My spouse is a WoW widow. Not such an uncommon occurrence these days. I spend evenings traveling around the World of Warcraft with a carefully selected handful of guild mates vanquishing demons and all sorts of ugly creatures. The only truly unusual thing about this is that my spouse isn't so much a WoW widow, as a WoW widower.
Yes, I am one of those select "women gamers" that are talked about in dark rooms on the Third Floor in marketing meetings every week. Which is ironic to me because I don't consider myself a gamer. I simply play World of Warcraft. I could not begin to tell you anything about Ratchet and Clank, Mario, or... well, all those guys with the big guns that run around in video games, other than that they exist. My gaming world consists of Azeroth and, since it released, the Outlands. (Does anyone not play with the expansion?)
So what is it about World of Warcraft that could so consume a non-gamer as to make her actually travel to Irvine, California to attend Blizzcon?
(Blizzcon, for those of you not in the know, is the all enveloping two day event staged by Blizzard Entertainment as a homage to its own greatness.) It's simple really. World of Warcraft is a chance to remove myself from every day life and let me become a little character running around in a big world vanquishing demons and... yeah, like I said. And I like to blow things up.
But more importantly, and often overlooked by my male counterparts, is the social interaction that the game provides. My husband often walks in the room to observe, "You're not even playing with anyone else." On the contrary, I'm playing with millions of people. Just because they're not showing in my group doesn't mean they're not there.
And, like anywhere else in life, I don't like a lot of them. There are some extremely rude people in this world (and Azeroth). However, there are some really great people too. When I consider all the people I've "met" that I wouldn't have otherwise, I'm glad I found WoW.
But the best part is that when I interact with these people, I have the anonymity of the Internet. I don't have to make sure my hair is done or I've picked the right pair of shoes. I don't mind admitting to them that wasabi ruins sushi for me. And they never know when I'm clipping my toenails. Gaming is a social interaction on a basic level where your abilities are what make you a valuable part of a group that works toward accomplishing a single goal. A geeky and completely fake, virtual goal, but a goal, nonetheless.
So, on August 3rd and 4th, I will travel to Blizzcon to meet with a few of the people that actually "get it." If not for the people I've met online while playing Warcraft, I would have quit playing the game long ago. So I guess it's fair to say that I play mostly for the social aspect of the game. Well, that, and to blow things up.
Posted: 2 Aug 2007
