A warlock's story

She was a classmate of me in the university, wouldn't call her a friend, just another nice person. We lost contact after the university, met again two years ago accidentely. We talked some and turned out we are both playing WoW and also that we both left the capital city and now living in adjacent smaller cities. We kept in loose contact, 1-2 mails a month.

Saturday late evening she called me to help her pack her stuff and leave her flat. From her voice it was no wonder that it's an unscheduled flat change. Since I'm not famous for being selfless, I told that she either pays the same money a taxi driver would ask for a Saturday evening stuff transport or she tells me the whole story. She choose to tell the story. It was quite a story.

She started to have headache a month ago. She was often tired without reason, was sad more and more often. While her husband and friends said it's too much work, strangely the symptoms were stronger on weekends. While she used to play WoW a lot, she played less and less, though it wasn't a surprise to anyone, since with the expansion coming there were no more raids. However the husband noticed that instead of collecting DPS gear to her holy paladin for faster leveling she did dailies with her warlock.

She was often sad, tired and had headache but it was under control. Than the Lich King came online, and her health started to collapse. They both took payed holiday for the Nov 13-20 period. Her headache increased so she could barely play, but the doctor found no problems and she also agreed that she felt better at the doctor's. They switched monitor with her husband, hoping it's an eye-issue but did not help. His husband was more and more upset with his wife-issues slowing him down from reaching lvl80 fast.

By friday she was nearly invalid. Slept like 14 hours, could eat only a little, noticed that she lost 3 kg in the last weeks, her headache was stronger and stronger. The doctor sent her to a psychiatrist. She talked a lot about her past few years, in carrier, personal life, WoW-play.

It turned out that she left the capital city and her job there because his husband got a good job in the small city. She found a job here but didn't really liked it. She missed the big city too. "In life we have to make compromises" she told me about it a year ago. Since there were no changes in work or city in the last weeks, the doctor quickly found that here recent collapse is WoW-related. Luckily the doctor was not a dr Phil-like charlatan and was capable to understand that in WoW we play with real people and not with computer-created beings. And after all, she played little WoW compared to the previous months, so it couldn't be game addiction. So he started to ask about her WoW life.

She was playing since the beta, her husband started later. She played warlock since the start, she found the imps funny and also the dot-and-run tactics fit her very much. It was her husband who started raiding first, she followed him soon and liked it. After some Kara they both noticed that their current social guild is not going to down Prince or the dragons, so they applied together to a T5 guild this March. Her husband's tank was very welcommed, so they took them both. However her position in the raids was very sporadic. When they had open spots in farmraids she could go, otherwise not. She more or less understood it since there were other warlocks, in much better gear (since she rarely could go, she couldn't catch up on gear).

As everywhere, there was a tank-healer shortage, so she was persuaded to start a healer. Her husband respecced fury to boost her up through instances. She really did not liked the "5 Wailing Caverns in a row" runs. She reached lvl 70 in late June. They could afford to gear her up from BoE, BS-Engi, and her paladin was welcommed in raids, they downed RoS before 3.0.2. She loved raiding, but did not liked spamming FoL. Outside of raids she rather farmed with her warlock. With 3.0.2 they stopped raiding. She told that she understood that the better geared warlocks went to raid but at 80 all warlocks will be equally geared, so she want equal share of raids with her warlock. They rejected it, told her to stick to her pally since they needed a healer.

After the story was told, the psychiatrist asked some directed questions to make her notice that even in a game she is making compromises, she ignores her own wishes and does what is told to her. She also noticed that his husband does not support her choices, although as main tank and officer he could do something for her.

She went home and told her husband: "I gquit now, and find a guild that accept me the way I want to play, as a warlock. I left the capital, left my job for you, now it's your turn, come with me to a new guild. If you refuse to make a compromise for me even in a game, I file a divorce!" From the fact that we packed stuff Saturday evening you can guess he gave the wrong answer.

The moral of the story for me: WoW is a simulated world with real people. What is not directly game mechanics related like spell rotations and gear stats, are just as real as the life. Since here the things happen much faster, you can see results in weeks what you would see in years in real life. If she wouldn't play WoW she may never divorce from a husband who did not supported her, would spend her life in a job she did not like and live in a city she definitely disliked. Now she move not just an animated character to a different server, but also her very real self back to the capital city.


And since I am what I am, I couldn't miss on the opportunity to suggest something goblinish about the gquit. I made some calculation, so she left the guild with the following macros:
- Dear people, you did not gave me a fair share of raiding as the other warlocks had. I accepted it since I was undergeared. You did not want to give me the fair share on lvl80 although there will be no gear reasons for that. So I leave the guild and find one where I get my fair share.
- However I pulled a paladin, just for you. I never liked it, you wanted an extra healer. I have 6 days 11 hours /played, that's 155 hours. In an hour I could make 150G with dailies. That's 23250G. So for the first time, you going to give me what I deserve.
She removed this amount from the guild bank and left the guild. And she giggled. For the first time this month.