"Full-time WoW Gamer, Part-time Student"

Biodata:

Nat, 20 years old
Serving National Service

Gaming Profile

• Gaming since secondary school days and enjoys games of all genres.
  
• Hit the LAN shops immediately after school and he stayed there till midnight, just before the last bus home.
  
• On weekends, almost all available time was spent at LAN shops, including overnight stays.

"Full-time WoW Gamer, Part-time Student"

• At the peak of his gaming lifestyle, Nat was playing WoW 14 hours a day -- 7 hours of dedicated raiding per day, 6 days per week with his guild, for a full year.
  
• Completed the end-game content in the Burning Crusade, World of Warcraft
• Had four level 70 (highest level in WoW-BC) characters.
• Used 2 adjacent PCs at a single time in order to accelerate levelling up process.
• HOWEVER... he was performing below his academics potential, as he was devoting all of his attention and resources to playing the game.
  

Nat's motivation of playing games..

• Captivated by completing end-game content (Achievement) with his in-game Guild (Social Interaction).
  
• Enjoys helping guild members "level-up" and "gear-up".

How Nat's life turned around...

• Close game-friends left their games for other priorities in life
• Recognized that gaming cannot be his main preoccupation in life and had to move on as well.
  
• Switched to other game genres that were less time consuming, such as Real-Time Strategy (RTS) and First Person Shooter (FPS) games.
• Worked with TOUCH as a volunteer to mentor young gamers in healthy gaming groups at our cyber wellness centre.
  
• With his extensive knowledge and high gaming proficiency, he was able to command the respect of the young gamers there. As the staff and mentors explained the pathological effects of gaming to the youths, he was able to contribute to authenticate and substantiate the explanations.
  

Concurrently this helped him to take stock of his own life and put in a fresh and determined effort to make concrete changes.

How is Nat doing now?

• Today Nat balances his gaming with other priorities in life. He is actively pursuing his degree at a university and has found time for volunteering among other activities.
• One of the key advice he gives to young people is to make the right friends that will positively impact one’s life.
  

In his own words, “Then I lived my life for purpose of gaming but now I live life (with purpose) and game for recreation.”

My Virtual Harley (Well, for a minute)

(Originally written 15 Feb 2009)

Last night, someone paid me 16,000 gold (World of Warcraft currency) to craft this "Mekgineer's Chopper" for him.

Or for his girlfriend to be exact - a little late for Valentine's Day, but it was close enough. This gentleman spent the last 2 months to earn this amount of WoW gold.

Honestly this bike (even though it's just a bunch of 1s and 0s in some computer somewhere) is pretty cool and quite rare and always draws envious glances when it appears. I would be pretty happy if someone gave it to me as a gift.

But it's too expensive for me to even make it for myself. I gave up after I knew the cost (when I learnt how to make it). No hope. 14k gold (the actual cost to make this) is way too much. I cannot spend 180hrs (3hrs x 60 days) of my life playing WoW to get this amount of gold.

But that gentleman from Canada did it!

What baffled me:

"Why would people place so much value in a virtual toy"

I like it but I will not put so much time into this

What impressed me:

"...that a guy would go so far to try to win a girl's heart"

It's a mixed feeling, of admiration for what this guy will put in...and yet wonder, what better returns he may have gotten if he spent that 200hrs on something else

Whatever it is, I walked away 2000G richer :) and I spent 20min doing it :D

And I think Blizzard Entertainment will be even happier that 11.5million people are paying 15USD per month because of such things.

Upgrading of virtual possessions is one of the many compelling reasons why people keep on investing their life into MMORPGs. There is an endless supply of new desirable items introduced by the game operators (call them game "gods") to keep people playing.

Take a look at this webpage to see the amazing variety introduced every few months. This was a recent "patch" after the launch of World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King. Many millions of players have reached the peak of the virtual achievements and it was time for Blizzard to introduce new items.

"Why I Quit WoW"

Admin Executive by day, WoW player by night.

4x High Level Characters:
1) Level 80 Paladin
2) Level 71 Hunter
3) Level 65 Warlock
4) Level 65 Death Knight

Play Time
Weekday: 2 to 4 hours daily after work
Weekend: 12 to 16 hours daily
Average Weekly Time = 35hrs/week

Play History

• Started playing for 4 months
• Stopped for 9 months
• Restarted for 1 year
• Stopped 2 months because of work
• Returned for 3 months
• Quit

Question: "On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate your motivation level in each of the following aspects of gameplay?"

1) SOCIAL - 9 out of 10

• "WoW was a great way for me to spend time with friends whom I cannot meet often in real life. Even after our work (late into the night), we can just log on and do things together."
• "I like being able to do quests and level up together, help each other."

2) ACHIEVEMENT - 5 out of 10

• "If you want to play with friends and to help them, you must be powerful enough. You cannot do quests together if you are too far below them."
• "It is the same reason for trade skills and achievements, I do it so that I can be in a position to help friends."

3) IMMERSION - 3 out of 10

• "I like to try out different playing styles and experience the different aspects of the game. However, I am not obsessed with the storyline or virtual environment."

Question: "So Why Did You Quit?"

"My friend (of 15 years) decided to gradually move on to Final Fantasy 11 and I was left with very few real friends in the game. During the implementation of Patch 3.1, a hacker took over my friends (FF11 player) and stole all our gold (game currency) and I had even less ability to help my remaining friends. That was the tipping point and I decided to quit WoW altogether."





Question: "Isn't It Possible to Make New Friends in the Game?"

"Sure, but I prefer to be able to put a face to my online friends. My timings for playing made it very difficult to look for new friends."

Question: "Was it Difficult to Quit?"

• "Not at all. I've never had difficulties with stopping play even at the peak of my WoW-gaming. My play never overtook my real-world priorities like work, rest or church. I could always stop immediately whenever those clashed."
• "In the same way, once my friends left, there was really no compelling motivation for me to keep playing."

Question: "After Investing So Much Time and Effort Into the Game, Do You Regret It?"

• "No regrets. I always took it as recreation and never compromised my real-life priorities even at the peak of gaming. I enjoyed every single hour I spent so I have no regrets."
• "I think it will be harder for people with achievement-orientation to give up the game because they will not want to give up the virtual status they've attained."

Question: "What Will You Do Now With All the Time You Have?"

• I'll spend it on other recreational means - pick up a sport, walk around town, find a girlfriend, read comics and play other games that are not so time-consuming.
• I'll also volunteer to help other gamers.

Dan (not his real name) is a unique case because he was not a pathological gamer even with the amount of time he was spending on games. Games were his primary means of meeting friends.

Given that he was single, do not have many other interests and had a lot of recreational time on his hands, he went into WoW. However his other priorities in life were not compromised.

In a gaming questionairre done on him, he was deemed as an "engaged gamer" (score 5 out of 7). His playing patterns were neither "problematic" (score 1 out of 13) or "pathological" (score 0.5 out of 10).