Friday, September 26, 2008

17 excuses to play WoW when you know you shouldn't

Have you ever felt a bit bad about dedicating so much time to WoW? Have you ever deep inside known that there were other issues in real life that you should have dealt with before logging in, but just ignored your own objections and played anyway?

If the answer is “no” you can stop reading now. (Liar!) For the rest of us, I’ve composed a list of excuses to keep ready whenever you risk to be critically hit by a guilty conscience.

1. I’m really not going to play! I’m just checking my auctions and my ingame mail, I’ll be done in 10 minutes so it really doesn’t count like playing. (This excuse will be erased from your memory 5 minutes after logging in, so have no fear; it won’t keep you from joining a “quick heroic instance run”).

2. It’s just this night, OK? I’ll make up for it tomorrow!

3. I’ve had a terrible day at work/school/whatever. The boss was yelling at me, the customers hate me and I fluked the test. I deserve to relax.

4. I’ve had an awesome day at work/school/whatever. I got a new contract/raised wages/passed the test. I deserve to celebrate.

5. If I didn’t play I’d just watch TV anyway. WoW is better since it’s interactive.

6. The more I play, the better value I get for my subscription fee. It’s a waste of money not to play.

7. I contribute to improving the world economy playing. I feed Blizzard, Blizzard employs people and even some poor Chinese people will get their income from people playing WoW, like it or not. I’m happy to whatever I can to make the world a better place.

8. I’m saving the environment! If I didn’t play WoW I’d probably take a ride in the car and pollute the air. WoW is climate friendly. It’s just takes some electricity to run the computer, and that is so little that you can probably just ignore it.

9. If you think about it this is rather a language course than a computer game. My English has improved immensely since I started. So this is serious business, education rather than entertainment.

10. Following the guild chat will improve my knowledge in management and group psychology. Who knows, one day we may end up putting WoW playing on our CV!

11. I think well while I’m grinding. It’s like meditation; I’m sure I’ll solve some major life problems while playing.

12. I’ve played so much this week anyway, so an hour more or less won’t make any difference.

13. My toon needs to get some air, she’ll be disappointed if I don’t let her get out and have some fun.

14. I can’t miss my daily transmute. It’s free gold!

15. Actually I’m not going to play. I’m just logging in to say hello to my mates. It’s no different to use MSN, so why hesitate?

16. I could do so much worse. At least I’m not going to a pub and grab a drink. Thinking about it, playing WoW is pretty good to my health.

17. Who will care about what I did this very night in 100 years?

Now over to you! Can you come up with some more well working excuses to keep ready when you’re debating with yourself?

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

"5. If I didn’t play I’d just watch TV anyway. WoW is better since it’s interactive."

I use this SO OFTEN.

Great list! I'll keep this handy whenever I get that guilty feeling!

krizzlybear said...

18. All my friends are busy playing WoW anyways. If I stop playing, then I'LL be the one who's the loner!

11:22pm - packin' mah bags, i'll see ya on tuesday, Lar!

Anonymous said...

I choose...
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 12, 14, 15, 16

Plus...
My mates need me... I mean I'm No. 1 dps, without me they will be caught in a series of Mana outages.

Damned if I do... Damned if I don't...
In for a penny, in for a pound...
Might as well get hung for a sheep as a lamb.

I'm up working anyway... might as well alt tab to WoW while I wait for this process to finish, or alternatively..

I'm running bottom scanner, I will alt tab and do something productive while I wait for the doorbell announcement that I have found a bargain (which come every 20 seconds).

Or, I am only doing the dishes, might as well multitask and do an AH scan etc as well (Not sure why it takes me 1.5 hours to do the same amount of dishes my wife can do in 30 minutes...

Dragon's Den said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

I use no. 5 all the time. Looking around the house I'm the most active of all while the rest is watching tv.

But I think I have most of these in one way or another. Mostly I just say it's my hobby, just like my mom likes to make cards, my dad sleeps :D and my sis is busy with her horses.

Dragon's Den said...

Scary - you're reading my mind

(searches out engineer for Gnomish MindCap)

Gevlon said...

I never needed an excuse to play wow (or to comment to a wow-related blog from work, as I'm just doing)

I do think that this simulated world helps me a lot understanding other people, learning management skills that are great in real life.

I've never felt guilty for playing wow, and also never had a problem with not playing when I had better things to do.

It does saddens me that I rarely have better things to do. Maybe I should find another job that need my skills (and still pays like this). Or I should get a second diploma (don't suggest "go for PHD", already done). I'm seriously thinking about these options.

My girlfriend also plays, so it's not a time away from her. Granted it often happens that we keep discussing gear, or boss strategies or spell rotations or just "how can the other people be such noobs" in the bed forgetting other bed activities, but hey, we are together since 4 years and talk to each other for hours!

Fish said...

How about "Its how I stay in touch with my friends from my old job, they miss me when I don't play".

I love the first 4, I've totally used them. #5 though. . .I have the TV on in the background while I'm playing anyways (hooray for ADD!).

I laughed reading the list, my coworkers all looked at me like I was up to something.

Anonymous said...

@Musingsofaraider: yes, it sounds so convicing, the TV argument, doesn't it?

@Krizzlybear: good one! I've got no "real life friends" whatsovever playing wow, but for those who have it must be great.

@Gnomeaggedon: "My friends need me" - well being a dps:er I can't seriously claim they need me - there are thousands of us. But for a tank or healer it must be perfect.

Love the "I'm really working" one. And doing the dishes at the same time... sounds SO good until you think a bit closer about it an realize it's kind of bullship. But hey... if you didn't play wow you wouldn't make the dishes at all, so after all it's a win, isn't it?

@anonymous: yeah, it's a hobby for me as well and I'm not ashamed of it. But it's funny how you sort of feel that you have to defend this hobby. Does your mother have to come up with excuses for making cards or your sister for caring for the horses?

@Dragon's den: yep, it's a specialty of your hostess. Just like Guinan in ST TNG. Creepy isn't it?

@Gevlon: it's wonderful that you can play without feeling guility ever. Having a playing gf certainly must help. And having a goblin mind ofc... Congrats!

@Fish: yes, the "keeping in touch with my friends" is a nice one.

A more honest excuse when it comes to me would be "making some friends since I'm so crap at it in real life and doing it on Internet is much easier and less demanding". But it sounds a little bit to saddening, doesn't it?

GoW said...

19: My daughter's probably going to end up a pole-dancer anyway, no need to spend time with her.

Keegan said...

When I look back on my life in 20 years I'll be glad I spent a few more hours upgrading numbers on a server.

Oops thought this was why NOT to play.