World of Warcrack... yes it pretty much is

Ok, i admit it. I am addicted to WoW (still). And I am a bit late since everyone else has blogged about their own experiences.

So I was excited to hear that we were covering online gaming specifically emphasizing World of Warcraft. I didn't know about the sexist issues that existed in WoW until this paper. I also didn't know this game could kill you too. I genuinely thought WoW consisted of dungeon-confined-males-who-only-play-games-to-prove-their-masculinity. In fact there were a lot of female players who act in such superior manner to prove they are equal to their male counterparts.

When people meet me and find out I play this unfortunate game, they firstly laugh then tell me how they cannot imagine me play this sort of game, let alone play games. Yes I am female, and no I don't look like Muriel Goldman off Family Guy. So what if I play such a "loserish" game? I still have real friends.

I actually decided to self-experiment on myself to try and understand why mmorpgs were so popular and addictive. I've played Warcraft since the IBM's were the IT thing in the early '90s. World of Warcraft happened to offer me a trial period, so I was bored and streamed the cursed thing. Wham, after my level 20 cap was reached I couldn't stand not leveling up so I went to Dick Smith and brought the game. I thought I'd only play Burning Crusade and not buy Lich King. I was wrong, I was itching for it so I went and brought it (sigh).

I now understand the full effects of how dangerous WoW can be. Outside of the game: teasing from friends, wasting money on monthly subscriptions, being a hermit and only interacting with a bunch of avatars who are behind the screen. In-game: Bullying from other players because you are a "noob", and of course sexist treatment. I've had sleepless nights due raiding at ridiculous hours to thinking about WoW and even dreaming about WoW.

It is totally true what they say about sexism and WoW. I got treated more differently playing a female avatar. I even got a marriage offer and an in-game stalker out of it! I never took the game seriously, but the people in the game did. If you YouTube World Of Warcraft addict, there are plenty of documentaries of the effects of addiction to this game. I don't know what it is, but to someone who doesn't play, it's comparable to someone addicted to Facebook. I can't even tell you myself why I still play after trying to quit.

Here's something that can explain addiction or WoW or something similar...