Just a game!
This has to be one of the most annoying things to hear anyone say while playing World of Warcraft. Of course it’s a game; I’m under no illusions that a digitally created world I view through a 20′ LCD monitor is real. Perhaps there are some people out there who can’t sort out the difference, but that is not the group being derided with the comment, "It’s just a game!"
When I hear someone saying this, it is usually in the context of the silly casual v. hardcore debate, or someone responding to (usually) worthwhile advice about improving their play. "Sure (spec x) could be better, but it’s just a game. I like (something silly.)"
I have no problem with people making choices in WoW for silly reasons. On my druid, I run around a lot of the time in dps gear with the heavy clefthoof pants on because I hate the way the clefthoof hide leggings (a skirt!) look. I bought my gnome engineer a snowy white griffon rather than crafting the copter because I like the white griffon and I don’t like the puffing and hissing and gear noises of the copter. So what?
I tend toward the hardcore end of the spectrum in a lot of my WoW tendencies. (How many people that have WoW blogs are not more hardcore than the average player?) And the fact that WoW is just a game is what makes it possible to be hardcore about it.
Consider: In whatever passes for real life, would you get together with 24 of your closest friends and launch an invasion of a well-defended fortress knowing some of you would not make it out alive? If the cost of failure is death, do you run through the middle of a battlefield shooting randomly? Of course not! We can get away with this because there is no significant penalty for failure. Failure costs time, nothing more. We are entirely free (within personal and group limits and within the rules and actions allowable) to try any silly idea we have for accomplishing something (Rogue-tank Gruul? You have got to be kidding…).
What better way is there for pushing your limits and abilities? Because WoW is just a game as long as you have enough other people going along with you, you can play to the very edge, stomp all over it, and keep walking. If you fail, so what? Just res and try again.
What I’ve come to hear when someone says, "oh, it’s just a game," is: "Oh, I just don’t care. I’m not willing to concern myself or engage myself with making the best or the most interesting use of my time in this game." That is an absolutely acceptable view to have. We all pay our $15 a month for access. The catch is that once you involve yourself in someone else’s game time, be it pvp, grouping, or raiding, you are not just playing on your dime, but theirs. And it’s a mark of courtesy and respect to use their time with great care.
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I absolutely agree with you. The most pertinent point is certainly that when you involve yourself with other people you are affecting them.
I recently ruminated on a related idea (whoo alliteration ftw) on my blog - regarding farm vs progression raiding and laziness. I guess like you I see myself as more hardcore in my approach to WoW hehe.
Jezrael’s last blog post..Progression vs farm raiding and laziness