[robustyoungsoul]

Originally Posted by Antarius

The comment I have the most problem with is your statement claiming the "irrevocable damage" caused by your time playing World of Warcraft.

Gained some weight? Go work out.
Didn't drink party enough? Go find some friends and get drunk.
Flunked some college classes? Enroll again.

Point conceded. None of that "damage" is "irrevocable".

I admit though that I was surprised at some of the other comments from folks who did suffer something a bit closer to "irrevocable" damage when it came to things like estranged family members and the like. Some good counseling would probably help fix this though (and a healthy dose of "take some responsibility for yourself"), so again this is not "irrevocable".

Like I said, point conceded.

Originally Posted by Antarius

The arguement that you've lost time that you'll "never get back" is invalidated by the fact that you were having fun while you were playing the game. If you enjoyed the time hanging out with the people in your guild, then it was time well spent. Hell, your friend even met a chick through the game that he's banging and evidently she's alot better than the other hoes he was with when he was DJ'ing, and hung out and evidently had a good time with some other guildmates.

Agreed. For a long time he clearly was having fun. And the gal in question is definitely a very cool person who has her head on straight when it comes to the game.

There was definitely a point there where he was not having fun, however, and yet he foolishly KEPT PLAYING. I think it is this that he was speaking about.

Originally Posted by Antarius

The claim that before he was "doing something" every night of the week before he started playin MMOs, is viewed cynically by people who have been playing MMOs on and off for the past seven years, and consider logging on and raiding with people they consider friends as "doing something.

Another point conceded. What one does with their free time is, as always, their business and as long as they're enjoying themselves and not hurting anyone, they shouldn't have to explain themselves.

Originally Posted by Antarius

Other people may take offense at your treatment of buying gold, since they are the ones most likely working in well-paying jobs, or with families, so they view their time as more important than alot of people. They want to insure that the time playing is spent doing things that THEY find enjoyable, namely raiding, which doesn't involve farming.

I actually had to reread the post to find this part. When the people in question are as you describe them (folks with spare dough or who want to spend time with their families instead of tasks they deem menial in the game), then yes, go for it. But like anything this can be taken to an extreme degree... when you're spending the family's vacation money to get somebody to farm for you, I'd call that a little silly.

Originally Posted by Antarius

I think the level of response you have received is due to the disbelief at how sheltered a life you have appeared to live, many of the people, myself included, have been playing the same type of game as WoW since 1999.

Okay, I can at least understand this then. But those of us like myself who never played an MMO before WoW outnumber those of you that have, so I don't think this is very fair.

Originally Posted by Antarius

Like I said in my original post, I hate players like you, you make things more difficult on stable players like myself. Your crash and burn are an annoyance. That's why alot of guild leaders purposefully try to screen out unstable people during recruitment. And while I hesitate to speculate on why your friend's new girlfriend (who also plays wow) left him, I'd venture to guess that he appeared like a stable kind of guy when she first met him, but then realized that his life was falling apart and he didn't know the first thing about managing his time.

This is actually a totally new perspective on the issue that I am just now starting to realize... "burnout" players are obviously a well known phenomenon for experienced MMOers like yourselves. If you could elaborate further on how this impacts guild dynamics, I would be very interested to hear it.