I know it sucks for them to require photographic evidence - but how do you propse the verify your purchase? I really don't think a phone number to a store to talk to someone who's identity they can't verify is a good way to lock out the account and turn the key over to you. I realize that you were the one being screwed in this case, but it works both ways. Otherwise someone with a keygen could call them and pull the same stunt and get an account turned over to them. MMOs have to be VERY careful about deactivating accounts to to supposed key theft. Personally I would have requested a different copy from GameStop - or for them to provide a camera to create the images to submit. After all they sold you a defective product. If they refused to do either of those than get your money back.
"Lest you forget, they also make an Operating System. They also make media apps. Why are you upset about greater competition in the console market? That should benefit all of us."
They also publish a lot of game software for PCs and have done so for a long time. Since Windows 95 came out and their push for DirectX (OpenGL fans go ahead and bitch all you want about it - it's still better than the hell of DOS games) they have published games by some pretty good developers:
Rise of Nations Age of Empires (all of them and Age of Mythology) Mechwarrior Flight Simulator Dungeon Siege
Odds are the criminal was hardened by long hours training for theft by playing Grand Theft Auto. I'm sure Jack Thompson would agree. And now with not one, but two Xbox 360 who knows what heights of evil he will be able to attain?
No problem. It sure was difficult making it to the other space station by turning and rolling about.:) If you do want to fly with the mouse - go into the control options and look for a checkbox that says something like "auto detect joystick for flying". Select the option for mouse control directly instead. Mouse control is a bit squirrely however.
"With the PS3 allegedly at $300 I see a lot of reasons to sit back and wait."
Allegedly is the right word. Right now the PS3 could allegedly cost $5 and come with a free can of franks and beans. It's all speculation. I think it probably depends on how successful the 360 is between now and the PS3 launch. If it does well and the price drops to $300 by the PS3 launch, then I think you will likely see a cheaper PS3. If it makes sense for Sony to take more of a hit on hardware cost to compete side by side - I'm sure they will do it. If the 360 doesn't do well, then they'll probably charge whatever they feel like.
I don't expect it to be as "fresh and exciting" as day one. I just mean to say that with World of Warcraft it doesn't take very long (by MMO standards) to hit level cap. You can blast through the early game in a few months. I didn't even start playing until about 5 months after launch and I got to level 60 in about 4 months. Keep in mind I also wasn't rushing the game, my character had cooking and fishing maxed out as well as the normal skill set. When you hit the high end game rewards become very hard to come by. Maybe there is too little grind in the early part and too much in the high end. After 60 it goes like this:
Run the lvl 55+ dungeons to get your "set" of items. You will be looking at an average of an 8 percent drop rate for your items per run. If the item does drop you will need to roll on it with everyone else in the group who is the same class. So you can look at doing those dungeons quite a few times (at 1 to 3 hours each run). And each item is an incremental improvement over the gear you are likely to have by lvl 60 anyway.
Run Molten Core, Black Wing Lair and Zul Gurrab. These require an organized group of 20 or 40 players. Once again when that mad loot drops you will need to roll. Or you may just need to run the raids withough any gain at first in order to get "dragon kill points" before you can get any items. Being in a large guild is somewhat of a prerequisite, with all the joy that usually brings (player drama, military organization, must be available to raid at specific times get dropped from the guild etc).
If that's not your cup of tea other options include:
PVP - you can try to get honor through PVP to earn special items. If you want to get to the top ranks be prepared to spend a lot of time in game. PVP is not always active, so you may spend a lot of time sitting around waiting for a game to open up. And if you are PVPing in the level 60 bracket, be prepared to face a core team of organized players with epic gear. Better go back to doing the MC runs if you want to be competetive.
Crafting - the highest end of the various crafting skills can make some great items. You will need to earn faction with NPC groups before you can learn to make them. How do you get that faction? By running certain quests over and over again generally. And once you learn how to make the item, getting the materials to make them can take an tremendous amount of time.
As to time to move on? Yeah, pretty soon it will be. Most of the reason you keep playing is friends and guild mates in the game. Not so much the mechanics of the game itself. I recently had a handful of real life friends pick up the game, so I'm having fun playing with them for now. To Blizzard's credit they have been adding a lot of new content over the past 6 months. I just hope we see more stuff that casual players can have a good time running. Not everyone has the time for the high end 40 man raids. It will be interesting to see how the next round of MMOs (D&D Online, Conan, Middle Earth etc.) respond to the juggernaut that is World of Warcraft.
While I didn't have as many bug problems as you, I was amused that I hit a handful within 2 hours of playing. Having always heard about the nightmare of buggy gameplay that SWG is, I finally got a chance to see it first hand. I had quests I couldn't turn in even though they were complete. I think the best one was when I tried to fly the space ship. The tutorial kept telling me to fly using the mouse, but I couldn't change the ships pitch with the mouse. Finally I figured out that the game had auto-detected my gamepad and wanted to use that for flying. I guess what sucks most about the free trial is that you are limited to the "newbie zone". You can go between 2 space stations but you can't get out into the main game without paying to sign up.
"Two years dev time and SWG 2 could be released just as WoW is getting old and stale."
Hell, by many accounts WoW is already getting old and stale. I think half the player base will have 3 or 4 lvl 60s by the time the expansion comes out. I think I could run through UBRS blindfolded at this point.
Mac Gamer: All of the good PC games get ported to the Mac and none of the bad ones. We get the cream of the crop without having to endure using Windows.
PC Gamer: Sure you do - a YEAR after they are released on the PC. So you can jump online and get your ass handed to you by people who have been playing the game for a YEAR. Not mention the lack of MMOs on the Mac.
Mac Gamer: Who cares? World of Warcraft is the greatest game of all time. Thank God Sony Online Entertainment hasn't ported their bug fests over to our pristine platform.
Sony Fan: Hey!
Pen and paper RPG gamer: You guys have no imagination. My mind makes better graphics than anything your technology could produce.
Everyone else: You'll need that imagination inventing fantasies to wank off to, considering you'll never get laid.
BTW - sucks you got modded flamebait, certain people in this community have no sense of humor.
Xbox fan: Microsoft is going to rule the online space with Xbox 360. The HD era of gaming is here RIGHT now and DVDs provide plenty of space for all that great content. While the Xbox was a good first start, the 360 is going to take the market by storm.
Sony fan: Yeah a PAY online service. What I have to PAY for the system and the game and I can't even play it online unless I PAY some more? The Xbox hardware is so pathetically underpowered compared to the Cell. As Sony will tell you, the PS3 with the Cell processor is considerably more important than the second coming of Christ. It will make gaming transcend gaming and games will go beyond gaming to become the pinnacle state of nirvana. It's going to rule so hard in a year no one will remember the Xbox.
Xbox fan: Two words: Halo 3
Sony fan: One word: overrated. Notice you only have one good game on the Xbox? ONE. Compared to the millions of titles available on PS2 which will be coming to PS3 in new even more awesomer forms.
Nintendo fan: Yeah but none of the games are FUN to play. Nintendo invented fun back in the 1600s and has made an art of refining it. Everything on the other systems is derivative of a Nintendo product. Just without cool characters like Mario and Peach (she's so cute). Sony and Microsoft couldn't innovate themselves out of a box. The Revolution will be televised. Inexpensive, innovative, interactive and FUN.
Sony Fan: Hahaha sure what will the launch title be? Mario Foosball?
Xbox Fan: LOL N00B! Yeah I liked Nintendo, back when I wore diapers.
Nintendo Fan: Laugh all you want while I'm enjoying games that can't be ported to your silly game pad based consoles.
PC Gamer: STFU all of you. HD era? You mean playing games at higher than 640x480 resolution. You make me laugh. Gamepads? Wireless wands? The mouse and keyboard are the ultimate controllers. Oh yeah and I can update my hardware while you're stuck for five years with the same old crap. Rule the online space? Sorry that battle was one on by the PC years ago. I got all the major TLAs: RPGs, MMOs, RTS, FPS.
Console Fans: Sure if you like to spend ten times the cost of a console just to play games? And deal with Windows crapping out while you play! And drivers that need to be updated! No thank you!
Linux Gamer: Frozen Bubble anyone? Round of Tux Racer?
Yeah right. And next you're going to tell me is that the science behind Quincy is bogus. The show that was responsible for warning us Westerners about possible death from Ninjas applying the technique of Dim Mak.
"Beneath a portrait of the Dragon King, the in-store TV shows wrestling before BeastMaster comes on. A man in tigerskin trunks has trained his marmosets to infiltrate the palace of a barbarian king."
Shoddy reporting. Everyone knows that Kodo and Podo are ferrets NOT marmosets. Who could possibly confuse a ferret for one of these?
When you look at how much early games cost such as Islands of Kesmai in 1984 ($12/hour) or AOL's Neverwinter Nights in 1991 ($6/hour). Then there was The Shadow of Yserbius, which for a time offered unlimited play for only $120/month. How many hours to people think they need to play to make it worth the cost? I mean take something like the console version of Half Life 2 for the Xbox. Just released, list price of about $50 - with no multiplayer. You can complete the game in about 10-15 hours easily.
"I suppose if the same game featured a woman, the game would be ok to pick up and enjoy?"
Hot damn! Why aren't there any games with a shotgun wielding african american protagonist? Like Charleton Heston's partner in Omega Man, she was one cool cat and kicked ass.
"The problem is review scores - even aggregated ones - tell you nothing. Reviewers often get so caught up in hype themselves that they can't (or won't) see a game's faults, and of course there's the issue of paid advertising at almost every publication."
It should be noted that gamerankings.com and sites like gamespot.com have user ratings in addition to the media outlet ones. As in any open forum some user reviews are written by blithering idiots, but others are very insightful and make note of points the reviewers may have missed. Everyone is different and some things even tiny things may ruin for you what is considered a 5 star gaming experience for others. I had a hard time enjoying Guild Wars because my character couldn't jump over a 6 inch tall obstacle or jump down a slight incline. I felt railroaded in the environments which looked open but were much more restrictive in actuality. Nit picking? I'm sure plenty of people would think I am, but I can't deny that it diminished my enjoyment of the game.
They're still selling the same 'ole PIII 700mhz derivative.
Huh? Xbox 360 uses a custom triple core PowerPC chip - not an off the shelf Celeron like the Xbox. The hardware in the 360 takes almost a completely opposite approach from the original Xbox. Very few commodity market components.
"and I did spend all of those years turning off Autorun until it just became impossible to use any CDROM enabled Windows software without it"
Huh? It's not impossible to use CDROM enabled software with autorun disabled. It may be a little annoying at times. I have autorun disabled on my Windows XP gaming box. The trick is that you will probably need to manually refresh the CD after putting it in the drive (if you use the registry hack to completely disable autorun). Simply:
Insert CD Open My Computer (or explorer) Click on the CD/DVD drive Press F5 to refresh it
Most software that is checking a CD (for example to check for a copy protected game CD) will poll the CD drive anyway, so a lot of times you don't need to do this. I have a CD burning program that forces me to do this after inserting a blank disk. I have also seen some multi-CD install routines that require doing this when autorun is off. So maybe it's slightly annoying, but it isn't anywhere as annoying as having some DRM bullshit installed automagically on your computer.
But yeah it's still pricey. I imagine as long as they keep selling they'll stay at these price points. I think it's amazing that Age of Empires 2 Gold still sells for close to $30. Hell, Age of Empires 3 is only about $10 more.
I prefer FPS Doug from Pure Pwnage. And yes I HAVE played with people like him. They may not be the norm, but they are certainly more interesting (and potentially fun or annoying) then the zombied out players.
"I stopped playing WOW when the dreams started. Vivid, intense dreams that began to interfere with my perception of reality"
I hate the damn dreams - they always have better graphics and more interesting plots then the actual game. It's worth noting that "questing in your sleep" is only one type dream attached to a gaming obsession. The first time I ever experienced it was when Tetris came out. Instead of the usual hypnagogic blobbies before falling asleep, I would hallucinate the damn blocks dropping. Then these hallucinations started to cross over into waking life. I would see the Tetris shapes all around in any boxy shaped object. The nuttiness went away after cut back my Tetris gaming. I also had issues with Civilization (the first one) where on the weekends I would play straight for 8-12 hours. Then in my sleep I would be expanding my empire. Roads, roads build more roads! With MMOs I actually have had sort of the opposite thing happen. I really enjoy them, but I can't do the 5 plus hour dungeon thing. That long and I start to get irritable and pissed off. From what I understand about Everquest the WoW high end dungeons (Molten Core, Black Wing Lair) are not as time consuming. I don't know how people can stand it.
"I'll grant you, heroin addicts tend to become more irritable more quickly, but that is a matter of a degree."
Usually only if they don't have their next fix on hand and are unsure of how they are going to find it or fund it. The pressure of the addiction is severe and as the addict enters the "need" state they quickly become fixated on finding the next hit. It's an infernal feeling and the psychological effects hit way before the physical withdrawal starts to kick in.
You're right. I play WoW about as much as most of the people I work with watch TV. But I don't watch TV. So is this bad because I can't comment on the lunch room discussion about Lost or the OC or Desperate Housewives? I also spend at least an hour a day reading. I carry a book with me whereever I go. I even read when I make poopies. Am I addicted to reading? Is this a bad thing?
Slashdot Mirror
I know it sucks for them to require photographic evidence - but how do you propse the verify your purchase? I really don't think a phone number to a store to talk to someone who's identity they can't verify is a good way to lock out the account and turn the key over to you.
I realize that you were the one being screwed in this case, but it works both ways. Otherwise someone with a keygen could call them and pull the same stunt and get an account turned over to them. MMOs have to be VERY careful about deactivating accounts to to supposed key theft.
Personally I would have requested a different copy from GameStop - or for them to provide a camera to create the images to submit. After all they sold you a defective product. If they refused to do either of those than get your money back.
"Lest you forget, they also make an Operating System. They also make media apps. Why are you upset about greater competition in the console market? That should benefit all of us."
They also publish a lot of game software for PCs and have done so for a long time. Since Windows 95 came out and their push for DirectX (OpenGL fans go ahead and bitch all you want about it - it's still better than the hell of DOS games) they have published games by some pretty good developers:
Rise of Nations
Age of Empires (all of them and Age of Mythology)
Mechwarrior
Flight Simulator
Dungeon Siege
Odds are the criminal was hardened by long hours training for theft by playing Grand Theft Auto.
I'm sure Jack Thompson would agree.
And now with not one, but two Xbox 360 who knows what heights of evil he will be able to attain?
No problem. It sure was difficult making it to the other space station by turning and rolling about. :)
If you do want to fly with the mouse - go into the control options and look for a checkbox that says something like "auto detect joystick for flying". Select the option for mouse control directly instead. Mouse control is a bit squirrely however.
"With the PS3 allegedly at $300 I see a lot of reasons to sit back and wait."
Allegedly is the right word. Right now the PS3 could allegedly cost $5 and come with a free can of franks and beans. It's all speculation.
I think it probably depends on how successful the 360 is between now and the PS3 launch. If it does well and the price drops to $300 by the PS3 launch, then I think you will likely see a cheaper PS3. If it makes sense for Sony to take more of a hit on hardware cost to compete side by side - I'm sure they will do it.
If the 360 doesn't do well, then they'll probably charge whatever they feel like.
I don't expect it to be as "fresh and exciting" as day one. I just mean to say that with World of Warcraft it doesn't take very long (by MMO standards) to hit level cap. You can blast through the early game in a few months. I didn't even start playing until about 5 months after launch and I got to level 60 in about 4 months. Keep in mind I also wasn't rushing the game, my character had cooking and fishing maxed out as well as the normal skill set.
When you hit the high end game rewards become very hard to come by. Maybe there is too little grind in the early part and too much in the high end.
After 60 it goes like this:
Run the lvl 55+ dungeons to get your "set" of items. You will be looking at an average of an 8 percent drop rate for your items per run. If the item does drop you will need to roll on it with everyone else in the group who is the same class. So you can look at doing those dungeons quite a few times (at 1 to 3 hours each run). And each item is an incremental improvement over the gear you are likely to have by lvl 60 anyway.
Run Molten Core, Black Wing Lair and Zul Gurrab. These require an organized group of 20 or 40 players. Once again when that mad loot drops you will need to roll. Or you may just need to run the raids withough any gain at first in order to get "dragon kill points" before you can get any items. Being in a large guild is somewhat of a prerequisite, with all the joy that usually brings (player drama, military organization, must be available to raid at specific times get dropped from the guild etc).
If that's not your cup of tea other options include:
PVP - you can try to get honor through PVP to earn special items. If you want to get to the top ranks be prepared to spend a lot of time in game. PVP is not always active, so you may spend a lot of time sitting around waiting for a game to open up. And if you are PVPing in the level 60 bracket, be prepared to face a core team of organized players with epic gear. Better go back to doing the MC runs if you want to be competetive.
Crafting - the highest end of the various crafting skills can make some great items. You will need to earn faction with NPC groups before you can learn to make them. How do you get that faction? By running certain quests over and over again generally. And once you learn how to make the item, getting the materials to make them can take an tremendous amount of time.
As to time to move on? Yeah, pretty soon it will be. Most of the reason you keep playing is friends and guild mates in the game. Not so much the mechanics of the game itself. I recently had a handful of real life friends pick up the game, so I'm having fun playing with them for now.
To Blizzard's credit they have been adding a lot of new content over the past 6 months. I just hope we see more stuff that casual players can have a good time running. Not everyone has the time for the high end 40 man raids.
It will be interesting to see how the next round of MMOs (D&D Online, Conan, Middle Earth etc.) respond to the juggernaut that is World of Warcraft.
While I didn't have as many bug problems as you, I was amused that I hit a handful within 2 hours of playing. Having always heard about the nightmare of buggy gameplay that SWG is, I finally got a chance to see it first hand.
I had quests I couldn't turn in even though they were complete. I think the best one was when I tried to fly the space ship. The tutorial kept telling me to fly using the mouse, but I couldn't change the ships pitch with the mouse. Finally I figured out that the game had auto-detected my gamepad and wanted to use that for flying.
I guess what sucks most about the free trial is that you are limited to the "newbie zone". You can go between 2 space stations but you can't get out into the main game without paying to sign up.
"Two years dev time and SWG 2 could be released just as WoW is getting old and stale."
Hell, by many accounts WoW is already getting old and stale. I think half the player base will have 3 or 4 lvl 60s by the time the expansion comes out.
I think I could run through UBRS blindfolded at this point.
You're right I did. What the heck would they say?
Mac Gamer: All of the good PC games get ported to the Mac and none of the bad ones. We get the cream of the crop without having to endure using Windows.
PC Gamer: Sure you do - a YEAR after they are released on the PC. So you can jump online and get your ass handed to you by people who have been playing the game for a YEAR. Not mention the lack of MMOs on the Mac.
Mac Gamer: Who cares? World of Warcraft is the greatest game of all time. Thank God Sony Online Entertainment hasn't ported their bug fests over to our pristine platform.
Sony Fan: Hey!
Pen and paper RPG gamer: You guys have no imagination. My mind makes better graphics than anything your technology could produce.
Everyone else: You'll need that imagination inventing fantasies to wank off to, considering you'll never get laid.
BTW - sucks you got modded flamebait, certain people in this community have no sense of humor.
Xbox fan: Microsoft is going to rule the online space with Xbox 360. The HD era of gaming is here RIGHT now and DVDs provide plenty of space for all that great content. While the Xbox was a good first start, the 360 is going to take the market by storm.
Sony fan: Yeah a PAY online service. What I have to PAY for the system and the game and I can't even play it online unless I PAY some more? The Xbox hardware is so pathetically underpowered compared to the Cell. As Sony will tell you, the PS3 with the Cell processor is considerably more important than the second coming of Christ. It will make gaming transcend gaming and games will go beyond gaming to become the pinnacle state of nirvana. It's going to rule so hard in a year no one will remember the Xbox.
Xbox fan: Two words: Halo 3
Sony fan: One word: overrated. Notice you only have one good game on the Xbox? ONE. Compared to the millions of titles available on PS2 which will be coming to PS3 in new even more awesomer forms.
Nintendo fan: Yeah but none of the games are FUN to play. Nintendo invented fun back in the 1600s and has made an art of refining it. Everything on the other systems is derivative of a Nintendo product. Just without cool characters like Mario and Peach (she's so cute). Sony and Microsoft couldn't innovate themselves out of a box. The Revolution will be televised. Inexpensive, innovative, interactive and FUN.
Sony Fan: Hahaha sure what will the launch title be? Mario Foosball?
Xbox Fan: LOL N00B! Yeah I liked Nintendo, back when I wore diapers.
Nintendo Fan: Laugh all you want while I'm enjoying games that can't be ported to your silly game pad based consoles.
PC Gamer: STFU all of you. HD era? You mean playing games at higher than 640x480 resolution. You make me laugh. Gamepads? Wireless wands? The mouse and keyboard are the ultimate controllers. Oh yeah and I can update my hardware while you're stuck for five years with the same old crap. Rule the online space? Sorry that battle was one on by the PC years ago. I got all the major TLAs: RPGs, MMOs, RTS, FPS.
Console Fans: Sure if you like to spend ten times the cost of a console just to play games? And deal with Windows crapping out while you play! And drivers that need to be updated! No thank you!
Linux Gamer: Frozen Bubble anyone? Round of Tux Racer?
Yeah right. And next you're going to tell me is that the science behind Quincy is bogus. The show that was responsible for warning us Westerners about possible death from Ninjas applying the technique of Dim Mak.
I sure wouldn't trust this story:
"Beneath a portrait of the Dragon King, the in-store TV shows wrestling before BeastMaster comes on. A man in tigerskin trunks has trained his marmosets to infiltrate the palace of a barbarian king."
Shoddy reporting. Everyone knows that Kodo and Podo are ferrets NOT marmosets.
Who could possibly confuse a ferret for one of these?
When you look at how much early games cost such as Islands of Kesmai in 1984 ($12/hour) or AOL's Neverwinter Nights in 1991 ($6/hour). Then there was The Shadow of Yserbius, which for a time offered unlimited play for only $120/month.
How many hours to people think they need to play to make it worth the cost? I mean take something like the console version of Half Life 2 for the Xbox. Just released, list price of about $50 - with no multiplayer. You can complete the game in about 10-15 hours easily.
Uh almost all MMOs in Asia run on a metered time model rather than a flat monthly fee.
"My hovercraft is full of eels"
"I suppose if the same game featured a woman, the game would be ok to pick up and enjoy?"
Hot damn! Why aren't there any games with a shotgun wielding african american protagonist?
Like Charleton Heston's partner in Omega Man, she was one cool cat and kicked ass.
"The problem is review scores - even aggregated ones - tell you nothing. Reviewers often get so caught up in hype themselves that they can't (or won't) see a game's faults, and of course there's the issue of paid advertising at almost every publication."
It should be noted that gamerankings.com and sites like gamespot.com have user ratings in addition to the media outlet ones. As in any open forum some user reviews are written by blithering idiots, but others are very insightful and make note of points the reviewers may have missed.
Everyone is different and some things even tiny things may ruin for you what is considered a 5 star gaming experience for others. I had a hard time enjoying Guild Wars because my character couldn't jump over a 6 inch tall obstacle or jump down a slight incline. I felt railroaded in the environments which looked open but were much more restrictive in actuality. Nit picking? I'm sure plenty of people would think I am, but I can't deny that it diminished my enjoyment of the game.
They're still selling the same 'ole PIII 700mhz derivative.
Huh? Xbox 360 uses a custom triple core PowerPC chip - not an off the shelf Celeron like the Xbox.
The hardware in the 360 takes almost a completely opposite approach from the original Xbox. Very few commodity market components.
"and I did spend all of those years turning off Autorun until it just became impossible to use any CDROM enabled Windows software without it"
Huh? It's not impossible to use CDROM enabled software with autorun disabled. It may be a little annoying at times. I have autorun disabled on my Windows XP gaming box. The trick is that you will probably need to manually refresh the CD after putting it in the drive (if you use the registry hack to completely disable autorun). Simply:
Insert CD
Open My Computer (or explorer)
Click on the CD/DVD drive
Press F5 to refresh it
Most software that is checking a CD (for example to check for a copy protected game CD) will poll the CD drive anyway, so a lot of times you don't need to do this.
I have a CD burning program that forces me to do this after inserting a blank disk. I have also seen some multi-CD install routines that require doing this when autorun is off.
So maybe it's slightly annoying, but it isn't anywhere as annoying as having some DRM bullshit installed automagically on your computer.
Well www.gogamer.com has them a little cheaper:
$29.00 Warcraft 3 Battlechest
$17.90 Starcraft Batthechest
$27.90 Diablo Battlechest
But yeah it's still pricey. I imagine as long as they keep selling they'll stay at these price points.
I think it's amazing that Age of Empires 2 Gold still sells for close to $30. Hell, Age of Empires 3 is only about $10 more.
I prefer FPS Doug from Pure Pwnage. And yes I HAVE played with people like him. They may not be the norm, but they are certainly more interesting (and potentially fun or annoying) then the zombied out players.
"It really did have about the same influence on my life as a drug addiction would have."
No, no, drug addiction is much more social. You get to meet all kinds of interesting characters!
"I stopped playing WOW when the dreams started. Vivid, intense dreams that began to interfere with my perception of reality"
I hate the damn dreams - they always have better graphics and more interesting plots then the actual game.
It's worth noting that "questing in your sleep" is only one type dream attached to a gaming obsession. The first time I ever experienced it was when Tetris came out. Instead of the usual hypnagogic blobbies before falling asleep, I would hallucinate the damn blocks dropping. Then these hallucinations started to cross over into waking life. I would see the Tetris shapes all around in any boxy shaped object. The nuttiness went away after cut back my Tetris gaming.
I also had issues with Civilization (the first one) where on the weekends I would play straight for 8-12 hours. Then in my sleep I would be expanding my empire. Roads, roads build more roads!
With MMOs I actually have had sort of the opposite thing happen. I really enjoy them, but I can't do the 5 plus hour dungeon thing. That long and I start to get irritable and pissed off. From what I understand about Everquest the WoW high end dungeons (Molten Core, Black Wing Lair) are not as time consuming. I don't know how people can stand it.
"I'll grant you, heroin addicts tend to become more irritable more quickly, but that is a matter of a degree."
Usually only if they don't have their next fix on hand and are unsure of how they are going to find it or fund it.
The pressure of the addiction is severe and as the addict enters the "need" state they quickly become fixated on finding the next hit. It's an infernal feeling and the psychological effects hit way before the physical withdrawal starts to kick in.
You're right. I play WoW about as much as most of the people I work with watch TV. But I don't watch TV. So is this bad because I can't comment on the lunch room discussion about Lost or the OC or Desperate Housewives?
I also spend at least an hour a day reading. I carry a book with me whereever I go. I even read when I make poopies. Am I addicted to reading? Is this a bad thing?