My girlfriend and WoW Npc's

[shadowstriker86]

So me and my girlfriend are playing WoW together for the first time (ive been playing for years but she's been wanting to play since i bought her a new computer for our 4th year anniversery), and something is really striking me odd, we're playing as the worgen and are at the one mission where we have to save the drowning watchman, and even after we save the required amount, she's still going back to continue to save the rest. Does anyone else besides me find it really odd that she's doing that?

 

[Blood Countess]

I do not cause I do it also but I play in an RP realm so my toon would do it being a warrior, she had a sense of honor as where I did my rogue she didn't, she was all about herself

 

[zero14777]

Let the know that even if she doesn't save them they still will be fine, unless she's griefing people doing the same mission, in which case help her dammit!

 

[tthor]

i've never played wow, but if i understand correctly, it doesn't seem odd at all. to fully immerse yourself, you can't just view characters as pointless computer simulations, but instead look at them with a sense of humanity. its like for me in games like Fallout New Vegas, or even something like Mount and Blade; you give human attributes to characters, so when they are at risk of dying, you take that more seriously and want to save them~

 

[Ghengis John]

So me and my girlfriend are playing WoW together for the first time (ive been playing for years but she's been wanting to play since i bought her a new computer for our 4th year anniversery), and something is really striking me odd, we're playing as the worgen and are at the one mission where we have to save the drowning watchman, and even after we save the required amount, she's still going back to continue to save the rest. Does anyone else besides me find it really odd that she's doing that?

I did this during the "rescue people under naxxrammas" quest. Congratulations, your girlfriend is just a really nice person and feels bad seeing even npc's suffer. It sounds like she's just started too. She hasn't yet learned how to hate.

 

[CrustyOatmeal]

it sounds like she is reflecting her own moral choices through her character. for some people it helps them invest in their character much more and for others it does absolutely nothing. i say if she has fun doing it dont burst her bubble, videogames are meant to be fun and if she has fun seeing herself as her character then let her do it. it may be less fun for you but it would be even worse if she started to hate the game for doing something she doesnt enjoy and then you not only loose a partner to play with but you gain a nagging girlfriend that constantly tells you to quit

this reminds me of me and my brother. when we were little i would watch my brother play games like zelda and he would spend most of the time playing. to this day i get as much (if not more) enjoyment from watching others play. for my brother, he loves to try and find bugs and glitches in games (which i find utterly annoying to watch or attempt) but he loves doing it so i dont complain. we all find our own source of fun

 

[Angerwing]

i've never played wow, but if i understand correctly, it doesn't seem odd at all. to fully immerse yourself, you can't just view characters as pointless computer simulations, but instead look at them with a sense of humanity. its like for me in games like Fallout New Vegas, or even something like Mount and Blade; you give human attributes to characters, so when they are at risk of dying, you take that more seriously and want to save them~

I guess the problem is that they're infinitely respawnable.

 

[EllEzDee]

I do not cause I do it also but I play in an RP realm so my toon would do it being a warrior, she had a sense of honor as where I did my rogue she didn't, she was all about herself

Wow RP just sounds so much fun...

Explain to her they'll respawn there anyway. Or slap the controls away from her hands.

 

[tthor]

i've never played wow, but if i understand correctly, it doesn't seem odd at all. to fully immerse yourself, you can't just view characters as pointless computer simulations, but instead look at them with a sense of humanity. its like for me in games like Fallout New Vegas, or even something like Mount and Blade; you give human attributes to characters, so when they are at risk of dying, you take that more seriously and want to save them~

I guess the problem is that they're infinitely respawnable.

yaaa,if they respawn as fast as you save them, that'd be a bit of a problem lol

 

[tharglet]

I don't think it's really that odd - she wants to help the poor people drowning. Some people have empathy for pixels that resemble humans/humanoids .
I've sort of done stuff like that before in WoW, but it's rare I bother. I know they're pixels, saving extras doesn't achieve anything, and they're just going to respawn.

She'll most likely fall into the same patterns as the other gamers as time progresses, but if she wants to do it, I'd give her some patience and leave her to it - I doubt she spent all that long doing it - even if it does seem awhile.

A good chunk of my time I spent time doing stuff that didn't achieve anything, but was fun to me. Some of the now-achievement-earning things I did before there were achievements (collecting pets, armour sets, mounts and questing in every zone - zone achievement didn't take long for me to complete when the achievements came out lol).

One thing about MMOs I like is they tend to be much more open-ended in terms of objectives than other games. Devs often put in extra things to do, which aren't necessarily going to "further" you in the game, but can give you a change of pace should you choose to do them.

When my hubby was levelling in WoW, at some points I grouped, at others I left him to do his own thing. Once she starts to find her feet and can operate on her own, I think it's important to see if she wants to quest together still or if she wants to explore a little on her own.

 

[Trippy Turtle]

kind of unrelated but... should i get WoW or stick to xbox live? I have played WoW before and enjoyed it but does that get old fast or is it generally a stable game?

 

[RaphaelsRedemption]

That's so cute. As long as she understands that they respawn infinitely, then let her go for it!

I feel bad playing, knowing that I am annihilating so many species. In my mind, my character is fairly heartless, knowing that she may be the destroyer of a rare species, and doing it anyway...

 

[Ultrajoe]

Why do players charge, hearts filled with rage, thunder and glory to the defence of some level fifteen quest givers at the crossroads?

Emotional investment. Your girlfriend is doing it right.

EDIT: For example, I find the following song puts me in the right frame of mind to play a Forsaken...

 

[coldfrog]

My girlfriend has done that, as well as myself, although she took a slightly different approach. There's a quest (don't think it exists in cataclysm anymore) for the old orc/troll starting area where you got to beat peons into getting back to work. She took that thing around and thrashed every single sleeping orc. And she wasn't even role-playing!

 

[Terminal Blue]

I think this is one of those things which those of us who have played MMORPGs forget that we ever had to learn, like that you can't hide on top of a wall and shoot enemies while they stumble futilely around below despite the fact that it would be perfectly logical and highly effective.

It's also one of the reasons why (personal opinion incoming) MMOs are such bad games. They are getting much better at it, but still, they are generally hampered by the inability to tell any kind of convincing narrative because they have to tell the same narrative to thousands of people simultaneously. You can never feel that you're making a difference to the game world because however many boars you kill or people you save there always need to be more around so other players can do the same thing.

MMOs are starting to get over this. The phasing system they've introduced into WoW is a step in the right direction, but ultimately I think if they are ever going to stand up as good games in their own right they need to get much better at delivering the illusion of a personalized experience.

So yeah, it's a learning curve. For all the advances, MMOs are not remotely intuitive in many ways. Eventually your girlfriend will work it out, probably at around the same time she becomes emotionally dead inside and lives only for the hollow triumph of the 'level up' sound.

(I'm joking, good luck to both of you in your gaming life together!)

 

[Bobbity]

I often go way out of my way to kill bad guy, for no tangible benefits, or RP on WoW, so this doesn't strike me as weird at all.

 

[Farseer Lolotea]

Hmm. If these weren't NPCs, I'd be willing to call it benign disinhibition. No one knows who she is online, so she's being especially altruistic.

But it's NPCs. So, it's hard to say.

 

[Erana]

i've never played wow, but if i understand correctly, it doesn't seem odd at all. to fully immerse yourself, you can't just view characters as pointless computer simulations, but instead look at them with a sense of humanity. its like for me in games like Fallout New Vegas, or even something like Mount and Blade; you give human attributes to characters, so when they are at risk of dying, you take that more seriously and want to save them~

I tried that once as a draenei DK. When I was confronted with my mortally wounded friend, insisting I follow the orders of a Death Knight commander and kill him, I paused, unequipped my hood and made a sad emote to boot.

Then the NPC died on me anyway without me killing him, and the quest didn't complete, so I had to wait for him to respawn, go through the same dialogue again, and kill him with a wacky cartoon arm of darkness. Kinda ruined the mood.

 

[Valdus]

This is probably just proof that WoW can be quite an immersive game.