WoW Escapism

[Skeldar]

Greetings all you WoW players, im currently doing some research for my dissertation, its about escapist fiction and it touches on MMORPGs. It would be most helpful if you can answer a few questions.

What aspect of WoW do you find enables you to escape into this virtual reality?

Having never played WoW, are their loading times? If so does it detract from your experiance?

Does the cartoonish style of WoW help you become immersed easier than say a realistic approch like Guild Wars?

When you create a new character do you play them with your real life personality or do you tend to become less inhibited or more so?

Any participation would be much appriciated, ive always wanted to know what makes a WoW player tick and i guess this will help!

Thank you :thumbsup:

[SLi]

*Yawn*

http://wow.incgamers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=403112

[Marlous]

What aspect of WoW do you find enables you to escape into this virtual reality?

It's difficult to light up just one aspect, since it seems like the whole package gives me such an experience. The questing, the searching, the rewards after a job well done, the progression your character makes, the interaction with vendors and trainers.. and in this case also the hundreds of other people that appear in your game. I know that some people see this as the most important factor of a MMORPG, but while I do appreciate it I don't think it's essential.. having played a fair few non-online RPG games over the years, and this being my first online multiplayer game, I value the other aspects much more.

Having never played WoW, are their loading times? If so does it detract from your experiance?

Yes, there are loading times if you change zones - like when you take a boat/zeppelin to the other continent, or when you use your Hearthstone to go back to the inn you call home. And while they do 'distract' me, I don't mind them - I just go make a cup of tea or something. Kind of like the commercials during a movie, when you can have a bathroom break. ^^

Does the cartoonish style of WoW help you become immersed easier than say a realistic approch like Guild Wars?

Well, I don't know about Guild Wars, but I feel that the WoW style is realistic enough for me to 'believe' in it. It may be a tad cartoonish, but it's not -that- noticeable (at least, not to me) and therefore not annoying in any way. It's realistic in its own way.

When you create a new character do you play them with your real life personality or do you tend to become less inhibited or more so?

It depends. I'm not on a roleplaying server, so it's perfectly fine for me to play as myself. But I find that with a few of my characters I try to give them a bit of personality, just to spice things up and to make them more fun to play. I've always loved roleplaying, and may roll a character on a roleplaying server some day, but for now I enjoy a few drops of roleplay in my normal gaming. It just adds some flavour.

[piscene]

Please post this in the Survey and Research thread. That's what it's there for.

@Marlous...stop encouraging them...:grin:

[Skeldar]

Thanks for bringing this to my attention and linking me to the right thread.

Survey: http://uniofhuddersfield.questionform.com/public/WoW

[Marlous]

Lol, sorry! I didn't know that such a thread existed. And after I had hit submit and read SLi's post, I just couldn't get myself to delete my own.