WoW and ADD

Today is ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) Awareness day. So I thought I'd describe how my having ADD affects me, the blog and WoW. This is not to say that everyone with ADD or ADHD plays World of Warcraft or writes their blog with the same quirks that I do. But I thought this might be helpful (for me at least).

Writing Posts
Essentially I write posts in the same way that I would want to read them. Easy. I'm surprised that more ADD writers don't do the same. You will find my posts generally adhere to the following:

Relatively short in length (like I said, generally adhere).

No long text walls.

Break it up and provide structure with Tables and Bullets. (Example: Children's Week)

Use pictures to tell the story (Example: How To Unlearn a Profession)

Where possible use headers to explain what I'm writing. (Example: Patch Feedback)

Use colored text to highlight concepts. (Example: Patch Notes)

Combine all of the above to get the message across assuming that readers spend only 5 seconds reading the post. How can I help them capture the message in that time?

Also, the fact that I'm still blogging after 9 months is probably atypical. I guess I'm still at it because I keep finding ways to express myself differently. I enjoy it.

Post Content

Distractions: I wind up expressing in my blog posts all those distractions I see when I play. I don't know, do non ADD people just go right by them? I wind up pondering them.

Examples: Notice how I got interested when I found A Cannon outside IF, Goblin Gallows, A grinning Dog, Kool Aid parties etc...

Process Information: I also use blog posts to process information. With ADD I find information floats around in my head. But I don't really understand it until I process it and find its proper home in the larger context.

Examples include: Priest Racial Skills, Priest End Talents, World of Warcraft Subscription Prices, Jewelcrafting Notes

Creative Outlets: I didn't know I had it in me. But boy do I enjoy playing with photoshop and WoW.

Examples: NPC Commercial Breaks, Comparing WoW to Real Life Sights and Sites, or my amateur comics.

Playing the Game

Transitions - One of my friends noticed this (when I used to play well with others). We'd all be logged on after work but I'd need time before we'd all rush out to whever we were questing. Had to check the mail; had to go to the bank and the Auction House. (Maybe it was all that time checking alts.)

Multiple Alts, Multiple Servers - I get a brand new idea. I discover Shamans. I'm going to make all my players different races. I make a male character. I make an all unarmed character. Invariably, whatever the idea is, I come up with another one that tickles my fancy before I'm finished with the last. The result is a lot of rested bonus.

Short Play Times - Do an instance for an hour? No thanks. Raid for several hours!?! Not for me, no way. I've been known to log on for 10 minutes. Or play for an hour and never kill a single thing. On the rare occasion I play for several hours I was probably playing and got up to go do laundry while in flight. I finally made it back and decided I wanted to play a different character. (Although loading Titan Panel and the "time to next level" mod made me want to level more.) Eventually, I wound up migrating from playing with friends to a solo play style because I wanted to be able to change what I was doing on a whim. Which is also why they all leveled to 60 and are doing raids right now and I'm writing a blog.

Hyperfocus - On occasion I will get engrossed in the game or a project (see the wands post to see how I spent probably 8 hours on Saturday) and I keep at it for hours. If I find something interesting I can lose hours of time investigating it, pulling it apart, trying it different ways.

Forgetful - This trait is another reason I find myself playing solo. I get too embarassed by some of my forgetfulness. One day we were in the Arathi Highlands doing a quest where you have to run around to various "Stones of Binding" and fight the different elementals. Well I had completed it very recently and knew which elementals were at which Stones. I happily led my friends here and there until I was proudly showing them where the water elementals were, only to be advised that we had already done the water elementals (only 5 minutes before). hmmm of course then I couldn't remember exactly which ones we had done already and had to ask.

I've read some negative comments about ADD and WoW ("this kid must've had ADD or something...") and I'm not sure I've given the best impression of ADD & WoW either. So I'd like to say I think I'm not representative of other ADD'ers who play WoW. This is just how I am with it.

If you'd like more information, I picked a few links.

ADD Information Links:
What's it like to have ADD?
Hyperfocus
Diagnosis of AD/HD in Adults