WoW has been in the Times before, but this article was just posted.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/05/te...ref=technology

What I found interesting is WoW has 7 million subscribers now, and reading about the cultural differences.

Pretty positive article, especially when they pointed out what these raiders also do IRL.

How many articles have we had now that basically say, "Hello, world! WoW exists!"

It would be refreshing to see an article that actually dealt with the issues. In sports, you get articles about individual sports players or teams, and issues in sports like doping or recruiting scandals.

Instead, we keep getting these virtually fanboy articles saying "Players log in and play elves, dwarves, and knights to defeat evil monsters!" When strictly speaking, that is probably the least interesting thing you could say about what happens - "This Sunday again, millions of people spent their free time throwing leather balls around!"

I mean, c'mon - this is a SINGLE PRODUCT that grosses $1 billion dollars a year, as they pointed out. This deserves more examination from the press than "oh, this game is really popular."

Meh I really hate to say it but if you've got a wife and kid on the way and you "can't be going out all the time" you probably shouldn't be logging in 6 nights a week to raid for 6 hours.... As long as they keep on focusing on muppets like this with totally skewed priorities, the press coverage is always going to read badly.

From the quoted text, seems like you make a rather big assumption that he plays 6 hrs 6 nights a week. Plus, where do you refute the TV watching issue? In this case, I don't think it's the 'press' that is reading badly.

Yeah, I think the actual figure was 4 hours a night 6 nights a week for that particular guy. Somewhat significant difference (24 hpw instead of 36).

That said I know a guildmate who sold his account for 1000 USD to a US Army soldier with a wife and kid, and who could not have made more than 20,000 USD per year. That's sad.

Whats really to be sad about? What sort of Norman Rockwellesque vision of modern American living are people carrying around these days?

well it's still 6 nights... anyway I wasn't trying to turn it into one of those "people shouldn't do this" blanket comments - I've done it and still do sometimes. It's naive not to admit that there are people in life situations who probably shouldn't be doing that.

There is a MASSIVE difference between slagging off "hardcore raiders" and slagging off "people with badly misaligned life priorities".

I'm doing the latter, not the former. I think the press often thinks they are the same. That's the point I'm tryint to make.

I think spending 6% of your pretax income on videogames is sad when you are allegedly trying to support a family. I think it's a little ridiculous to call that "Norman Rockwellesque." I mean, he probably beats the kid and the wife, ok?

You misunderstand me, I think. I'm not saying its a wholesome slice of traditional Americana (it's far from it); but if the man wants to entertain himself, he's going to do it. If he doesn't want to spend time with his wife and kid, he's not; that he's not being cost effective about it, well, not all min/maxers are born overnight. It's all divertisement, one way or the other; none of it is any functionally different. It's only a question of how much of your resources you devote to it. I'm willing to bet if that 1,000$ didn't go to WoW, it'd have gone to something else equally useless to providing for his family.

EDIT: I suppose what I'm trying to say, in a round about way, is that the monetary investment doesn't strike me as anything too tragic. He could just as easily have sat on his ass watching American Idol and proved no more attentive to his family than if he had WoW. They'd be $1,000 richer, but would anything be different otherwise?

For a family with a $20,000 annual income, that $1000 is a *LOT* of money. So perhaps the difference between sitting on his ass watching American Idol and playing WoW is dinner for the kids for a few months.

He probably drinks while he plays.... I used to for a long time until I got that under control...

I wonder if Groucho Marx would ever have played WoW given the option.

dang, this thread delivers!

keep assuming stuff and youll probably find out(or assume) what his wife ate for breakfast 3 months ago!

also, big thanks to the dr phil's giving advice on gaming habits while having a family/job. now we just need some white trailerthrash and fat "afro american" women chickfighting and we got a show goin on!

Well obviously everyone's experience is slightly different.

But let's assume an Army E-4 (Rank = Specialist) that's been in the Military for about 3 years.

You say he's married with a single kid, making him eligable for Dependant Rate BAH (Basic Allowance for Housing) : more or less 800 a month, of course it varies where you live, but that's not a bad guestimate.

He'll also be receiving Basic Allowance for Sustinance which is about 270 a month.

Both of those are non-taxed.

Base Pay is about 1400 a month.

Then you get into wierd things like Uniform replacement allowances, which is like 250 a year...

Then there are special pays. I, for example, am getting 300 a month in Foreign Language Proficiency Pay...

Anyways, you then have to take into other considerations... like the vast majority of Active Duty Military don't pay state income tax.

Anyways, There is a big difference between 35K a year with over a third of that being untaxable... and 20k a year.

You should see the drinking games some of our members came up with. Basically after 3 wipes will all the sub clauses you would be looking at alcohol poisoning for an elephant.

Though of course what you really need is a pan galactic gargle blaster.

Drunken UBRS, minimum consumption 8 beers, is always a favourite...

Or it was a favourite until the incident described in my sig...

Thank goodness somone cleared this up. Also realize this:

If you are married and live in military housing you dont pay electric, water, sewer, or rent. The base pay that you end up getting is essentially spending money and living expenses such as food, clothing, cable, phone, etc... Not to mention you have no medical bills. You have to take that 20,000 into context properly. Total up the compensation you get from the military and at a rank of about E4 (which almost everyone is at after at least 3 years) and you make the equivalent of around 40k a year.

If people want to know about the mysteries of enlisted life, here is more stuff

You get access to the commisary/PX (grocery store and Wal-mart), and you don't pay tax on purchases. Assuming 200 in groceries a month, that saves 12 a month, or 144 dollars a year. Say you save another 100 dollars from the PX. Each of these little savings add up.

Also free medical (includes all medicines, even stuff you would buy from Walgreens) and free dental for your entire family helps a lot.

Stories of starving young enlisted men are made up; assuming they don't blow their money on booze and women ;) before food.

These are my favorite 2 parts of the article:
And:

I'm really tired of this comparison. I'm 27 and don't know anyone who watches that much TV. My buddy's 63 year old retired mother might but, that's about it.

Even then I'd say that gaming is typically a more socially stifling activity activity than TV watching as it demands some degree of focus and provides more of an "escape" than TV. If you're watching non-premium TV, commercials kick you back to reality at least 6 times an hour. Playing WoW you could easily go at least that long without once even looking away from the screen. Also, you certainly can't pause or TiVO your raid.

Yeah, that's a perfect comparison...If you suppose that it's typical for people to have sat enthralled by LOTR for three hours straight over 1,000 times in the last 22 months. Of course, his 125 day /played equates to 5 hours a day, 6 days a week for nearly 2 years not the claimed 4. Now, given that a lot of WoW is re-running or re-wiping to the same shit, watching The Fellowship 2 and half times every night but Sunday for 22 months straight would be more accurate.

Here's another thing I see a lot and as often as I see people tell stories like this I see others (sometimes the same people) claim that WoW is so much "better" than going out, spending money on beer and getting drunk. Well, I guess it is better if you're a jackass who likes to DWI but otherwise...

I wish gamers would stop making these silly excuses and comparisons or trying to call themselves athletes (FPS players). Just accept that what you do and how much time you spend doing it *is* fairly extreme and abnormal and be happy with it.

I welcome your flames, anecdotal evidence and claims of hypocrisy!

You don't know anyone who watches 24 hours of TV a week? You're sheltered.