World of Nerdcraft and Screenwriting

On any given day, when I'm not at work or visiting the kids, you will find me in my room. Like a darkened abyss, with nothing but the ceiling fan for white noise, I sit with headphones on, staring blankly into my laptop like I'm waiting for it to say something funny.

What am I doing? One of two things. Screenwriting, or (more times than none) playing the World of Warcraft.

Fuck, I hate to even say it out loud, but it's who I am and it's what I do. Internally I struggle to find a common ground between the two, but since the Warcraft movie is in pre-production it seems as though my dreams of writing said movie are lost. So where is the common ground.

(Pause for a few moments while I search under the bed, night stand, and desk for what they have in common)

FOUND IT!

EQUILIZED!

Before I describe my middle ground in a single sentence or less, I think I should cover exactly how Warcraft works for the "WTF is that" people.

It's a game. A Multi-Player, Massive, Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG) which boasts a subscribership of almost 10 million members world-wide, paying $14.00 bucks a month. Based somewhere between D&D and LotR, you can choose from a menagerie of races, classes and looks. So even with that many people, on multiple servers, the chance of running into a Blood Elf Rogue that looks exactly like you is almost impossible.

The world itself is exactly as described...massive. Two continents in the base realm of Azeroth, and another larger continent through the Dark Portal in Outlands. Each player can choose from professions like skinning, mining, leatherworking, enchanting, etc, etc to make money in the game. There are auction houses, inns, castles, dungeons, battle grounds (PVP) and interactive grouping and raiding. It is, in itself, a self contained alternate reality. Which is probably why mofos are getting divorced, losing their jobs, and going to rehab from playing.

But here is where I have found my middle ground. It's nothing for me to spend 5-6 hours a day playing this shit. I run around slaying animals and people like Ron Jeremy slays the Vaja. I'm a badass and know it. But what the hell is it doing for me in the real world....nothing. So I'll sit there for hours devolving into a lazy, pale piece of Wowing shit when I should have been writing the entire time. So this is what I figured out. I love Warcraft, but I NEED to write. Thus, I have found my comprimise. I'll take turns. Everytime I finish a quest, I'll write a page and won't go back to WoW until the page is complete. If I'm outlining, then I'll set a time limit that I will write for before going back to WoW.

This could work...I'll let you know.

Rod