Friends are pretty special to most people. You will do anything for your friends. The question is will you bend over backwards for your friends in a MMORPG?
I always have thought playing a MMORPG with friends, coworkers, or a girlfriend would be the greatest ever. After several experiences I can't say I actually enjoy it. I have to say I would rather make new friends in the game, and play with them instead.
In World of Warcraft closed beta our guild became really close. We worked out every detail on how the guild was going to work on the live server during launch. We were all going to group together, donate all our money, and drops to each other. All the crafters received everything they needed for free, and in turn they would make backpacks, armor, weapons, enchants, and etc. It sounded like it was going to be a well oiled machine.
The drama started early. The hardcore guys felt like they were donating more, and reaping less of the benefits. The guild drama was just beginning. The hardcore guys were already farming instances, and getting geared. The others started feeling left out of guild runs.
One night the hardcore members left the guild, and rerolled new characters on Dragonmaw without a word. It worked great until about three weeks later everyone went back to the old server because they couldn't hack leveling to 60 again.
I stuck it out, and made lots of new friends on Dragonmaw, and still consider it my server even though Arthas was my server at launch. I feel my friends on Dragonmaw were truly my friends.
I quit the game after a few years, and when I transferred to a new location on my job it seemed everyone played World of Warcraft. They all told me they were hardcore players. I couldn't wait.
I thought how great it would be to talk World of Warcraft all day at work, and play when we got home. I soon learned that everyone has a different definition of hardcore. I think of it as a second job at least playing thirty hours a week. The problem was my other coworkers defined hardcore as an hour or two every other night which I soon figured out when no one was ever on.
It seems your tolerance level for people you know in real life is much lower than people from the game. Every little noob move, or horrible player is much harder to deal with. Normally you could just call someone a Noob, /gkick them, and move on. With playing with real life friends you have to worry about the repercussions at work. Do you really tell your boss he sucks at Warcraft? How do you tell someone you work with you don't want them in your raid group. How do you deal with wipes when it's real life friends causing it? Do you take it out on them? How do you tell your girlfriend she sucks as a healer?
It just gets plain ugly, and I would rather just deal with in-game friends. How about you? Do you get irritated alot quicker with real life friends when playing MMORPG's?
