Conflicts, Conflicts, Conflicts

You may know that when a multitude of conflicts is present in a story that it makes the story interesting, dramatic, and controversial, thus making the story enjoying to read. However when applied to the real world, a lot of conflicts present in one's life does not make the life too enjoying but rather makes living that life troublesome. Everyday, however, new conflicts are introduced. A new block is added to the 'conflict tower' multiple times throughout the day. They may range from your best friend's dog getting ran over by a SUV to several US troops getting shot down in the Iraqi war. They may not directly apply to you, but will affect you sooner or later down the road. And the worst thing to do is to cause conflicts yourself, but it is almost inevitable to do so. Accidentally spilling the milk while pouring it over your breakfast cereal is just a minor conflict you may think, until your mother finds a little spot you forgot to wipe up and flips out at you, thus making you feel bad in the end or causing a fight to break out -- thus making more conflicts. It's all based on the simple equation of 'cause and effect'.

I really don't know if the above made any sense or not or even where it came from, but it all spawned from some conflicts that I'm facing right now. They're not major conflicts, but choosing a side will indeed cause more conflicts to arise.

The fight is between Runescape and World of Warcraft. I cannot decide which one I should play. For a little bit of background information if you're not aware of my current position: I played Runescape for over two years when I quit June 2007 and started to play WoW. On Runescape, I am combat level 100, have 99 woodcutting, 1610 total level, and a decent bank, while on World of Warcraft I'm level 29, probably rested enough to get to level 30, but otherwise I'm poor having only around fourteen gold. On Runescape, I can simply pick a goal and stick with it, however most of the community is immature and do not care about your wellbeing; while on WoW, it's a bit overwhelming as to decide what to do, which zone to train in, and especially on trying to avoid the Horde as I'm on a PvP server, and the community contains immature people, pure jackasses, and then the most mature and friendly people you'll ever know. On Runescape I actually know what I'm doing while on WoW I'm normally just going with the flow and taking guesses -- I waste half of my time locating enemies, interactive environmental objects, NPCs, etc. and even with the MobMap addon that I installed. Runescape is filled with a diverse selection of skills while World of Warcraft forces you to do two main skills while the rest of the game is fighting. I also like to look at it from this standpoint: I'm eligible to obtain the position of player moderator on Runescape while on WoW you get no special position, but also with some of the updates that Jagex are coming out with recently, they're making the game a bit too easy. Honestly, we have a make-x for potions and arrows now (how would you even activate the make-x function for them though?).

Here's another problem. Who are my friends on each of the games? On World of Warcraft I have Carol, Kyle (who is currently inactive as a crash that WoW caused broke his laptop), and Craig, who just got the game on Monday. While on Runescape I have a multitude of friends, including Botanreaper2, Caitlin, Chase (who is currently inactive), and many, many friends from elsewhere on f2p. Craig is also included as a Runescape friend too as he still has members however it is unknown to me at this time which game he'll stick to. At my current position, I can play both World of Warcraft and Runescape, as Runescape is free. However I am bored of reporting constantly especially since Jagex doesn't seem to acknowledge me, and I have these hidden desires to do fletching, woodcutting magics, get all skills 60+, 100 million total exp, slayer, etc. Thus I would have to get members. Now, $20 a month is a lot of money. Yet again, at my current position, I can interact with both my RS and WoW friends, but if I wanted to get members, then WoW would probably have to get the boot. That means my WoW friends will get ticked off at me, even though 98% of them I know in real life and I could easily walk to any of their houses as they all live in my hometown. But here's another conflict: Craig just got WoW on Monday after I persuaded him to get it. I would hate to leave him on WoW after he forked out around $50, but while I was more into WoW he wanted me to come back to Runescape -- so we sort of switched places in our gaming interests I guess. But maybe I would be able to get both members and still have the accessibility to WoW as members was my birthday present back in 2005 and WoW was a present for my good grades in school, but I probably wouldn't have much of a outdoor social life then, would I?

World of Warcraft is a great game though. The graphics are sweet eye candy, the environments are large and stunning, and the whole fear factor while wondering around contested territory wondering if a random monster or the Horde will attack you makes your heart pump at a faster pace constantly. Also, the thing I love about WoW is that it rarely gets boring as there's so much to do. Don't feel like getting exp? Then go train a skill or do a battleground for honor points. I have this dream to get level 70 and just go kick some Horde butt in revenge for the level 70s constantly killing me in contested territory, but I fear that such a day will never occur. And back to the 'never get bored' factor, you really can't get bored unless you tried every race/class combination and played each to levels 40-70. Honestly, on Runescape, it gets boring. The skills are redundant, we're all humans who, upon leveling and getting money, have the option to do all skills and get whatever item they want, and it's mostly heated competition over everything. If you have the task to kill 12 worgens on WoW, then there's not going to be only five worgens in the game and there will be six people fighting over them, there's maybe 50+ worgens. But if you get the task to kill 117 fire giants on Runescape from a slayer master and you wish to range them from underneath the waterfall, then you'll have lots of competition -- especially possible arrow stealers.

Another factor is that WoW has such a massive history and great articles of lore that I would rather sit down and read about it on WoWWiki for hours than play the actual game. And with the many skills that you can pay half-attention to on Runescape, I would be able to fish, woodcut, cook, fletch, etc. while reading about WoW. I used to hate going on Runescape forums and reading, as many of the posts made you think differently about something or it was filled with immature and illogical ramblings about a new update or a discussion. I think forums bring out the best and the worst of a community, and many Runescape forums did just that. Don't get me started about the official WoW forum though -- it's mostly composed of bragging, immature jackasses.

You may tell me, "Just don't play any MMORPG if you have such feelings," but I can't just shrug them off. They're a part of my life and they develop my creativity. You may offer me suggestions to try other MMORPGs, but adding more to my list would only add more conflicts. Feel free though to comment and help me out here, but I think that in the end, I'll be making the ultimate decision solo. There is one major factor that would cause the final decision to be made: if I became a player moderator on Runescape, I would quit World of Warcraft, get members on Runescape, and love Jagex and others on Runescape like my own family. Actually, upon the release of that new Town Crier, I traveled and spoke to the one in Varrock and he told me the qualifications that I would need to become a mod. Well, I believe my standards fit them all, but the whole 'your account must be secure' topic threw me off. How does Jagex know if our account is secure or not? Well, I sent in a query about it yesterday so hopefully I won't get an automated message and I'll know the definite answer, if it's able to be told that is. I know that I was hacked last year, but since then I created a challenging password, installed many virus and spyware softwares running regular scans, and I have created bank PINs, password security questions, etc. that are hard. So I hope Jagex doesn't find my account to not be secure, as it is.

I'm done here. I have to eat, read, clean the litter boxes, etc. so I shall be off. I will have to duel myself over these conflicts.

Have a good one.