How hard can it be? - Adventures of a Gnome Mage Extraordinair

When you start off as a wee level one in places like Durotar or Elwynn Forest, you don't know what life will be like when you finally reach the maximum level. This I find fascinating, what moves someone to start achieving greatness in the World (of Warcraft).

When you draw that parallel between our fantasy home and the so-called "real world", there isn't that much of a difference. Raiding high level instances can be seen as your characters occupation, and so does playing Arena. Where raids could be considered a rigid 9-to-5 job, arena is available as freelance at any time, and that's why a lot of people do both.

Farming materials so you can keep doing raids or arena is like afterwork studying. You have to do it to be able to compete with co-workers or in WoW's case your team partners or other raid members.

Hunting achievements? It's like going on vacation or much simpler; playing sports. Something you do because it's fun, and it gives you satisfaction without life-bettering rewards. You could compare winning a sports tournament or competition as finally reaching that special Dragonhawk mount (72 and counting!).

Daily quests is a bit like eating in real life. You have to do it to be able to fuel those other things you do like work and sports. Something that keeps returning in your to do list daily or weekly. Cooking, cleaning, washing, you name it you count it.

Finally logging off is exactly the same in both realities. Going to sleep or turning of the game makes you and your character stop "living" for a while to gain energy back that was lost in the past day.

Now here's the kicker. What in real life constitutes as free time and/or relaxation, most of us live a second existence. Stress these days gives us humans so much problems and anxiety. Not having enough money to buy dinner, or clothes, or pay rent etc. gives a lot of stress and it's tearing us apart physically and mentally. We that play WoW, or any other MMO for that matter, don't we have double the amount of stress? How are we keeping it up? If you know the answer, don't hesitate to tell me that.

Now for some lighter stuff.