Damn you and my weak willed mushy brain! Now I have to go out and get WOW, and maybe sneak in Halflife2 if the wife does not watch too closely.

The pictures are exquisite.

Man, I always thought I’d be the last off all people to become an MMORPG addict but sadly it has happened to me. I am writing this to warn you all to take the game in moderation, it’s extremely fun and addictive. I play easily in to the double digit hours every day. I am on a stay up all night sleep one day routine now. Unless you are willing to put in 11 hours you may want to avoid! Heh… Oh well Pirates! is helping me break the addiction. Sid Meiers pirates is the remake of his original pirates from 1987 tons of fun and extremely free-form. Do whatever you want but make sure you’re shouting “ARGGGHHHHH!” The entire time.

I probably wont have it until the weekend.  Going through Orc withdrawl.

Of course to get the full effect you need a relatively recent video card, but even on the GeForce 3’s in Anne and Courtney’s machine it still looks pretty damn good.

Oh sure, make me feel all jealous. The graphics controller in my computer (a Toshiba a10 laptop) cannot do hardware transform and lighting. The most graphically advanced game my computer can play looks like this:

West of House
You are standing in an open field west of a white house, with a boarded front door.
There is a small mailbox here.

>

I felt the need to make a comment since your post actually made me laugh out loud, Trotsky.  Quite a witty joke, thank you for that.

I bought the european preorder, and have it sitting right here on my desk, and I can’t play. That sucks. Especially if I see all those screenshots all over the place!

Well, I’ll have my WoW, too, ... eventually :-(

World of Warcraft rocks and you can even buy gold too.  catch me in the game ban is Gros.  See you there.  I am trying to get clan started soon too.

I made the mistake of waiting until last week to pick up a copy of WoW.  I searched every store that stocks video games in State College, PA and *everybody* was sold out.  Over the weekend I extended my search and called every store that I could find within a 100 mile radius, still nothing.  Amazon.com doesn’t expect to get any copies until after Feb 15th, and blizzard.com just states that the game is “sold out”. 

Unaware of any black-market underground video game distribution system, I actually called around to video games stores in other cities where my friends and family live.  I found a single copy at a Target store in my hometown.  My wife laughed as I asked the saleswoman to hold the copy until my mom could pick it up.  I felt like I was fourteen again. 

Fortunately my mom was kind enough to send me the game via overnight mail this morning, so I hope to be an undead warlock by this weekend.  I hope to see some of you online!

Rumor is that Blizard pulled back on sales, as they were not sure the servers could handle the loads!  Now thats pretty amazing in and of it self.  Still, i cannot bring my self to get involved.  I think of all the BS and PK’ing in Diablo 2 and just shudder.  Think i will just stick to my Star Wars Galaxies.

OMFG u gay faggot nerds get a life! its jus a game...do something with urselves, get a girl, a job, anything. It jus goes to show that people who have no real life seek fanatasy worlds for redemtpion.

Go away troll.

Name calling of “Troll” is, more often than not in AmericaniBlogistan, a lazy and crude way to dismiss another’s position.

Sure, there exist people who leave comments just to piss-off others—comments vacant of any reasoning and of any discernible opinion.  But, more often than not, the posted response “Troll!” (here i envision Pooh from “The World According to Garp” yelling “Troll!” instead of “Arp! Arp!") or IM’d message of “Oh, he’s certainly has troll-like qualities” is merely a knee-jerk, emotional response to a position we dislike, disagree with, or otherwise take exception to how it was stated.  Discourse never got so base.

It’s markedly disappointing to see online discussion often simply obliterated, or the participants’ opinions hegemonized, by individuals who don’t take the effort to untangle opinion from rhetoric and merely dismiss others with the tag of “Troll!” It’s a ton easier than addressing their, perhaps flawed, opinions.  This trend is certainly developing into the web version of the Scarlet-Letter-Mentality once so common in America.  That is a mistake this present generation shall be long remembered for in the future.

That all said, there *is* some truth in what Shazi so succinctly expressed, albeit in a poor, impolite, and equally crude manner.  But, let’s not allow emotions to get the better of our heads.  It’s an easy self-trap, and can even be decievingly gratifying.  And, when emotions do rule our brain in such circumstances, then maybe it’s just better to sit back, relax, watch more tv, eat, or pet the cat, rather than name call “Troll! Troll!/Arp! Arp!” These are much better alternatives than re-visiting “The Crucible” in our new webbed world.  Understandably, mutual toleration and calm, unemotional patience have never been a hallmark of this present day thirty-something generation; But, it’s never too late, eh?  I believe not.  Truly.

Me and the boyfriend (see? I *am* a fag, score 1 point for Shazi) have been playing WoW for maybe 4 months or so, maybe less, i forget.  But, i have noticed many of the things Shazi mentioned.

I think, as these games proliferate and advance, that this problem of total-game-emersion will eventually get a DSM entry.  Seriously.  The pathology has very unique attributes.  Those who do lack jobs, lasting sexual relationships, or have an inability to push their own boundaries and comfort zones without experiencing a psychotic break do certainly gravitate toward MMPORG obsession.

There’s certainly a predisposition to this obsessive-compulsive behavior in the Nerdian psyche, recently exacerbated by PC’s, the web, and now MMPORG’s.  Maybe Western society poorly integrates nerds, pushing them towards such obsessions.  I don’t know.  But, i think most of us here would agree that what Shazi says, in large part, is quite true.

Well Rob, I tend to call a spade a spade and when someone comes along and posts a comment that seems to have no point other than to start trouble then they’re trolling. Is it name calling? Perhaps, but then I didn’t see much more than that in the comment I was replying to.

I’m all up for a discussion on the pros and cons to MMORPGs, but not for arguing with ass wipes who can’t even type a proper sentence yet somehow think they have more of a life than anyone else.

I guess most mature individuals that play in such online worlds are well aware of the addiction potential of MMORPGS. And, it is in fact a fantasy world that’s easy to flee into when the real life makes trouble. So, shazi does have some points.

Although that has nothing to do with being a faggot or a nerd, or then, this association eludes me. And, shazi, you know, there are actually people who like being called a nerd, or gay, so, your terms conceived as being insults for others are nothing but insults to your own intelligence.

However, many people do have lives, a job, and a girl, and still play WoW. It’s the over-generalization that makes shazi’s post a troll post, and very clearly so. So, Arp! Arp!

Well said, Guido.

When people like shazi say things like what s/he said, they aren’t seeking calm, reasoned discourse, only angry responses. If this is the quality of their musings online, one can only assume they have difficulties interacting with others during face to face meetings.

We get our fair share of content-challenged drive by comments here. Too many use this site for temper tantrums yet they cannot seem to convey their feelings adequately without acting like spoiled children. It’s embarrassing behavior and I can’t imagine coming to a site and acting like that, no matter how concealed a person’s identity will be.

It’s hard to ignore these pricks but often that’s the smartest thing to do. Then again, it’s so satisfying to tell them off. Satisfaction is important too.

Say, Brock, I noticed a little light play above the head of your avatar. Could that be a halo? Holy Sponge Bob, it is a halo! ! !

And shazi’s remarks about fantasy world are so amusing. Like he/she is living in the ‘REAL’ world! Do any of us, in fact, live in the ‘REAL’ world? It appears we develop a fantasy of the world based on our life experiences and the interpretation of those experiences. Of course, I could be wrong.