I Hang out in SL not WoW - Why?

A worthwhile angle for consideration in understanding the value of and motivation for spending time in a virtual world might turn up if folks help me cogitate over why I've not played WoW for a while now. I could say it was because I was finishing up my coursework and looking for a job - and of course, that is true. But it is also true the WoW isn't very high on my priority list for scarce time (and I can't trade sleeptime for playtime, like some of my time-pressed colleagues). And - during this same period, I've spent hours in Second Life and interacting with my SL colleagues both out- and in-world. And - when I've had free time since end of coursework, I've been reading (living in totally imaginary worlds). Actually, when I log on to my computer I always start up SL (because I can truly multi-task with it, leaving an SL window open while I go about my other activities).

Maybe it is because I have never reallly been a gamer. I don't know how much that goes along with my disinterest in sports; collective striving in a competitive environment has never engaged me for some reason. I don't even watch sports on tv, or attend sporting events. (Don't report me to Homeland Security, please, I really am an American). My "sport" in high school was modern dancing. The only activity that I enjoy that is only loosely classified as a sport is swimming.

I do enjoy WoW, and likely could get addicted to it. Now that may seem contradictory. But the pull and emotion that I feel toward WoW is very like my relationship to potato chips. I love potato chips - the greasier and at the same time the crisper the better. If I have a bag of potato chips in the house, they might last a day. But if I never buy potato chips, they just pass out of my conscious awareness, and I don't think about them (chocolate on the other hand never goes out of my consciousness). When I start playing WoW, I go to another place where time just disappears - but in fact, it is very similar to the kind of place I go when I read. I'm the kind of reader who sits down to read a book, and looks up four hours later answering "huh?" to friend or family who've been trying to get my attention for thirty minutes. But if I don't play for a while, I don't miss it.

I'm NOT saying that I think that there is more "there" in SL than in WoW, although I know that several of you believe the converse. I think what I'm saying is that my connection with WoW is perhaps both more narrow and shallower than for the rest of the playlate gang. On the other hand, my relationship to SL is more like one that I would have to this fantastic coffeehouse where I can go to talk about things I care about with people who also care, or collaborate on some project that matters to us, or listen to music from a fresh new independent band, or watch kinetic art.

In SL, I can disappear into building, but mostly it is solo. But my most satisfying interactions are with my SL buds - I've got 30 friends on my friends list. Some of them are from CadreX (the Dissertation Club Crew - we've already gotten together in the Cafe Malibu, the coffeehouse I put on our island). I'm a member of the RL EdD/PhD Graduate Students Colony in SL, and get with people both for formal meetings and just as I run into them (SL lets me know when/where friends are when they come in-world). I've rediscovered people who were important to me in my other life (NLII) in SL. I get together regularly with different people in-world, and talk about what is important to us - teaching and learning and virtual worlds. We argue about immersion, presence, spatiality in virtual worlds, and the value of these dimensions for learning. We show each other cool new toys and utilities we've developed - you guys would have loved the incredible show that Karla Pixie did last week with her particle generator (I've asked her to the grand opening of Malibu Island I'm thinking about setting up for end of August). And I meet people like the NASA guy who is incorporating games into their work with educators.

Perhaps it is a question of identity: Wendy Widget is a more representative of RL Vicki; Perrenelle is a good vacation from RL Vicki. That's all I can identify in this first pass at understanding the differences in appeal between the two. This is not to say that I will stop playing WoW; I plan on making it a Friday evening activity. But I've gotten out of synch with everyone else in the playlate group, and will need to figure out some bridging efforts that I might carry out - which is thought-provoking in itself, in the context of communities of practice and legitimate peripheral participation.