Undertanker wrote:His delivery may be direct, but he is right.
TLDR: No he isn't. Not even close. He is a moron. How is your Bullshit alarm not going off here?
Undertanker wrote:$15 isn't a lot.
So many things, where to start.
If you live in Northern Europe like me, then in one of your close neighboring countries $15 is 10% of the average monthly salary. If 10% isn't a lot, then $300/month wouldn't be an issue for someone from northwestern Europe, give or take. Someone should go tell Blizzard that their margins can be increased substantially.
Further, people in the real world can actually get into situations where they have a hard time to make ends meet. A cost of $180 per year can really be hard to motivate when drawing up a budget in those situations. Once again, mileage will vary with location and situation in life.
Go cut some old ladies grass if you have to. And if you are 15+ years old, you should have a job. Regardless of the p/h pay. Slow money > No money.
Lets start with people who actually cannot work full time or even at all. Surprise, surprise, such people are over-represented in the time sink that is World of Warcraft. We can further discuss normal unemployment. Before shaming each and every person who doesn't have a job consider reading up on NAIRU/natural rate of unemployment. Realize that macroeconomic policy isn't always fair, and that for all the good they do, stuff like a minimum wage and relatively stable inflation come at a price.
As for the hypothetical persons ability to go cut the grass. You should realize that for that to be legal you need to declare taxes, pay government labor fees, handle the bureaucracy, and get paid minimum wage? Unless you are suggesting breaking the law, minimum wage + all that jazz is the bottom. If you are unable to generate enough to offset that cost it isn't viable under the rules in our society. (Kids get a pass because it is a life lesson and they aren't qualified for real work so who cares. If the kid started to do it at industrial levels or with decent organisation of some sort of kiddie workforce however, that wouldn't fly unless the rules were followed)
Overall when someone is complaining about a problem that doesn't apply to you, your first instinct should be to try and look at the issue from their perspective, see where they might be coming from. To immediately assume that since it isn't a problem for you it cannot be a significant issue for someone else is very self-centered, yet it is a trap that can be easy to fall in. Just thinking of the issue for a second or two is enough to realize that it might not be very fair to call persons who more or less are prisoners in their own homes "useless waste of air" as Mage21 so eloquently put it. And which you defended as direct, but right. Perhaps sweeping generalities should be avoided overall, and while some hyperbole is defensible, perhaps we should stop short of denying the intrinsic human value of individuals without surplus funds to spend on entertainment? What do you think?
I also have a job and I have a good education so I'm not defending my own honor here, my mind is however not so sheltered that I cannot, at least partially, put myself in other players shoes and understand that there will be players who cannot reasonably play WoW with a sub fee. I don't consider their lives worthless as Mage21 stated. But playing WoW isn't a right and there are alternatives.
Oh and by the way. I too think that they should go the $15 sub route. So I'm not arguing against the end result.
I'm arguing that Mage21 is a rude, self-righteous, myopic idiot. Or at least that he was of that state of mind when he wrote that ghastly post. Hone the use of your critical faculties to inoculate your brain from such crap as best you can. You don't wanna end up like that. It isn't a good place to be. This post got very long, I blame my allergy to assholes who have zero respect for the value and human dignity of others. Seeing non-idiots swallowing said BS can sometimes send me straight into anaphylactic rant.
