Mommy + Gamer = Mommer? Gammy?

I have no idea what to call this mash-up of mommy blogging and gamer blogging, but that's where I'm going.  And no, I don't want to alienate the non-mommys out there.  It's more of a perspective on fitting gaming into your life.  For me, that's fitting gaming into my mommy-ness.

So Debbie's previous blog is what inspired me to finally start the mommy-mash-up series.  Hackers.  Ugh.

(Header to this story: Yes, I play WoW.  No, I have no intention of turning this blog into some kind of WoW hate/love fest.  Enough of those exist.)


The story begins as such: I was innocently trying to log into WoW and I couldn't.  Strange.  It says I need an authenticator and I don't even have one, therefore there shouldn't be one associated with my account.  I realize I've been hacked.  Frustrated, confused, and embarking on what would become an incredibly ANNOYING journey, I called Blizzard customer service.  Let me just tell you, have some time set aside if you have to do this.  The time wait on the phone?  40-45 minutes.  REALLY!?  (Yes, this story deserves all these italics and caps locks. You don't realize how annoyed I was, and you won't unless I annoy you with crazy typing.)

So I got through the wait by trying to use the automated system, which did nothing for me, but got me put into a different queue and I got through to someone in about 10 minutes.  And she was delightful!  We chatted, she told me I was hacked, she reset my account and all was right in the world.  So I logged in, checked my characters, and nothing had been messed with - hurray!  I played for 30-45 minutes when suddenly I lost my connection...or so I thought.  I tried to log back on and it tells me that I have been banned.  Well, something is clearly wrong here, I thought.  And I close the window and try again, but to no avail.  And then an email pops up: I have been banned for exploitative activity.  I don't even know what that is!  So I get back on the Blizzard Customer "Service" line and wait and wait until I get ahold of someone...and they can do nothing for me.  Despite the fact that a customer service rep had already affirmed that I'd been hacked, the account still had to be put under review, something that could take up to 10 days to complete.  Let's just say that I kind of got angry.  And kind of tried to defend myself by getting kind of upset.  It didn't do any good.  Lucky for me it was a very clear cut case and I was back on in about 12 hours.

That was a long story to get down to this point: a hacker got into my account, did some unsavory things (or as the customer service rep said "weird stuff" -  what is that!?) and screwed me over.  And what good did it do for them?  Absolutely nothing.  At best they could've spammed their gold sell website which is so lame and who falls for that?  At worst, I don't know what they did...obviously something "weird".  I'll never know.  And I'll never know what possesses people to do something like that.

So a new category of hackers: hackers who hack just to mess with other players.  It's so unfair.  Why jack with someone's play so directly?  If you're going to hack and ruin the game experience by cheating, that is a different level of suck...but trying to infiltrate me?  So uncool.

And that links to my mommy-ness by this: when I couldn't log into WoW during my kids naps (my good free time to game during the day when I need a break), I was so heartbroken.  That is the main reason I got so upset with the customer service rep. I felt punished for something I clearly didn't do.  And they were taking away my escape.  Isn't that what gaming really is?  An escape from your life, albeit temporary, but oh-so-very fun?   And as a mom I feel like my time for doing it has been cut so drastically that I was extra mad that another element I couldn't control took my game time away.

I felt like a kid who was grounded!  And I didn't even do it, mom!!  (laughs)

So how do you sneak gaming into your every day life?  Generally I have the kids' nap time, if they comply and sleep at the same time.  Generally I do my gaming from 10pm-2am, but sometimes I just don't have it in me to deny myself the sleep.  What's a girl to do?