WoW ==> No Social Life? Wrong.

I recently came across a blog post which mirrored views of WoW commonly found among both gamers and non. The post (read here) pretty much stated the usual, "WoW is addictive, if you start playing it you won't want to hang out with any of your friends and your social life will be in ruins..." Not a direct quote, but it goes something like that.

However, I notice a couple inconsistencies in the author's description of this process, as well as some flawed/incomplete logic. First, the author of that blog post mentions that one of the qualities that makes WoW so addicting is that you start playing it with other people (s/he actually uses the word 'friends'). Err, doesn't this make playing the game a social activity? I.e., in theory you could spend all your time in game, and still have a social life. Personally, I play WoW with several people who I know in real life, and with whom I engage in activities outside of WoW on a regular basis. Sure, there are people that I consider "friends" who I only know through WoW.... but I still consider these interactions as social.

Furthermore, I would caution this author against the use of words such as "always," "never," and "impossible." Such words almost never accurately describe reality (see the different the italicized qualifier makes in the accuracy of this sentence?). Looking beyond semantics, I would still argue that many of the descriptions the author makes are only true to the extent that any other generalization or stereotype may be true. Sure, some individuals fit this bill, but on the other hand, many don't. More importantly, there is no 'all or nothing' description of what happens to one's social life when they play this game. For example, one person might lose all their real life friends, another may lose none and even gain more real life friends, yet a third person might lose a couple real life friends (still retaining some), but make a couple in game friends. Anything can happen there-- you can't really say that WoW will make you lose your friends.

Lastly, I would just like to comment on the statement, "The only way to avoid the negative effects of this video game is to never start playing." So not true. I have played this game off and on for about 3.5 years now. Sometimes I played wayyy too much and it negatively affected my social life. Other times I was able to manage this recreational activity, and find a healthy balance between the gaming and having a 'real-life' social life. There are even times when I stop playing WoW for weeks at a time because of school, or just because I want to take a break. You CAN play this game and still avoid its 'negative' effects. It's called self-control and discipline.

But i g2g now b/c i need 2 farm gold before the dual spec comes out (patch tuesday?!)... cya! ---- jk ;)