Unabashed

I’ve been very busy at work the past few days. I’m thinking of giving up Warcraft altogether. I just don’t have time for it as I thought I would. It’s a fun game, but I can’t understand some of the fascination; every time I bring it up with acquaintances I hear stories of people losing their jobs or getting divorced because of the game. It’s kind of put a stigma on the whole experience for me. I generally don’t get so caught up in things as that, but at the same time I don’t want to. I found out yesterday that WoW has gone over ten million subscribers. At fifteen bucks a pop per month, that’s $150 million per month. Holy crap. I might keep it if not for the subscription fee, but I’m not ready to pay monthly for something I’m only playing a little bit, so.

I have found a chance to do a little writing in the past week. I’ve been working on the second rewrite of a story tentatively titled “The Adventures of Trader Gahn and Redbeard.” As you can imagine by the title, a bit of an adventure. Modern-day pirates with a dose of fantasy thrown in to keep me honest and in genre. And because that’s who I am, and what I write. The previous title was Relics, based on a number of magical items someone’s stockpiling, but I’ve whittled some of the excess storyline out (from 60k words down to about 40 so far, and am fleshing out the characters, changing a little here and a little there). I’m not one of those writers who’ll try to get a 100k word book written, I’ll just write until I feel it’s done and let it be. So. It’s a fun thing to write.

I’ve also been working a bit on the first book I ever wrote… more of a novella, now that I look at it again, but when I wrote it and finished it it felt like I’d finished a magnum opus. Now that I go back, it really wasn’t so good at all. The story is good, I think, it’s just that I didn’t tell it very well. It’s a children’s story, tentatively titled “Way of the Wolf” with talking animals (think Lion King, but with wolves). Anyway, I hope to flesh out its characters some more now, too, especially now that I’ve got children growing up. I’d like to give them a copy of it when they can read it for themselves.

Lots of writing to do, not enough hands or heads to do it all. It’s a good problem to have, as someone who likes to write. At least I’ve never suffered writer’s block… at this rate I never will.

G’night.

written by Matt Mitchell \\ tags: Azeroth, time, Warcraft, World, WOW, writing

I have a disturbing new fascination: World of Warcraft. This game is much too much fun and is sapping way too much of my time.

I was looking for a new game to use my Xmas-gift $50 gift card on, and some friends I work with recommended World of Warcraft. After they explained the game a bit, it sounded fun, so I got it. Damn. All I can tell you is this: If you’re wondering where I’ve been the past couple of weeks, I’ve been in Azeroth, campaigning with my Rogue Orc. Now everyone I talk to when I mention that I’m playing WOW give me that knowing look that I’m finding is common among the players, the look that says, “your life just changed, didn’t it?” or, essentially, “Welcome to your new life.”

I won’t write a review of the game here. I’m much too new to the game to be able to describe the complexity of its land masses and characters. I’ll only say that I’m having to re-assess how much time I can allot to playing a game. My infatuation with WOW will likely wane–it always does with games, no matter how much fun they might be. But the sheer scope of involvement, the amount of ground there is to cover–literally–make it seem like this could be a game which could sap years of someone’s life before they’ve gotten a glint of how encompassing it truly is. It’s a lot like Grand Theft Auto, if you ever played that game. A big part of the fun of GTA was in exploring the city and the lay of the land. And GTA was an infatuation for me for a long, long time. But where GTA was basically a city, and in the newer version a few cities, WOW is an entire world, and even more fully textured and captivating. If GTA ever emulates Blizzard’s model for WOW and builds a whole world to explore, I may fall directly into a digital life and never be heard from again.

I’ve never played Second Life, but I imagine WOW is similar in scope, except you get to kill monsters and go on dungeon raids and quests.

And now I’ve got something else to balance into my life, because I can’t spend too much time with it. I’ve got blogs to read, friends to keep up with, and I’ve got writing and blogging to do right here on Unabashed. Which is why I’m writing this now. I’m letting you know that I’m not disappearing off the face of the Earth–at least not yet. I’m just fiddling with my latest fascination. I’m still reading your blogs, but I may not be commenting as much as I used to.

If you’re a WOW gamer, I’m on the Scarlet Crusade server, and my character’s name is KodusKahn.

written by Matt Mitchell \\ tags: Azeroth, grand theft auto, GTA, second life, Warcraft, World, WOW