This game was there for me when nobody else was, just logging in, do some chores in game to distract myself, get happy at the little progress I made at the game because slowly but surely I was achieving my goals.
Just logging in at times and seeing someone in Gchat go "hey, how's it going x?" Or "just in time X I need someone to help me"
This game represents a safe space in my mind and house, just seeing images of the map and reliving memories in my mind is enough to change my mood.
Many people won't understand but I sure am happy for it
This but now when I revisit Classic it breaks my heart because I'm so depressed that I've come back hoping for that safeness, but my past community isn't there so the game feels empty compared to the past.
Play WoW Classic Hardcore!! I’m telling you, I felt the same way until I started Hardcore. It’s the absolute closest feeling to that original Vanilla WoW feeling. The community is amazing! Always groups happening and open world stuff going on. It’s amazing. Roll Alliance of Defias Pillager.
Maybe I'll give it a go, my problem is I get frustrated trying to do all the old stuff by myself because I have no one to play with and everyone i encounter on Whitemane is just powering through to get to endgame and so no one wants to group up :/
Watching the Classic servers and our guilds die when Retail releases an expansion was the most depressing thing to me. People just don't have loyalty to the one game anymore, always chasing the new shiny. Yes they'll be back to play months in the future, but you're guild and server will never recover.
WoW, GW1, StarCraft and all the music back then helped me so much as a kid from a broken home. Keeping me out of trouble till I was a late teen but still giving me escapism.
“So here’s your holiday, I hope you enjoyed this time, you gave it all away, IT WAS MINE! So when your dead and gone, will you remember this night, twenty years now lost. It’s not right.”
Same. When real life gets overwhelming, I could always count on this game to calm me down and cheer me up. People in this game have been there for me when I needed them most, even when people in my real life weren't. If I could go back to when I started playing, I'd do it all over again.
This is precisely the counter point to "social media BAD" studies.
It gives people the only chance of connection to another individual and the only ability for them to form a relationship/bond with others.
That 1 kid that's bullied relentlessly in a town with 1 school from kindergarten to highschool? Yea, their only chance of survival is online connections. They may not get it from home/family. They may not get it from peers/school staff. They may not feel like anyone knows they even exist until they find someone that acknowledges them as a human being.
Most normal people put up with friendships with terrible people and force themselves to drink and do activities they hate just for the chance of friendship. Real life is far more brutal with heavier consequences, you'll be judged by so much out of your control. You can always turn off a videogame or block bad people online, infinitely safer and under your control.
I know exactly how you feel. I recently started playing HC and decided to roll a class/race combination I never played in almost 20 years, NE Hunter. I know it sounds corny, but walking through the forest of Teldrassil at 2AM almost gave me an ASMR reaction, it's like I finally remembered just how much fun just being in the game was.
I think you may be surprised how many people use this game as an escape from their real life struggles.
This game helped me through my divorce when I struggled to find the will to keep going. I lost everything in my real life but somehow the little achievements for myself and others in this game helped me keep going.
A lot can be said about the power of gaming to heal.
Seriously, it helped me so much. I was isolated by my crazy nutjob mom from the ages of 12 to 19. During that period of time, she got more mentally ill and became more abusive and my dad didn't care anymore thanks to a severe head injury he had. This game was really the only bastion of safety for me, outside of books, which I couldn't get access to anymore either.
Whenever I have a pretty bad depressive episode, I want to just hop into the game and grind a new toon, or run around to memorable spots, or run old raids to collect things I always wanted. Its familiar, its safe, it's easily my biggest comfort game this side of Diablo 2 & 3.
WoW taught me to put my time and effort into what matters. It taught me what it means to really grind for what you want. I havent played it in years but it will always be with me.
WoW was the best game back in 2000s.
Now you get to level max in 2 weeks, there is no challenge, you can buy stuff things, none of my friends are on it anymore.
For me WoW was the best game back in 2000s era, but now, I really can’t.. the spirit of the game has changed too much.
People will not understand the wonders of taking a gig, doing what it asks, then getting payed. You don't have to fight for every single piece of bronze coin, you just get payed as agreed. Some will say its an outlandish fantasy, and real life will never work that way, but I enjoy the fantasy.
It'd be nice if it worked that way, but the reality is everyone is out to scam you or make money of you. It'd be like if all the quests were really hard to find, everyone got different ones, and sometimes the quest npc just randomly decides to go back on the proposed deal.
I SAiiiid 10 boars but now I only need 5 boar meat so I'm gunna give you half the money. sry kiddo, go feel bad for yourself and cry or something
Played for a decade and feel much the same. This was a coping mechanism for me, but it was safe. The only good memories I have of that time period are about wow.
i only started playing wow like 6 months ago so i have alot to catch up on. For like two years ive been on this whole workout and health craze where everything in my life was dictated to perfectly be optimal for my future as a pro athlete and in that time i havent enjoyed video games for a while. I grew up on video games more than anything and leaving that worrysome part of my life and bringing in wow has been amazing. Its the first time ive genuinely felt excitement to play a game since i was 12 on a christmas morning. The thought of wow and learning about its lore brings so much excitement to me
Before starting to play regularly again (for me in SoD) my friend groups were falling apart and I basically wasn’t talking to anyone during the day and isolated. Now I hop in VC with my guildies almost daily, doing deals, leveling alts and raiding. Seriously such a change in how I’ve been feeling and my mood, even my family has noticed too.
I remember watching the 2023 blizzcon, I don't know why I was watching, I had quit onthe rerelease of wotlk prepatch. I suddenly heard the SOD announcement while I was doing something else and my body froze, I never felt that excited before. I am in a very nice guild right now and I honestly wouldn't change the friends I've made for anything else, the meaning journey vanilla offers is unparalleled.
Counterpoint: I had a large number of friends from all different walks. My parents allowed me unfettered access to a dopamine monster they didn't understand. I neglected my friends which I'm sure made them feel some kind of way. I didn't even realize I was doing it. I'm extremely regretful of this time period in my life even though I made cool "friends" online and had an absolute blast.
I avoided my first depression because of this game. It also modified my behaviour by teaching me how to overcome my fears, dare do things right away instead of hesitating until the opportunity was gone, ask for help and realise that it's ok to not be good at something from the start.
In between sessions, I went and asked to get into a group session to help young people find employment and had the courage to insist after they told me I might be taking the place of someone who needed it most. I told them to remove me from the list if someone else came and it was full. I would have just walked away before.
Then, one day, as I opened my laptop right when I woke up, I saw a mail from a recruiter asking me to complete a test before a potential interview. I did it on the spot, sent the email immediately and only then started panicking. I got the job and had to stop playing because I moved somewhere with very bad internet. The skills I had learned in WoW were actually very useful in my job and my life from then on. I only regret not pushing myself further and becoming a tank or a healer.
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u/spooky_pokey Oct 31 '24
Many people won't understand.
This game was there for me when nobody else was, just logging in, do some chores in game to distract myself, get happy at the little progress I made at the game because slowly but surely I was achieving my goals.
Just logging in at times and seeing someone in Gchat go "hey, how's it going x?" Or "just in time X I need someone to help me"
This game represents a safe space in my mind and house, just seeing images of the map and reliving memories in my mind is enough to change my mood.
Many people won't understand but I sure am happy for it