WoW? Warcrack...? er, wha?

The gamer in me is dying, due to malnourishment, priority shifts and downright adultness. It's tough to let this part of myself go. I've been a gamer ever sinve I was 5 years old. I still remember being in Sears with my family one evening where my dad pulled me aside and showed me the fateful life changing display of an atari 2600. I got one for Christmas that year and have never been the same since. I grew up interested in computers and had always wanted to be a game developer. As difficult as it was when I was 22 I gave that dream up. Now I think I'm better for it and my family will be better for it. I couldn't be the father I want to be doing game design. It's a lifestyle not a job. And I doubt my wonderful wife would put up with it. Anyhow, I'm rambling again.

Enter World of Warcraft.

A quick story. I was looking forward to this game when it came out just over a year ago. I convinced myself (and my wife) that I wanted to try it out. I ended up playing it for 30 days on average of 4 hours a day. This was from Dec 15 or so 2004 to Jan 15ish 2005. Needless to say, I didn't get much sleep then. I cancelled my account at the time because it wasn't very healthy for me. And my poor wife was suffering a lot from my addictive behavior to world of warcrack. (For more on the actualities of this crack-like behaviour see this article about it.

Apparently I was pretty pathetic because after 6 months of moping my wife finally gave me the OK to re-open my WoW account.

I still don't get much sleep, though not always for the same reasons. Some things never change. =)

In July I got the approval from my wife to re-purchase the game. (Another time I'll tell you my story of Guild Wars, and maybe even my "Game development" background.) Why you ask? Well, long story. The short answer, for now, is that I, as a gamer, am changing, evolving. And yes, maybe even dying. World of Warcraft is (probably) my last ditch effort to secure my place as a "hardcore" or "serious" gamer.

World of Warcraft (WoW for short) is quite fun. I'd say up until about level 45ish you can play all by yourself and don't have to have any outside help. This experience rivals any single player RPG computer game out there hands down. There's good reason why this game is so popular. (hint: the extra $15 a month is worth the price in entertainment value compared to other online games) And there's so MUCH to do, so much to explore. I like that part of it quite a bit. Discovery. Something new. The characters are varied and have great backgrounds. There's a good storyline going on and you can tell a lot of love went into the game at the early levels. My wife, the non-gamer even liked it.

WoW is where much of my free time gets spent, what little I have in the late hours of the night. Is it a waste? Sure, probably. Better than sitting in front of the TV for an hour or two a night though. And it keeps my inner child alive. All may be unwell in Azeroth, but having a peek is working out great for me.

As for me being a dying gamer... well, next time I'll say a bit about pinball and how that ties into all of this. Until then.