I’m one of the lucky ones. You see, I have a severe case of gaming A.D.D. Others, however, are not so lucky. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

I played World of Warcraft for over a year. Night after night I would play with my friends, exploring the vast lands of Azeroth with thousands of other players. It was really fun and I still consider it one of my best gaming experiences of all time. Unfortunately, for me, that fun came to an abrupt end. Once your character hits level 60, the game switches gears drastically. For those of you who are unfamiliar with MMORPGs (massively multiplayer online role playing game), let me bring you up to speed. All new characters start at level one. As you progress through the game, your character gains levels. The higher your level, the more powerful you are. Most games of this type have a level cap. World of Warcraft’s level cap is 60.

So what then? At level 60 you really only have 3 options.

1. Roll a new character and go through the leveling process again. My A.D.D. won’t allow that. It was fun the first time, it would be tedious the second time. Or the third time. Or the fourth time.
2. PvP (Player vs Player) This is where you pit your skills against other live players. At present, there are 3 fighting arenas called Battlegrounds, each with their own objectives. This is fun for a while, but in order for you to increase your standings (rank), you would have to commit an obscene amount of time to the game. The higher your rank, the better gear you get and at level 60, the only thing that matters is gear. That brings us to number 3.
3. Endgame instances. This is where you get together with 40 of your closest friends and try to tackle various dungeons. These dungeons (also called instances) have to be completed in a certain order. In order to attempt AQ40, you need to complete Black Wing Lair. In order to attempt Black Wing Lair, you need to complete Molten Core. And so on, and so on. A guild could spend months on one dungeon, doing the same thing over and over again, night after night. Not just to beat the dungeon, but to equip 40 people with enough gear to be able to beat the next dungeon. And why would you want to beat the next dungeon? To get really cool gear. For me, the tedium out ways the fun. Gaming A.D.D.

This is just my perspective on the game. Seven million people play (or have played) this game, so Blizzard is doing something right. And at $15.00 a month, they are pulling in some good loot too. Pun intended.

There is a serious problem with these types of games though. They take people out of reality and put them into a fantasy world where they can be whoever and whatever they want. That’s really the point of any such game, to allow oneself to temporarily escape reality. But they did such a great job of creating a fantasy world that people sometimes lose site of the fact that’s it’s actually just a game. For those of you who’ve never played such a game, you must have a hard time believing this, but it’s true.

This isn’t a problem exclusive to World of Warcraft. In fact, it’s not even a new problem. Back before WoW was even conceived, there were games like Everquest and Ultima which posed the same problems. Why be a nobody in the real world when you can be a god in a virtual world. For some, the lure is too great.

I actually had no intention of writing this much. What provoked this written commentary was a blog entry that I read yesterday called A View from the Top, which was written by a former World of Warcraft player. It explained how the game almost ruined his life and why he eventually quit the game altogether. I thought it was a fairly intriguing post. What I found more intriguing were the 700+ comments that were left in response to the post. If you have the time, I would highly recommend checking this out. At the very least, you’ll get an interesting cross section of the World of Warcraft community. That’s interesting enough in itself.

I just want to mention a couple of things before I finish. Though there is an obvious problem with the way that some people latch on to these types of games, the majority of people who play MMORPGs are in it just to have a good time. It’s very similar, in my eyes, to ones usage of alcohol. I know a lot of people who drink (myself included), but that doesn’t mean they’re alcoholics. Like everything else, when something is used in excess, it has the potential to be harmful, whether mentally or physically.

And lastly, I actually like the World of Warcraft. I don’t want this post to be interpreted as a WoW bash session. I’ve met dozens of great people while playing this game and have had hours of fun doing it. I truly think it is one of the greatest games ever created. But like I said, I have gaming A.D.D. — and for me, sitting in Molten Core night after night for hours on end is about as stimulating as watching reruns of the Golden Girls.