I was hanging out at Stephen and Amanda’s place the other night, and Amanda tells me that Stephen was trying to get her to play World of Warcraft.  I paused and just blinked, confused.  Why doesn’t he just play himself?  Well, apparently he used to like watching his roommate play when stuff was going on (raids, whatever), but things liek the grinding and the travel time just bored him to tears.  So he’d just say, “Let me know when you get to the place,” then he’d come watch.

This struck me as pretty interesting, and I realize that I’ve done this myself in the past.  My Louisville crew used to be really into EverQuest, and though I never once played the game, quite frequently I’d come over and just chill at their house, munching on some Taco Bell and watching them raid.  It was vicarious gaming, and it actually kept my interest pretty well.  I’ve done this with roleplaying and console gaming, too — just take it in as someone else plays.  Granted, it’s not quite as fun as participating yourself, but there’s also much less of a time (and monetary) investment.  So while it seemed very odd at first, upon further thought it makes sense.

But regardless of the fact that it makes a weird kind of sense, I still find it pretty funny that Stephen asked Amanda to start playing WoW so that he could watch.