Why People Complain

I thought I would make a post to explain why I, and others, complain about WoW if for one reason and one reason only.  To stop people from saying, "then why play".

Any person that hears someone complain comes to the point of "then why play" when they read it.  They seem to miss the entire concept of why people complain.

People complain about things they like.  If someone does not like something there is no need to complain about it.

To explain this in a more real life sort of situation I will use a few examples that come to mind.

I am a Yankee fan, have been a long time.  Born in New York into a family of all Met fans.  I've been a grumpy one since birth.  If the entire family was full of Met fans I had to be a Yankee fan but that is besides the point.

If the Yankees are doing bad I complain about it.  They need some starting pitching.  The need a better outfield.  Their defense sucks.  I will complain about what is wrong with the Yankees but I am a Yankee fan still.

On the other hand, if the Mets where in the same situation you would never hear me complain about it.  Do you know why?  Because I do not like the Mets.  I do not care if they need a starting pitcher.  I couldn't be bothered to give a crap if their defense sucks.  There is no need to complain about their problem because I do not care.

Lets look at relationships.

A friend of mine, lets call her Jenn, started to have marriage issues about 5 years after she got married.  She would complain to me all the time about it.  All stupid little stuff in relationships that we have all been through but all things that bothered her.

She would point out how inconsiderate he was because he always left the toilet seat up.  Like I said, little stuff but it annoyed her enough to complain about it.  She complained about it nearly every time I talked to her for the better part of 7 years because it mattered to her.  She loved him, she wanted to be in the marriage.

After not hearing about the toilet seat for a while I asked, jokingly of course, if she had finally potty trained him.  She said no, he still leaves it up, but she does not care any more because they are getting a divorce. 

When she no longer wanted to make the relationship work the act of complaining about it was no longer useful in her life. While she was trying to make the marriage work and wanted it to work the act of complaining helped her get her issues off her chest.

Now lets go back to games for our next example.

I used to play this text based game online, lets call it War.  I started playing it at work as a way to pass time but really got into it and started to like it.  After a couple years of playing they finally decided to change things.  I was upset about a lot of the changes and was extremely vocal on the forums about it.  The reason I did this is because I was not happy with the changes.  None of the changes where enough to stop me from playing but they where enough to complain about because I liked the game.

A couple of years ago they came out with a small change, over all it was nothing game breaking or even game changing.  As a matter of fact it actually did not hurt me in any way shape or form.  I just did not like the change and it had gotten to the point that enough is enough and I finally gave up.  It was not worth complaining any more because I just do not care any more. 

I did not go to the forums to express my displeasure with the change.  I just logged out and never returned.  Because I just did not care any more.  It was not worth complaining about even knowing I was leaving.  It was not even worth doing an I'm leaving post because an I'm leaving post is really just another way of complaining.  It shows you still care enough about something that you have to let it known.  I did not care enough so I just left and made no post.

Now lets go back to WoW and my complaining.

I complain about WoW because I like WoW.  Just like I like the Yankees or Jenn liked her husband or I had liked War.  When you like something and there is a part of it you do not like about it you complain about it.  As stupid or simple as it might sound the act of complaining is what keeps you liking it.  The act of complaining proves you like it.  If you did not complain that means you really do not care.

I can not accept people that say "then why play" because that means they totally misses the whole point of the act of complaining.  People complain because they like something.  You do not complain about something you do not care about.

If Blizzard ever did anything that annoyed me so much that I would quit there would never be a post about it.  There would never be a reasoning on why I need to quit.  I would just quit and I would stop posting because at that point I would not care about the game or care enough to even waste the time writing about it.

Lets take Rift for example.  I've played it enough that I have things I like about it and things I dislike about it.  I do not complain about it because honestly I do not care.  The game has not caught my attention enough to actively give a crap about it.   If I don't really care about it then why complain about it.

Someone saying "then why play" when someone complains about something in WoW is basically the same as asking a Yankee fan why they are still a fan even if all they do is complain about the pitching staff.

People complain about things they care enough to form an opinion about.  When they stop complaining it means they do not care any more.

When someone that used to complain stops complaining you then need to ask them, "then why play" if you do not care any more.