War is upon us. A war which consumes countless lives every day. The tragedy, however, is that many cannot begin to comprehend its immensity.
I speak of the endless war that rages in the land of Azeroth in a game known as “World of Warcraft” – a massively multiplayer online role-playing game whose addiction tends to blur the line between virtual and real. There are many MMOs (Massively Mulitiplayer Online games) like it which have come and gone. But none have measured up to the true addiction that is WoW. I’ve seen it. It can get ugly.
I used to play WoW. It was cool. But, as I came into my final quarters at Ohio State, I had to face the brutal truth that my life could not go on with WoW in it. Since quiting, I dare say, my life has been extremely productive. But, oh, how I miss you my dearest level 60 rogue, Jaxparrow.
Although I quit recently, I’m still surrounded by WoW players everywhere. It seems that everyone’s playing the game and they all want me to come back and play WoW with them. I just might. But it was only last weekend that I was made aware of WoW’s power to change the reality of a person’s life, and this scares me.
I found out that a fellow member of the Ohio Air National Guard has been playing WoW since its beginning in November 2004. While at Guard duty, we had some free time, and he showed me all sorts of videos and pictures of things other players have done. I was amazed by the dedication some people have, and I began to search for WoW videos on my own. It was when I came across a documentary video concerning the not-so-popular player on American servers called the Chinese gold farmer that I saw the power WoW has to engulf a person’s life.
The documentary takes place in Shanghai and shows real Chinese people, about 21-23 years old, playing non-stop WoW. It’s their life. They eat, sleep and play in a cramped building. These people do nothing all day but play WoW. They somehow make a better living playing the game and selling their labor in America than going to school or working elsewhere.
From an American perspective, Chinese gold farmers have long plagued American MMO servers with their relentless will to gather virtual gold. To do this, Chinese gold farmers have to play countless hours of WoW, killing various beasts and monsters. They, then, sell that gold on eBay, and American players buy the virtual gold to enhance their gameplay and make it less boring and time-consuming. Chinese gold farmers also sell a service in which they will play on an American player’s account, allowing an American player the luxury of avoiding the boring low levels of the game; they can get right to the high-level action.
As of today, most WoW services on eBay advertise a going rate of $10 for every 100 gold, which translates to about the price of buying a mount for a character, allowing it to move faster through the game’s world on horseback. There are, of course, several other uses to gold in the game – gold is the game’s currency. Real-life prices for in-game gold can get as high as $30-$40. But the biggest price comes from leveling a character from level one to 60, which usually comes close to $250. The money goes to buying a Chinese person’s time. The labor is put into playing an account for several days straight (up to 15 days for some services), getting high-quality items, gold, gaining levels for the the buyer’s character, etc. It takes all the work out of the game. But, then again, it is just a game, right?
It’s one thing that many players seem to forget, WoW is just a game. Although, some make a living from the game, it should not overwhelm a person’s will to exist in the real world. Sure, some people use it to survive, but there are so many more worthwhile things to do in life.
Evan Brooks is a senior in journalism minoring in Chinese. E-mail him all your amazing WoW stories at [email protected].
