Sure, play WoW. It will prepare you for life as an upload.
Seriously: I play WoW about 15 hours per week. I find the game to be a most pleasant way to relax, better than, say, TV, which I only watch for 1-2 hours per week.
But the game is designed to “reward” time spent playing (you can find plenty of info on that on the web), and I know that many people do get sucked in and spend countless hours doing mindless, repetitive tasks to get some minor advantage (of which there is a practically inexhaustible list). These are the kind of people who look back with shock and horror on broken relationships, stagnating careers, flabby physiques and quite rightly attribute that on 10′000++ hours over 5+ years playing WoW.
So I think it all comes down to: what will you be giving up to find time to play? If it is TV, lolcats, porn etc—fine. If it is study, exercise, and good company—do not do it.
I have the feeling that WoW, online MMORPGs in general, and all Zynga games optimize for wanting instead of liking. If I get into them, I try to notice when I’m not enjoying myself, and just stop—but it can be difficult. I tend to stick to “liking”-optimized games like Mass Effect, Deus Ex, Bioshock, et. al.
Sure, play WoW. It will prepare you for life as an upload.
Seriously: I play WoW about 15 hours per week. I find the game to be a most pleasant way to relax, better than, say, TV, which I only watch for 1-2 hours per week.
But the game is designed to “reward” time spent playing (you can find plenty of info on that on the web), and I know that many people do get sucked in and spend countless hours doing mindless, repetitive tasks to get some minor advantage (of which there is a practically inexhaustible list). These are the kind of people who look back with shock and horror on broken relationships, stagnating careers, flabby physiques and quite rightly attribute that on 10′000++ hours over 5+ years playing WoW.
So I think it all comes down to: what will you be giving up to find time to play? If it is TV, lolcats, porn etc—fine. If it is study, exercise, and good company—do not do it.
I have the feeling that WoW, online MMORPGs in general, and all Zynga games optimize for wanting instead of liking. If I get into them, I try to notice when I’m not enjoying myself, and just stop—but it can be difficult. I tend to stick to “liking”-optimized games like Mass Effect, Deus Ex, Bioshock, et. al.
Can you elaborate on the difference between liking and wanting?
Lukeprog wrote rather extensively about this distinction :
The Neuroscience of Pleasure
The Neuroscience of Desire
Basically, wanting and liking are quite separate in human minds. It is easy to like something you don’t want, and want something you don’t like.
That sounds like the difference between fun to play and fun to win.