Greetings Musers:
Well it's been over six months since I last posted. It may have been another six months if a reader hadn't emailed me to see why the posts stopped in June. But that /player poke gave me the urge to put what's been mulling in my head for a while, but it really came to fruition this past Tuesday when I sat with a co-worker who's also an ex-wow player & we mused over why we quit the game & what we saw as the critical flaws in WOW. Granted we're both IT people so our views may be a little biased but he did agree with my points on the issues & the logic of our decisions.
I quit WOW back in August. Initially it was a response to a crisis of my own creation, & as a self-flagellation to the death of one of my pet chinchillas. I thought that if I had paid more attention to the little puff then maybe the issues he had would've have been more noticeable. and I could've saved him.
But as I've made peace with the fact that 1.) he was sick for a long time & 2.) his breeder stopped breeding chinchillas due to the issues with her herd. I forgave myself for his Death. Still though I quit WOW.
I have to admit it was very hard, the urge to play was strong. And oddly the person I had initially quit for, (my wife) actually encouraged me to play. Her argument was that it was my way of de-stressing & as long as I handled it in moderation she was fine with it. So I reloaded the game, & started up again. Then one night while I was in the middle of a daily quest for the Argent Crusade, she tells me that she wishes I wasn't play WOW again & that she liked me when I was "Off the Dragon." I promptly shut down & proceeded to delete my alt characters (even my Tauren Druid!) & left poor Neren alone on the character list.
In addition I also had to remove the client from my work PC due to our company's IT security audit. While this was never an issue prior (hence 7 IT staffers having WOW loaded & being told of the record it didn't worry the security officer since his scans of our PC's had shown no misuse other than the WOW client.) because of the audit the various 'unauthorized apps' that we had been allowed to use on our PC had to be removed so that we didn't get any write-ups.
So no WOW on my Work PC & no access on my home PC did help with the withdrawal, but don't get me wrong there have been many times in the past four months I've wanted to play again. When I heard about the release of Cataclysm, when I had a really rough day, when I was by myself on a Friday or Saturday night because my wife was watching our nephew's or nieces. But I didn't start playing again. It wasn't that the game was boring, It was that I realized that WOW is a lifestyle. I'll repeat that last point: World of Warcraft is a lifestyle and like any lifestyle it forces you to make choices. I got to a point where the choices that you have to make in order to play WOW were not worth the consequences.
Before I continue I need to make this point. For most of this decade I practiced & taught Aikido. One of the many things I got out of my practice was the following: All choices have good & bad consequences. When I started back in 2001 my girlfriend at the time encouraged me to practice, I had wanted to study Aikido since early 2000. The consequence of this encouragement was that within a month of my practice the Children's Aikido instructor felt I had the right temperament to help with the Kids class. I could've said no but hey he was a Nidan & I was frankly scared of saying no to him.
Because I started helping with Kids class I could no longer go out on Friday nights with her & our friends since I had to be at the Dojo bright & early Saturday morning to clean it before classes started. The one time she came to meet me at the Dojo on a Friday night to go out to Dinner became an uncomfortable hour of suffering for her since she had gone out to a bar prior & in her words "felt dirty" coming into the Dojo smelling of cigarettes & alcohol. In retrospect her choice of encouraging me to practice Aikido & my choice of pursuing the apprentice path lead to eventual break-up.
In that respect WOW is no different. The choices I had to make to be a successful player on my server were no longer worth the consequences. This is why I've been able to resist the urge to re-login; I could've reup'd my account but it wasn't worth the effects in the real world. I'll cover these effects in my follow up post. Until then consider what WOW has given you vs. what it's denied you. If your like me you may find that it's no longer the end all be all
Until another day
The Musing Moonkin
In addition I also had to remove the client from my work PC due to our company's IT security audit. While this was never an issue prior (hence 7 IT staffers having WOW loaded & being told of the record it didn't worry the security officer since his scans of our PC's had shown no misuse other than the WOW client.) because of the audit the various 'unauthorized apps' that we had been allowed to use on our PC had to be removed so that we didn't get any write-ups.
So no WOW on my Work PC & no access on my home PC did help with the withdrawal, but don't get me wrong there have been many times in the past four months I've wanted to play again. When I heard about the release of Cataclysm, when I had a really rough day, when I was by myself on a Friday or Saturday night because my wife was watching our nephew's or nieces. But I didn't start playing again. It wasn't that the game was boring, It was that I realized that WOW is a lifestyle. I'll repeat that last point: World of Warcraft is a lifestyle and like any lifestyle it forces you to make choices. I got to a point where the choices that you have to make in order to play WOW were not worth the consequences.
Before I continue I need to make this point. For most of this decade I practiced & taught Aikido. One of the many things I got out of my practice was the following: All choices have good & bad consequences. When I started back in 2001 my girlfriend at the time encouraged me to practice, I had wanted to study Aikido since early 2000. The consequence of this encouragement was that within a month of my practice the Children's Aikido instructor felt I had the right temperament to help with the Kids class. I could've said no but hey he was a Nidan & I was frankly scared of saying no to him.
Because I started helping with Kids class I could no longer go out on Friday nights with her & our friends since I had to be at the Dojo bright & early Saturday morning to clean it before classes started. The one time she came to meet me at the Dojo on a Friday night to go out to Dinner became an uncomfortable hour of suffering for her since she had gone out to a bar prior & in her words "felt dirty" coming into the Dojo smelling of cigarettes & alcohol. In retrospect her choice of encouraging me to practice Aikido & my choice of pursuing the apprentice path lead to eventual break-up.
In that respect WOW is no different. The choices I had to make to be a successful player on my server were no longer worth the consequences. This is why I've been able to resist the urge to re-login; I could've reup'd my account but it wasn't worth the effects in the real world. I'll cover these effects in my follow up post. Until then consider what WOW has given you vs. what it's denied you. If your like me you may find that it's no longer the end all be all
Until another day
The Musing Moonkin
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