World of Warcraft, A Hobby?

Is World of Warcraft a Hobby?

And

What defines something as a Hobby? 

Hey guys, I am writing this post as my first real entry because I would really like to share with anyone who doesn't play World of Warcraft why we as casual and semi hardcore gamers enjoy the game. Many are considering WoW a hobby now and it is definantly a very unique experience if you have not played it before. Typically when someone thinks of a WoW player at least in my experiences they either think of a pansy kid who likes to skip around in fairy land all day or someone who can't get away from the computer, someone who whenever they are not playing are thinking of playing and get all emotional over the game. I am not saying those are true or false for a very few select people who play the game, but for the majority of us it is a way to turn off from our lives and relax in a world where you can engage in various activities with random people you enjoy playing the game with. If you have not played the game before, when you first enter the game it seems very overwhelming and you really do not know what to do except talk to various NPCs. Once you figure things out you start to talk to real people, asking questions, going out and questing or running dungeons with them. Those are the people, those first people who you meet in the game that you are probably going to be the ones you play with for the next few years or however long you decide to play the game. And the moment you reach max level you want to take your friend(s) and get a few more people together to start raiding. If you have played WoW and have not even been in a raid hardcore or not you are missing out on quite a bit. It is a very fun experience if you go in there with the people you enjoy playing with.
The first time I raided they threw at me this very foreign term "ventrilo" and I had no idea what they were talking about. They explained to me that it was a voice communication program and that during a boss fight we wont be able to type because so much will be going on. I said to myself ok that seems reasonable, and I plugged in my mic and logged into ventrilo and heard their voices. The people I had been playing with for years actually hearing their voices was very weird to me but nonetheless we walked into my first raid. The moment I stepped in there I was amazed at the structuring that went into building raids and we pulled the first boss. Now I have to say my first raid seemed to me like dungeons on steroids, I think to me more than any other role it felt hectic because I was healing and I just saw so many health bars start spiking, nothing any dungeon had prepared me for. But at the end of the night after coordinating we got a few bosses down and I was immediately sold that raiding was something that should be experienced by everyone at least once in their lifetime.
Now even my words can not describe the experience of WoW and raiding alike which is why I am very excited for a documentary I have been tracking that goes into the lives of WoW raiders and asks them what makes the game such a unique experience. The documentary is called "The Raid" and has not released yet but is in the works. You can check for more info at jointheraid.com, that will be it for this post, I hope you enjoyed reading.