World of Whorecraft: Are Online RPGs Better Than Designer Drugs?
Arena Magazine worries that the geeks have all the fun
One week in from the launch of World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade and SPOnG ponders the question of the day, which is this: “How come HMV’s biggest-attended store launch ever didn’t manage to generate more mainstream press interest?”
A possible answer comes from Arena magazine’s Steve Beale, one of the more surprising media attendees at last weeks midnight launch and a long-standing editor and contributor to some of the UK’s more edgy lifestyle/consumer magazines (Beale was perhaps last best known as editor of the oh-so-cooler-than-thou Sleazenation before it went tits…).
Beale’s account of the event and it’s aftermath is detailed in his latest Arena column:
Hilariously, Beale then goes on to ponder the worst possible nightmare for an edgy fashion-obsessed lifestyle journo – maybe the geeks are having more fun than we are! He continues:
What do you reckon? Is it time for the cool kids to start playing WoW? Is the word ‘geek’ finally something that equates with being ‘cool’ ?
A possible answer comes from Arena magazine’s Steve Beale, one of the more surprising media attendees at last weeks midnight launch and a long-standing editor and contributor to some of the UK’s more edgy lifestyle/consumer magazines (Beale was perhaps last best known as editor of the oh-so-cooler-than-thou Sleazenation before it went tits…).
Beale’s account of the event and it’s aftermath is detailed in his latest Arena column:
The other night, 3,000 denizens of another dimension invaded HMV on London’s Oxford Street for the midnight launch of World Of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade (or WoW: TBC for short)….WoW, for those who have lives, is the online role-playing-game sensation with eight-million subscribers and not only its own dedicated South Park episode, but also a very ‘specialist’ porn site, whorecraft.net. …Five times as many people turned up as did for the Nintendo Wii just before Christmas and, according to one security guard, “even more than for Take That”.
But it hasn’t made the news much because the media is controlled by middle-aged women who find anything other than interviews with Jimmy Choo’s Tamara Mellon to be both confusing and distasteful…
But it hasn’t made the news much because the media is controlled by middle-aged women who find anything other than interviews with Jimmy Choo’s Tamara Mellon to be both confusing and distasteful…
Hilariously, Beale then goes on to ponder the worst possible nightmare for an edgy fashion-obsessed lifestyle journo – maybe the geeks are having more fun than we are! He continues:
Apparently there is a whole scene out there of industrious youngsters who make their own costumes inspired by their fave fantasy characters – and then have sex in them, of course… I’ve always strongly subscribed to the whole high-pressure job, status symbols and designer drugs thing – but am I the only person who suspects these guys are having a lot more fun than we all are?
What do you reckon? Is it time for the cool kids to start playing WoW? Is the word ‘geek’ finally something that equates with being ‘cool’ ?
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Comments
Earl 22 Jan 2007 16:34
1/5
All the cool kids are already playing WoW.
See you in the Outlands !
See you in the Outlands !
OptimusP 22 Jan 2007 16:49
2/5
Offcourse geeks have more fun! They can engage in fantasy-driven worlds brimming with creative and fun energies, extrapolating their dreams and fantasies into this world while "social" people have to be happy with shallow, materialistic filler with the only purpose of showing how much money you make and in no way shows what a person you are....expect for a shallow and materialistic moneydriven douchebag.
i'll take option one anytime of the day.
i'll take option one anytime of the day.
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Hypnotoad 23 Jan 2007 00:06
3/5
Lol - funny stuff. Unfortunately, as fun as WoW is, it's never going to be seen as 'cool' by the traditionally hip, designer-drug-taking social crowd. Even today, you hit the town and you can pick a WoW player from the other side of the room. The activity still involves shutting out the 'real world' for extended periods of time, and lets face it, how cool can 'my BM specced hunter has beast within which gives dmg buff and immunity to AOE spells for 18 seconds' ever really be?
On a side note, I've seen a few of those cosplay 'ladies' in photos and whatnot and I gotta say, sex with them doesn't seem like all that much fun ;)
On a side note, I've seen a few of those cosplay 'ladies' in photos and whatnot and I gotta say, sex with them doesn't seem like all that much fun ;)
billson 23 Jan 2007 11:35
4/5
geek is chic, lol
TimSpong 23 Jan 2007 13:19
5/5
Hypnotoad wrote:
Unfortunately, as fun as WoW is, it's never going to be seen as 'cool' by the traditionally hip, designer-drug-taking social crowd.
The H.D-D.S.C. are too busy trying to work out how they managed (and are still managing) to fall for Second Life... that's if they're not getting tips on Myspace from their nephews and nieces.
I seem to remember that football (trans: 'soccer-ball') would never be hip prior to the Italia '90 World Cup and Nick Hornby's hideous 'Fever Pitch' self-indulgent novel of parental bonding and romantic 30-yard free-kicks.
Then, Pow! footy is no longer a "working man's game", it's a hip, cool and fashionable 'cultural event'. B******s of course. The the prices went up - the quality of football went down - and it all became about WAGs, s**te biographies, movies and 'intense national moments'....
Same can be said for the bloody cricket when we (The Poms - ooooh, racist) beat them (the 'Aussies' - oooh racist) in the Ashes. That summer, I seem to recall, even cricket became cool. Thank gods we, The Poms then proceeded to restore the universal balance and lose; thus negating any further interest by the 'hipsters'.
So, who can say what the H.D-D.S.C. will think is cool? All you can say for certain is that they will only think it's cool for about 15-seconds before the next thing comes along.
Sod them. A good game will always be a good game.