How the World of Warcraft changed my life…

Ahem.

Don’t worry this won’t be some geeky retrospective about how finally achieving lvl 70 and getting some l33tzorz(leetzorz.. ie: really cool) gear made my life finally worth living. (Sadly, I never even got to lvl 70…)

I won’t even give you a detailed account about how giddy I got upon purchasing my super hawt epix mount. (a really rare steed upon which my digital counterpart traversed the landscapes of the digital universe)

However, there is something even deeper about how the World of Warcraft completely changed my perspective on how I live my life. Whether or not this is important or has any significance to any thing you might do today… well, thats beyond the scope of MY blog. ;p

Anyway… if you’ve spent anytime in the wide world of Azeroth, then you’ll know about, what for me, was the single greatest element of this game:

The Auction House

It was here that my entire perception of the reality of money would change.

The auction house is a simple enough concept. In-game characters obtain in-game items with varying amounts of in-game value. If you manage to find something of particular rarity and usefulness, you’ll find a fine prize of Azeroth gold awaiting your goods on the Auction House.

During my time in the gameverse of Wow (which is now a past tense statement… as a good human vampire, I was able to completely consume every once of ontological goodness out of the universe during my time spent there and so now it and its finely crafted gold coins and epic rare uber-l33tsauce purps(a purple item is of particularly high value) bear little ontological satisfaction to me anymore… sadly enough, i quite enjoyed my time there…) I spent lots of time absorbed in the Auction House. As there was quite the gold coin to be made, not simply by selling ones own items, but by finding good deals on items for which I had no use or interest except for how much I could resell them..

I learned to play the Auction House pretty effectively. Netting myself (and a few of my WoW compatriots) a fine sum.

So what does this have to do with anything?
During my experience with the auction house, I discovered something extremely powerful:

The extraordinary thrill that comes from making money.

To some that may be some kind of platitudinous statement… but to me it was an incredible revelation. Making money is a hell of a lot of fun. Even when my interest in Wow was waning, and I really had very little to spend my digital gold on, the thrill of playing to auction house was greater than any other experience I could have on WoW.

So how has this affected me now? I’ve realized something very important. Making money, even economics in general are merely a game. And probably the most fun game one can ever play. Ok, I’ll admit, I’m a bit of a gambler at heart anyway, and the thrill of risking a sizeable portion of money in order to make even greater portions of money has always been a source of great satisfaction… but there is still something new here.

Growing up, I was always terrible with money. Money had a singular and simple purpose. To be spent. To be blown. To be used up as fast as possible. From the time I started working, I had always lived a paycheck to paycheck lifestyle. I could spend everything I had, because more was around the corner. It had little value to me beyond what fun things I could do with it…

Somehow WoW affected me in a way that changed that.

Money is a powerful force. I mean, I wasn’t even using “real” money… Merely a game mechanic that replicated a kind of economic system… (but honestly, is that any different than the kind of “digital” money that we use in real life now? What is it? “Money” today is nothing more than a kind of floating point, digital placekeeper.)

I’ve now begun to see the importance of saving this gold… (In fact, I think I might even make a good dragon. Rawr. Stay away from my precious loot.) But now, I have made a switch that is fundamental (i think) to being successful at anything in life. I no longer view Money as a sort of “system” imposed on me.. a system that forces me to go to work everyday and pursue it. I have begun to see economics as a game that we are all marred in and forced to play. But how you approach the game is going to affect how well you do. At times, in WoW, I was super successful and playing the Auction House reaped huge benefits.

However, I also went through hard times. Where investments I made never paid off and ended up costing me big time forcing me to work harder to make up the difference. But at the end of the day, WoW was a game. If i lost every single gold coin I had, well, I could always click the “X” and move on. Obviously, I don’t have that same luxury with real life. But, I sorta do. I suppose I could always go live on the street and shuck off the shackles of the system.

I don’t know if my point is getting across, or even if I really have one. But I do know that I have begun looking at things differently. I have begun to look at life as a series of opportunies. Where can I get involved in the game here? I no longer believe that work is merely an imposed sanction on the living. My job is sort of my starting point. Its the “grinding” I have to do to get by.

However, opportunities to go above and beyond abound. And my searching gaze is now examining how to get in on them.

And I suppose the final point… Games are cool. And Games arent “just” games. They can and probably will reveal something deeper about yourself and about us humans in general.

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