Comment on: On being a widow of World of Warcraft

While searching the Internet for World of Warcraft type articles to entertain me while was at work I happen upon the title of this article and think that someone has died because they have played World of Warcraft and left behind a widow.
On being a widow of World of Warcraft - Rec Room - The Phoenix
Upon reading it I realize that it just a woman who is complaining because her boyfriend has stopped paying attention to her and her now has nothing better to do then write about how it makes her feel. Usually, I would look at an article like this and just pass on by it scoffing at the stupidity/sadness of the person who plays the game trying escape their crappy life so much that they are pissing off/ignoring the only person who can give them live the life they want to live, and person who has lost their current significant other because they have no idea how to deal correctly with the current situation. But this article struck a nerve, probably because of the false advertising in the title, and all the articles about Warcraft addiction and people quoting Dr. Maressa Orzack have just started pissing me off and because my brain needs rest in between studying I have decided to write about how i feel on the situation.

VR and AR
It is a great premise in Science Fiction that because of all of the hate and hurt that someone feels on a daily basis because of Actual Reality that this someone gets stuck in Virtual Reality. In reality though it is a different story, feeling numb is a sign that something is wrong and feeling nothing at all inhuman and robotic. What makes us know we are alive are things like anger, pain, and love. VR does not trump AR, it is a plastic shell to be used as a repository for feelings when it is not appropriate to use them otherwise or when one can go when they feel as thought they aren't getting feeling enough.

The moon is always fuller over Azeroth because its fake and the programmers can make it as full or as much of a sliver as they want to with the push a few buttons. Look to the actual sky and see the actual moon reflecting it light onto the earth moving oceans as it circles our tiny planet and be in awe of it regardless of its fullness.

Addiction
It seems to be a word thrown around these days. Food addiction, nicotine addiction, gambling addiction, I am tired of hearing it. I am tired of seeing people on TV complaining about how broke they are because they gambled it away and other such sob stories, but seeing the destruction it has caused first hand it is possible to become addicted to something. Although being addicted to a video game seems rather stretching it. If you would rather play World of Warcraft then eat, or be intimate with your significant other. Then maybe you have a problem. If you end up selling objects important to you in order to get your World of Warcraft fix. Then you probably have a problem. But wanting to play World of Warcraft rather then spending every waking hour paying attention to you and your every whim is NOT a problem.

Ok maybe that was a little below the belt and maybe he does have a tiny problem. Writing about it isn’t going to make the problem go away.