A look inside W.O.W, World of Warcraft, from an outsiders perspective

     This is a subject I know NOTHING about. Outside of Tetris, Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, and my favorite, Bubble Shooter, I was never a big video game player. Oh sure, some Simpsons Road Rage every now and again, honestly, the only game I think I ever beat was a little action adventure romp through the jungle game called Pitfall. I'm talkin bout 2600 version y'all, come on.

     Anyway, I am parroozing the Los Angeles am talk stations and came across the Dr. Laura program. This program, from what I can tell, is designed for whinny, middle aged, horrible women to complain about why their husbands don't pay attention to them. Dr. Laura listens to them complain for a few seconds and then tells them to lose weight, stroke their husband’s ego, and stop being a snatch. (Very good advice by the way) So I'm listening to this couple, the wife, of course, sounds like a nightmare, and the husband sounds like a sniveling wuss. Her main complaint, her husband comes home from an eight hour day and all he wants to do is play W.O.W. Translation- husband comes home after an eight hour day to the shrieking shrill of a nagging beast who wants things around the house fixed but won't make dinner after a hard day with the kids and Oprah. So in order for him to not smack her around or make the kid a single parent family by divorce, he drowns his sorrows into a role playing fantasy where he hunts and destroys an enemy, finds treasure fit for a king, and retires to his harem for a relaxing evening of wine, song, and dancing girls. (I have never played and have no idea if this is true) 

     I found this conversation fascinating. The diplomat that Dame Dr. Laura is, (yes, I believe she should be either knighted or made a saint) gave them both good advice (see above for female advice) on how to keep their marriage running a little more smoothly so the kid wouldn't grow up an orphan. Basically, she told daddy to chill out on the video games, and to stop being an ORC (OK, I did a little research) or he may lose his family. 

     In the next week or two I am going to find three people to interview about W.O.W. First candidate is a white collar middle class guy with a family, second a regular geek/nerd male between the ages of 18-23, and, if I can find one, a girl, any age, that plays this game. Lets see what the three have in common. Are these the same nerds who played Dungeons and Dragons in High School? Are they so far gone from reality that they make their friends call them by their Elf name? (Mine is Elil-Gandel, I did a WOW name generator just now, you can call me Eli or Gandi) Will they eventually detach themselves from society,  take their mighty frostmourne sword, carved from Rhinoceros tusk, and shank an entire McDonalds? These questions and more will be answered in the next episode of, what the hell is W.O.W?

Three part series, coming soon...

Stay tuned, 

Gandi