NORMAL OR NERD? DEBUNKING THE MYTH BEHIND ONLINE GAMING

By Dennis Capone

BLUE BELL, PA--World of Warcraft (WoW) is an MMO, a Massively Multiplayer Online game, that currently has over twelve million subscribers. According to a survey conducted at Montgomery County Community College, an average of 70% of students think World of Warcraft is lame, for geeks, for dorks, and the most popular answer, for nerds. The stereotype of “nerd,” is someone who is socially impaired, and is generally used for people who devote unholy amounts of time to games. The popular show South Park satirizes this through an episode titled “Make Love, Not Warcraft”, in which the main characters started to play WoW to the point of physical deterioration. This helps add to people looking down on those who enjoy WoW, or any online gaming.

World of Warcraft was developed by a company named Blizzard in November of 2004. The game was a continuation of a story laid out in the popular game Warcraft. They decided to shift from a real time strategy game, involving controlling multiple units, into a role playing game where you are invested in the growth of one character. The game quickly grew due to the social side beyond slaying monsters. You could actively interact with others, strategize, and tackle epic quests together. This quickly drew in the lonely nerds who wished to escape into a world of high fantasy.
 
While it is true that “nerds” play WoW, this is not a majority anymore. A player who goes by the screen name of “Citali” is a guild master, someone who runs a guild or grouping of players who come together due to friendship or common interests, in WoW, and when interviewed about her personal life, was more then happy to show that she was a normal person. She goes to work every day, she goes to the bar with friends, and she even has date nights with her husband. And when she comes home, instead of watching television, she logs onto WoW and enjoys helping her guild. On top of running the guild bank, which is a pool of items that the guild can access, she organizes runs on Instances, which are 5-player dungeons, and even Raids, which require 10-40 players to conquer. Running these groups of people require her to not only gather a large group of people, but also she must run through every player in the group, get a rundown of their abilities, and strategize accordingly. This does not mean that she spends hours playing, however. Citali did state, “There are some moments where I'm so immersed that I forget to eat, and my husband has to drag me away. Thankfully, those are few and far between.” When posed with the question “Do you think you are a nerd?” she responded “Nah, not really. I just enjoy having fun with a few friends.”


Another member of the guild who goes by the name “Liord” is known for doting on his kids. Liord works 8 hours a day and then spends a few hours driving his daughters to their extracurricular activities. When he is finished, he spends about an hour and a half playing. “Much to the behest of my nagging wife,” Liord laughs heartily. A military man, Liord began playing in order to keep in touch with his family when he went to Afghanistan. He would talk with his nephew every other night, and be kept up to the going-ons in the family. And while overseas, he met others who had the same idea. Even now, he keeps in touch with his brothers-in-arms. “I still talk with the guys from Afghanistan. Hell, I talk with a few of them every day. They're a good bunch of guys.” Liord has plans to have his daughters give WoW a try, hoping they find great friends like he did. When asked about his status as a nerd, he laughed. “If I'm a nerd, then so are people who read books, and play sports. It's just a hobby.”

Lastly, a woman by the name of Diane is an avid player. She, her husband, and two kids all play together. She recalled how countless nights, she and family would take down a boss and laugh together. Diane had been playing since the first build, or version, of World of Warcraft, before it took the world by storm. She admitted to times where she started to play too much and cut back, but she never stopped. She repeatedly stated, “If I'm a nerd, what are the people who sit in front of the TV all day? At least with WoW I'm talking to people and making friends. TV can't do that. I have never once regretted playing World of Warcraft.”

Sure geeks, dorks, and even nerds still play WoW, but the majority of people playing are your average, everyday person. People who play nowadays have families, jobs, and lives. This relation of nerds to online games is nothing more than a stereotype.