(Part 2 of the ISAD Post Mortem coming later for the 3 of you interested, but this is something I've had on my mind for a long time and really wanted to share)

Life and WoW

I've heard from a few people that I "take this stuff too seriously". Nah. I have fun with digging into things so deeply, but there's also more to it than that.

What's the difference between a game and an actual important life decision? Really, it's just perspective. This doesn't mean that life is just a game, or that games are important life decisions, but let's take a look at a few parallels between WoW and life.

Work In Equals Reward Out

I put a lot of effort (...ok, time invested) into getting the gear I have today. Work in equals work out. If I work towards a goal, the more work I put into it the better the reward. If didn't go into Kara, I wouldn't have my pants. If I didn't work on arena and do my best to help our rating, I wouldn't have all the arena pieces I have now. If I didn't spend some time trying to figure out the best way to get gold (and actually going out and getting it), I wouldn't have the enchants and spellthreads and what have you. If I didn't work on my Sha'tar rep, I wouldn't have my helm enchant and trinket.

Right now I'm still working on arena gear (shoulders in 2 weeks, wand the week after if all goes well), and my Icon of the Silver Crescent (two more mech runs!). I'm still putting in the effort because I'll get the reward.

So how does this apply to life? That should be ridiculously obvious. The more work you put into your job, the more you're rewarded (bonuses, raises, general good standing).

Something I don't think many people at all know about me is that I worked as a game developer for two years (and am currently trying to finish college so I can get back to that). Let me share a quick story.

I started out in QA. I was the guy that tried to find all the bugs (and in the process, gained a LOT more respect for the developers and lenience for those bugs that got through, good god you should see an unfinished game). There was a coworker that sat next to me on the same project.

Throughout the life of the project, this coworker was constantly on the WoW forums (oh the irony). He rarely did any actual work. Why they allowed his computer to access the WoW forums after the first few days is beyond me.

Regardless, while I admit I certainly visited the forums myself from time to time, I was for the most part diligently working away at finding and recording bugs. I eventually became a mini-legend in the company for being "the hardcore gamer" that would tackle any level the developers threw at me because I learned so much about the game and how it works. 8+ hours a day will do that to you. I say I'm an average player in WoW, but I will without humbleness say I was damned amazing at X-men Legends II for PSP. I played their toughest missions with only one character at a time (you're supposed to have four), that sort of thing. I ended up finding a bug that let you one shot the final boss, which was fun as hell (and you can still do it because it was a design flaw that was essentially unfixable) and basically ensured I was the "MVP QA tester".

Of course, my final goal wasn't QA. I was a programmer at heart, having been doing it in one form or another since I was four (yes, I'm serious). Near the end of the project I started talking to my manager and some of the senior programmers about possibly getting a chance, and I went through some interviews with a kind of "we'll see" feeling.

One night before the final build was due, a bug came in from Activision's QA that involved beating the game followed by a horrible, horrible hard crash. I was elected to do a full run through of the game in one night (starting at around 8 PM) to see what was going on. That night I think I had like a 12 pack of Mountain Dew to keep me alert, and at around 2 AM or so I collapsed on my desk triumphantly, having beaten the game and discovered that the bug did not exist on the latest build for whatever reason.

After the project was over, I was offered a programming position, with my effort in QA being cited as a trait they were looking for. I continued the trend, and have been repeatedly asked if I'll be coming back once I finish my degree.

As for my WoW forum browsing compatriot, I never saw him again.

Work in equals reward.

One Step at a Time

When I hit the 50s or so with Evertras, 60 only seemed farther away than ever even though I had gotten so close. Thanks to some coaxing from Asheni, I slowly crawled my way there. The big irony of it all was that because it seemed so far to go, I barely made any effort to get there.

Farming for my epic mount at 60 was similar, though I had begun to steel myself. I told myself I would just gun right through it, and after a painful week I was riding a purple skeletal warhorse around.

By the time BC came out, I had begun to figure something out. All this "difficult stuff" was attainable just fine if I only made the effort to get there. For the 60 to 70 grind, I took a new approach. I didn't look at 70 as my final goal, I looked at each half of a level as my final goal. Every time I reached another half of a level, I'd look at the next, and the next, and so on until suddenly I was 70.

I saw people in amazing gear, and instead of whining and moaning to myself that I could never get that, I instead just started working towards it. I didn't look at being fully kitted out in PvP gear as my final goal once more, I took it one piece at a time. Now I'm almost fully in PvP epics.

Scryer rep was the same too. I told myself I'd get a few thousand rep per night, and used that as my goal instead of "get exalted". Some nights I'd get a bit more, some a bit less, but the overall grind was fairly painless and I enjoy the rewards it got me (nice money, too).

I'm now working on my epic flying mount. I have about 500g, and I don't think I'll have the 5k for a long time yet, but I know that if I just keep slowly saving up, I'll get it.

So what does this have to do with life? Time for another quick story (don't worry, I actually mean "quick" this time).

In a sense I'm a bit of a college dropout, or at least I was. I got a year and a half completed before I dropped out and went to go work. I'd like to say I was getting bored or that it was too easy, but in all honesty, I was getting overwhelmed, just like with Evertras in the 50s. Here I was, so close to the end, and I quit! There was a lot I could've learned, and if I had stayed with it I might be working full time over at VV rather than as a contract employee.

WoW actually has taught me a VERY valuable lesson. I can do what I set my mind to, no matter how long it takes, and what seems unattainable is actually very simple if I just take it a step at a time and stop trying to only look at the end. I'm now back in college and planning to finish it without any problems now.

I just have to take it one step at a time.

Stop and Smell the Roses

This is pretty related to the above bit, but I think it bears explaining. Sometimes I have a habit of fixing my sights on the final goal, and never realize what I'm doing in the moment. When I was in the 50s with Evertras, I was ignoring all the places I was exploring, all the quests I was completing for the first time, the specs I was toying with, and so on.

When I focused on getting to 60, I hated playing. Everything I did felt boring, tedious, and annoying.

When I instead focused on the moment, how I was going to kill the next monster, see what kind of combos I could line up, see what spells I could use differently, see how many I could take on at once, that was when the game was fun again. I wasn't getting to 60 any slower, but I was having a hell of a lot more fun with it.

When I level alts I admit I use a guide... but as I go along, I play these little games with myself. How can I grind absolutely most efficiently with my warlock spells? What's the fastest time I can kill something in?

Then there's the world itself. Why are these dragon whelps here? What do they do all day? What's this cult about? What brought them out here? Keep a little flavor in your gameplay!

So what does this have to do with life? I hope this one's obvious too.

Enjoy it! Enjoy the moment, don't dread what may come to pass. For example, back in middle school I used to HATE August. I still had time off, but I knew school was looming, and I groaned at the thought of going back. What I should have been doing instead is enjoying the free time I had left instead of keeping my mind on what wasn't happening right then.

For example, I'm not looking forward to going through a bejeezus ton of messy paperwork trying to fix up my transfer credits with a professor's help, but am I doing that right now? Of course not. I'm sitting here watching Adult Swim and typing into this blog, sitting in a rather comfortable chair in my apartment. Why should I worry about something that isn't happening right now and that I can't affect until it arrives?

Back at my old college, I made this mistake. Instead of enjoying the moment, college life, and focusing on my classes, I kept trying to look ahead.

Thanks in part to WoW, I've now learned that instead of looking ahead all the time, I should look at where I am right now. What's ahead will get here when it's good and ready.

Holy crap you read this far

I commend you on your patience and worry about the amount of free time you must have, but I hope that was interesting. I'd also like to stress this isn't just WoW that I'm learning from, but it's games in general. I just like to use WoW as a reference here. If people are curious I'll write up some more parallels I've found for myself, but I think that's quite long enough for all but the most obsessive readers for one post. ;)