It Came From the Basement, Part 1: Teenagers

So, a friend of mine suggested to me that seeing as I use this blog for all manner of things, a good idea would be to interview WoW personalities for giggles. I thought about it and realised that I could actually make quite an interesting study of this. So I gathered up a few willing WoW players from different corners of Australia and I asked them a series of questions in order to get a peek inside their heads. As I'm writing this blurb at 1:34 in the morning, it isn't spectacular, but you get what I'm trying to accomplish. Here is the raw interview results:

In this interview we have Aero, Everblight, Lyko, and GT, who have kindly offered their assistance. Aero is an old friend who transferred servers a while back after being in my guild for some time. Everblight has been in my guild(s) for quite a while and is a firm friend of mine and Lyko and GT are 'real life' lovers who are in a seperate guild on the same server.

And your names are?

Aero: Considering the re-roll, Metaphor of Barthilas. Formerly Aerodynamic of Nagrand who was formerly Lashkraken on Nagrand.

Blighty: Everblight of Nagrand.

Lyko: Lykoris of Nagrand

GT: Greentalon AKA GT

How old are you in real life?

Aero: 16

Blighty: 16

Lyko: I turn 17 in 10 days. My guildies will be happy to know I'm almost legal. ._.

GT: 16

What class do you play on World of Warcraft?

Aero: Death Knight.

Blighty: A Death Knight, of eightieth level, naturally.

Lyko: Warlock - Fear isn't OP

GT: Hunter.

When did you start playing World of Warcraft, and what attracted you to the game in the first place?

Aero: I started playing WoW under my cousin's influence, back in early 2007.

Blighty: I started playing World of Warcraft around the time of the Ahn'qiraji War Effort (four years ago), as I was given a trial disk around that time by a relative that thought I'd enjoy it. Being naturally attracted to all kinds of RPG games, I loved it, and continued playing.

Lyko: I started playing WoW mid 2007. I'd been looking for an MMORPG to play for a while. Having exhausted all the fail-free ones I bought Guild Wars. The lack of jumping in guild wars forced me to bite the bullet and buy WoW.

I played for a couple of months, going from alt to alt before a hiatus. I came back mid 2.3 I think it was, bought Burning Crusade. And I've been with Lykoris ever since.

(:

Also at that time I was seeking to impress a certain Huntard with mah l33t skillz

GT: I started playing WoW when I was 11. I was attracted to it because I was addicted badly to Warcraft 3 at the time and liked playing warcraft so... world of warcraft seemed natural.

How long do you spend online a day? Would you deem yourself casual or hardcore?

Aero: Greater than six hours, fewer than 9. That would probably seem hardcore to non-WoWers, but it is deemed rather casual by those who play.

Blighty: I spend most of my time online, as I don't really do much else except read or play other games (Borderlands etc). Probably 6 hours a day on average, maybe? Perhaps more.

Lyko: Probably on and off from when I wake up to when I go to bed - excluding school.

And I dunno. More than a casual?

At first I was determined to not get sucked in. But that failed miserably.

In saying that, I'm not "Hardcore". I don't have multiple level 80s, I don't have millions of gold.

I'm on the Hardcore side of mid-range.

GT: It depends a lot, in the holidays I'm generally at home so I play a lot of the day unless there's something else to do. When school is in I play on and off between 4 and 7 hen solidly from 7 - 11. Also this depends heavily on assignments/homework blah.

Also depends on raid days.

Oh and I deem myself hardcore bro

Do you think that WoW is a negative influence on people or a positive one?

Aero: It's been a rather positive influence on myself, as I rarely eat whilest I play, causing me to lose a lot of unwanted weight. Towards others though, it's varied, and I'm not sure I can deliver a justifiable response.

Blighty: I think it depends. Some people, it definately has a negative influence on. It depends on when it becomes an addiction or reliance, and causes withdrawal symptoms, etc.

Well, I spend an awful lot of my time on it, but I can verify I'm not addicted. A psychiatrist I visit (for unrelated reasons) can back me up on this, and I suffer no withdrawal symptoms when separated from the game for extended periods of time.

So, I would say...

It's a positive influence on me.

Lyko: Both.

I find WoW to be wonderful. I've met many people through it. Some really good friends. Like, if I ever need a place to stay in another city, I probably have a place to crash there. Preferably not Sydney, I think Coolade would rape me.

At the same time, I find WoW to be a drain. Raiding is stressful. I'm cooped up in my room, away from my parents. I find I'd prefer to stay

inside playing WoW with in game friends than going out with irl friends. My school marks have declined rapidly (but that's more time management, I can't really blame WoW for it)

So it's positive and negative. I've met wonderful people I trust. But I've become a recluse for it.

Me: You don't think that WoW's influence is causing you to manage your time poorly, or is that just you?

Lyko: It's kind of genetic for me to have poor time management skills. Dad and I are constantly getting in the shits for leaving things to the last minute.

I think my love for WoW made the issue more apparent.

People try to blame WoW for issues. Hell everyone does. Columbine? They listened to Marilyn Manson. Virginia Tech? Probs played a violent video game.

The thing is, all of these people had

underlying issues.

So it would be unfair to blame WoW for my own foolishness.

And more fair to blame my GM Coolade for being a slave driver.

GT: I think it has both effects but negative outweighs the good. It's good when you're playing and having fun, but you feel the negative effects when you're offline and realise that you fucked up a lot of stuff to play wow. Like some friendships and some things you may be missing out on. Like maybe friends or just normal teenager crap.

I said friends twice.

Cause I;m smart.

SEE WHAT WOW HAS DONE TO ME

Overall, how do you consider the view society has on WoW? Is it fair?

Aero People that hate on WoW are one of two types of people. People who quit, or people that have never played it. The former have fair opinions, where as the latter has no fucking say in the matter.

Blighty: I think it gets more flak than it's worth. See, other things, such as religion, have the worst examples (terrorists) taken and presented as the minority, but basement-dwelling WoW addicts are considered by society as the norm, which is unfair.

Me: So you think that WoW gets judged unfairly on the minority?

Blighty: Pretty much. These examples exist, but everyone is judged based on them.

Lyko: It's kind of hard to answer this question without relating back to soceities views on video games in general.

Obviously the negative view will get stronger as the realism is ramped up.

Humans are a very violent species. It's just natural. Soceities laws are repressing this instinct so many turn to video games. (imo)

And also we seek the next big scare. Video Games offer that.

This of course sheds

a negative light on video games.

People want to blame violence on video games.

Often a time it's parents complaining. That lil' Johnny is going to grow up to be a murderer because his parents bought him a game such as GTA or Resident Evil or CoD.

Who's fault is that?

I believe with the right restrictions (not the stupid "IF IT'S R18 IT'S BANNED" retarded crap Australia does), video games can be

fun and enjoyable.

And lil' Johnny won't grow up to be a murderer unless his parents are absolutely retarded.

Back to WoW

WoW bares the brunt of the negative views because, like it or not, it's a mainstream game.

It is the best MMORPG out there. It dominates the market. It WANTS you to know its name.

So people pin the blame on the most obvious target.

And it's not right. Because let's look at it.

WoW has poor realism. There's not much Gore. There's no guns (of the real variety). There's nothing overwealming violent

about it.

So, tldr; Soceity has an unfair view on WoW.

Me: What do you say to the suggestion that it has a debiliating effect on individuals because of addiction, rather than any controversial themes?

Lyko: Not going to beat around the bush. Yes, it does really affect people.

But if you weren't addicted. If you didn't look forward to playing it. If the lore didn't drag you in. If the gameplay wasn't so excellent. If you didn't live and breathe WoW...

Then Blizzard isn't doing their job.

It's their job to provide you with an addicting game.

And they've done it brilliantly.

Kudos to Blizzard.

GT: I think the view is skewed a lot. People just view it negatively because people say it's addictive so they automatically link addicting to bad... like drugs lol. But it's the exact same thing most families do, come home, grab something to eat and sit in front of the tv all night. Same thing just diff console and outlet.

Do you have any plans to leave WoW? Have you ever considered it?

Aero: I have, but then I re-rolled a death knight. Magic happened.

Blighty: At one point I actually did leave WoW, I just got bored of it for no well established reason. This was early BC. I rejoined late BC. To-date, I've had no thoughts of leaving. Unless boobs are involved somehow. But that's unlikely.

Lyko: I did mini-hiatus towards the end of last year. Last term of year 11 and all.

I would log in, do dailies, whatever.

But I didn't raid.

So it made a massive difference. My grades slowly dragged themselves up.

I'm planning to do this again this year due to year 12.

If all goes well Cataclysm will come out when year 12 ends, freeing up time to level and gear.

GT: I have considered leaving for grade 12, but I think I would just find something else to do all night instead of homework so I'm just gonna cut down a fuckton on my gametime.

Start doing exercise. ;\

What do you have to say about the social dynamics of the game? How do they differ from ‘real life’?

Aero: Well, the thing with any kind of internet chatting, is the ignore button. In WoW, if someone starts to ignore you, you can simply ignore them and never converse with them again, but in 'real life', they won't stop unless they receive a swift jab to the bollocks.

Me: So you find the ability to ignore people at will a powerful social tool?

Aero: Yes.

Blighty: The social dymanics are pretty similar to real life, I suppose, following rules of generosity and good behaviour and whatnot. Though the population of asshats is disproportionately large to that of real life, and crime is all but impossible, so law enforcement is obviously not an issue.

Me: Do you have anything to say on the guild system?

Blighty: Yeah, it offers positive social interaction, unless it becomes (as it sometimes does) gangland warfare, with the pewpew and the roflcopters falling from the skies and bursting into lol, with the grammar police and the F.B.I. 4chan divison stalking every corridor of the darkened halls we call the realm forums. My server in particular has been quite prone to drama for some time, but even then, the vast majority of guilds are positive social breeding grounds.

Lyko: On the whole, it's pretty similar to real life. We are, after all, dealing with real people behind the pixels.

You have all your professions, which people dedicate time to like a job. The market place is similar. etc etc

And as much as we like to ignore it, erotic role play or cyber is a common and quite human / real thing.

When the Corrupted Blood incident (google it, it was a Vanilla incident) occured, scientists actually commented that it would make a good study, as players acted exacted as they would in real life.

A brilliant example of how real this game is.

At the same time, being in an online world can bring out the worst in people. It is ridiculously easy to forget the human behind the pixels.

Ninjaing items, harassment, etc

But this is a human thing too.

I cannot say that the social dynamics of the game differ from real life.

And I love the guild idea. We are the online version of a club.

It's a great way to meet like minded people.

Sort of like, going to a coffee bar and meeting people.

GT: The social dynamics are interesting because I think it's a lot easier to make enemies and friends, because people don't feel threatened as much on wow as it's the internet and they hide behind their avatar. Guilds can be great and bad, they're a great environment cause people like being apart of something together but everyone treats guilds differently. To work as a team or for individual gain.

If you have too many individuals it doesn't work.

Like any team I suppose.

Also people take great pride in their guild usually which is another interesting thing...

I'm not making sense so, GO ON.

Is there anything else you’d like to add?

Aero: I like turtles, the holocaust was a lie, Richard Dawkins mother fucker, deal with it, anal beads.

Blighty: Well, I'd like to thank you for intervOHGODBEES

Lyko: 1) Join Awaken. We're awesome.

Except that Coolade boy.

2) Buff Warlocks

3) Fear isn't OP

GT: For the Horde?