Why You Shouldn’t Play Warcraft

By Daniel Miessler on October 17th, 2006: Tagged as Gaming | Personal | Warcraft

Link: Why A Warcraft Guru Quit

This is a very nice summary of why I don’t play games. I never get this sucked into any game, but I am accutely aware of what I could have been doing with my time instead of grinding through some lame MMORPG.

For me, gaming is a refreshment tool; it makes me enjoy real life more. I game in like 2-3 week bursts every six months to a year. I can’t stomach any more than that. When I try to I get this overwhelmingly empty feeling with every single task I accomplish in game.

I get an item: I ask myself, “Now what?”. I make a level milestone: I say, “Great, who cares?” The bottom line is that I have so many real projects going on that I can’t get any satisfaction from virtual projects. If I want to do something “virtual”, I’ll install a new computer system in VMware and do something cool with it (like install Asterisk).

I was going to try real hard to get back into WCIII while up here in New York, but I just canceled my subscription. I have too much else to be working on.

  • http://slashback.org/ Tim

    I can’t help it, I’m gonna have to put in my $0.02. I’ve been playing WoW for almost 3 months now.

    MMORPGs can be quite addictive (hence names like “World of Warcrack” or “Evercrack”), but that’s not always the case. If you’ve gotten to the point where you’d rather get that last raid item rather than getting laid, you have a problem. If you’re playing 80 (or even 40 ) hrs a week, you have a problem.

    The one problem I have with this article is his notion that everything you work hard at has to have some driving goal. If the author thinks that, he’s missed the point of the game.

    Some of us just play for fun. We play because we like meeting people online or beating the crap out of creeps for an hour. We play to fill up free time. The journey is the point. If I ever stop having fun with the game, I’ll stop playing.

    We don’t all let it take over our lives. Sometimes I come home from work and I don’t feel like playing, so I’ll watch TV or play with my cats or call up a friend to go get a drink or call my girlfriend to chat or… well, I think you get the picture.

    I’d also like to point out that any game (or any hobby at all) taken to extreme can have the same effect on one’s life. Should we not have hobbies because they might be addictive?

  • http://slashback.org Tim

    I can’t help it, I’m gonna have to put in my $0.02. I’ve been playing WoW for almost 3 months now.

    MMORPGs can be quite addictive (hence names like “World of Warcrack” or “Evercrack”), but that’s not always the case. If you’ve gotten to the point where you’d rather get that last raid item rather than getting laid, you have a problem. If you’re playing 80 (or even 40 ) hrs a week, you have a problem.

    The one problem I have with this article is his notion that everything you work hard at has to have some driving goal. If the author thinks that, he’s missed the point of the game.

    Some of us just play for fun. We play because we like meeting people online or beating the crap out of creeps for an hour. We play to fill up free time. The journey is the point. If I ever stop having fun with the game, I’ll stop playing.

    We don’t all let it take over our lives. Sometimes I come home from work and I don’t feel like playing, so I’ll watch TV or play with my cats or call up a friend to go get a drink or call my girlfriend to chat or… well, I think you get the picture.

    I’d also like to point out that any game (or any hobby at all) taken to extreme can have the same effect on one’s life. Should we not have hobbies because they might be addictive?


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