WoW friends on Facebook

Tue Oct 19, 2010 3:24 pm

Re: WoW friends on Facebook

96 Friends on Facebook,
~20 Who play WoW,
15 Met through WoW (all from guild),
7 Met through WoW and since met IRL.

I am happy to talk about WoW on Facebook. Most of my Facebook is made up of drunk pictures of me and my friends as that's the only time people think to take photos. A lot of the comments made on WoW don't register with people who don't play.

Am in the Maintankadin Facebook group.

My old forum avatar makes up 2/6 of my profile pics.

Lightbeard

Tue Oct 19, 2010 7:25 pm

Re: WoW friends on Facebook

mew wrote:(This isn't directed at anyone, it was just something I was reminded about when reading the thread)
I have trouble understanding why people like to keep such huge separations between various aspects of their social lives (and most people seem to do this). I understand the importance of separation of work and personal things, and I know I tend to be the weird one for being so open about things with everyone, but I don't see what the big importance is about hiding who you are from one social situation to the next.

I guess the most similar thing I have had is family life versus my nerd social life. I used to keep them separate because it was just easier that way, but then I stopped being so secretive about it and stopped hiding what my real hobbies are. If a relative asked me "How are you? What have you been up to?", instead of staying the usual "I'm good, same old stuff" I would be like "I'm really excited about this new costume I have been working on." Of course there are still some members of my family that I have to keep things secret from, but you know who you can tell things to and who you can't ("What? Why aren't you spending that time studying?!"), and for the most part I feel like family should be the people you can be yourself with.

I understand if people just, for whatever reason, don't want to mix the two social lives. But I guess what I don't understand is why so many people do it.

The only person I've ever known IRL that played WOW was a senior (I was a freshman) in a French class. It was pretty funny the first time we talked I saw him looking up WOW and asked if he played. He wasn't level 80 yet and was shocked to find out (whe he armoried) my DK had a 2200 Arena Rating and kept asking me for tips. This guy wasn't the traditional basement nerd either.

Besides him nobody IRL(i.e schoolmates and friends) knew I played WOW.

I tend to keep the fact that I am a wrestling fan private as well discussing it only with a few friends. Although everyone will know in the next few coming months.

Fivelives

Tue Oct 19, 2010 8:27 pm

Re: WoW friends on Facebook

I categorically refuse to participate in any online "social" networking. Instant messengers are bad enough, and I barely use those as is. It's also ridiculous that more people text than call each other on their phones.

But it was hilarious when I realized that I was spending more time using MSN messenger to communicate with my girlfriend while we were living together than time I spent talking to her face to face. That was the sign that it was time to end it.

So no, I don't have any facebook friends, let alone ones that come from WoW.

I also don't tend to talk about it at work. I'll occasionally chat with one of our pilots that also plays about it, but only during times when I'm on standby or after dropping a patient off somewhere while the paperwork is being done and the helicopter is being cleaned.

Lightbeard

Tue Oct 19, 2010 9:23 pm

Re: WoW friends on Facebook

Fivelives wrote:I categorically refuse to participate in any online "social" networking. Instant messengers are bad enough, and I barely use those as is. It's also ridiculous that more people text than call each other on their phones.

This calls for a "back in my day".

Vanifae

Tue Oct 19, 2010 10:08 pm

Re: WoW friends on Facebook

Lightbeard wrote:
Fivelives wrote:I categorically refuse to participate in any online "social" networking. Instant messengers are bad enough, and I barely use those as is. It's also ridiculous that more people text than call each other on their phones.

This calls for a "back in my day".

I concur.

mew

Tue Oct 19, 2010 10:18 pm

Re: WoW friends on Facebook

The thing I have found facebook most useful for that you can't really do otherwise (unlike how you could just call someone instead of posting on their facebook wall) is finding old friends. Since you can search by name and just about everyone has facebook, you can look up people that you have lost contact with and are interested in reconnecting and talking to again.

Eaglestrike

Tue Oct 19, 2010 10:52 pm

Re: WoW friends on Facebook

I have about 60ish facebook friends (I took off all the people I "know" that I don't like/consider a friend a while back) and only about 10% of the people there are from WoW. But of the people I talk to on there it's mostly people from WoW, or a couple friends from FFXI. For instance a mere two people wished me happy birthday last year(on Facebook), both WoW buddies. Hmm, that probably makes me sound like a loser, oh well.

Fivelives

Tue Oct 19, 2010 11:12 pm

Re: WoW friends on Facebook

We had rotary phones "back in the day". And if you wanted to walk around while you were on the phone, you had to buy extension cords for it. And that was plenty. Then cordless phones came out - and that was awesome, no more tripping over phone cords. I swore I'd never need anything else.

Then, I went to Europe and had to get a cell phone. Ok, cool, I thought, I'll never need a phone for anything but calling and texting. Now, I have a droid and it's like "OOH! Email! MUST. CHECK. NAO."

But I'm standing firm on the "social networking" trend.

ulushnar

Wed Oct 20, 2010 12:17 am

Re: WoW friends on Facebook

I've got half my old guild on Facebook. Almost none of us play the game anymore and they live in different countries, but I'm damned if I'm going to let that stand in the way of friendships developed over the course of five years.

Vanifae

Wed Oct 20, 2010 5:34 am

Re: WoW friends on Facebook

Fivelives wrote:We had rotary phones "back in the day". And if you wanted to walk around while you were on the phone, you had to buy extension cords for it. And that was plenty. Then cordless phones came out - and that was awesome, no more tripping over phone cords. I swore I'd never need anything else.

Then, I went to Europe and had to get a cell phone. Ok, cool, I thought, I'll never need a phone for anything but calling and texting. Now, I have a droid and it's like "OOH! Email! MUST. CHECK. NAO."

But I'm standing firm on the "social networking" trend.

Hold the line.

Brand

Wed Oct 20, 2010 6:55 am

Re: WoW friends on Facebook

To me it's kind of funny, since I started using Facebook because an old guildie of mine suggested it, and originally all of my friends were from WoW. Come to find out that most of my friends from back home (the Air Force spirited me away shortly after high school) are on Facebook and now they make up the vast majority of my friends list.

Rachmaninoff

Wed Oct 20, 2010 2:24 pm

Re: WoW friends on Facebook

mew wrote:(This isn't directed at anyone, it was just something I was reminded about when reading the thread)
I have trouble understanding why people like to keep such huge separations between various aspects of their social lives (and most people seem to do this). I understand the importance of separation of work and personal things, and I know I tend to be the weird one for being so open about things with everyone, but I don't see what the big importance is about hiding who you are from one social situation to the next.

I guess the most similar thing I have had is family life versus my nerd social life. I used to keep them separate because it was just easier that way, but then I stopped being so secretive about it and stopped hiding what my real hobbies are. If a relative asked me "How are you? What have you been up to?", instead of staying the usual "I'm good, same old stuff" I would be like "I'm really excited about this new costume I have been working on." Of course there are still some members of my family that I have to keep things secret from, but you know who you can tell things to and who you can't ("What? Why aren't you spending that time studying?!"), and for the most part I feel like family should be the people you can be yourself with.

I understand if people just, for whatever reason, don't want to mix the two social lives. But I guess what I don't understand is why so many people do it.

I used to keep myself separated from my wow friends and my RL/FB friends. It was only recently that we have started to connect. I have been playing with this group of people for about 3 years of my 4.5 years of playing that someone decided to make a FB group and I have added them.

My reasoning for holding off for so long is partially my shame of playing wow. My friends give me grief and my girlfriend hates that I play. But the other and primary reason is because I've never actually met them. To me that does make a bit of a difference. Sure I can talk to you via a video game, but thats it.

One thing I do agree, separation of work and FB. If you were to try to pull up my FB, you wouldn't see shit. Not even my face.

I also hate myself for having FB because it has become a place of ads, commercials, and personal data mining. The actual social impact of FB disturbs me. Anyone ever see the south park episode about FB?

anthony

Wed Oct 20, 2010 2:38 pm

Re: WoW friends on Facebook

I chose the less than 10% option, I like to have some guild members on Facebook in order to contact them if necessary and chat outside of WoW. That said I'm rarely on it anyway.

Arnock

Wed Oct 20, 2010 2:47 pm

Re: WoW friends on Facebook

I voted zero, if only because the handful of wow players that I have on my FB I already knew before I started playing.

To me, facebook is a convenient way to keep in touch with friends that you don't/can't see very often. I could take it or leave it, never was too big of a deal for me. I can't seem to understand the logic of having to check one's wall every few minutes, or spending large amounts of time just being "on facebook."

Nikachelle

Thu Oct 21, 2010 6:31 am

Re: WoW friends on Facebook

anthony wrote:I chose the less than 10% option, I like to have some guild members on Facebook in order to contact them if necessary and chat outside of WoW. That said I'm rarely on it anyway.

And we like to post embarrassing things on your wall.

Skye1013

Thu Oct 21, 2010 7:10 am

Re: WoW friends on Facebook

I picked the <10, and not because I'm a closet nerd... a majority of the people I know/work with all know that I play WoW, I just have never really been in a single guild long enough (for whatever various reasons) to have added more than a few of them. On the other hand, I have quite a few friends (on myspace, have looked up a few on facebook) from a MUD I used to play that was based off of V:tM. Having played that game from my freshman year in HS (graduated '02) until a year or so ago, I had made a good number of friends there, and felt comfortable adding them.

Passionario

Thu Oct 21, 2010 7:37 am

Re: WoW friends on Facebook

I don't have a Facebook account. Or a Twitter feed.

Then again, I also didn't have a Myspace account when everyone and their hamster made one.
Or, for that matter, a personal webpage on Geocities.

Invisusira

Thu Oct 21, 2010 1:22 pm