Today's blog is gonna be about WoW so if you're an education person, I'll catch ya later. I've been talking a lot to my sister about the dynamics of relationships that are formed with people on WoW. The most complicated one you first form is with your guild. It's almost a bizarre social hierarchical experiment that is impossible to explain fully to anyone who doesn't play. My guild is very casual and people tend to come and go all the time but there is a small core group of players. In the year that I've been with them, we've had two major schisms that resulted in a reformation of the guild and a loss of people that I've gotten used to playing with regularly. It's kinda strange because I've never met these people face to face but there is a sense of sadness and loss when someone g/quits as we call it. The tumult of emotions that occur watching guildy after guildy g/quit is quite interesting to say the least. I think that I have formed some very close friendships with some of my guildies and might know more about them than they've told their closest friends. I wonder though if I shouldn't become too attached to my guildies because when it comes down to it, we're all just people playing a video game and maybe I'm taking it too seriously. Is there really a friendship or relationship formed when you're communicating thru your Warlock and Rogue? I'm trying to figure this out and can't even come close to a logical conclusion. I know it hurts when people leave. It feels even worse when they don't say goodbye and drop off the face of the earth. It's such a strange alternative universe in WoW. Though when it comes down to it, I don't think I would have missed it for the world despite the people I am missing.
4 comments:
aww.. /bigcry.. ...lol hopefully ill be back soon.. stupid computer.
You're very smart hungry boy. Email me.
WoW interactions are unique indeed. However, think of it this way. Take away the fact that you're playing a game in a fantasy world and how is it any different than sending email or *gasp* letters. People used to do that all the time and they wouldn't be scoffed at for feeling saddened when a pen pal or writing buddy quit the relationship for whatever reason. Is it any different because we play a game while chatting? If your guild is like mine, often personal stuff is shared while playing. Maybe someone loses a relative or just has a bad day and they find refuge in their guild. In their fantasy world.
You could almost call it interactive daydreaming. Are daydreams wrong? No. Is it okay to enjoy them? Yes. Should they take over your real life? No.
Same case can be made for WoW, IMO. :-)
I don't know if this will help, but here's my two cents on it. The way I look at it is like this: many many years ago, people from vastly different areas of the country or world would sometimes have the good fortune to meet somehow, and on the spur of the moment, decide that there was something in suficient quantity to want to know the other person better. Distance and the lack of phones complicated things. Computers certainly weren't a consideration because they hadn't so much as been thought of yet. What to do? They exchanged addresses and parted ways, promising to write to one another. Mail being what it was, it took a while to get any kind of response, but occasionally, a response did come. I imagine that some, probably many, fell off over time and nothing ever came of it. There were some, I'm sure(the romantic dreamer in me has to believe) who went on to fall in love and live wonderful lives together. I've read letters from the Song of Solomon to ones sent home from our troops in Iraq, and I know that people can conduct a relationship from correspondance alone. Fast forward some years, and we have instant gratification: take AIM or any of the messengers out there and you can talk to anyone any distance away instantly. No waiting for a mule to carry your words to the other person. Does the method of delivery diminish the meaning of the words it carries? Not at all. We've been raised to believe that expediency is a bad thing because waiting for something means it is worth it. That's true in alot of cases, but not this. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. True, the "envelopes" are pixelated creations who have statistics and faces. True, it is just a game. True again, that people can and do come and go without so much as a goodbye. One click, and that particular world is gone...sometimes forever if your computer fries. But, the words are no less important for the means of their delivery. I do believe that there can be a friendship; and for the lucky ones, a relationship.
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