents and publishers and remembering to cook dinner – those sort of things. WoW let’s me do a little bit of thinking (which is always good) but with no real penalties if I mess up. Sure my character might die but all that means is I have to run back to my body, no big deal. I find it mostly relaxing. Occasionally I may get a bit too tense, so I just remind myself it’s only a silly game.
- I kind of just like blowing stuff up without really blowing stuff up. So I guess it’s another form of tension release!