Seven Things I Learned from World of Warcraft
Those who’ve seen my movie, The Nines, can infer that I had a bit of a World of Warcraft problem back in the day. “The day” being a period of about four months in which most of my waking hours were spent either playing the game or wanting to. The luxury and danger of being a screenwriter is an abundance of unstructured time. WoW can eat hours in a gulp.
Moderation just didn’t work. I had to give it up cold-turkey, canceling my account and throwing out the install disks. With my newfound time, I had a kid, wrote a couple of movies and directed one of my own.
I have few regrets about giving up Warcraft. But in retrospect, I did learn some valuable things from my time in Azeroth, lessons that have stuck with me. So I thought I’d share a few.
1. Kill injured monsters first
When facing multiple bad guys, the temptation is to go after the one who’s hitting you hardest. This is often a mistake. That injured razorback, the one who is running away? He’ll be back in 15 seconds, likely with other baddies in tow. So take a few clicks to kill him now. Once he’s dead, you can focus completely on the guy who’s smacking you.
The real world may not have druids and paladins, but it’s chock full of monsters. They’re called “term papers” and “errands” and “mysterious car problems.” At any given moment, there may be one monster that looms larger than all of the others, who clearly needs to be attacked. But before you do, look around for injured monsters — the half-finished tasks that probably need only a few more minutes to complete. If you don’t deal with them now, they’ll be a constant distraction, and may eventually come back stronger.
This “injured monster theory” is why I try to return every phone call the day I receive it, and respond to every email within 24 hours. If a warning light comes on in my car, I go to the mechanic that day. Whenever I find myself thinking, “I need to remember to…” then I know I’ve failed. I don’t need to remember. I need to do. I need to finish.
2. Grinding is part of the game…
In WoW parlance, “grinding” is the process of killing a bunch of fairly easy monsters, one after the other, strictly to rack up loot and experience. There’s no adventure to it, no real challenge. It’s tedious and mindless, but it’s often the fastest way to level up, which is why everyone does it.
Daily life is full of mindless tedium, but there’s an important distinction: grinding has a point. While the task may be dull and carpal tunnel-aggravating, there’s a clear goal. You’re doing X in order to get Y. You’re xeroxing scripts in the William Morris mailroom in order to get a job as an assistant. You’re proofreading your script for the seventh time in order to send it to your friend, who works for that producer. You have to be willing to do serious grunt work in order to move ahead.
3. …But grinding is not the game
It’s easy to confuse what you’re doing with why you’re doing it. Just remember: you’re not paying $15 a month to kill the same set of spawning critters. Grinding is a means of achieving a specific goal, whereas the game itself is supposed to be entertaining. So once you level (or get enough deer skins to fabricate that armor), stop grinding and start exploring.
I worked for a year as a reader at Tri-Star, writing coverage on 10 scripts or books a week. It was good money, $65 a shot, but it was wearying. Most of the scripts were terrible. Apart from offering lessons-to-avoid, there wasn’t any point in reading them other than the money. But I convinced myself I was “working in the industry,” so I kept reading them, one after the other, dutifully writing up my synopses and comments. Executives would congratulate me on my witty notes, and there was some suggestion that I could get a job in development. So I quit.
In place of reading, I got a mindless internship in physical production at Universal: filing, copying, researching clearances. I didn’t use my brain once. That left me with abundant energy when I got home from work, and with it I finished two scripts.
Both jobs were quintessential “day jobs.” In theory, writing coverage should have been the better job, because it was closer to screenwriting. And truthfully, I did learn some valuable things–for the first month or two. After that, it was a whole lotta more of the same. The second job was a better fit because there was no confusing it with my true ambitions.
4. Give away stuff to newbies
You start the game with almost nothing: a weapon and the shirt on your back. Each new piece of gear you accumulate is tremendously exciting. Cloth armor seems luxurious. But as you level up, that early gear becomes increasingly irrelevant and basically worthless. It’s not worth the trip to the store to sell it. So don’t. Instead, run back to the newbie lands, find the first character of your class, and hand him all the stuff you don’t want. It will take two minutes of your time, but give the newbie a tremendous head start. (Not to mention building your karma.)
This site, johnaugust.com, is really just me running back to the newbie lands and giving away what I can. There’s no financial incentive in it for me. I could certainly put my advice in a book and charge $15.95 for it. But I see it as the take-a-penny, leave-a-penny flow of information. On a daily basis, I find myself searching the web for answers on topics in which I’m a newbie (Flash programming, DC mythology, teaching toddlers to swim) and leaving thankful that someone out there took the time to write a tutorial on exactly what I needed. So in exchange, I write up what I know about screenwriting.
If everyone took the time to build a site about the areas of their expertise, the world would be significantly cooler.
5. Keep track of your quests
WoW is refreshingly open-ended–you could spend all your time skinning bears, if you felt like it. In order to provide a sense of structure, the game helpfully provides quests: multi-step missions, generally to collect, kill or deliver something. While the system does a solid job tracking these official endeavors (”13 out of 25 tusks”), most of the time what you’re really trying to do (”find a better shield”) is frustratingly amorphous. The trick is to identify these unofficial quests and break them down into distinct steps:
* browse the auctions to compare prices
* pick preferred shield
* sell off unneeded linen to raise needed cash
* bid
At any given point, you may have 10 of these pseudo-quests, and unless you take charge of them, you’re liable keep running around, cursing your stupid shield.
GTD enthusiasts would label these WoW quests “projects,” and each of the bullet points “next actions.” That’s geekery, but it’s an acknowledgment that most of life’s work consists of a bunch of little activities in the service of a larger goal. You don’t write a script; you write a scene. You don’t design a website; you tweak the CSS so the navigation looks better. No matter what the project is, you can’t finish until you get started, and you can’t get started until you figure out the steps.
6. Storage is costly
Perhaps sensing that messy teenage boys are a key demographic, World of Warcraft won’t let you leave something on the ground. If you don’t pick up that fallen warhammer, it will vanish, never to return. So one quickly learns the importance of storage: belts, bags, backpacks and chests. Unfortunately, there’s never nearly enough space, and adding more becomes ridiculously expensive. (That’s by design, clearly. The developers want to minimize hoarding.) So always keep in mind the carrying costs. If you never use that second bow, get rid of it, and use those slots for something you need.
Unlike World of Warcraft (or hard drives in the 90’s), digital storage is now cheap. Crazy cheap. I remember having to carefully comb through my hard drive, trying to figure out exactly what I could purge in order to install the newest version of Quark XPress. Today, I have 80 gigs available on my startup drive, and this was the first time I checked in over a year.
But while the cost of bit storage has plummeted, the cost of storing atoms is still huge. My neighbors just had a POD delivered, essentially a cargo container that gets trucked off. I’ve watched as they’ve filled it with furniture and boxes, all the time wondering, “Is all that stuff really worth keeping?” It’s like paying rent on things you already own.
Last year, we cleaned out our garage. Instead of a traditional yard sale, we did a virtual version. We took pictures of everything we were getting rid of, built a page in Backpack, and sent the link to all our friends. Whoever wanted something could email us and take it. They got a free desk, and we got a free garage.
7. Overthinking takes the fun out of it
Remember, the game is supposed to be fun. Yes, you can spend hours pouring through the forums, finding exactly the right talent tree. Or you could wing it: explore some new lands and kill some big monsters. Obsessive planning won’t make the game more enjoyable. It will just make it more like work.
I’m often asked about outlines and treatments, and whether they’re necessary before sitting down to write a script. They’re not. Like a map, they can help you figure out where you’re going, but when you follow them too closely, you’re apt to miss a lot of amazing scenery along the way.
On a bigger level, as you look back at any period of your life, you don’t remember what a solid plan you had. You remember what you did. You remember the adventures, the scrapes, the unanticipated detours that turned out to fascinating. So don’t plan your way out of an exciting life.
If you agree, feel free to digg it.
Articles
February 14th, 2007 at 4:10 pm
Very cool. I liked #3 the best. I just mentioned this on one of the WoW forums I read.
February 14th, 2007 at 4:24 pm
Doesn’t seem to belong in the Video category of digg. And also that’s the submission link.
Awesome stuff, though.
February 14th, 2007 at 4:39 pm
I’ve never played WoW, but I really enjoyed the post, great tips.
I’m currently reading GTD and trying to implement the teachings. On my computer I found these tips to be really helpful. I try to put everything I download or get e-mailed to me in the inbox and make sure to sort things through and clean it every day. It has really made life a bit easier.
I’m glad that you run back to the newbie lands to share your thoughts and expertise with us. I’ve learned a lot of tips and tricks from your blog and always feel inspired by your posts!
February 14th, 2007 at 4:48 pm
I clicked through following on Henjay’s posting. There are some wise words up there, and with a curiously apt parallel. Thank you.
February 14th, 2007 at 7:51 pm
The FIRST John August I didn’t read. I know what Warcraft is, that’s about it. I’m speaking for thousands upon thousands when I ask: When can your fans see a trailer for The Nines? Just a ballpark guess on the neighborhood of the date. 2 weeks? 2 months?
JOHN: “Always leave’m wanting more.”
February 14th, 2007 at 7:58 pm
Cold turkey is the only way to go.
Like opening Final Draft and facing the blank page wasn’t difficult enough. But now it is side by side by the WoW icon. Hmmm… Maybe if I just play a little… It’ll be inspiring, or something.
Ironically, my g/f wrote a thinly veiled short that won some money on my past WoW habit. At least someone got something out of the addiction.
February 14th, 2007 at 8:49 pm
I totally agree with #4. I realized that the literature review section of my dissertation has a ton of information that took me a lot of time to accumulate because the knowledge wasn’t easily available. So, I just copy-and-pasted it to Wikipedia. I’ve been urging other grad students to do the same thing.
February 14th, 2007 at 9:03 pm
Joel (#5):
We actually do have a trailer cut, but there are lotsa folks who have to weigh in on it, so I don’t thik it will be two weeks. Two months is optimistic, but keep in mind, I’m an optimist.
February 14th, 2007 at 9:08 pm
You’re not going to start writing up a WoW film, are you John?
I’ve never played the game, but I’ve definitely got geeky friends.
It’s amazing how much analogies can make you comprehend something easier.
February 14th, 2007 at 9:09 pm
Haha funny, I’ve been playing WoW for more than a year…
Keep the blogs comin’ (especially on The Nines!)
February 14th, 2007 at 10:28 pm
I read this as I am on the Flight Path from StV to UC. I am in need of cold turkey.
February 14th, 2007 at 11:21 pm
Flash programming, DC mythology, teaching toddlers to swim….. did someone say DC MYTHOLOGY?! Spill the beans, it’s “Wonder Woman”, isn’t it?!
February 15th, 2007 at 12:03 am
mage? gnome? snowy noobland? my WoW account is still active (second time around) but i dont use it as much as i used to. and by the way, i dont find WoW to be that open ended. Want an open ended uber geekish MMO? try eve online. it’s like starting a new career..
February 15th, 2007 at 12:47 am
Haha, this is funny. And it’s kind of cool that you’ve been addicted to WoW.
February 15th, 2007 at 1:08 am
Or he’s going to write/direct a “Flash” movie starring his new buddy Ryan Reynolds! It’s like Soderbergh and Clooney.
February 15th, 2007 at 2:47 am
Re point 4 - I love the fact that this site is free, so please keep going at it - but I would buy a book if you wrote one.
February 15th, 2007 at 3:50 am
I play WoW and live my life according to number #2.
Life is about grinding it out. It is shear discipline - doing what you’re supposed to do, when you’re supposed to do it, whether you want to or not.
Grinding is boring to be sure. But I level up faster that way than doing some quest that has me running all over the place to deliver stuff, or looking for an item.
Whether you’re selling houses, or writing a book, sometimes you just have to crank it out and hope something good comes from it.
Go forth and grind!
Thanks!
February 15th, 2007 at 5:19 am
how about?
8 - Everything gets easier when you play well with others.
Seriously. If you’re nice to people, they will help you. That quest that’s been kicking your ass in a coldblooded fashion? If you pick up a couple of friends those Murlocs will be begging for mercy in no time. Mercy which you shall deny them.
9 - Be sure to take the time to kill the Murlocs.
No higher point here - I just hate Murlocs.
I too quit cold turkey. And even though it’s been three months, I still find myself pressing the numlock key in an effort to power through the boring parts of the day. Such is recovery.
And seriously, write a book. You can mirror all the content on your site so it is still available for free. But people like books. And you’ll have something to sign.
February 15th, 2007 at 6:02 am
John,
that was one hell of an amazing and insightful post . . . thank you . . .
February 15th, 2007 at 7:27 am
You’re a class act John! WoW is hard to do in moderation … love this enough that I linked it on our guild site
Rock on!
February 15th, 2007 at 9:37 am
“Screenwriter/Director John August (The Nines, Big Fish, Corpse Bride) shares some real world lessons that he learned while playing World of Warcraft. “I have few regrets about giving up Warcraft. But in retrospect, I did learn some valuable things from my time in Azeroth, lessons that have stuck with me.”
lol what the hell kind of lessons are these?
February 15th, 2007 at 11:32 am
Thank you for this post. I have recently finished reading a book entitled “everything bad is good for you”. This post explaines the point my book percisley. Parents see there kids playing video games as a mindless waste of time and tell them it will only rot there brain, but with the recent complexity in games when compareing them to early games such as pong, there are valuble skills that can be learned from gameing that can be transfered into the real world. Who ever reads your post and likes it should certanley check out the book “everything thats bad is good for you” it covers gaming, movies, TV, and more.
February 15th, 2007 at 11:36 am
As a business owner and manager of a creative team I’ve always found it interesting how similar group instances were to my day to day work. You assemble the right team, fight through a difficult dungeon and bosses, and give the loot to those that need it so that in a larger scope the group become more effective. In business we do the same thing, only the drops are always revenue and we spend it on better tools for those that need it most. Im not sure if Blizzard is aware how much the game design mirrors real life models but its surely the mark of a brilliant team of people.
February 15th, 2007 at 11:43 am
This made my day. However in response to #4 you cannot give stuff you have already worn to newbies, they are soul bound ~_^
February 15th, 2007 at 12:23 pm
As a sometime entrepreneur who can easily get off track following the ‘willow-o-wisp’ of a new idea, I really gravitate to quality “life” advice like this. These are great organizational and time-management principles applicable to practically any endeavor. thanks, it was a great read
February 15th, 2007 at 12:41 pm
Great article, John - we’ll be talking about it this week on Tech Talk with Chase and Sam (www.chaseandsam.com)
I think I’m at a pretty similar point with WoW as you are - it has consumed so much time, and is so addictive that I don’t think moderation will hack it - my account, and my Night Elf Hunter, will have to die one day soon. But not today.
February 15th, 2007 at 1:09 pm
Re: #6. Storage is Costly Freecycle is a good way to rid yourself of good items that you no longer need. Just post an e-mail to their list and a friendly person in your area will reply and you two can arrange to give the item away. I have given away many items that I have no need for, but they nice people that recieved them definitely needed it. There are Freecycle groups in almost every town. Check out their main web site: http://www.freecycle.org/
February 15th, 2007 at 1:39 pm
The GTD link should point to davidco.com, not davidallen.org.
February 15th, 2007 at 3:56 pm
I also noticed that subtle DC reference. I think John is being flighty again. We must cage him, someone grab the nets.
February 15th, 2007 at 4:01 pm
Ever heard of Eve Online? Heroin is not very adictive compared to Eve….
February 15th, 2007 at 4:31 pm
This is awesome and I couldn’t agree more. My account just expired yesterday (2/14/07) exactly 2 years to the day after I first logged onto WOW. I can’t believe it’s been that long and how many hours I’ve “played” that game. It was fun, certainly, but it’s also incrediblly easy to avoid real life things when wow is soo much easier to feel productive in. I remember logging out and feeling very productive then I’d remember that I hadn’t paid the bills, my homework still need to be done and my bathroom need cleaning. So eventhough I had been productive in the game, nothing that really needed to be done was done….oh well…play more wow and forget it.
You’re analogies were spot on! Great stuff!
February 15th, 2007 at 7:31 pm
Great post, and since you mentioned it, if you come across any good links on teaching toddlers to swim, could you post them? (under your Off Topic category, I guess)
February 15th, 2007 at 11:15 pm
[...] 15th, 2007 · No Comments John August, screen writer for films like Big Fish, is an absolute genius. His recent post on 7things he learned from playing WoW hit a home run as far as I’m concerned. I’ve played that game to death, resurrected it, then played it to death again. Everything he goes on about in the post I’ve thought about before while playing but his presentation just goes to show you why Big Fish was such a well adapted movie. Read it and smile his comparisons and applications were brilliant. [...]
February 16th, 2007 at 5:54 am
Thank you for taking you time to write this. It really does change my view on how I could apply WOW to life.
February 16th, 2007 at 6:35 am
[...] Den lysande manusförfattaren John August listar på sin mycket pedagogiska blogg sju saker han lärde sig av World of Warcraft. En fullträff. [...]
February 16th, 2007 at 8:34 am
Very nice post. I wanted to mention that you’ve scratched the surface of a much larger dialogue going on at the moment. I am myself a researcher (read graduate student) involved with games and learning, and while the take aways you’ve described here are quite relevant (and Patrick’s point 8 is also crucial), there’s a whole depth of conversation that’s very live right now on the value of games including WoW. Interested? The following are just a few resources worth exploring if you are:
http://terranova.blogs.com/
http://www.seriousgames.org/
http://epistemicgames.org/
& I would be remiss not to mention Games Learning & Society out here in Madison, WI. No link b/c our site isn’t live yet, but it will be in the very near future.
February 16th, 2007 at 10:01 am
Cold-turkey is the only way to go! I had to destroy the install disks too
This is a hilarious post!
February 16th, 2007 at 10:08 am
Great article. I kicked the habit about 6 months ago, but still find myself wanting to smoke-bomb-roar into a giant tiger to run faster. I’m a filmmaker, but wrote my senior thesis on WoW and related video games, it was titled something like ‘Options frame reality’.
Someone mentioned that you can’t give away sb items to newbies. But you can vendor and give them the gold, I used to do this pretty often mostly to guildies, but a nice world drop green would go to the nearest 10-20. zomglazergunspewpew, and scene.
February 16th, 2007 at 1:31 pm
Lesson #8. When all else fails, there’s always another solution…aka Chinese gold farmers.
February 16th, 2007 at 2:31 pm
I wrote something about the unique experience of playing the game about a year ago:
Nettertainment: Warcraft
February 16th, 2007 at 3:30 pm
As a Wow fan (turned Vanguard SOH fan - heh) I can relate quite well to all of these . Very well thought-out and written. Definately worth the read, especially (but not limited to) MMORPG fans
February 17th, 2007 at 11:13 am
Screenwriting blogs were my addiction. Limited myself to yours and two others. Went cold turkey on Done Deal.
February 17th, 2007 at 3:50 pm
Stunning and insightful read.
KUDOS!!!
February 17th, 2007 at 5:34 pm
Your compassion for newbies is inspiring. If only more people would do things like that, it would make the world and revive multiplayer gaming.
February 17th, 2007 at 5:43 pm
it’s funny how many writers i’ve noticed play/played wow. I used to be really addicted. I bought it 12:00am at a Walmart and then proceded to fail all my classes. Good bye out of state tuition!
February 17th, 2007 at 6:46 pm
[...] johnaugust.com » Seven Things I Learned from World of Warcraft [...]
February 17th, 2007 at 11:20 pm
If you are addicted to WOW, you can just get a kid account. Make a trusted other (ex. spouse) set up your account like a kid account and restrict the hours when you can play. When time’s up, you just autolog out. And since you don’t know the password (only your trusted other does), you can’t change it.
February 18th, 2007 at 8:48 am
[...] World of Warcraft can teach us valuable life lessons. No, really - see, respectable people say so. [...]
February 18th, 2007 at 9:49 am
One of the best posts.. thanks JA. I was having a particularly bad day doing grunt work.. saw the Nines (work for a distributor thinking of picking it up), Congratulations! although my boss might not have gotten the movie. I’ve been following the site for 2+ years now, thanks for all the posts.
February 19th, 2007 at 3:20 am
A great article with awesome insights. If everybody was this nice to newbies, when those newbies grow up they’d be a whole lot nicer (and who knows, maybe even help other newbies!)
February 19th, 2007 at 7:00 am
DC, DC, DC????My guess is flash, but who knows.
Great post- A books worth of advice in under 2000 words.
February 19th, 2007 at 8:37 am
[...] Seven Things I Learned from World of Warcraft is a good list of lessons [...]
February 19th, 2007 at 6:23 pm
[...] johnaugust.com » Seven Things I Learned from World of Warcraft [...]
February 20th, 2007 at 11:00 am
It’s the SUPERMAN sequel…admitt it!!
February 20th, 2007 at 2:35 pm
[...] Screenwriter John August recently wrote about 7 things he learned during his 4 month immersion in World of Warcraft. [...]
February 21st, 2007 at 9:59 am
Love number 4. I made a character on my friend’s realm, because he said that he would give me money+stuff.
February 21st, 2007 at 10:07 am
John,
I’m sure you’ll be getting a lot of comments today given that your post just showed up on WoWInsider, but nonetheless, I’m gonna throw one at you today too…
Aside from a full-time job and acting at the Esper Studio, I’ve noticed how playing WoW has, if anything, saps creativity from me. It dulls me, the only thing I think I have EVER tapped out of WoW has been rage…lol (those lowsy moments of having spent awhile doing something, only to fail miserably). Don’t get me wrong, the emotion was beautiful, but intrinisically, like the corporate world, it dries you out…
So, I’m going to the WoW version of AA, smoking 3 packs a day, and drinking like a fiend. Well, not really, but I assume that’s what it will come to…lol.
Take care, and I feel very happy for you to have welcomed a child.
Gratz, Chris
February 21st, 2007 at 11:06 am
[...] What stands out about his article, ‘Seven Things I Learned from World of Warcraft‘, is that he’s taken what he learned in-game and applied it to his now WoW-free life. I found it amusing and also semi-educational, if not a bit GTD in inspiration. So go hop over and take a read, then come add to his list. What life-lessons have you learned from the World of Warcraft? [...]
February 22nd, 2007 at 3:35 am
Not really related, but congratulations on Optimum picking up The Nines for a UK release. Looking forward to seeing it.
February 22nd, 2007 at 6:39 am
OK…here I go doing my best William Shatner impersonation when he was on Saturday Night Live…
GET A LIFE!
I mean, seriously folks…the enormous amount of time and effort that these MMORGS take sound an awful lot like WORK, and you aren’t getting PAID for this work, you are paying money to play the games.
Ok, we all have our hobbies, we all have things that bring meaning to our lives that other people can’t or won’t understand or accept. Most of us reading this blog have the freedom to pursue these games.
But I’m convinced that the users of these games are starting to get more and more of a raw deal. The rates keep going up, and the time that you need to do grinding and organizing instead of slaying the big golden dragon keep going up as well.
Oh well…it’s a free market…let the players decide.
February 22nd, 2007 at 9:06 am
Awsome, im going to post a link from my websight if you dont mind.
February 22nd, 2007 at 10:38 am
wow! cold turkey and destroying the CDs of WoW…boy did that bring back a memory. I can STILL remember see the shards of the install discs in the trash. I still remember talking in the general chat right before my last logoff and deleting my character. (I was having fun telling people they could buy gold.) Except, the bad part….blizzard can down into the storage bowels and return your character to the life. I made the mistake of requesting this. Now, I became obsessed all over again and hurried my little character up to 70. But, this time instead of simply deleting my character…I’m doing one better. EBAY! I may as well make a little cash to help out my family I’ve neglected the past 5 months…sigh, sorry all. I’m coming back though.
February 22nd, 2007 at 10:35 pm
I don’t mean to offend but I’m not familiar with your movie work, but I do play WoW. I think what you’ve done here is great! Taking the in-game experiences and using them to illustrate sound, good, everyday, practical advice impressed me greatly. So even though I did not know your name before and have not seen your movies, you have gained at least one fan by sharing your lessons learned.
February 23rd, 2007 at 10:07 am
My Two cents:
We are all just 13 year old AD&D geeks just waiting to show our +3 Holy sword.
I better JA could write one hell of a AD&D campaign.
As a side note :
I was told some years back that Robin Williams hosted a Warcraft table game. I would have loved to be a fly on the wall for that one.
February 23rd, 2007 at 1:34 pm
WoW is a great game… and it’s amazing how games and lots of other stuff can apply to life. Ya just have to spin it the right way.
I agree hooking the noobies and lowbies up with stuff when ya get it, it feels good.
February 23rd, 2007 at 7:20 pm
Just checking in to leave my two-cents of gratitude, echoing Andreas Climent and the long list of others (65 up to now, to my count)
February 23rd, 2007 at 7:23 pm
doh- I meant, ‘by my count’ (jeesh!*!)
February 27th, 2007 at 12:58 am
I found the link to your blog on a Hungarian WoW site. They mentioned it’s worth to take a look. I didn’t mind to visit that part of your blog, however I’m not into screenwriting.
I know that WoW helped me to tame my anger in real life because the social part of WoW forced me to be more susceptible to human feelings, emotions than ever before.
I had a hard time in WoW in the beginnings, cos I behaved as a “lone wolf” trying to solve everything alone, getting goals alone.
Now I can accept the help of others (which I never did before) and I experience that my real life became better - cos my social abilities developed.
March 1st, 2007 at 10:46 am
Just got the link from Digg and bookmarked
March 2nd, 2007 at 12:20 am
Are you implying, via this metaphor, that life is something that will consume all your time and take over your life? That’s just nonsensical enough to sound philosophical.
March 11th, 2007 at 6:02 am
Great entry. I am a WarCRACK addict myself. I gave it up for a while then I realized something. My creative juices had stopped flowing. I started playing again and the writers block was gone. I needed the character interaction to spark new ideas. This is a wonderful entry, I am a hugh fan. Thanks.
March 11th, 2007 at 7:58 am
I’m in China.I’m one of the player.Thanks for your dairy,it makes me clear what I should do. I’m still a university student.But I put too much time on the game.It cast me two of my curriculums “NOT PASS”.So…I have more things to do this term.
March 11th, 2007 at 9:07 pm
After I have read all the writing over,I recognized what i could found out in WOW is so limited.Maybe the Raids are only things i have made,surely,it dosen’t make any sense now.CWOW and The 9 City,all of these make me so disappointed to keep along.Maybe a Worst Server can bring the same result of leaving this game(^_^).Now I here read your impression as the smae as I struggled against the feeling before.Like the man upstairs,i am also a college student from China.Alexiar yours truly
March 11th, 2007 at 9:29 pm
ps:I love your movies so much(perhaps the movie names are wrong because I only see the Chinese names) 1ã€?Charlie and the Chocolate Factory(really funny) 2ã€?Corpse Bride(I love the music of the movie,but the music CD’s are not sold in China.so i play the movie on computer while write pappers……)
March 11th, 2007 at 11:29 pm
I’m Chinese too. I found this topic on domestic WOW site, and read through it. I had ever played wow in the past times when it’s first opened in China. After a depraved year I quitted from it. Just because I was graduated. I do miss that period of time not only for wow but also for my life of college. Playing wow can never made me as fever as past,I think.
March 12th, 2007 at 12:27 am
I am a player from China, and I like “The.Corpse.Bride� very much.
March 12th, 2007 at 4:41 am
也许是真的
March 12th, 2007 at 9:11 am
The game was over ,but the life will be go on.Then we can learn more in our life.Thanks a lot.that’s a excellent dairy.by the way, I’m a chinese,either
March 12th, 2007 at 6:45 pm
作为个ä¸å›½çŽ©å®¶,对于美国的WOW里的”Chinese gold farmers.” 表示é?—憾…
March 13th, 2007 at 7:55 pm
I read this article posted in one Chinese website. But I thought I shoule say thanks to U HERE.
March 16th, 2007 at 5:56 am
I am a Chiese high school boy.One day I find that I lost myself.WOW causes much sorrow to me.My stday more and more bader.Every classmate’s words let me think of WOW.But I can’t say bye to WOW……If you can help me.Please write E-mail to me. fw-panda@163.com
March 19th, 2007 at 12:02 am
A lot of my friends have been trying to talk me in to playing WOW. I’m sure I’d enjoy it but I’m equally sure I’d overdo it. I’m happy enough to keep on playing my single player games like Gothic3 and Oblivion.
March 20th, 2007 at 8:37 pm
wow…thats genious….congrats, and very wise words, my friend
May 31st, 2007 at 6:13 pm
I’ve just started my third day without WoW after spending almost every waking, non-working moment of the last 15 months playing. I’ve had insomnia for months, but the last two nights… I’ve slept like a baby. That’s got to mean something.
-CSL
June 25th, 2007 at 2:32 am
Hmm… I haven’t played WOW, but I have played blizzards free games Diablo and Warcraft. I think paying monthly for online games is the thin end of the wedge… pretty soon the game companies will be charging your credit card by the minute.
Has anyone seen the South Park WOW episode, it was awesome, laughed my ass off.
WOW $15 a month you say… surely you jest sir… I can buy 3 pints of cold beer for that princely sum.
July 11th, 2007 at 5:41 am
To Henry @ 85: you are entitled to your opinion ofcourse, but the monthly fee for playing Warcraft is quite cheap if you consider the number of minutes of sheer fun… a lot cheaper than, say, a visit to your local cinema.
The most important thing I learned from playing Warcraft is: don’t take the remarks of others too seriously and keep believing in yourself. So many times a single insult swept me off my feet for days because I wanted to be loved by all, not be called names and getting mud thrown in my face. Once, when I was a member of a big guild, someone started to insult me in a very rude way which made me stop posting on the guild forum. A few months later I met someone in-game and had a great time with him, only to find out that he was the one who had insulted me. When I told him, he said: “Oh, that! I did not mean a single word of it, that is just me and the way I sometimes talk to people. You did not think I was serious, did you?”
So I learned not to get knocked off my feet so easily by something another person says. It has helped me to cope with real life issues, too. Not bad for a computer game, eh?
July 18th, 2007 at 3:15 pm
Today, I quit Wow. I’d been playing pretty much non-stop for 5 months. I deleted my character, cancelled my account and uninstalled the game. Now maybe tomorrow I’ll pick up my guitar again, or draw something, or read a book. I remembered this article as soon as I quit. Hopefully I’ll regain some semblance of a normal life now. To anyone who’s thinking of quitting, do it now! To freedom!
July 24th, 2007 at 2:25 pm
Too funny….. it’s amazing what a google search for “Teaching Toddlers How To Swim,” will spit back!
November 15th, 2007 at 5:22 am
Hi John,
Just wanted to say that this is the third I’ve come back to this post, not only is it witty and fun, it’s relevant to so many other areas as well as screenwriting.
Good luck with the strike, I work in music copyright here in London so appreciate the necessity of fair payment for fair usage…
Kind Regards,
Patrick
November 16th, 2007 at 12:45 pm
i THINK WORLD OF WARCARFT IS A WELL THROUGHT OUT NAME BUT WHAT IS BAD IS THE WEBSITES THE SELL GOLD ANDPOWERLEVELING ANT HELPING BECAUSE YOU ARE CHEATING,IF YOU GO FROM 1 TO 70 YOU DONT GET TO MOST OF THE GAME APARTFROM THAT ITS COOL.
December 3rd, 2007 at 3:54 am
I AGREE JOSHUA!
December 5th, 2007 at 12:12 pm
hmm yes very good post and i can see how wow relates to life, another one could be one of the main things you do in wow, and that is battling. i even have a real life example.
this is someone else’s writing not mine :)…/
While out walking in the woods, Hans Jørgen Olsen and his 10 year old sister stumbled upon an enraged Moose. The animal attacked Hans’ sister, so in a bid to rescue the girl, Hans used a couple of tricks he’d learnt from playing WoW. First, he Taunted the Moose by hitting it repeatedly with a stick. Once he had the furious animal’s attention, he Feigned Death.
The Moose soon lost interest in Hans, thinking him dead, and went off about his business.
This is another lesson that wow teaches in life situations you may think to use your battle knowledge of wow
January 23rd, 2008 at 5:12 am
This game is really cool!!! i play it all the time but i can never get things that i really need on my own, so i have to twink my character to get armor that ill use for a while thats the challenging part. If you have a party member and you only play with that person, it can be helpful but you dont get as much exp though. But overall this is the best RPG i have ever played so far!!!!
February 1st, 2008 at 4:25 pm
John, this is a serious problem for some people, being addicted to Warcraft. I had a friend who worked here at Disney, albeit in a minor office position, but whose life was utterly absorbed by the game. The poor bastard went on and on and on about how he wanted to be a screenwriter, and never wrote a thing, or never finished a script when he would write, because he spent all his time playing this damned game. When an executive producer over at ABC TV found out he wanted to write, he called this friend of mine and asked him if he wanted to sit in on some writing sessions and learn something. My friend never called back, his excuse? “What if they’re disappointed in me?” That at first seems to have nothing to do with World of Warcraft, but he then decided, once he got some money from an accident he’d been in to live off of for awhile, to quit his job, ignore all offers of help and encouragment to write, and then sleep his days away while playing WoW all night.
I only mention this because I really cared for the guy and really hoped that he would do what he drove out here from Fort Collins, Colorado to accomplish - and that was to write screenplays and maybe short stories. I got so exasperated by his refusal to learn about the industry (he knew nothing about the great classic films that have lured most of us to this business) and his frustrating obsession with WoW, that I just couldn’t do it anymore, couldn’t try to hold the shreds of a friendship together. It was awful. I’m sure he doesn’t think so, but the rest of us who cared did.
Anyway, don’t know what he’s doing now. He may have moved from Burbank by now. He finally found a girlfriend and I was hoping that would make him more determined to do what he drove out here for but the last time I accidentally had to speak to him again, about a month ago, he still used the same spiel about wanting to concentrate on short stories and maybe a screenplay, all while getting part time work at Starbucks. (He left a “corporate evil” like Disney to work in a corporate evil like Starbucks).
Sorry for the long rant. It’s just that I used to be obsessed with video games and, though I’ve never played WoW, this incident with a friend I cared for deeply has left an awful pain. I hate to see people give up so easily on their dreams. Maybe it’s because I’ve fought so hard to try to realize mine.
February 26th, 2008 at 2:57 pm
Warcraft is evil? LOL seriously it is. 1)My ex cheated on me with a person they met through WOW. 2)My best friend of 2 years is no longer consider my friend cause they turned into an asshat by being overly obsessed about getting to a high-end instance and didnt care how they yelled, berated,insulted or treated people in the game. Justifying thier action by and i quote “Obviously you have never had a real job in a competetive world where your trying to be number one where bosses actually yell at there employees” So when did a game become a job where i had a foreman yelling at me from behind my back? 3)Met some one in game who played mind and emotional games with me. 4)Have back problems thanks to sitting on a chair for hours on end.
Seriously IMHO paying $14.99 a month for this kinda crap sure aint worth it.
February 27th, 2008 at 2:31 pm
No, it isn’t worth it. It can’t give you anything you can’t get out in the real world, with real people, breaking a real sweat, in real life. I used to be obsessed with vid games (of course, they were monochromatic then) but one afternoon realized I had been sitting there with my mouth hanging open for hours fighting to stay alive in a virtual world while I was dying in the real one. Sitting there dying, aging, as the sun passed over my head, and the earth hurtled through the universe, and here I was clinging to a box of controls that some corporate evil was desperately trying to keep me addicted to.
We live in a society so rich that grown men can afford to stay boys much longer than they should.