Friends Forever?

I only keep in touch with three people from WoW, two of them know about my addiction. All but one (K) don't say things like "I miss youuuuuuuuuuuuu. You should come back to WoW!" Nope. Though online, I consider them my good friends.

Most of the 'friends' I made on WoW, I gave them my instant message screename after I left in case they wanted to chat. One even offered to keep paying my subscription, thinking that I just didn't have the money to pay for WoW anymore (technically, I didn't. I had it but it had better places to go). After a few months of not playing WoW, the IMs from them became fewer and fewer. We had nothing in common between WoW and roleplaying on World of Warcraft. Some would IM me to talk about loot they'd gotten, a change in the plot of the roleplay I was on, or asking to RP with me when they couldn't get on WoW (which I was up for and I found annoying at the same time). If it wasn't WoW, it was talking about the next MMORPG they were anticipating. It just felt pathetic.

Recently, someone from WoW IMed me who I had roleplayed with as well. The first thing they said was "I'm bored."

This really pissed me off. I didn't snap, but it just didn't look good. After 10 months or so of not speaking because we didn't have much in common beyond WoW, you say "I'm bored" to me?

I addressed that in a more polite way. He said he'd been busy at work and was surprised I had remembered him. I only remembered him because his screename had been renamed on my Trillian list to reflect his World of Warcraft character name. He asked how my life was doing, I told him I was busy with school. I asked him the same. He said he was playing EQ2 now. Nice, he's moving up in the world, I guess.

It's something how that is. People get worried and say they'll miss you after you quit a game. I'm sure they do, but they don't have much to say when you're no longer in the game. Let's do this together! We'll raid that together! Oh, if you ever come back, we'll give you this, let you do this, take you here! Who cares? They're not your real friends. I tried to talk to them about my school and telling them how nice it was. I tried to tell them about projects and what's been going on...

"Oh, are you still drawing WoW stuff?"

Always back to WoW.

I tell them I'm going to the beach, ask if they're going out on vacation anytime soon...
"No. But Zul'Gurub just opened. It's gonna be so cool!"

I lost hope after that.

It wasn't upset; it happens. My interests were elsewhere, and theirs were with WoW. They were welcome to it, if you ask me. I remember playing FLYFF for two months and joining a guild. They had a little quiz to take to see whether or not you'd make a good member. You had to make at least a 75%, which I got. One of the questions involved asked how you ranked the guild's needs over your family. I picked family as my top priority. Many people did and didn't score well, coincidentally. It was pretty depressing and made me think about the cost of game friendships: they can be quite cheap, for the most part. A guild is a guild, and as you play games, you may join many. But you only get one family. I thought it was silly to even HAVE that question. It should be mandatory that family matters come before the guild.

I guess it can be saddening, but that's just how it is. Some will try to convince you to come back because I figure they know, deep down inside, they know that'll be it. And some will tell you "oh, you'll be back to stay. I've seen it happen many times."

There's not much of that I can do with my installer CDs smashed up against rocks on the bottom of the river, now can I? And why would I go out and buy another copy of WoW when I can save my cash and you can just IM me? Cash I could use towards next quarter's books? As if.