This blog is a blog of firsts, the first blog I have blogged for more than one day, the first time I have written a music review, and now the first time I comment about gaming (although I have written a gaming review before). You see, some people’s spare times are occupied my watching TV (so is mine) speaking to friends through texting/social networking/emailing/phoning/instant messaging/real life (so is mine) and sleeping (unsurprisingly, so is mine). However, I also play World of Warcraft. Why? Well if I didn’t I would find myself with not alot to do.

Now, I said I didn’t want to bog this blog down with personal stuff, so that’s enough about my life.  For those that have not heard of/don’t know alot about World of Warcraft, it’s basically a big online game where lots of people mill about talking to each other and questing with each other, doing such things as killing nasty monsters and delivering mysterious packages to mysterious characters. I have been at the end-game (the top level of the game, you progress level on level through the game) for around two months, and partake in what is known as raiding, where a group of ten or more group together and go to special instanced dungeons, where nobody from the main game world out of this group can enter.

It’s time-consuming, hard, and expensive with regards to the in-game economy. But, it teaches me the values of concentration, reflexes and organisation. At its base, World of Warcraft is just a spreadsheet with colourful graphics, but this spreadsheet can teach me alot simply due to the human interaction and therefore randomness  involved. That’s what I love about it, I love talking to people, and I love interacting with people, and gaming for me is not about being a geek or a nerd, it’s about socialising, it’s about learning, about myself and others.

The raid I commonly partake on, maybe two or three times a week, maybe none, is called Karazhan. It requires ten experienced adventurers to complete, but takes many months to complete. An average night of it will probably last around four hours, maybe less, maybe more, and I go mainly for the fact that it really does improve my concentration levels well at the same time, advancing me in the game. I think World of Warcraft shouldn’t be called a game, more a tool, if you wish, just a tool for talking (some people spend all their time socialising) or for learning, perhaps getting a basic understanding of economics (through the relatively basic in-game economy) or improving your maths skills by trying to work out how much you can sell an item for or which item is better for you. As it is a bit of a spreadsheet with graphics, it is lacking a calculator, so if you so choose, it can be used to improve your maths skills.

So there we have it, I play a game which to me, isn’t a game. To someone else it may be, but for me, it’s a tool. A tool to ‘improve’ myself and to socialise, but a fun one nonetheless.