The Griffon News

If you’ve noticed your roommate or significant other acting strange lately, muttering about Blood Elves and Azeroth as they shuffle back to the computer, don’t worry. It’s just World of Warcraft.

World of Warcraft, also known as WoW is a massive multiplayer, online role-playing game in which players explore landscape, fight monsters and perform quests for which they are rewarded with various items that allow players to increase their skill level and power.

Players may also battle against one another or band together with other players to form alliances within the game.

Western student Emily Redman has been playing World of Warcraft for about six months, after her boyfriend introduced her to the game.

Redman believes there has been an increase in the games popularity recently, due to the release of the first WoW expansion pack, The Burning Crusade, as well as media attention.

“Since The Burning Crusade came out, World of Warcraft has seen a lot of attention through the media,” Redman said. “And there has been a lot of overcrowding of servers.”

With over eight million players registered on the game, Redman finds it hard to get bored.

“Where many-role playing games lack content, World of Warcraft is a very immense world with years’ worth of quests and adventures,” Redman said. “I know people that have been playing since it came out and they still aren’t bored because there is so much to do and discover in the game.”

Redman and her boyfriend are such enthusiasts about the game, he recently bought his own computer, and she set up her own account within the game, so the two would stop fighting over whose turn it was to play.

“Now we play together, and I think it has made our relationship better,” Redman said. “Some people might think that it’s pretty drastic to get a computer just to play a game, but it’s still easy to balance real life and gaming.”

Because much of World of Warcraft’s upperlevel quests depend on players forming alliances and working together, players often interactwith one another within the game, building friendships as they go along.

“I enjoy all of my friends that I have made in game,” Redman said. “It’s really crazy how you can connect with people all over the country.”

Western student Meghan Downey enjoys the game for a variety of reasons, including its ability to allow users to interact with people miles away.

“It’s a way for me to hang out with my best friend, even though she’s 1,200 miles away, and you still get to interact with real people and even make some new friends in the process,” said Downey, who has been playing the game since November 2006, after being introduced by a friend. On average, she plays about three to four hours a week.

“The longest I’ve ever played would be somewhere around the 10-hour mark,” Downey said. “Yeah, I know a complete waste of 10 hours, but if you’re being cheap and have nothing better to do, you might as well play since you’re already paying for it.”

WoW is subscription based, meaning in addition to buying the actual program, players must subscribe to the game, paying a monthly fee to remain on the server on which they play.

The games come with one month of free game play. After a month, players must purchase additional time using a credit card or prepaid game card. Prepaid game cards are sold for
$30 and provide a user with 60 days worth of game play.

With members paying for the service, addiction to the game cannot be only time consuming and unhealthy, but expensive.

“There was a time I became so obsessed, I spent $100 to have a character power leveled so I could join my friends in another server and explore outland with them,” said Shane Braco, a Western student who has been playing WoW since its release. “This was recent, and I’m ashamed of what I did, because I consider it cheating.”

Braco has several friends he says put the game before anything else in their day, and it’s gotten worse since the release of the expansion pack.

“My friend from work got into it, and within less than a month, he got so obsessed he bought a bot, which is a program that plays the game for you, and spent over a $1,000 on accounts,” Braco said.

Much of the media coverage WoW has received lately is due in part to many of the users who have become addicted to the game, including reports of alleged child neglect and death, due to excessive playing of World of Warcraft. Meghan Downey doesn’t know anyone personally who is addicted to the game but has heard stories of addiction.

“I think that some people seek a certain kind of refuge in the game, a place where no one can judge you on how you dress, or look, or what kind of grades you get,” Downey said. “But I also believe that if you have friends that invite you to go party, or play some basketball, you should get off your butt and go.”

While Downey enjoys playing the game, she doesn’t think it’s worth damaging the relationships that exist outside of cyberspace.

“You can log off the game, and it will be right where you left it when you get back,” she said. “But your friends will drop you if you constantly blow them off to level up your toon [character].”

Downey doesn’t consider herself a hardcore gamer, and World of Warcraft is the first role-playing game she’s ever been a part of.

“I never thought that I could really get into the whole online gaming thing, but curiosity got the best of me, and needless to say I enjoy playing World of Warcraft,” Downey said. “But I do believe that if World of Warcraft ever gets taken offline, I won’t pick up another game to take its spot.”

Western student Katie Penland created the Facebook group, “WoW, when does it end?” It is a sort-of support group of WoW players, and WoW widows – the forgotten significant others of WoW junkies. She doesn’t play WoW herself, but she often finds herself surrounded by avid players of the game, including her boyfriend and several friends.

“It’s crazy being on the outside looking in,” Penland said. “I’ve never played, but I’m frequently around people that do. It’s like they have their own language between one another that makes no sense unless you play. It’s quite funny to sit and listen to them carry on about the game sometimes.”

Penland started the group as a joke amongst her friends, both WoW players and non-players alike, as a way to bring people together and share their opinions on the game.

“At first I hated World of Warcraft with a passion, because of how addicting I saw that it could be,” Penland said. “But I realized that it wasn’t fair for me to try and come between someone and [his or her] hobby.”

While Penland doesn’t know anyone personally who qualifies as a full-fledged WoW addict, she has heard stories about people who tune out of reality, preferring to live in the fictional
world provided by the game.

“I think there is a fine line between playing a few times a week to hours everyday,” Penland said. “It can get pretty scary when someone chooses to live their life through the game.”