World of Warcraft

I have been occasionally struggling lately with playing World of Warcraft. Specifically the inherent violence in the game. Being a fantasy game you have the classic themes of slaying monsters and dragons, but WoW adds another layer known as PvP or Player vs Player. In this you are attacking and killing characters played and controlled by actual people. On a PvP realm, which I play, PvP is inherent to most of the places you play and can happen without provocation and is actively encouraged.

I have been playing for about 3 years now and have not really had an issue with it for myself before. I started playing when my daughter was around 10 months old and the truth is I try very hard to not let her watch, though I do like to take her to the orphanage in Shattrath to see the babies. But there is a war going on in the game and these are orphans. For me it is a simple struggle between my growing convictions of non-violence and the enjoyment I get from the social aspect and "accomplishments" in the game.

It is definitely a subject I want to discuss with someone significantly more Buddhist aware than I am. Being very new, so far self taught, and not yet finding a teacher, it can be hard to really put my conflicting views and actions in to perspective.

I have a trick I am going to start using, and it likely won't rule my life for some time but it is a start. Look for WWPCD in post #3 that might come in minutes...days...or even months. But I promise it will come.

The very first post...

I am not a writer...at least not professionally. The way I write has gotten more and more lazy over the years. Tempered mostly by email, IM, and playing online games I find myself struggling to not put "atm" and "brb" in even business correspondence. And my typing mistakes can be atrocious. So if you are here for good writing, this is the wrong place. For that I highly suggest Danny Fisher's blog.

I am also not a rabid blogger. I have a wife and child and job that take up a ton of my time. In the time I have left, after fixing the latest self created computer debacle, I play a little to much World of Warcraft (see post #2 on that).

What this will be is a place for me to chronicle a little bit of my exploration of Buddhism. How I got in to it (recently!), how it changes my life, and very occasionally a little link or 2, most of which other people chronicle way better than I do.