Fussypants wrote a post about what she learned from playing WoW. Essentially, she wrote about the skills she needed to acquire to manage other people, respond to trolls, and such. She is figuring herself out.
It’s a bit different being an adult (and not a young one at that.) Not to say that I am not learning, but it is certainly not as broad as Fussypant’s experience. What I have learned is that WoW, for me, allows me to be a curmudgeon.
Sounds terrible, doesn’t it!
I’ve happily watched Fussypants expand her borders. She’s made many many friends in and around the game. She went from being a lurker in The Queue in WoWInsider to a contributing member in BlizzardWatch. I’ve watched her organize raids, set up special events, and chat endlessly. That is awesome and wonderful. And, I have no desire to do the same.
My daily life includes dozens of interactions with people all the time. I need to be positive, helpful, and caring. I love my job, and am excited to go to work. I love my family and also want to be a positive force for them. But, when I decide to play and escape, I am interested in having fun on my terms.
When I play WoW, chatting is not my thing. I want to read the quests and explore the world. When I am particularly annoyed with life, I love to pvp (even when my toon is underpowered), this gets my aggression out. The social part of the game is the least interesting to me.
I should say that I am not totally antisocial. I throw in a comment in guildchat now and then. I’ll answer a question when I know the answer. But mostly I’m quiet in the chat. Group activities are fine, but often I’ll choose the random ones. Currently, I’m working on expanding my mount collection via the Stables questing – a totally solitary activity.
Honestly, I was hesitant to write this article, but Fussypants correctly pointed out that I need to write what I learned in WoW. So, I have learned that I like to be a grumpy old man when I play my game. Actually, this is very strange, as this is pretty much the opposite of who I am!
In WoW, I have learned to play as I want to play. Currently, I’m a curmudgeon, but maybe I need to learn a little bit more from Fussypants…
Growing up in Azeroth 
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I’m the same way. I’m very introverted but my job has me interacting with people a lot all day. Then I come home and do my best to be engaged with my family until they are all asleep. At that point the last thing I want to do is be social. If you start a grumpy old man club I would definitely join. Just don’t expect me to participate or talk with anyone. 😉
I definitely play the game the way that I want to play and there are times when I am a bit antisocial, I suppose. LOL, I had to laugh about being an old fellow, well, it goes the same for old ladies too and there are times when I get a tad bit cranky about things as well. I love leveling and exploring – the journey is what I like and not the destination sometimes. 😀
I think more people need to learn to play how they want not how they’re expected to…they’d enjoy the game a whole lot more.