I was telling a story at dinner today. The people I was having dinner with were asking me why I wasn’t interested in the game they were playing now that they had given up World of Warcraft. Why won’t you come join us doing this new thing? So I went through this parable about a know-it-all player who insisted that while he had a particular add-on installed for the game, he didn’t need it for the dungeon fight we were in even though we had failed in the attempt to complete the dungeon three times already. We were failing because this player and his fellows in our pick up group couldn’t manage the mechanics of the fight. The player informed me this is my 4th 90, so I know this fight. To which I responded well this will be my 8th 90, and I should have 10 by the end of the week; and I always run and pay attention to Deadly Boss Mods for this fight. The part I left out of the dinner conversation was his riposte of well, that sounds like overkill.
Wait a minute. So four characters leveled to max level in the game is informed, but ten characters is overkill? I wonder what his response would be if I told him I ultimately want to have twenty-two max leveled characters in World of Warcraft? He’d probably be sending the guys in white coats to look for me. Never mind that discounting the higher number of end-game characters as overkill introduces some logical fallacy or other into his original argument that experience grants skills that rule out the use of addons. After all, it’s the principle of the thing.
But this story does answer the question of why I wasn’t interested in the game they were playing. Have you noticed the way I play games? I really don’t think I should start in on any more MMO’s or games that might take up my time. I simply don’t have time for another game to play.
Postscript
Another Facebook status backdated to the blog. I achieved that twenty-two character goal:
I have never maxed out a character in a MMO; I’m usually too busy with crafting to concern myself over endgame efficiency.
Earl Cooley III
Words to live by, Earl. Now that I am focused on living, I increasingly question the amount of time I spend playing games that aren’t exercising my brain or putting me in communication with people that I love. I wasn’t focused on living when I started playing. I was focused on dying. I am slowly growing out of that obsession.
