Today I’m pissed! I was planning to make an update explaining how much I love my Helena, but instead I find myself being pissed about an article in Metro this morning. I’ve always like Metro cause they have like a no-bullshit attitude towards news, they just report the news. Sure they have a columnist or two but this wasn’t it. No, this was a 30-40 year old woman (juding by the photo) writing about a report from a swedish company that said that “there’s not a single case of computer game addiction that doesn’t have any links to World of Warcraft. It’s a computerized cocaine”!!
Oh man…. I don’t know where to begin. But lets!!
To start with, let me introduce myself. I started playing Warcraft at european launch in early 2005 and from fall of 2005 to may 2008 I was in one way or another leading guilds and 40 man raids (that was later slimmed down to 25). I played the game almost as much as I worked during that period and I feel pretty comfortable saying I know the game inside and out, every aspect of it. Then in may 2008 I met the woman of my dreams, sold off my main account and settled for my B account that I play occasionally with my friends. But enough of me, let us start…
First off, it’s “what’s the source of the news”. It’s a company. Complete with CEO and everything. Sure they have a green light from the social office, but it still comes down to making money and to do that people need to know they exist so what better way than to call the most played game in the world for cocaine!?
(and yes I do realize the irony of me writing about it here increases their audience, but I’m sure as hell not gonna link to them!)
Secondly, don’t people commit crimes to pay for their cocaine addiction? I have no problem dishing up the 10 euros per month it costs me to play Warcraft. And the kids today ask their parents for money for it. Now how would that sound if a 15 year old asked his mother for 10 euros for cocaine? And don’t ask me how much cocaine you get for 10 euros per month, I have no clue!
Thirdly, the drug dealer. In this case it’s Blizzard who has such a high profile thanks to Warcraft that they can’t afford to NOT listen to criticism. A company so responsible they even built in a parent tool into the game so parents (remember, the ones that pay for the account) can set limits to how much and when the account can be active. How would that go with a drug dealer? “Sorry, can’t sell to you, it’s past your bed time!”…
Fourthly (is that even a word), there are no documented health related issues to playing Warcraft on a regular basis. Yes there have been one or two cases of people dying after playing computer games for days at an end, but that’s not a regular basis! And really people, take two normal people, give one of them cocaine constantly and let the other level up a new char in Warcraft and see which of them dies first! More people die from ice falling off buildings than of Warcraft!
Fifth, I don’t know why people take cocaine but the only reason a person would play the game more than what can be considered “healthy” is if they have serious psychological problems! Because there really is just two ways to play the game. Either you can do it “the casual way” which is to play occasionally with friends and do some small scale stuff and you’re happy just playing with friends and maybe making new ones. Or you can do it “the hardcore way” which is all about one thing – E-PENIS! Yes, that’s the correct word for it! To make your character better geared, more powerful and more so called achievement points for achieving different in-game goals. But it’s all in game and if you have a need to get such a huge e-penis that you play it that much, then you’re not right in the head. And what would you rather have people who are not right in the head do – play Warcraft or do cocaine?
Sixth, now that sweden fails in pretty much every sport we used to own (like skiing or tennis), what’s not so known in the general media is the status Sweden has in cyber athleticism! We dominate! And last time I checked the most famous Warcraft player (besides Jenkins) was “kungen” who happens to be Swedish, leading the most famous guild that’s made up of a lot of swedes. Now how is that related to cocaine? Do we have any chart of cocaine addicts that are doing well and putting Sweden on the map?
Seven – the good feelings of cocaine (as I understand it) are artificial and chemically induced and effects your body so much that if done on a regular basis makes the body so addictive to it that you need weeks of detox to get out of it. Cause as I understand my House, cocaine isn’t something you cut cold turkey. The good feelings in Warcraft comes from achieving goals in game and the “just a little bit more” feeling is constantly there. However, pulling the power cable will quickly remedy that – cold turkey style. The body won’t be chemically dependant on anything and after a few days he/she won’t even care. I know, I sold my paladin account without any drawback symptoms what so ever.
I don’t for a second regret the almost 3 years I spent playing the game as much as I did. I made alot of friends. I learned a lot more about people skills. I learned how to motivate people, how to balance being nice and enforcing discipline, I learned alot. And I had fun.Which is what it’s all about for me.
So yeah, you come here and call me a cocaine addict if you want to and I’ll give you a crushing blow with my thunderfury! (how very old-school!)
//RoLaren aka Tandie
Edit: My bad, they said “cocaine”, not “heroin”.
I guess you all know that there’s this big trial in sweden against Pirate Bay. The prosecutor and representatives of the media business are charging them with aiding and abetting copyright violations and all that crap because of the site and torrent tracker. And the defense is saying “no haven’t done anything wrong”…
The fun thing here is that from a legal stand point they didn’t (as far as I understand it). Morally they did ofcourse and their disregard for copyrights and encouraging anarchy is way off, but nothing they can’t get convicted for. And the swedish court system has time and time again proved that they are all about the letter off the law rather than the spirit of the law so it’s my bet they’ll walk away free.
For whatever it’s worth, either way the losing side will appeal and we’ll be right back here in a year or so…
I tried golfing last sunday. Just going to a huge simulator that has like 6-7 feet to a huge screen and you hit the ball on the screen and it guestimates and projects how the ball goes. Surprisingly accurate, as long as you actually hit the screen! When we were putting we sometimes hit the ball so lame that it didn’t get to the screen so it didn’t count! Fortunately it had 2 meter “giving” distance (if you got within 2 meters of the hole you were in).
I did surprisingly well I think although I still don’t feel like I can say I have control of where the ball is going! Really when I swing that huge driver I really feel I have no control what so ever and just happy if I hit near where I was looking!
Not sure if it’s a sport worth investing alot of money in, cause it sure as hell aint cheap!!
Today we went out to look at a house in Täby. The house looked pretty good for us, just the right size and everything. Even a little small door for the cats to run in and out as they wished. However, and this was the deal breaker, it was exceptionally close to the railway (I mean like 50-60 meters. And not 50-60 meters of forest, it was 50-60 meters of playground to the school that was right next to it. And right now that’s really not what we want.
We want a nice place in a calm environment where we can sit out and enjoy a nice juicy steak in the summer, and with a living room that’s ok to set up a home theater in and where the kitchen and living rooms are not that seperate, prefereably not at all. But that seems impossible to find and since this is the biggest deal we’ve ever done, yes we will be that picky 🙂
Yesterday we went out for a road trip in my new Volvo. Don’t know if I can say new since it’s from 2001 but it’s new to me so I wanted to take it out for a test drive. Drove up to Uppsala to have a relaxing afternoon at Fyrishov, which is a huge facility with lots of different pools, everything from spa to competetion pools. But it was anything but relaxing ’cause there was a gazillion families there. So after an hour or so of that we got cleaned up and went out to a restaurant called “Peppar Peppar”. And it was awesome! Peppar steak was juicy as hell, loved it. A bit on the pricy side but how often do we get to eat in Uppsala 🙂 And then back home again. And the car performed excellent 🙂