I'm going to presume you intend to have a sincere, honest and mature adult conversation. We'll see.
You mean literally get caught up trying to play ah's and get fantasy gold?
You're drawing a subjective line beyond your feet and i feel that if you took one step towards it, you would just draw another one.
Did you actually read what i wrote? Cuz if you did you're realize you tried to imply that my AH threads mean i spend the same about of time/effort obessing about w0w loot as the folks i was talking about.
I dont. Period.
The AH to me is just another game itself, sorta like a fantasy stock market (which i also play for fun). I dont spend much time doing it whatever, and in fact ive probably spent more time on the AH threads than i have on the AH itself this past month or two. Nice try.
The only real loot whoring ive done in the past 12 months in WoW was for a couple twinks (a druid and a hunter). That went fast and easy. I enjoyed playing my twinks but then i took a step back from THAT as well, once its fun factor wore thin and i was just grinding for no purpose without the satisfaction.
I even took two months off wow this summer. I took 3-4 months off this winter. Last raiding i had done was last Nov.
So you're just talking yourself into a hole with your own pretenses.
Lately, ive been pvping like a motherfucker and hit rank 11. That's lead to burnout and im taking a break from IT now. I'm saying there are many people who cant take a break and cant stop.
If you dont want to admit that or be sincere about that issue, that's your fuckin problem. It's not subjective.
I guess my real issue is: how much information are you using in determining how absorbed someone is? You referred to time spent talking about gear, but in turn you do an excessive amount of talking about other aspects of the game here. So i guess the real issue is: what information do you possess about other people's private feelings that they themselves can't flip the coin on you?
Again, you say im the one being "excessive" for having like 3-4 threads about the AH over the past year. Get fuckin real.
I play a lot of wow lately and have no problem with that per se. But i know my limits and know it's just a game.
You question is how to detect when folks are "too absorbed." Fair question. I can think of many indicators i see among guildmates and such, for example. There are many people who i see NOT enjoying the game but simply playing to garner loot. I think that's really unhealthy. They just play cuz... they are addicted and WoW achievements give them eternal objectives to strive for. They've effectively replaced RL with WoW characters given how much they play.
Another example is when folks cry about things like naxx gear being "meaningless soon." I find attitudes around expanded endgame content are very telling. When folks get really emotionally distraught about their fuckin l00t in any way i think theyve lost their marbles. These people's only enjoyment in the game is simply the feeling of accomplishment from fantasy material goods. It's sad. It's not only materialism but fantasy materialism.
Now, i am not saying being keen on loot is bad or stupid. Fuck, i love gettin pimp gear... but for me the pimp gear is a means to an end (pvp). I try to think of this game like i think of FPS. I play for pvp and i only care about gear to the extent it makes pvp more fun. Period. And when im tired of wow instead of logging in and just doing "something" i instead go do soemthing else with myself.
