The time has come for me to give up and accept the facts: I’m a nerd. The freshest evidence: here I am in Rome, Italy on a business trip. I’ve got 4 free hours Saturday afternoon. What do I do? Visit any of the great wonders of western civilization? Nope.
I sat in my hotel room (or more precisely, Jim and Silbo‘s hotel room) and played on my computer. But I didn’t just email, instant message, and read blogs. No, I played World of Warcraft. It’s amazing; it really is. A whole virtual world. And while I was in World of Warcraft, I went and found some of the EchoDitto Guild members, and talked to them. That’s right — I tracked down Justin Miller in the game, who was playing it on a lazy Saturday morning in Culpepper, Virginia, and we talked about work. In the game. While I was in Rome. He was pretty clear; I was completely lame, to have been in Rome and spent the time playing a freaking video game. At least I wasn’t alone; Jim was playing World of Warcraft from Rome, too! But this news article cracked me up:
There are numerous stories of online gaming “junkies”, and Sony’s Everquest $ is often called “Evercrack”. There’s even a Yahoo groups called the “Everquest Widows”. This reflects the success of the online gaming concept (for better or worse).
For better or for worse? Are you kidding? I think it’s pretty clear: it’s for the worse! My extracurricular life, already practically non-existent thanks to entrepreneurship and the perilous demands of maintaining Nicco.org, has now completely perished at the hands of WoW. And I’m powerless to stop it. So my family, my friends who haven’t heard from me in months — don’t assume that it’s because I’m too busy cavorting the globe becoming a businessman. Nope, I’m holed up in my apartment surrounded by the refuse of gatorade and powerbars, busily trying to level up so I can attain shape-shifting abilities and be the true Night Elf Druid / Bear shapeshifter that I am.
Even the esteemed New York Times had a story about the WoW phenomenon. And there’s a World of Warcraft Wiki, so that when I’m not actually playing the game I can spend hours and hours reading and philosophizing about it. There’s even a World of Warcraft podcast — by none other than EchoRadio.
Yeah, reading this post I’m getting a little depressed about my life. Except that I really kind of like World of Warcraft — it’s fun. What’s to be done?
As If It Matters 
February 19, 2005 at 3:57 pm |
But the dog says, Let’s just go back inside.
Let’s not do anything tonight. So they
walk back up the sidewalk to the front steps.
How is it possible to want so many things
and still want nothing. The man wants to sleep
and wants to hit his head again and again
against a wall. Why is it all so difficult?
But the dog says, Let’s go make a sandwich.
Let’s make the tallest sandwich anyone’s ever seen.
And that’s what they do and that’s where the man’s
wife finds him, staring into the refrigerator
as if into the place where the answers are kept-
the ones telling why you get up in the morning
and how it is possible to sleep at night,
answers to what comes next and how to like it.
-Stephen Dobyns
from “How to Like it”
February 19, 2005 at 11:34 pm |
Stop while you’re ahead. ( That would be now. )
The night before I left for Vermont for the first time I played 17 straight games of Warcraft III.
In my defense, I stopped at 50-0 on a new account.
[ Incidentally, Nicco, you might remember that I missed my connecting flight in Chicago on that trip. That’s because I was so tired that when I got off my (late) plane I ran to the gate with a Burlington ARRIVAL. ]
Back to games. It gets worse. Last November I played an hour of CounterStrike Source, just to check it out. I had CS flashbacks for the next week. Really.
What’s that they say about alcoholics? You could never have another drink, and you’d still be an alcoholic.
Last night I went camping with a few friends, and one of them brought his new Powerbook. Which he played Warcraft on. Later that night he used his Powerbook as the most expensive flashlight ever.
March 3, 2005 at 4:37 pm |
yeah dude. i’ve suffered from playing too many games of Warcraft III too. i’ve even downloaded replays of top players games just to see how good they are and to try their strategies. what’s to be done pouring so much time and effort into the reorganization and transmissions of data bits that reflect in the end some level of an “ability at strategizing and twitching” that may or may not exist? hmmm.