WoW, giving into temptations

I know it’s been a while since the blog was updated, so I thought I’d write about something that has taken up most of my free time. Yeah, World of Warcraft.

I recently came upon a moral dilemma regarding WoW. Well, it wasn’t so much a dilemma since the decision was quick, but I’d like to think that I have enough ethics to at least question my decision. I’m talking about buying Gold.

I know that many players hate those who buy WoW Gold from outside sources since this can be considered straight up cheating. Having ingame currency without working for it means that one can abuse the system which governs the ingame balance. A low level guy can buy ridiculously powerful weapons or enchantments and then completely outlevel players who are at the same level. I’m not talking about Twinks here, that’s a completely separate topic, but just how someone can ruin the gameplay experience of others by “cheating” the system.

A completely valid argument and one that I too agreed with back when I first started WoW, which was around fall of last year. I thought that the person is just cheating himself, in that he’s not learning the ways to be self sufficient ingame. Missing out on a painful, yet very rewarding experience in the long run.

I got off my high horse real quick when one of my friends said that he bought some Gold and wondered whether I wanted some too. At first I was totally against it, but then about 30 seconds later I thought to myself, ‘man I’ve been playing for like 7 months and have only been able to make maybe 2000Gs inbetween my Death Knight (lvl 72) and Shaman (lvl 55). I Dual Specced the DK, but also need to do it on the Shammy. So, fuck the ethics, buy the gold, Dual Spec the bitch and get ready to pwn!’

So anyways I got the Gold, 2600 Gs for the price of a month and a half’s subscription. I was feeling all happy and shit when I Dual specced my Shammy and spending a further 200Gs on Glyphs and some Armour pieces, but inside I was still feeling a bit guilty. I was in a PvP match (Warsong Gulch) when I got destroyed multiple times by the same bastard, and I thought to myself, man this Horde bitch has a lot of time on his hands to be this skilled. And then it hit me why I shouldn’t be feeling even a shred of guilt for buying that Gold.

See, my work demands that I spend roughly 13+ hours every day outside the home. So inbetween work, sleeping, eating, watching a bit of anime or TV and giving (shamefully) little time to family, I hardly have any time left for WoW during weekdays. So while I’m busting my ass on work, that Horde bitch was busy killing Alliance noobs and learning how to really play his class. A very generalised statement, but you know it’s true!

What it really boils down to is this: some people have time to play the game and get really skilled at playing their class. This means that they invariably have access to better gear. People like me who don’t get as much time to play can buy Gold and then have access to similarly high level gear instead of getting our asses handed to us in PvP and PvE.

Another amusing way of looking at this is how the oldest profession in the world works. Guys who work a lot, and don’t have enough time go through all the drama and pains of getting some, just buy it out. A very unfortunate thing to do, but at the end of the day, the basic purpose is fulfilled. That ‘lady’s man’ has too much time on his hands to ‘lvl up his skill’ and get it on whenever he wants. Those without much time on their hands just ‘cheat’ their way to get it. Simply different means to achieve the same goal.

So basically, what I’m saying is that buying WoW Gold is like getting a whore. And well geared too!