what a douche!

[Peepee]

Bilky showed me this and it made me laugh ALOT!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/aug/29/world-of-warcraft-video-game-addict

as much as I love wow this dude is a twat

 

[Ki!ler-Mk1]

Three years into his job, Van Cleave's life began to fall apart. His wife was pregnant again. Then he began to feel that others in the faculty disliked him and wanted him gone. But he did not try to repair the rifts, instead channelling his anxieties into WoW, a virtual world he could control. "All that tethered me to anything meaningful during this time was WoW, which I clung to for dear life," he wrote.

For millions who play, the lure of games like WoW is hard to resist. Players create an "avatar," or online character, who operates within a startlingly detailed storyline and graphic world. Playing makes the gamer feel like the star of a sci-fi movie. Characters form teams and go on quests to find items, conquer lands or achieve new levels.

The guy writing the article also clearly doesnt know what a game is either.

He spent $224 in real money to buy fake gold so he could get an "epic-level sword" and some "top-tier armour" for his avatar.

How is this any different to buying a car, geeze this author is very biased.

I like how he uses the word avatar, as we know people outside the gamer know how, think avatars are substance-less balloons, as opposed to fictional characters with epic back stories.

 

[BiG D]

How is this any different to buying a car

Well, for starters, a car is an actual physical object that has actual value and a practical use, among many many other things...

 

[Zooggy]

Hey,

Well, for starters, a car is an actual physical object [and other invariants unrelated to the question]

I fail to follow your point...

Cheers,
J.

 

[thatbloke]

Different things are worth different amounts to different people. Case in point: something that holds much sentimental value to someone.

There is more than one way to measure the perceived value of an item to any one person.

 

[Xylak]

This guy has problems.
I think he should be thanking WoW for saving him from alcoholism or something like that. It sounds like he could have easily gone that route.
And talking of alcoholics, isn't working at a place that is known for games developers a bit like a reformed alcoholic working in a brewery?

WoW is designed to keep you coming back to play - how often and when you do is up to you. WoW doesn't make you do 50 hours straight... you do!
I've done 16 hour days on WoW... and GTA and GT5 and a bunch of other games, but that's just me.
Stop blaming the game!

 

[Angelic]

Different things are worth different amounts to different people. Case in point: something that holds much sentimental value to someone.

There is more than one way to measure the perceived value of an item to any one person.

Indeed! Spending money you can afford is absolutely fine in my book, regardless of what it's spent on.
Obviously the problem of this guy wasn't the cash, but losing control of his life.

 

[BiG D]

Hey,



I fail to follow your point...

Cheers,
J.

Please explain to me how anything I said there is irrelevant?

 

[Pwnstar]

On a side note. Why the hell can't my family name be Van Cleave, that's an amazing name.

 

[Peepee]

On a side note. Why the hell can't my family name be Van Cleave, that's an amazing name.

Indeedy it is

 

[Panda with issues...]

This is such a non story. Plenty of people piss jobs down the drain by failing to perform properly for a number of reasons. Surely the guy's free time is his to spend how he wants? Aside from the 'waaaaa, he had a wife and kids' angle. Relationships break down all the time too. At least he wasn't beating his wife or anything.

 

[Skcornnelg]

Van Cleave?

Is his daughter called Vanessa?

 

[Ki!ler-Mk1]

Well, for starters, a car is an actual physical object that has actual value and a practical use, among many many other things...

Well, while you've already had the point made regarding value to a person made to you.

The writer thought $224 is a for a virtual item, i think 30,000 for a car is too much, the question is why doesn't the author think that ANY money is ok.

 

[BiG D]

Just because someone places value (monetary or otherwise) on an object doesn't make it inherently valuable. Show me a bank, pawnshop, anything that will lend you real money with your WoW items as collateral and I'll happily rescind that statement about value. I don't think we're there yet, and I doubt we will be for quite some time.

Everything else still stands, too. I see very very few similarities between buying fake gold and buying physical items, ESPECIALLY something as substantial as a car...

 

[Zhar]

Well, you know what they say,
"Value has value, but only if its value is valued."

 

[Ki!ler-Mk1]

Everything else still stands, too. I see very very few similarities between buying fake gold and buying physical items, ESPECIALLY something as substantial as a car...

Well, when you buy fake gold, you can only use it as long as you are subscribed to the game. When you buy a car you can only use it as long as you maintain road tax, insurance and a license to drive, additionally you can get a car for <500, so why get one for 30,000.

And a car is not a substantial item in the game of life.

Would this situation be easier for you to understand if he had spent the money on an ingame mount for lets say the $224 when he could have got a mount which performs the same task for gold?

I cannot drive (yet), this does not prevent me getting a car but it would make me buying a car as idiotic as buying fake gold.





Also, why do you call it "Fake" gold? It seems to be in context real when the shop vendor gives me services for it. Its game gold, not fake gold.

 

[Ki!ler-Mk1]

Just because someone places value (monetary or otherwise) on an object doesn't make it inherently valuable.

What doesn't that apply to? Water?

 

[BiG D]

When you buy a car, you receive an item that contributes to your personal wealth and serves a very real purpose. When you buy fake gold, you get an item of very little consequence that can be traded for other items of very little consequence.

Also, I'm calling it fake gold because it's not real.

 

[Ki!ler-Mk1]

When you buy a car, you receive an item that contributes to your personal wealth and serves a very real purpose.

Really, what is the purpose of a £30,000 car? The article makes a point of saying $244, why we dont know, if it was less than a certain threshold would they have not mentioned it, we dont know that either. But if we assume there is a threshold, then it exists that there is also one for the difference between a reasonably priced functional car, and one which isnt.

When you buy a car, you receive an item that contributes to your personal wealth and serves a very real purpose.

Cars devalue and cost money.

When you buy fake gold, you get an item of very little consequence that can be traded for other items of very little consequence.

Also, I'm calling it fake gold because it's not real.

But by calling it fake, you are accepting that it exists and can be traded with value. As can fake money.

 

[BiG D]

Not sure why you're so hung up on prices? You didn't mention them in the original post and I've said nothing about price.

Regardless, I really don't understand what you're going on about so I'm done here unless somebody else wants to add something worth discussing.