World of Warcraft is to heroin as PokerStars is to...
...sweet, sweet, crack cocaine, apparently.
It's another of my SAT-esque analogies. I seem to come up with one about once a year. In this case, the post actually has something to do with the analogy.
If you'd spent any time at all around my office over the last six months or so, you'd have heard something about World of Warcraft. It's a massively multiplayer online roleplaying game. I think most of the guys in the office have tried it, and a few of them have been playing it regularly and talk about it a lot at work. I have taken every opportunity to make fun of those who are for the amount of time they put into it.
First things first, I'm hucking boulders around in a reasonably fragile house. I am the pot, they are the kettles, etc. I dived wholeheartedly into pen-and-paper fantasy roleplaying when Rob first invited me into his D&D campaign almost five years ago, after insisting I was just wetting my feet. I have spent many, many dozens of hours poring through rulebooks, working on characters and campaigns, and generally driving my friends crazy talking about them. I got completely hooked on Neverwinter Nights a few years ago and spent many late nights at it before I finished it. I've never played WoW myself - my home PC won't run it for one thing - but I know what I'm like and I'm pretty sure that if I tried it, I'd get hooked on it pretty quickly.
Despite all of this, my uppance had not truly come until now. PokerStars has become my World of Warcraft.
I get together with the guys every couple of months for a poker game. We usually play dealer's choice which gets pretty ridiculous. We've been working no limit hold'em in here and there, and we've occasionally played a night of nothing but NLH. We haven't gotten together in quite a while, and a few weeks ago I wanted a game, so I downloaded PokerStars one night to try it out. They have play money ring games and tournaments in hold'em, Omaha, and stud. There are some really loose players, but there are a lot of people on there who are trying to improve their game, and they treat the play money with the respect you need in order to succeed at that. You wouldn't think people would take play money seriously, but if you've been playing an NLH tournament for an hour, someone with 9,000 chips goes all in on the flop, and you've got 6,000, top pair, and a weak kicker, you think long and hard about calling. It becomes about time instead of money. And winning. Don't forget winning.
To qualify as somebody's World of Warcraft (stretch with me, now) I believe a game requires three things:
1) friends who are also playing
2) regular discussion with those friends about playing
3) playing and/or watching those friends play at lunchtime
Oh, and fourth in the trilogy: spending a lot of free time playing it. That's very important, too.
So, let's see, here:
1) I told Rob about it, he started playing, and it spread pretty quickly to Andrew and Will.
2) Over the last couple of weeks, we've been talking about various games and hands we've played.
3) At least twice last week I sat and watched Will play at lunchtime.
I've been spending an excessive amount of free time playing myself. So long, and thanks for all the fish.
Now, it's not as if I'm playing all day at work or anything. It's free time I'm filling, but at some point, don't you have to ask yourself whether there's something more constructive you could be doing with your time? Like watching TV, for example. Kidding. This all reminds me of a Bertrand Russell quote I used to have in my sig at UNB: "The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time." I'm not sure why I'm thinking about this quite so much - how is this any different than pool or D&D or reading or any of the other things I fill my evenings and weekends with?
Maybe it's not and I just thought it made good blog fodder. I've been in a drought. :)
I'm curious as to whether all this online NLH will affect us all the next time we get together for poker. I think it might. And that can only be a good thing. Raising the skill level and all that - if you're going to do something, do it well. Or something. :)
Must spread addiction to others... www.pokerstars.com
Finally, a plug for Arrested Development - quite possibly the best comedy writing on TV today. My brother got me season 1 on DVD for my birthday and Fox has been running Season 2 reruns in four-episode marathons on Friday nights. I don't know where it's been all my life.
A new post should come in January if history is any indication. Heh.
It's another of my SAT-esque analogies. I seem to come up with one about once a year. In this case, the post actually has something to do with the analogy.
If you'd spent any time at all around my office over the last six months or so, you'd have heard something about World of Warcraft. It's a massively multiplayer online roleplaying game. I think most of the guys in the office have tried it, and a few of them have been playing it regularly and talk about it a lot at work. I have taken every opportunity to make fun of those who are for the amount of time they put into it.
First things first, I'm hucking boulders around in a reasonably fragile house. I am the pot, they are the kettles, etc. I dived wholeheartedly into pen-and-paper fantasy roleplaying when Rob first invited me into his D&D campaign almost five years ago, after insisting I was just wetting my feet. I have spent many, many dozens of hours poring through rulebooks, working on characters and campaigns, and generally driving my friends crazy talking about them. I got completely hooked on Neverwinter Nights a few years ago and spent many late nights at it before I finished it. I've never played WoW myself - my home PC won't run it for one thing - but I know what I'm like and I'm pretty sure that if I tried it, I'd get hooked on it pretty quickly.
Despite all of this, my uppance had not truly come until now. PokerStars has become my World of Warcraft.
I get together with the guys every couple of months for a poker game. We usually play dealer's choice which gets pretty ridiculous. We've been working no limit hold'em in here and there, and we've occasionally played a night of nothing but NLH. We haven't gotten together in quite a while, and a few weeks ago I wanted a game, so I downloaded PokerStars one night to try it out. They have play money ring games and tournaments in hold'em, Omaha, and stud. There are some really loose players, but there are a lot of people on there who are trying to improve their game, and they treat the play money with the respect you need in order to succeed at that. You wouldn't think people would take play money seriously, but if you've been playing an NLH tournament for an hour, someone with 9,000 chips goes all in on the flop, and you've got 6,000, top pair, and a weak kicker, you think long and hard about calling. It becomes about time instead of money. And winning. Don't forget winning.
To qualify as somebody's World of Warcraft (stretch with me, now) I believe a game requires three things:
1) friends who are also playing
2) regular discussion with those friends about playing
3) playing and/or watching those friends play at lunchtime
Oh, and fourth in the trilogy: spending a lot of free time playing it. That's very important, too.
So, let's see, here:
1) I told Rob about it, he started playing, and it spread pretty quickly to Andrew and Will.
2) Over the last couple of weeks, we've been talking about various games and hands we've played.
3) At least twice last week I sat and watched Will play at lunchtime.
I've been spending an excessive amount of free time playing myself. So long, and thanks for all the fish.
Now, it's not as if I'm playing all day at work or anything. It's free time I'm filling, but at some point, don't you have to ask yourself whether there's something more constructive you could be doing with your time? Like watching TV, for example. Kidding. This all reminds me of a Bertrand Russell quote I used to have in my sig at UNB: "The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time." I'm not sure why I'm thinking about this quite so much - how is this any different than pool or D&D or reading or any of the other things I fill my evenings and weekends with?
Maybe it's not and I just thought it made good blog fodder. I've been in a drought. :)
I'm curious as to whether all this online NLH will affect us all the next time we get together for poker. I think it might. And that can only be a good thing. Raising the skill level and all that - if you're going to do something, do it well. Or something. :)
Must spread addiction to others... www.pokerstars.com
Finally, a plug for Arrested Development - quite possibly the best comedy writing on TV today. My brother got me season 1 on DVD for my birthday and Fox has been running Season 2 reruns in four-episode marathons on Friday nights. I don't know where it's been all my life.
A new post should come in January if history is any indication. Heh.
posted at 11:16 p.m.
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