On wanting to stop wanting 'World of Warcraft'…

As someone who works in Advertising and is a creative, I feel your pain here I started playing WoW between jobs to and man what a waste of brain power, I am always thinking imagine what else i could get done LOL. But I am hooked, I think this MOD is a really good idea to help people and I would also put it on my Blog to expose to my friends my timewasting.
P.S. It gets worse once you start raiding and getting epics 🙁

Coincidentally, I just cancelled my WoW subscription only minutes before I read this post. I’m tired of thinking about all the things I could have been spending that time on and getting depressed. That, and I got bored of grinding somewhere around level 40. EVE Online, on the other hand, looks like something I could really get hooked on.

Tom, I feel for you man. I did the SAME thing. 4 months of INTENSE WoW play, every night, sacrificing mostly sleep and quality blogging for my dwarf paladin. I didn’t quite get to level 51, but I just HAD to stop. So I did it cold-turkey. Actually, I did a full system re-install on my Mac, and decided to simply not re-install WoW. That was over 8 months ago.
But here’s the kicker. My level of addiction and my connection with my characters ran very deep, and still does. I refuse to stop paying for my account because I don’t want to lose them. So, for the last 8 or 9 months, I have be faithfully paying my $16/month, and I don’t even have the game installed! (Honestly, I don’t even know my username and password anymore.) And I don’t know when I’ll ever be able to let them go. Every time I buy a new game or play something new (especially most recently Elder Scroll Oblivion for XBox 360) I think to myself, “I’d really much rather be playing World of Warcraft.”
Dear god. Somebody kill me.

My 11 and 13 year old sons would donate a lung rather than give up playing WoW over the weekend for 12 hours straight. And, as my huband states, my daughter is equally addicted to MySpace.
I would like to email you. Do you have a public email?

Tom, ‘fraid I’ve got no new advice for ya.
I deleted my level 59 hunter a couple of weeks ago, cancelled my account and un-installed the game. I’m surprised by how much I *don’t* miss it.
Just like you, my 9-5 work had never suffered, but I was more bemused by the fact that 15+ days of my spare time had been wasted levelling a computer character, when it could of been spent learning Ruby on rails, or knitting, or something equally as useful.
I’ve been ranting to fellow geeks for a long time that there should be a MMORPG that has some kind of real life use, perhaps you would need to learn various rules of physics to be a decent Gnome Engineer, rather than just grind for hours….
(Eve is a lovely looking game, but within 2 hours I got pissed off with the grinding. Deleted, cancelled, uninstalled.)

Well, one answer to your gaming woes is to have a baby, I definitely don’t have that much disposable time any more 🙂
More seriously, I have played very few of these MMORPGs precisely because of the way they guzzle time and reward behaviour bordering on OCD. And that’s despite being a keen gamer and having plenty of friends who play them.
I still want to create some games that represent the counter-culture to always-on-line. Basically, play-by-turn affairs where the main character is driven by game AI, and you set apsects of their desires and personality. The vision for 2050 would be something along the lines of a personalised “Dungeons and Dragons” cartoon or video, with the main character’s thoughts and goals driven by the player in response to each episode.
Still just a concept, and looking unlikely to ever complete after 10 years in daydream-style planning!!

Wow, that’s pretty hardcore – and the princple reason I’ve avoided MMORPGs. I like the fact that a lot of PS2 games now include timers on the save files – I’ve apparently played Resident Evil 4 for about 16 hours, but if I didn’t have that information I’d probably guess half that.
I don’t want to know how much time I’ve spent trying to pay off my Animal Crossing morgage…

” Imagine playing WoW was my second job, which is how it has felt at times.”
Tom, you probably learn things about community, social software, and interaction designfrom WoW. You then bring this to your other work at Yahoo, not to mention the things you post here. Seen this way, how is playing WoW not part of your regular job? You could probably make a case that it’s tax deductible!

FWIW.. I played WoW for about 6 months before I had to slow down. My play dissipated and I barely got in more than a day or so a month after that until early 2006, when I pretty much quit altogether. I just lacked the motivation to play – it was almost like going to a second job!
With that in mind, I’m a professional software developer. Just a quick note regarding your comparison to Last.fm and with respect to how Thottbot works:
Last.fm is different in that it actually publishes your profile and “listening to” streams via RSS, ATOM and any other number of other external APIs and feeds. They also use the AudioScrobbler plugin to publish that information from iTunes, WinAmp, WMP, or whatnot to your Last.fm profile.
Thottbot is also different in that it requires you to launch a separate application, as well as a bunch of UI mods in-game to pull that information back into their central database.
So.. to get the information you’re looking for, you’d need to run at least one desktop app (manually, every time you played, or afterwards) and install a WoW UI plugin to harvest the data and submit it to your site.
WoW doesn’t make any of the data we’d all like to see about our characters externally accessible via published APIs (unlike many other MMORPGs; for instance, Dark Age of Camelot publishes a lot of character and guild data via XML.)
Sorry for the long reply, just figured I’d clarify that it’s not a matter of just a simple UI mod.

Re: SL vs WOW. I’m as likely to spend 12 hours straight playing SL as I am to spend 12 hours screwing around on the internet; I’m much more likely to play WOW for 12 hours straight than either of those.
The only that really worked for me in WOW was getting together with a solid group of friends I play with and making a group decision to only play at certain times. The idea was to make it more like a poker night than a daily thing. If someone did play more than the others in the group, the others notice the new gear and higher levels, so it creates a bit of social pressure to only play within the limits. This worked, and I still get my fix of WOW.

Hello. I’m Bruce and I play World Of Warcraft.
I’ve played since it came out and I have 4 characters the highest being 37. (I’m easily distracted.) I really enjoy wandering around and exploring the immersive world they’ve created.
My main trouble with WOW is that while looking at what they’ve created and how imaginative it is, it inspires me to be creative but I’m too busy playing to do anything about it. I’m trying to take that inspiration and make something of it. Even if it’s a doodle or just paying as much attention to my own environment as I do WOW’s.
Games are relaxing to me and I play when there isn’t anything better to do (ie: hang with my wife, eat, etc.) I try to treat it like watching a movie so I’ll play for a couple hours. Abraxas’ idea of an egg timer is brilliant.

WoW-related social problems are actually really commonplace on the addiction peer support forum (in Finnish) my wife moderates as part of her work. Some people have been practicly widowed – or orphaned – by their family members’ WoW-addiction. Maybe Wow is not so much the new golf as it’s the new crack.
I think the biggest challenge for the game developers in the years to come is to create games that are while being immersive (WoW definetely seems to have made an important milestone on this) but also socially adaptive. Neils’ concept sounds interesting. I’m thinking, what if the caharacters in MMORPGs would age and die of old age in half a year or so? This would not just create both a natural break for players but also add existencial depth and meaning to the game it self.

Did you read “You Play World of Warcraft? You’re Hired!” in last April’s Wired? Maybe WoW is not a waste of time after all…http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.04/learn.html

I can’t stop. /cry

I have 2 60s on WoW along with many other characters.
I play WoW constantly. You could say I’m an addict.
I don’t, however, see anything wrong with this. I enjoy it. It’s fun for me. I still interact with people and get the things that need to be done finished. But when that’s all said and done and I want to relax, I use WoW.
I really don’t see why so many people see it as a bad thing that they’re doing something they enjoy “too often”. That is, unless it interferes with your obligations in life.
And, as far as I know…
Making any kind of add-on that actively sends game data to the internet while running the game is against the ToS.

I have played WOW with my friends since open beta. I have more than one 60 chars, one all geared with epic sets. I think i had more fun leveling characters with my friends, than grinding for 6 hours in some dungeons with 40 other guild members. At the end, it was just too much of a grind, and not enough fun. It was all about getting better gears, or moving up in the PVP ranking. I have stopped playing wow for almost 6 months now. When i was playing WOW, I disregarded a big portion of my social life, so i had a lot of catching up to do. Still, many nights i think of going back into WOW, cause it is better than just being a couch potato. I can’t possibly be partying or clubbing every night; its just too tiring and too expensive. I am semi-old, so i am kind of done with education. I am not married so i have no child or wife to entertain. And there ain’t no better games out there, I’ve looked(Guildwars, EveOnline, Lineage, CS, etc….). During weekedays, i come home from work, and turn on the TV, and just sit there for hours. Now after 6 months, i am thinking of going back into the WOW. So i am at the activation page, with subscription info all filled out, and i just need to click “Finished” button. Yet, i am scared, very scared. I feel like an alcholic who is about to fall off the wagon… To play or not to play… well i can’t tell you whether i am gonna play or not… cause even i dont know… To play or not to play, that is the question.
5/24/06 11:52 pm…

Well, when i first heard of WoW, was when kids from my grade 12 uni classes wouldent shutup about it, they even started talking like they would in wow by callin teatchers noobs to sayin lol instead of laughing. i got so anoyed that i went out bought the game and gave it a try so taht i can actually say something about the game and tell them it was a dumb game withought tryin to look stupid by saying things i did not know about it. but it ended up in a bad case of me being the most addicted to it out of all of them. i have forced my self to quit wow but always end up running back to it after 2-3 months. i have actually bought other accounts couse i forget the pass and usernames to the accounts that i stop playing with during the 2-3 months. i now on my thrid acct and with a 60 on each on of the accounts. My parents have acctauly moved the computer from my room to the living room and monitor me and kick me off after 2 hours. Its so frustrating becuase wow honestly takes more time then 2 hours once you get into it, like molten core can easily dry up that time. The only cure iv been able to find, is joining an online clan like WFC (warforceclan) and jus chattin and playin games taht take up less time with them like counter-strike(30minutes for a scrim) and Guild wars which isent as good as wow, but force your self to play it for 2 days and you will like it and continue to play it withought having to be online all the time like world of warcraft, it is not quite as addictive eaither. well theres my life story…enjoy =D

Where to begin
I play WOW. I got into it to spite my husband who plays ALL THE TIME. He skips work to play WOW. He has a WOW girlfriend he runs with all the time, and chats with all night on Ventrilo with. We have no marriage because of WOW. He comes home at night, assuming he has been to work that day, hangs with the family for maybe an hour we have a 5 year old, a 10 month old, and a 13 year old from a former girlfriend of his, the 13 year old comes to our house and plays from noon to 2 am if I let her stay up that long, God forbid he act like her parent and get her to bed at a decent hour, I usually have been in bed for 4 hours at that point), then it’s into the game. He goes to bed somewhere in the neighborhood of 2am. If you can call it going to bed, cause he sleeps on the couch, mostly so I won’t know what time he DID go to bed at. He can’t get up on time to get our son to school on time, he is always nearly 45 min late. When he is not at work, he will rise at 9am, log in and play until 3 or 4 am. I have had to hire people to mow the lawn. I have to do EVERYTHING around the house. Asking him is an AFFRONT, an interruption, and of course I am just being a HAG for asking.
WOW has pretty much ruined him. He also can not see it. He will not admit there is a problem, and will not listen to me.
He’s going to end up in an empty house, cosied up to his keyboard, ALONE. That future is fast approaching. How sad is that? He has missed so much of life and doesn’t even get it. Hell I play this game too, and I maybe, maybe play 6 hours a week. I can’t play it much, I have a family to take care of. Children that NEED their parents. I can not so easily ignore my responsiblities. It is so sad that he doesn’t get that he has a family to take care of too. Maybe he will get it sometime after he loses it. I am not going to hold my breath.

I’m a new WoW addict.. just about three months now, I believe. I completely understand the feeling of “what could I have done instead” but I don’t really feel that way about WoW specifically. I actually started feeling that way a few months before I got WoW, just about wasting time watching TV and surfing the net, in general. It does keep me from getting some things done, but if it wasn’t WoW, it’d be Facebook or VH1 or some other basically useless thing.
In my case however, WoW actually helps my social life. A small group of my friends at school all have the game and we get together at a friend’s house once a week or so to do instances or whatever. And now that we’ve all gone our separate ways for the summer, WoW’s a way for us to keep in touch.. we even made a campfire in Elwynn one night and all sat around chatting, dueling, telling jokes, and dancing with our pets.
Another option, which I’m considering, is to just suspend it for a month or two, get some things done, and then dive back in. It’s still new to me, so I prolly won’t do that anytime soon

On wanting a badge to see how long you’ve played games, XFire works for many games.
On wanting a MMORPG that’s more real-world, you could try SFZero (SF0.org) although it’s not actually online. All the tasks are done in the real world, and are worth points. They’re stuff like telling your parents you joined the CIA, or tipping in a non-tipping industry.
Basically it lets you play you, but as a sort of alternate reality you. And you actually go out and explore the world instead of sitting in front of your computer all day.

My son is 13 and has been playing WOW for 3 months. I was sceptical about purchasing the game for him as a birthday present (he has to pay the monthly fee himself) because I knew that the game had no end. I see how addictive the game can be. My son had exams last week and leading up to the exams we ‘banned’ WOW – he had a tough time not playing. He is on a school trip for a week now and won’t be able to play for another 5 days. I am going to show him this blog and the comments when he gets back – we three (my son, husband and myself) have to have a discussion about WOW – if I let him, my son would play all day Saturday and all day Sunday and all evening during week nights. He does have friends and a social life – he isn’t isolated, but he doesn’t read books anymore and it seems like WOW, WOW, WOW all the time. And as mentioned above, you can’t just play for an hour – it takes 2 to 3 hours, apparently, to get an instance done. I do so regret buying that accursed game.

I have been playing since 4/4/06. I have never played a game that is so absorbing. I am curious to get home tonight and type /played to see how much time I have spent. I initially started out with a friend already in the mid 20’s, and me at level 1. The goal was to catch him, and led to some long nights (9pm to 3am). This is not as long as some of you, but I could relate to the story of the guy who sleeps on the couch so his wife doesn’t know what time he went to bed. That has been me on numerous occasions. I have now caught up with my friend, but the compulsion to play has not lessened. I am a level 41, so basically a noob still. I want a horse now, and am looking to load up on plate armor. I love the game, but it is starting to take a toll on my work. I am sleepy, and always reading Thottbot for info on my next quest. My wife has come in at 2:30 am and told me things have to change. I don’t know whether to try to cut back, or drop it all together. For the past 2.5 months, it is all I think about and look forward to all day. I have been going to great lengths to prove to my wife that it isn’t affecting our relationship, tasks around the house, time with the kids, and for the most part I have done a good job. The part she can’t see though is the time wasted at work. Maybe I should get out before I get in any deeper. Anybody want some gold 🙂

I also play WoW. I have a lvl 60, and have done many, many, many raids. It burns a guy out, it’s just not fun anymore. It ruins your plans for the future.
The problems:
You can ALWAYS upgrade your character… hence the addiction.
Also,the game was designed to hook you very slowly. It starts you out with tasks that only require a hour or two on your own schedual. The game then moves to schedualed raids requiring 5-7 hours nightly, which could be spent spending time with friends, family, or preparing for your classes.
If you’re having trouble, I have some tips to get WoW off your mind, just send me an e-mail.(albu729@hotmail.com) Goodluck

I don’t know why I’m commenting here, I was just googling around and I came across this page. I will however tell my story. The fact is, I’m a WoW addict…not as bad as I used to be but still bad enough. I saw that you said you have 15 days time played? That’s nothing. On my first level 60 alone, I have over 85 days total time played. I don’t even play that character any more and havent in 6 months.
When you add my numerous other characters on top of that, you’ll probably get a figure around 150 days or more. I recall a time when I was extremely addicted and I was raiding with my guild. We only raided on weekends so week days were pretty bleak. I remember sitting in the main city, jumping in circles and reading chat. For hours. I mean literally doing NOTHING just staring at a video game screen for 5 or more hours at a time. I had nothing to do in WoW, and since that was my life, I just sat there and did nothing.
However, on my part being a WoW addict isn’t quite as bad as other people. I’m semi-sensible, and when I need food/water, I go get it. I’m pretty health concious so I watch what I eat, and I work out every night before bed. I’m quite the healthy WoW addict and I’m in pretty good shape. Therefore, my parents don’t really seem to worry much about me, this is just what I like to do. When I feel like stopping, I will like I have in the past.

i have a 16 year old son who seems to be addicted to all games using a screen but particularly WoW. He spends hours in front of the computer. He is non-responsive to my telling him it is time to go to bed, or that he has been on way too long (“I just got on.”). This game, and others, seem to bring out the worst in him. If he is interrupted by someone talking to him he snaps their head off. He is rude and cranky when not on the game. He does not think he has a problem but that I do. Any suggestions how to intervene and release him from this unbelievable hold?

Oh man let me tell you!
I, like the original poster, bought WoW to bridge a 6-week period where I had moved to another city to start a new job and my family was still back in our old hometown. I was only going to play when I was in the new location, and not at “home”. Well that didn’t work out so well, I ended up playing whenever I felt like it. Thanfully the time came to move, and with all that activity I put the WoW down.
In January however I decided to play again, and bought a 2nd account for my sons. I think since that time I’ve logged nearly 40 days (yes FORTY DAYS) in the game. Roughly 1/6th of my waking hours are spent playing WoW. It’s sickening.
I have found ways to play at work, know that if I was caught there’d be hell to pay. In one instance my manager’s manager came into my cube and wanted to look something up on my screen. I feigned system problems, but that was a damn close call. But, did that stop me from playing at work – nope. And if I wasn’t playing, I was researching on Thottbot or WowWiki or wherever to make sure I understood what I’d be doing when I got home to play.
In my home life, my wife is at her wit’s end. I used the excuse that I was helping my son’s w/ their games to play more and that the time I spent playing with them shouldn’t be counted aganist my time. She has gone to bed many times by herself, and that has affected other “personal” areas of our relationship adversely. To put it bluntly I was choosing WoW over sex with my wife.
And, let’s not talk bout neglected hobbies. I have been trying for years to become a proficient guitarist. If I had invested 4 hours a day for the past 6 months – I’d freakin’ WAIL (well probably not, I think inherently I lack a fundamental level of dexterity and my fingers are too small, but I’d be WAY better than I am now). I also have a few thousand dollars in camera equipment that sits and mocks me on a daily basis. I used to love to cook, and now I want to figure out what I can bust out in 25 minutes so I can get back to the game. I don’t want to go out because I could spend that time playing WoW. And, when I do go out in social situations I have nothing to draw conversational topics from because all I know is WoW. I don’t read anymore, I see very few movies where I’m not playing while they are running, and I don’t stay that up to date on current events.
It’s frustrating because you think you are going to get to Level 60 and then you can chill out. But, it actually is the opposite. Raids take at least 2 hours, most take far more. If you want in a good guild you have to commit time to them. If you want to be competitive in PvP you need to spend time gaining faction etc. At level 60 the only thing you can do for less than 2 hours is BG play and helping out lowbies.
Now, to set some context. I’m an addict. I’m in recovery, and have been clean and sober for nearly 18 years (yes, I’m too old to be playing WoW, but that’s another issue). I know what addiction feels like, this is addiction.
I know I need to delete my character, but I rationalize that if I just limit my gameplay to helping my sons level or doing some BG then I’ll be fine. But that doesn’t work. One hour is too many, and many hours are not enough.
I think I’ll put my char up on Ebay, along with his collection of epics, make a few hundred bucks and go buy a new guitar.
Yeah, I’ll do that as soon as my Tier 0.5 upgrades are done, and I have Rank 9 under my belt . . . .

I understand your pain. I was completely addicted … weekends would pass away with just Wow in our lives! How sad!

It seems like you have hit on a hot topic here. I do not play WoW, but fear that I may become a WoW widow, so to speak. I live with my boyfriend. We have a baby on the way. He plays WoW A LOT. Before I came along, WoW was the only thing he had in his life. For years, he went to work, came home, played Wow, went to bed… that’s about it. He played for 16 hours a day at times.
Now that he has me in his life, he has scaled back, so I give him credit for that. It’s more like 4 hours a day… and often 7 or 8 hours on days that he doesn’t work.
He calls it a hobby… his way to relax after work. He says there is nothing wrong with it and points out that it keeps him at home rather than going out drinking or something like that. (I don’t think he means it as a threat, just as comparison)
He also says it’s not anti-social like people think. He wears his headset and talks to his friends in his “guild”.
He tells me that he doesn’t “love” the game more than me or the baby.
He wants me to learn how to play the game with him so that it can be something we do together. I can’t imagine wasting all that time on a game when I could be doing a million other things to make our life better, our home cleaner, or getting some fresh air and exercise.
All in all, he’s a good man, so I hate to nitpick on this too much. I’ve been through realationships that were much worse… abuse, alcoholism, drug abuse, cheating… And I trust him more than anyone.
My fears are that the game playing will end up coming between us at some point. He will spend hours on the game when there are bills that need paid, dishes that could be done, trash that can be taken out, etc. He gets home before me most of the time and when I get home, he is playing his game and asks me “What’s for dinner?” 30 seconds after I get in the house from work. But before I can cook dinner, sometimes I have to get the dishes washed. I don’t mind doing housework, but we need to share the burden since we both work… and especially now because I am having a tough pregnancy (I’m in pain a lot of the time and it often hurts to move toward the end of the day).
So I wonder what will happen when he is alone with the baby. And i worry that our son will look up to his daddy and want to play games all day like his daddy. I am hoping that I can influence him by taking him out of the house to do things and discover new things. (Meanwhile, daddy will probably stay home and play his game).
What’s a girl to do?
If I sent this link to him, I am sure he would be on the defensive, so I won’t even bother with that. I’m not looking for a fight.

i am 16 and just wondering if i should start playing wow maybe in a few months time…
i ve been following wow since it came out but have not played it until i think the beginning of last year (it was on a private server and it was quite fun at the beginning but it kinda sucked cos alot of things in private wow dont work properly) so i gave up (private wow) for a while and got back to it another time.
i havent been playing games for months now and i want to play wow…real this time
wow/no-wow

hi, for all the person who don’t want to play wow any more plzz share it with us the people who do anythink to play it but we don’t have eghouth money so plz add me to you contact list and we will talk about it

haha – im a total addict, i do nothing with my life anymore but play wow, i play nearly 15 hous a day. i look at my /played and im past 100days played. Now thats an addiction.

I was addicted to WOW. It took me a while to put things in perspective. I won’t lie to you. I’ve tried to quit before. After my first character, a 55 Druid, I decided I didn’t want to spend more than 1 hour in the game each day. But come on…this is WOW. You can’t get away with just 1 hour of WOW each day. Thats crazy talk because in reality….1 hour is 2 hours, “oh wait i’ll just play till 9 pm and i’ll get ready for sleep.” It is now 5 AM and I haven’t taken out my contacts for 5 days and haven’t groomed myself properly for 3. Well 1 month later i got back into the game. This time, I don’t know the exact amount of hours I”ve played WOW. I am an undergraduate at a UC school. I’ve failed a quarter of school because I played WOW the whole quarter. The thing with me was…I would rationalize to play. “Well I just got home from school, I’m tired and I’ll just play for an hour.” Doesn’t work that way. Honestly, I’m an active outdoor type of person and this game just KILLLED ME. It was guilty pleasure. I was thinking “oh my god I’ve wasted so much time, i could have solidified myself in Professional School by now….” But no. I am in my 4th year of college. Failed 1 quarter. Acquired C average marks for 1 year. Honestly this was a growing experience for me. I know i had to learn it hte hard way…maybe its because I didn’t learn how to take things into perspective at a young age or learn self-discipline. Who knows, who cares. The thing is…Blizzard Entertainment is genius. They’ve taken a creative idea, Warcraft, and created a game that may as well have ended my ambitions of a Doctorate degree because of the harm done on my undergraduate transcript. What a bottom to hit. Oh well, time to get back up.

I have sadly watched my husband’s addition to gaming/WOW for five years. Our eight year marriage (what marriage?) and four year old son have suffered greatly. My husband is, of course, in denial.
I have clocked his WOW play time at a consistent 55-60 hours per week. Thank you for the /played tip. I will have great screen shots for the divorce lawyer I am retaining.
Regards,

hi guys
I have played WoW for a week(on a cracked server).
After leveling up to lvl 12, I have to say:This game sucks so much,I wouldnt pay even 50 cents for it.
Seriously people, there is no point in playing this game. Its never going to end. Its a waste of money. Its a waste of time. Its a waste of your life.
Yeah, it can be addictive. You should NOT start playing it.

I have played WoW for over a year now, i am 15 and have a lvl 52 and several other mid level chars, my closest freinds play it alot too. I am constantly changing characters, and am never happy. I am NOW SICK AND TIRED of the game. I no longer have the motivation to get further. My 52 is warrior on hgh pop sever (normal) and i cant be bothered cos i don’t like warriors anymore and ofc its high pop and normal.
I REALLY HATE IT NOW, but i have 7 weeks summer to spare and i don’t know what to do in it… But i REALLY DO NOT WANT to play Wow, i feel like smashing the game case and discs and un-installing. THANKS BLIZZARD.
I have played test serevrs and private, and have no awe in getting to 60, but i want to to say “oh im 60” But nah warrior, and i cant be bothered to get to 60 again…
It’s a curse you can avoid. Just don’t buy it. The difference is other games i play i relax and enjoy, but Wow i feel liek a chore and it takes too long. I AM HOPEFULLY QUITTING THIS ADDICTION

I’m certainly a WoW addict. I’m sitting here reading these comments and comparing my own gameplay and I’m amazed at how addicted I guess I must be…
I’ve played the game since Feb 2005. I currently have SIX level 60 characters, and several others lower than that. I play many hours daily, often well into the early hours of the morning. According to the combined /played of all my characters, I’ve been on this game a staggering 159 days, 14 hours. That’s nearly half a YEAR of continuous game play and of my life wasted.
Everything in my life is suffering as a result. My family, my work, my spiritual life.
I don’t know what to do. I just can’t stop. Problem is I haven’t even really tried because I’m so damn GOOD at it.
I hate this game. I don’t know what to do. I’m such a loser.

I’ve lost my boyfriend to World of Warcraft. He started playing the game for a year and a half now. Sure, I thought it was just a game, as we all needed free time to ourselves.
About 4 months after playing the game, I realized that he started playing the game more excessively, to the point were he only sleeps about 2 hours a day if even that, he doesn’t shower, or brush his teeth for days. If he has to use the bathroom, he’ll go in a bottle. It’s gotten to the point were we don’t talk anymore or spend time with each other. When I do ask him to stop playing the game, he’ll get upset with me. When we planned on going out to dinner, I would have to wait until he’s done with the game and it usually takes up to couple of hours. Then I end up cooking and eating alone.
We don‚Äôt eat dinner together, the few times that he does eat; it‚Äôs in front of his computer. He became very abusive, physically and emotional towards me, there we even times when I tried hurting myself to get his attention. He doesn’t care, he even said he hope I would just die.
He‚Äôs so into the game that he doesn‚Äôt care whether I‚Äôm hurting or not. He lied to me that he terminated the game several times. Sometimes I woke up at 2 or 3 in the morning just to find out that he‚Äôs playing the game. It hurts me deeply to know that he lied to me so many times about not playing the game, and the worse part is that he has no shame or guilt about lying to me. He’ll do whatever it takes to play….WHATEVER IT TAKES!
He blames me for everything; he’ll pick a fight just so he can play the game. I got so upset onetime that I smashed his computer to stop him from playing. I got beat up pretty badly for it, he went out the next day to buy another computer.
I am starting to realize that there is nothing I can do about it and have decided to move on with my life without him, after 13 years with him. I‚Äôll never forget the last few hurtful words he said to me before leaving. But I don‚Äôt wish him any ill will, just hope that he can somehow get himself out of the mess he has created for himself. He was very ambitious, always wanting to go far in life. And now he throws his whole life away for a game. It’s hard for me to let go. Some days are better then others, most of the times I cried myself to sleep. With all the anger and hurt I felt inside, I prayed to GOD that I will somehow get through this. I know this time, I’ve lost him for good.

Hello, again!
A few days ago my friend gave me the trial version of WoW.
My plan was to try and play it casually.This is how it went down…
Day 1 – Installed the game at about 6pm, started playing at approx. 7:30,played for two hours.
Day 2 – Started playing at about 7pm and played for one and a half hours.My Rogue is now lvl 7.
Day 3 – I started playing at 5pm,played for one hour, got pissed,called myself an Idiot and uninstalled the game.
There is no way you are going to balance your real life and WoW. If you want to be a recognized member, you need to play 24/7.

thank you guys so much i almost bought that game and i listened to ppl’s stories and i got scared so scared my friend quit when i showed him this page and now we are going to do more constructive things.

I am addicted, but I do not think it is unhealthy.
I recently recieved a letter from a friend saying how she worried, citing the recent case where I neglected to go out to dinner with friends, and then did not join them for a movie afterwards.
What she did not mention, however, was the fact that the day afterwards I _did_ go out with friends, and the day before I was on WoW for only a few hours, and had spent the majority of the day with a friend who had come in to town.
Everyone feels sick when they spend time on wow, saying how many great things they could be doing. Really? Honestly? What would you truly be doing? Watching TV, most likely, or playing a different game. Even incredibly social people tend to spend their free time with passive entertainment.
The problem comes in perception of priorities. For me, WoW is as important as my friends. Not more — if it were more, that would be true addiction — and not less. I actively put forth an effort to do other things, and by spending quality time with others I don’t feel guilty by playing WoW. I am by nature an introvert — I do not like social situations. But I go with them time and again because I love my friends and I love spending time with them. But when I spend a week at work and with friends, I should not be chastised for spending a day on WoW.
It is all about self-awareness. If you realize how much you play WoW, you can cut back, or you can play more. If you recognize the quality of your time with friends and others, then you can enjoy the quality of WoW as well. Quitting is pointless — another mindless diversion invariably would get in the way.
To be honest, WoW helped me learn PHP. My desire to make a good page for my guild spurred me to read tutorials and start work, and my work is still progressing.
I know a lot of people truly are addicted. I know I play more than often. But the difference between addiction and mere focus is one of intention: an addict puts his addiction above all things. WoW is equal to all things. The perception of society is that games have to come last, that people are more important. But what if the game has people? What then? I say to give them as fair a chance as anyone else. It may piss off some social groups, but seriously: imagine someone asked you out on a date, and you agreed, and in the middle of it that person left halfway through because they got a phone call to see a movie?

My soon to be ex-husband and I are recovering WoW addicts. We both quit cold turkey when our marriage fell appart. We both raided and had several lvl 60 characters and were playing 50+ hours weekly. My advice to anyone considering to play this game is to stay far away from it. It is highly addictive. And those of you who are playing and have families you need to quit now before it contributes to the loss of what is really important to you.

There are a lot of really great comments on here which really make me think. I have a 60 druid that goes to MC, Ony, AQ, ZG, etc. I have worked my way up in the ranks that now I am an officer in the guild and attendance is becoming more and more demanding to these raids. My guild raids on weekdays, leaving the weekend open (but it usually ends up with small “just for fun” raids) I am at work 10 hours a day, and i spend about 5 hours each night or more, probably 10 hours or more on weekends. I know I’m not getting enough sleep, but my reasoning is that I worked all day, why can’t i just relax and have some fun? It’s summer holidays, not school, I shouldn’t have to worry right? After reading these posts I’m starting to wonder if these habits will pursue through university. I went and made my boyfriend start playing too (because I was always secluded at my computer and I wanted to spend some time with him somehow). He is just starting university this fall… I hope I am not going to distract him from his school either, since he is so excited about it.
I am pretty sure I am addicted to Wow, right now it’s pretty harmless (I go out, work, eat, etc.) and I’m having tons of fun; yet I feel guilty.
Sigh.

I am currently a wow player but i feel that i have it under controll. only about like an hour a day maybe unless i get in an instance. I am posting this coment for my friend. He despratly neeeds help. I was recently reading an article in readers digest about some1 who could not stop playing wow. THe explanation for this was that in some people playing
video games releases dopamine a chemical that makes you feel good and is produced in the body naturaly. As with any substance you can be addicted to it which brings me to my friend. I feel that he is despratly dependent on playing wow for the dopeamine. He no longer sees any of his friends. His grades have droped dramaticly (straight A’s to c’s d’s and f’s). And worst of all wen we force him out to hang with us he can no
lonnger function regularly in a social enviornment. One example is we brought him to a friends house for an all night party and as soon as he got there he complained that he NEEDED WOW.
If you have any sugestions on how i can confront my friend about his addiciton you can e-mail them to me at fairman91@comcast.net.

can i have the account???? i really want it because i have been playing for 2years and i am only lv 59 that is why i really really want it.

i had a decked out high end lvl 60 warrior…93 days invested …nuff said lol…sold my account tho and happy about it…
you can hang out with bitches
play an instrument
workout at gym
sport
**education**ofcourse
job…save money
and if ur really just bored at home…you can fucking clean ur house u lazy piece of shit…instead of socializing via a fucking video game chat window….kkthx
lol

wtf man youre 14 and your goal is to play less when you go to COLLEGE? you really want to still be playing wow in 5 years?

I’m a 19 year old guy in college. Played the game for about 28days, got a lvl 60 Warlock with almost full Tier2 epic gear. Was playing WoW about 40 hours a week, which is pretty much required by ubber guildes. Recently I just quit the game, cold turkey. It ruins social life and not to metion your physical health. Went from a workout junkie to sitting infront of the computer all day, some life. For those of you that play WoW none stop I highly doubt you are in good shape and are buckled down with all of the other aspects of Real Life. Im done with WoW and will not play any more none-ending games. Honestly when will it end?? They will always give new gear and new instances, you will be on the verge of quiting then they will release new content which you have to beat.
Im back to skating, working out, and practicing Muay Thai. Feeling good and releaved I don’t have to get online at specific times to raid. Get out there in Real Life and do things that others cannot and you will be great.
Quite while your ahead now preferably, become someone great in Real Life and not in some video game.

I too got sucked into this game. I’m in my 30’s, an executive, have 4 kids, and a marriage of 15 years. I played this game for about 6 months and had a lvl 60 and lvl 45 character. While I won’t say that my career was really in jeopardy, it was definitely impacted. My time with my kids was definitely reduced and they felt it. My time with my wife was impacted as well.
Bottom line is this: this game requires big time commitments, more than you should reasonably be willing to give it. Especially at higher levels, you will find that sitting down to play will always chew up 4+ hours at least. It was _designed_ to be addictive and hard to stop. Period.
Don’t play it. Play something else (something with an ending) or begin a hobby that will enrich you as a person, or give back to others or both. I absolutely guarantee you will be a happier person for it.
If you are currently stuck playing it and feel like you can’t stop… ask a spouse, friend or parent to help you to break away. Odds are that they will be _delighted_ to do so. Spend time doing new or forgotten favorite things instead, limit time on the game, and then stop. I did it and you can too. Eventually you won’t miss it and will wonder how you ever could have spent that much time on something so pointless.
Good luck and much happiness.

I’ve found it to be a repetitive cycle of addiction. People migrate from one MMORPG to the next. Using an example i played Dark Age of Camelot for nearly 4 years before giving WOW a 2 Year before realizing i spent way to much time online. Get up and WOW it up with your morning coffee. Playing 4-6 hours per day weekdays and sometimes 7am-3am on weekends sometimes forgetting to eat is definately an addiction.
I mean come on how many million NPC monsters can a person kill *laughs* evidently for me 300 gazillion. I no longer play and to be honest its a life change.. I gave up my nicotine and gaming addiction at the same time. I’m Doomed lol 🙂
Gaming addiction is definately for real and it it does destroy relationships.

I’m a 14 year old girl, that goes to Stromlo High school. I’ve been with a really great guy twice and the reason for both of them ending was WoW…He told me i would act higher than him because he plays and hang out with people who play WoW. For all the high skl boys out there that play WoW and have an awesome girlfriend who really cares about them, GET THE FUCK OFF WOW AND START SPENDING TIME WITH THEM. It’s not fair. They love you so much. Don’t get offended if they tell you your playing to much because its probably right. and how many of you can’t say you’ve taken off days of school or work to play the game or have forgotten important days because WoW has taken over your life. One of the worst moments of my life was when i found out my guy had gotten a horse…how sad is that. He cared more about the game than me. Please, i beg you, appreciate your girlfriend because if she is smarter than i was, she’ll realise your a waste of her time!

I am a WOW addict less than 24-hours into recovery. I have cancelled my account, removed the game from my computer, and broken all of the game CD’s to prevent me from reinstalling it. (Yes, undoubtedly I should have deleted all of my characters before uninstalling the game, but I didn’t think of that before breaking the CD’s, so I have no way of deleting them now.)
After reading all of the entries here, I’m struck by the lack of understanding by some of the people about what an addiction really is. The people who say, “I played it for a couple of months, decided that wasn’t what I wanted to do with my life, so stopped playing it” were never really addicted! Because, in a true addiction, you may want to quit very badly, but you find you simply can’t.
True addiction means that, even when the game gets to the point where it’s really, truly and honestly no fun anymore, you still can’t stop playing it.
I can honestly say that, for well over the past month, the game has been only frustration, and NOT fun, for me. Yet I continued to play.
For a real addict, there is no such thing as cutting down. You either play compulsively or you find a way to make it impossible to play at all (and pray that it works).
An addict does not look at his screen and think to himself, “I don’t want to do this so much anymore” and, as a result, cuts down on his play-time. An addict may look at his screen and think, “What am I doing? WHY in God’s name am I doing this?” But continues to play. (He may attempt to cut down, but those attempts are short-lived at best.) Those thoughts don’t matter until he truly hits rock bottom and finally takes the steps required to stop entirely.
Yes, I’m hoping that knowing the fact that I’d have to go purchase another game will make me stop and think about my addiction long enough that I will chose NOT to do that. But I’m also fully prepared to remove the internet from my home entirely if that doesn’t work. (I mean, WOW addicts only use the internet to check their e-mail once a week, and to play WOW. OK, so I don’t have e-mail for a while. Far better than allowing myself to maintain this addiction.)
Yes, just like alcoholism or drug addiction, I finally am willing to honestly state that I will “go to any lengths” in order to stop this addiction.
Yes, I am an addict. Yes, I am a VERY newly “recovered” addict (less than 24 hours). Yes, I am serious as a heart attack about breaking my addiction. My house has not been cleaned in over six months, my lawn has only been mowed twice this summer, my flower beds are choked with weeds, my treadmill sits gathering dust, and my most recent journal entry is dated April 5, 2006. (Thank God I’m disabled so I am not facing the certain lack of a job I would have undoubtedly exprerienced.) I’m looking forward to getting my life back.
But the point I wanted to make here what that it’s not even remotely helpful to true addicts for people to post here about how they cut back on their play time, or just decided to stop playing, etc., and to advise addicts to do the same. People that are able to do that are not true addicts to begin with.
For those people whose posts show that they truly are addicts: I do feel your pain. I’m determined to break free of this addiction, and I pray that you can, too.
P.S. For those who have children addicted to this game: forget the “parental controls.” Forget trying to limit the amount of play time. (I can’t count the number of times, at 4:00 a.m. I’ve received “tells” from “WOW-friends” that were in their early teens. Their parents didn’t know they were awake and on-line, of course.) It’s gonna take some pretty “tough-love” to break your kid of this. To the woman who said her kid wouldn’t go to school if she took his computer away from her: Ma’am, there are civil authorities who will MAKE your kid go to school. And, at any rate, once the addiction is broken, your kid will break down and go. Far better that he flunk a year — if that’s what it takes — than allowing the addiction to continue. I have no sympathy for parents that don’t want to inconvenience themselves by giving up their home internet connection, but also want to complain about how their kid is addicted to WOW. You NEED to make it totally impossible for that kid to play. And if that means turning off the internet and taking away the computer, there it is.

OK guys heres the thing ya it takes awhile to hit 60 and ya you play all the time and thats all you do!but when u hit 60 and just raid ur not on all the time ur just on when ur guild sets u raids so ur on for 2-3 hours at a time.so i guess what im trying to say is that its goin to take a long ass time to hit 60 but once u do ur game play slows way down because all ur doin is raiding not doin quest after quest or instance after instance…thats just what i have come to realize..but ur right it takes a hell of a long time to hit 60 haha

I’ve been a WoW addict for about 2-3 years now, having leveled 3 characters to 60 and progressing one of those characters so far that I have some of the best epics in the game. I quit because I go up north for summer vacation which is away from home, however I’ve been off the game for approximately 2 months now. My life has taken a big hit during those 2 years of WoW addiction… I’ve been overweight, my school grades were borderline, and my relationship with my family was almost nothing.
Recently I have been having urges to going back and starting to level a Tauren Hunter for some reason. I want to go back casually however I am afriad I’m going to get hooked again like I used to be. For a while now I’ve been cold turkey and my life quality is improving. I find that there is more time for things and I workout in the Gym now and have already lost some signifigant weight. The problem is when I have nothing to do and I get bored I feel the need to start playing WoW again. It’s a drug. I’m not sure if I’m going to resub…

I have been playing for about 3 months im am lvl 32 i am really like it i would not like to let it go tho.I am not addicted it is a good game you should be able to go on.Time so once i start playing and get hooked i stop for about two days.

Ive been playing WOW for just over 6 months now and i think its safe to say i have a problem. My guild raids between 5-6 nights a week for between 5-6 hours a night. We are a lvl 60 end-game guild with MC, ZG, BWL and AQ20/40 on farm status. We are now enterting into Naxxramas and things are really starting to get bad. People are getting really burnt out and we have had a lot of people leave recently. It seems as though the more time i spend playing, the more i cant stop. I know i have to stop playing. Hopefully i can 🙁

Sometimes people need help in controlling the amount of time they spend playing? Not just WoW, but for all other things/games as well.
WoW is a fun game, but it’s got a lot of addictive qualities…it’s inherently reinforcing and you need to work for your rewards (which don’t come by on a fixed schedule).
One of the ways to stop oneself from playing so much when you’re addicted (good sign of telling how you’re on the way there or already addicted – “*twitch* I wanna play WoW/RO/whatevergame even though I have an exam tomorrow which I’ve not studied for!”) is to delete the desktop icon (prevents easy access, and hopefully out of sight out of mind? [yeah right]) and maybe set up a log keeping track of the number of hours you spend playing a day versus the number of hours spent doing stuff that you actually need to do. That’s what I’m doing for myself now so that I get to see how bad it is.

Ok I can’t break the discs….but will go at it one day at a time and will not start playing again…..

i just think all of u WOWers jus need a good ole ass whuupin..yes..ass whipping…I have read stories of ppl killing someone with a clawhammer over those stupid fucking MMOs. id like to play em mabey but…i wouldnt wanna toss my granny down the staris over it (true story).. mabey its just how i was raised, i would have got my ass kicked for over reacting over such things and doing nothing buy play WOW..ever heard of the -gamer widows-? ridiculous? im glad im not addicted cause u have just surrenderd yourself to total nothingness. P.S. please, if u have any children at home, please.. please remember to feed them and dont negletct them like the souless lvl 47 dwarven pally that u may become..

hey guys i have been kind of addicted for a year now playing around 7 hours on weekends and 1 to 2 hours on weekdays but over that year 1 have i played i have came to realise that if u have a lot of self control in ur self to be able to limit ur self. I am 13 but i know about accidtion play at nights around 7 to 10 i mean rly its not that hard if u clever. take all things into moderation i mean ok 3 hours is qauiet a lot but its not gonna kill u and if ur sensible u may be able to keep that time limet so that u will still have the life u had be4 hand and still be able to play wow.
Word of warning though u start trying to add more time say 3 hours and u tell ur self oh well 30 mins more wont change a thing at the end ull start to relise that ull wanna play more than 3 hours and a half much more……..
so i bid u all a good life and plz if u clever but dont wanna abandone wow just follow the path i have chosen i find that at night my life is still very fun and still have a fantasic relation ship with my family and my friends
good luck to all u addcits and try to get well as soon as possible.

I posted a while back as:
“Tom at September 2, 2006 9:45 PM”
Just an update / comment.
I am supposed to get a house tomorrow – finally taken the plunge into the property market..
My friend agreed to join me tonight at my old house and help me move in tomorrow.. I turned up at 8pm and was told that he couldnt answer the door (via ICQ on my PDA while I was asking him to let me in)… Finally his dad came to the door and let me in!
Got upstairs and he was in the middle of a raid or something.
Its now 11.45pm and we STILL have not left to go to my current house. he is STILL in a raid with a million peoples names on his screen and headset on.
I am so so so so so so bored stupid sitting here on my laptop…. ARGH.
Its not like he has offered to “leave” and then re-join this never ending raid later when we get back to my old house… I cant even speak to him as he has the headphones on and is ventrillo’ing it..
Pointless game.. utterly pointless.. never ending soul destroying and friend losing game.
Although today he did say that he is bored all day every day… why play then?

I have a friend addicted to WoW. Not really a good friend but a kid who I feel like I have to be friendly with because he lives next door. He is a total mess but you know what he does what he wants to do. Here is the bottom line about WoW players. They are 99.999% nerds. Since the beggining of time nerds have found things to do that involve no physical activity and are based on fantasy. Today it’s a high tech video game where as before it was board games like DD and before that it was compulsive reading or drawing. Nerds are smart people even if they do withdraw so much it kills their grades. Parents shouldn’t worry too much. Your kid is a nerd. Try to embrace it. He may be flunking out of school but a smart kid is a smart kid. He may not go to Harvard and play football like you wanted but maybe ITT Tech instead. No shame in that.
I can tell you that I don’t even have a Playstation. I’m probably considered a jock and do jock activities on the weekends. For instance last weekend we got so bored that we went around stealing beer and food from people who leave their garage door open at night. The point is no matter what you do kids get bored. WoW might actually be a decent alternative.
As far as wives go I feel bad for you but you married a nerd. You probably knew that going in and liked it which is why you didn’t end up with that one boyfriend with the Harley. My advice to you is to have an affair lol.

I’m not only a WoW addict, I’m a blizzard addict. I’ve been addicted to Blizzards games ever since warcraft 1. I’ve played Diablo 1 and Diablo 2, I still play starcraft at least 10 times a month, but by far, my greatest addiction is to WoW. I tried to quit one month ago, but failed. I reinstalled and renewed my subscription. I really hate myself for the countless hours I have spent playing blizzard games…I could have been a brain surgeon or a nuclear physists if i directed my energies toward something usefull

WoW is pure evil!
One thing makes me stop playing WOW is the fact that IT DOESNT REQUIERES SKILLS AT ALL, its all about of repetitive gridding, specific task in a party and having the better gear. Of course to be a “good” player you need insane amounts of times. I have beeing playing games since the first Nintendo, and it always was fun, really some long night with friends while child playing mario kart and stuff.. but it wasnt like this, u just move on to the streets to keep playing there. Those games dont have the dark aura that WoW has. I keep playing games just weekends with long time friends , we play Warcraft III or Counter Strike a games tha actually requires some skills, some strategic thinking and teamwork, aint saying they are productive or they are gonna make you a better person, cos they WONT!! but anyways they are games that you can play for and 1hr have fun and then Move on!!
the poin is that u can buy warcraft III, counter strike or even battlefield and just play it with people who has years playing it, and you will be in even circunstances, Theres no LVLS there just skills, now thats a game! the fact of WoW you have to “work” to reach some virtual status to play in an even match, thats not a game..

I am also addicted to WoW. My 6 month subscription is going to be over this weekend. I am trying to do everything in my power to not renew my subscription, but unfortunantely WoW is the only thing I can think about. I have logged 65days played in a 6month subscription. So in the last 6 months, I have spent on average 8 hours a day playing. Someone help!

I started searching for an article like this, right after I saw the new episode of South Park, which happens to be based on WoW. In this episode, the four main characters come into contact with a gamer who doesn’t play by the rules. Even the creative people behind World of Warcraft don’t know how to stop the renegade. They are forced to put all of their hope into the hands of the kids of South Park. The boys dedicate their lives to defeating the mad gamer and saving the game for all. Towards the end of the episode, you can see what they have become: Fat, spotty, lazy, unambitious bums who are playing on a network in Cartmans basement having his mum run up and down to bring him food and such.

But I can see that this problem stems further than a cartoon episode, of which I started to suspect and of course through an investigation lasting 6 minutes I found this website. All I can say is that if you don’t want to quit WoW, then it seems you are doomed.

WoW is my first MMORPG. For some reason I never took the plunge until recently. I bought the game almost a year ago, having never even opened the box. Then a friend saw the game at a store, and I mentioned I had a copy at home and if he bought it I’d try it with him. We did and I think it’s safe to say we both like it, so far. Sure, I’ve played lots of HL, HL2, Halo and other shooter type games in the past. I’d usually get frustrated or bored with them and never finish the games. But WoW is something unique and is strangely compelling. Maybe its the beautiful graphics, maybe it’s being tempted to always explore one more area or complete one more quest before logging off, maybe its interacting with the other people/characters in the world, who knows. I think that character building is a huge part of it too. They lead you on just enough to make you want to reach the next level, with the reward of more power and greater riches. Why should doing something so similar and repetitive draw us from family and friends. I’m not really certain, and I’d guess the answers differ for everyone. WoW can be fun, totally absorbing, and absolutely requires massive amounts of your time, if you ever intend on leveling up your character. I’ve played for about a month now and have already accumulated nearly four days play time. Four days non-stop staring at a computer screen and clicking the mouse. I read the stories about how people have sacrificed 80 and more days of WoW play. Other stories of people who play 40 hours a week in guilds. I shouldn’t feel so bad, but I still do. Time lost is time lost. Last weekend I played from 8PM to 4 AM traveling from Darnassus to Ironforge on foot and taking in the sights. The hours passed by and I hardly noticed them go. Eight hours of constant play/attention may not seem like a lot, but for me I think it’s the longest I’ve ever played any game non-stop. Saying that time flys when playing WoW is an understatement. I don’t believe I have an addictive type personality, but if I did I’m sure this game would qualify as one to avoid.

WoW to me, is just the beginning of a worse drug. The fact it has no end is just a mere glimpse into a Star Trek Holodeck-type Hell. You can actually LIVE in this artificial world and forget your all worries.
I’m reminded also of Spider Robinson’s Deathkiller, where this woman was plugged into this device that gave her untold ecstatic pleasures. She was totally out of it, like a heroin addict.
I don’t think addicts today would be able to say “No” to those artificial realities in the future. What we addicts can do today is say “No” to the precursors (Wow), in hopes that it will make a step towards a stronger person with more self-disclipine in order to resist the draw of an artificial reality. It is to ensure that we do not collapse as a society from dying in an artificial paradise.
That is why I play these games: I immerse myself into a fantastical paradise, beautiful colors and scenery, doing everything to become powerful, crushing monsters, being in a foreign land. Thats what got me hooked into WoW, D2, Starcraft, and even Quake2.
But what is an artificial paradise?
Hell.

Hi, wow is great, i hope more people get addicted to it. I hope giant communes of people, all in love with the reality of wow, sprout out all across the globe, i hope it kills China’s economy, i hope it stops the American war machine in its tracks. I hope it makes racism a trivial non existing issue, i hope it distroyes ignorance, i hope the entire world will jack into a reality where everybody is beautifull, where everybody is loved. Where your physical self does not matter, where life does not end.
Thank you Blizzard. You have shown me God. And i love you for it, you live in us all, you know us all, you only seek peace for us. Please, if you feel that the only dreams you love, are the dreams in which you are dead, buy World of Warcraft, it is the ultimate escape from this evil planet we live on. You dont have to put up with the killing, the dying and the injustice that the human race has become. there is a cure. its right inside Azeroth.
Thank you.
May Gods love be with you.
Stingray.

Dude, even tho people play WoW it doesnt mean that they are addicted to it, i play WoW nearly 2hours a day and i still go out skateboarding and practise Judo and go out with my friends.. it’s just that WoW is FUN and what the hell is wrong with fun? And WoW is NOT an addiction, smoking and drugs are an addiction, there’s actually something in that that makes you addictive.. people play World of warcraft by there own free will.. so please.. stfu

My husband is addicted to gaming. World of Warcraft, specifically. His mind has dulled and he’s become socially boring. He’s only intellectually keen when he’s defending his right to play, and then he’s sharper than he’s ever been.
I earn the bulk of our money, I cook, I do the groceries, do the minor house repairs, coordinate car repairs, pay the bills, make sure the mortgage is covered each month, do the recycning, the garbage, and undertake the major purchases. Laundry. Diswasher. Daycare drop off morn and aft. Holy hot damn I’m supergrrrl. And I’m tired.
We have a two and a half year old girl and maybe another on the way (I’m afraid to do a pregnancy test, and just as afraid to share the results with him. As long as he doesn’t know, the decision to abort will be just mine to make). And if he doesn’t stop gaming, I’m outathere. I just have to figure out the logistics. Dividing the assets. Who moves, who stays. And custody of our daughter of course.
I’ve been fighting this WoW beast for 2 years (yep, since baby #1). Like any addict, he sees that the basics are covered: He cleans up after supper, he plays with our daughter, he goes to work. When I talk about what WoW is doing to us, he says it’s how he relaxes then accuses me of not loving him and not being supportive.
Meanwhile, I’ve gone through a major depression, I’ve gained 20 punds, I’ve lost 20 pound (and he didn’t notice either). My contemplations oscillate between suicide and leaving him. I think leaving would be the healthy alternative. I’m scared of the prospect of being a single parent. And I think staying in this decayed relationship will destroy me.
Which to choose, which to choose….?
There’s great debate on whether online gaming is an addiction or not. All’s I know is that it’s destroying this family. He offers me little to nothing anymore, and he once used to be my best friend. This is so sad it rips my heart apart.
Suggestions?
Britt
britt@victoria.tc.ca

I am one of the few girls I know who plays WoW, and I have to admit, I’m totally addicted!!
I have 2 lvl 60 chars and some 6 other chars as well as a mule for both armour and mats etc…yes, I am that involved!!
I have, at my worst, played for 36 hours straight over a weekend, slept for 2 hours, then gone on to play for another 8-10 hours or so.
So many times I have promised myself to logout ‘in 5 mins’ to do those dishes, or to cook tea etc….the 5 mins never seems quite 5 mins, and before I know it, hours have passed and nothing has been done.
Sick of all the nagging about the time I spent playing, I encouraged my boyfriend to create a char on my account(His mum, brother, niece and nephew were already playing the game thanks to me). He liked it so much, he got his own account and a new computer so we could play together. This made things both better and worse. Better in that we were finally playing the game I loved so much, together, and sharing the experience….worse, because he got just as involved as me in the game and now truly nothing gets accomplished in our household.
I believe I play for the sense of satisfaction I get from completing quests and lvling etc….you just don’t get that from many things in ‘real’ life.
But I agree, the sense of loss, at the things I haven’t completed during my months of playing is immense.
I have to stop soon I think…but The Burning Crusade is coming out, and all those shiny new instances…I have to try them first don’t I??……One of these days….

Well, this is a quite odd situation. World Of Warcraft is a video game, which is ment to be played, but how long is too long? 15 days soild is pretty sick, but it is additcing. As I see it, I could rather be at home playing a harmless game on the computer, or I could be doing things of true harm to myself or society, like doing drugs or something.
Maybe the guys at Blizzard should make it so you need to take a 15 minute break every hour, like a decress in health or an automatic log off.
But like I said, it is a video game, what if somebody isn’t experienced enough to do these ‘great things’ like “I was doing it was the repopulation of the Amazon rainforests, or to help improve – or even perform – cancer screenings”
I honestly doubt somebody who can somehow magicaly repopulate the population of the Amazon rainforest would be playing World Of Warcraft.
It is just a game, an additive game, but still just a game.

Heres an idea give me your acount and i will destroy them for you plus i would like a lvl 60 accout if you dont mind =) x-fire=mooseyjuicey or email me at willowneath@aol.com

wtf Wow is a nerds game sheesh u fukwits playing for almost 8 hours a day when ur married ?? wtf is with u guys

Thanks you to everyone here. You have saved my life. I will not upgrade my trial account that has now expired…
Thanx to all.
Craig

I have played WOW since release, and went from casual to hardcore gamer. I have 5 level 60 characters. 1 of my characters has obtained the highest competetive rank possible to obtain, which took nearly 4 months of 16 hours a day playing. All of my toons have great equipment, 2 of them have the absolute best in the game (Naxx gear).
I am very very glad that blizzard has decided to release the expansion pack (WOW sequal) because it trivialized my time spent in game. The release of new content and higher level caps have made me realize that no matter how hard I try, or how many hours I grind, I cannot stay at the top of the game without continued grinding.
I have over 260 played days on my characters combined, in a mere 2 years that the game has been out.
There is a nothing left in the game that I havent conquered yet, and with the sequal coming out in 10 days, I can leave WOW forever.
These type of games are going to become more and more interactive and harder and harder to break away from as they develope. I think the gaming industry is going to have some sort of restrictions placed upon it eventually because of how devastating this game can be.
A few of my close in-game friends have lost relationships due to this game, some have lost jobs, and other have completely dropped out of school – just to play.
The target audience for WOW is adults, but when young adults get ahold of it, they often times dont know where to draw the line, and it can be very damaging and confusing for them. They dont understand the implications of burrying yourself in online societies that do not exist when you pull the plug from the modem.
Luckily for me, I have seen the light and can put the game down now.
To anyone out there questioning your playtime or teetering on quiting – do yourself, and all your friends/family a favor and just quit. Get a real hobby, that has some sort of pay-off. Do NOT let this mere game, take control of your life or your loved ones lives. Act, pull plugs, take away computers, snap game CDs – do what you have to, this game is nothing but trouble.

Last week:
I sold all of my characters’ items;
Deleted each character from the account;
Gave the resulting gold to an online friend; then,
Deleted the game from my computer.
I quit WoW.
And now, I am moving through withdrawl.
*****
One positive thing that this WoW experience taught me is how much of my life I was wasting via passive entertainment. Movies, television, radio, books – all are passive entertainment contrastingly compared to the kind of active engagement necessary to play WoW. I am no longer interested in any of those activities. I honestly don’t miss them. And I have no plans of ever going back to any of those passive entertainment options ever again.
Instead, I am going to pursue personally creative options – because that was the heart of WoW for me: developing my online character. I plan on doing the same thing – developing my offline character (my personality: the quality of how I relate with others) – away from Azeroth.
Another positive thing that this WoW experience taught me is that I truly can be happy competing against my past accomplishments – without necessarily having to triumph over others to have a sense of self worth. The few times I tried PvP, I got absolutely minimal satisfaction from the “let’s kick the other team’s azz!” mentality. For me, maximal satisfaction came from completing quests to increase the skill of my character, and questing with others to assist them with doing the same. WoW helped me come to perfect peace, at long last, with a bunch of guilt I had been carrying around for years for not being competative enough, that I had instilled in me from old gym teachers, coaches, and numerous social sources that supported competing against others.
I’m sincerely sorry to leave WoW.
However, the time has come for me to do it – because, now, I absolutely understand that my offline life on Earth is every bit as much of a fantasy game as online life in Azeroth. Azeroth simply analogically, and metaphorically, reflected the challenges, the rewards, and the possibilities that are available to me as a human on Earth. And yeah, I know that will sound philosophically fruit loops to anyone who doesn’t really get what I just wrote. It might even sound as if I said that Earth and Azeroth are the same (which I did NOT say, because they’re not the same). But I honestly can’t pander to those who don’t get it, because I cannot clarify that in any other way that will not hideously distort it away from exactly pointing at what I meant.
Maybe I’ll return to WoW one day.
Yet I seriously suspect that, by then, online adventures on Azeroth will seem like passive entertainment to me in contrasting comparison to offline adventures on Earth. Just as movies, television, radio, and books now seem to me to be passive entertainment compared to WoW. And by that point, I will likewise no longer be interested in WoW. I seriously suspect that I honestly won’t miss WoW then. And I most likely will be able to leave it a second time without any longing ever going back to Azeroth (or any other online mmorpg world) ever again.
So, for me, the last 6 months spent playing WoW were anything but wasted. I had to go through them to get where I am now in my understanding, and motivation. I cannot say that I ever would have arrived at this point without the help of WoW.
But I can simply say this:
Even though I am suffering from withdrawl due to the self-motivated leaving – and even though I seem to have harshly “crashed” into this offline world as abruptly as I entered Azeroth – I am truly thankful for what I’ve learned.
*****
I hope that what I’ve written here will motivate someone else who is on the same wavelength, and who has needed a little encouragement to take that step – finally to let go of WoW – and positively move forward at long last.
Peace.

On December 2005 I left my first year at university because I didn’t like it and other things that now it’s not important to mention.
After I left the degree, I was willing to think about my future and to do those things you like to do in your free time but you normally can’t, such as meeting friends, reading, etc. But what happened? I happened to hear about WoW and I bought it. I spend 6 damn months of my life mainly playing WoW. I didn’t feel like doing anything else and when I realized something was wrong it was too late: I got hooked into the game.
I played around 12 hours a day. I didn’t do anything else but sleeping, eating and playing WoW. It was so sad :(. On May 2006 I went holiday with my family for 12 days. I wasn’t really excited about it, I was just thinking in coming back to play WoW again, even though something inside was telling me I had to quit the damn game. There was a point I didn’t really enjoy playing, it was just an habit. I had many “unreal goals” such as becoming better in the game and all that you all who have played this damn game know.
A miracle happened. I was on holiday and I didn’t think about the game anymore. Then I saw how a waste of time WoW was, what I had been missing all that time. I had a 6 months gap from my real life and now it was difficult to go back to it. Anyway, I decided to do it. When I arrived home I cancelled my account and uninstalled the game. I wondered why I didn’t do it before; it seemed so easy.
My life got much better ever since. I’m at university again and I have hobbies and a healthy life.
This month I don’t have lessons because I have exams. After some days thinking about it, I installed WoW again and I pre-ordered The Burning Crusade. I payed the monthly fee. After it I couldn’t concentrate on my study and I was already thinking on what realm to play, what chars to create… I only needed to days. I sayd: I’m not gonna fall into this again. I cancelled the pre-order, my account and I uninstalled the game. I feel like if I were free again.
I won’t never ever get into that shit again. I don’t recommend it to anybody.
And if I ever want to play again, I just need to read this webpage. Thanks to all. I wish this game didn’t exist, nor for me nor for anybody. WoW has a potential destruction power that most of the times shows in many lives. We have to stop it.
estrellas1422@hotmail.com
PS. Sorry about my English, I’m Spanish.

LOL come on people its a game and that is what they do waste time entertaining ya.
TV/Movies,Cards,Video Games.
None of these really do much for you since when did watching TV save the rain forest.
Games are ment for fun if you are spending to much time and you feel its not right them quit.
I read a few post and some say now I quit I have time to play my ps2 or watch some movies or blaa blaa sit on my butt doing the same type of thing but a little different,just makes me laugh people get a grip.You really want to do something with your life get out of the house and help people around you.How mnay of you even know the names of the people living around you?
I do know everyone around me I give my time to a local day care I read the kids books and help out every so often for free.
I also help in my church giving my time when ever they need me.Also am a fosterDad so I take care of kids a lot.Im disabled and yes I play wow when I can to unwind and enjoy myself.
Do I play to much? My wife would say yes as shes relaxing over the weekend on the eazy chair watching chick flics all weekend or out shopping.
Thats her hobbies mine are Video games yes Im a gamming geek.
Im also disabled before my accidnet I was the type of person that would rather be out side doing stuff than sit all day inside watching tv or playing games all day.
But my life changed Wow lets me excape my phsical limitaions and I can enjoy my self.Yes time can fly by but same thing happend when i would be sking or bowling or going for a hike or a run.

Haha, its like watching T.V. your not doing anything, just make sure you dont spend too much time or you will become mush, like I play it late at night, outside my current life, and I dont sleep well during night anyways and am always tired so wala, no negative effects, just have willpower n00bs. PS if its enjoyable it IS productive because it makes you happy, what else is there to live for besides happiness… Bitches
-Level 5 Blood Elf Rogue

i know the game is good but they make it to good now every one plays forever and what do you get if you get level 70? nathing! if they gave me 10000000 bucks for going that high than i wood for sure play it but nathing happens whan you go to level 70 you dont get free time to play or anything! ps i agree with the guy below me

I would just like to put a comment here, I started playing since october 5th because I just wanted to know what all the fuss was about.. In the beginning I was really hooked, I wanted to reach level 60 and after 20 /played days i reached level 60 althought there was hardly time to raid since TBC was about to come out and my guild was hardly as active as they used to be.. I bought TBC, installed it.. And now I have a 67 night elf rogue sitting there.. I dont play alot anymore. It really had an impact on my psysical condition, I used to work out alot but I really neglected it.. My work and friends havent suffered much. All I do is work/play wow and hang out with friends in the weekends.. I see no need to stop playing this game at the moment, I have it completely under control. If I dont feel like playing I just DONT play.
Regards
Nymphomania from The Netherlands..

There are 2 great impulses driving people.
1. Sexual desire.
2. The need to be useful and/or important.
In real life it is a lot harder to satisfy the latter one.
Wanna know why there is more than 7 million people playing this game?
Blizzard has created an environment where anybody can feel himseful useful and/or important.

Well, after 2 years of fairly constant WoWing, I deleted my level 70 character, cancelled my account, deleted the game and gave the software to a friend to keep it away. Dramatic, but necessary. I used to think I played because I had nothing to do; turns out that I had nothing to do because I played. I’m going to see some friends for the first time in a while this weekend, and I’m looking forward to it. I’m looking forward to possibility. It’s time to level up for real.

I know exactly what you mean mate. It really is just amazing what sort of extremes this game can take you too. I guess I also have addictive tendencies as I more or less fit into the description you have written about.
Good luck in the future mate. Its been almost a week now since I’ve logged on and I feel ‘free’ lol.
I’ve also started becoming more productive and I feel like I’m ‘useful’ in society again.
Stick it out 🙂 IM sure you’ll look back and be thankful you did.

your all adddicted to drugs just a differnt kind go to rehab

Hey, i was just roaming around the net and saw this. ive been playing WOW for like…. a month maybey but i spend alot more time then all you guys do on it, pretty much from the time i wake up till the time i go to sleep. But what differs my situation is Around X-mas time i was diagnosed with hotchkins lymphoma cancer and driven to stay home untill around june (wich is far away) I can say i dont plan on playing wow untill june. Although it has helped ALOT in keeping my mind off of my health problems. And bieng as im well on my way to recovery i might night be playing long. But i guess im saying theres good addiction and bad addiction. And id rather be on a virtual word with my REAL LIFE FRIENDS and some ive met on the game, From the time i get up and go to sleep. Then watch TV. because those are the only 2 things i can do. I also take breaks to play the drums, guitar, and bass so i dont feelike im dulling my creativity. But i cant go into the outside world so im going to the inside one. Does this make sense to any one or am i jsut crazy?
-Ryan

The reason it’s so difficult to resolve the issues around addiction to computer games in general, and massively multi-player games in particular, such as WOW, is that these games themselves are not “addictive,” in the sense that a drug like heroin is addictive. The player’s body doesn’t develop a tolerance to a game, and begin to crave more and more of it to remain “normal.”
But having played WOW, I can see the allure of it to someone who is unhappy with his or her life, for whatever reason: It’s colorful, seductively insistent, the quests end, more often than not, with more offerings of more quests, and with each passing moment, the player becomes more and more powerful. The player’s life may be in the pits – dead-end job, conflicts at home, loneliness, unhappiness, unrealized dreams and unfulfilled passions – but in Stormwind, he’s a mighty warrior before which the forces of darkness tremble.
WOW also has some built-in incentives – demands, really – to keep going and going and going. For one thing, you can’t simply decide not to advance – the game requires advancement in levels, or the player gains no “honor” in fighting weaker creatures and other players. Without advancing, the player can’t get valuable “drops” of important items, and can’t increase in skills and talents. At the same time, players are encouraged to join other players in forming guilds (peer groups), in which players pressure other players to continue to advance in strength and power, or let the team down. That aspect of the game is perhaps the most insidious, because team play centers around quests that require the entire team to accomplish. If the player decides to, say, give into his wife to take the garbage out or put the kids in bed, his teammates may all get killed. That’s a powerful disincentive to walk away from the computer.
Bottom line: Although the game is not a drug, and can’t force someone to play it against his or her will, people who tend to be obsessive-compulsive, who are prone to escape through substance abuse, over-eating or other forms of consumptive behavior, or who have a problem with rationalizing away any criticism, no matter how lovingly delivered, may fall headlong into WOW and find it extremely difficult to keep from drowning in it.
Rob Wood
California

I am a 27 year old graduate student living in Istanbul, Turkey working at the university as an assistant. I studied math as minor and economics as major in undergraduate and am planing to pursue a PhD in economics.
I started playing wow one week after its release in the US. I have two lvl 60 chars in my US account, one lvl 70 char in my european account and some alts at lvl 35-45. I can say that i am in love with wow, cause i dont know any other way to put it. 2 days ago, 15 February 2007, while I was grinding marks of sargeras in shadow moon valley for aldor reputation, i had a break-down. I suddenly realised that i spent 2,5 years of my life infront of a computer, hitting 15 keys on my board for nothing. The sad thing was that %25 of my time in wow i really had fun, but the other %75 was spent in a race to become the best in a digital environment. I log off and deleted all my chars. I cried like a baby. I really cried for hours and then went to bed in the middle of the day. All my guild mates asked why do i delete the char instead of just taking some time off from the game, which i did before. But that was not a solution as i knew that i would come back (I tried to stop two times before that without deleting my char and came back each time). For the past two days i felt like shit. I tried to start reading again but i couldnt. I have this pain in my stomach that you have when your boy/girl friend leaves you and you are still in love with them. But from previous experience i know that pain wears off in time and i will wait untill i forget about wow.
The post above mine, by Rob, explains the situation pretty well i think. I play wow bcs i had to escape from certain things in life. Whenever I confront with some difficulty in life for all that time, be it with my girlfriend or at job or with my parents, i always had the thinking going in my mind: “fuck it, i have wow and i will have it for the rest of my life”.
Like the topic starter, I never let my job down for wow. I get straight A’s, i do all my responsibilities as an assistant and i even have a nice relatinship for the past 4 years and my girlfriend isn’t much affected from wow. But all the time i got left from these is spent on wow (which is something around 120 days, excluding the time spent on thott researching which items to get or reading forums) instead of me improving my math, start working on some economic model that could be published, doing some work out or just reading and learning about different aspects of life. wow has made me ignorant (partially at least).
Then why didnt i quit earlier as i have always been aware of this? Because i always succeeded in lying to myself and to others around me. I convinced myself and the people around me that (as some other posts above suggest) wow is my hoby! They enjoy shoppin and watching Tv and going out to dinner and i enjoy wow! whats the big deal about it? There were two fallicies in that argument: first no1 did those things for nearly 5-6hours a day, every single day, and as passionatly as i played wow. second why am i comparing my bad habit with other people’s bad habits? The fact that ppl in general spent their time on stupid activities like shopping and watching TV does not justify my bad habit of spending hours infront of a stupid machine. 2 days ago i stopped lying to myself. how did that happen? i just realised that the game wasnt fun anymore but it was only a competition for nothing. I was playing bcs i didnt want to be left behind my guildies and friends so i had to keep playing. That competition aspect is, in my oppinion, the key to understanding a hardcore gamer’s feelings.
How to convince your relatives, sons, husbands and wives that too much wow time is no good? i dont know. All i know is that they should do it themselves and that you should not force them. The only thing i can think of is that the game company should make the servers online for 4 hours a day and not more! But i assume most of you wont like this dictatorial regime.
I have always played computer games and always will. It is ok to play hot-seat heroes of might and magic for a few hours occasionally with a friend once a week. But no more wow for me.
And before i finish let me tell you that there are some really smart ppl playing that game. Think of all that brain power that could be used to make the world a better place to live in. Whatever you do, try to convince them that living here in real life and confronting problems is the noble/virtious thing to do.
Sorry for occasional english mistakes and loooong post 🙂

OMG. I quit “WOW” ages ago. My social skills plumeted so low that i would find it hard to take the rubbish out incase a person i knew saw me and found it even harder to relate to my own family members.
A complete drain on life and utter waste of time. my /played was about 50 days, i had a lvl 60 hunter and many other’s.
While playing the game i improved NO skill’s at all and my vocabulary and spelling hit rock bottom due to the other participants ingame.
i agree with you totally Rob that this game is a complete waste of time and even more of money.
although i cant help you with the how to make your 29 year old son quit because quitting WOW waas my new year resolution.
i have not played this new ‘TBC’ and am intrigued by these new characters and items in the game.
the things stopping me from re-playing WOW is the fact that i gave my account away. But i know it was a great trade because i couldnt be more happy with a real social life than living one through a fictional character.

yep totaly agree
doing fun things
interacting with others online
complete waste of time……………
right, its a game.
YOU and only YOU control how much time you put into it. so you decide when its too much time.
and unless your aiding organisations like greenpeace or warchild etc, you should just delete your last part

I struggled with WoW for over a year and a half with 184 days /played before those around me intervened. Since then, I’ve been WoW-free. Life is so much better without WoW. Is it more comfortable? No, but the emotional satisfaction out of real life accomplishment is much greater.
If anyone else out there has struggled, check out my website. Feel free to get a forum account and post. Just trying to help out.
http://www.WoWRecovery.com

first of my friends is saved from WoW…thx to this link;>

Actually, that information is available. And a mod could be made.
If you sent me an email. I’d be happy to make it for you. And of course, it has to be around my raid schedule. Gotta have my epics!
Nick

At this time reading this thread, I too am addicted to WoW. I have a lvl 70 rogue and have used gold farming/leveling services. That is probably why it is very hard for me to quit right now because of the time and money I’ve invested into the game. Until recently when i realized what I’ve missed as far a social life goes. Thankfully, Blizzard has implemented a parental controls system. Its not just for parents. It can be also used to moderate your playing time. I’ve set it to where i can only play 3 hours a day on weekdays and about 8 hours on weekends. Hopefully, this can also help people with the same problem.

What a realization. I am so fascinated with this string of stories, triumphs, failures and struggles. Thank you to all that shared their stories, as a new ex-WOW player these comments have had a profound impact on me.
It was embarrassing quitting this game to be honest. I had to admit to a close friend that I was too weak of an individual to simply turn off the computer and walk away. I had to have this person intervene on my behalf. Then I had to explain to my devoted ageing parents why their only son never answered their phone calls, came to help them when they needed it, and made plans with them only to break them. I am embarrassed to look in the mirror and see what stares back. An individual that wasted some of the precious limited time he has in this life to well….live.
I don’t know how long I played for. It was not long so I will not pretend to know what it is like to be a full-blown addict. I ask for no special consideration or praise. I only write this tonight because I feel that if I happen to stumble into another poor choice like this computer game I will hopefully remember the embarrassment and shame I feel now. If I happen to forget a copy of this post will always be available to me, I assure you.
Again thank you to all that shared your stories and I wish you well.
Kevin

i have a friend who has been playing WoW nonstop for several years at least, before that he was addicted to other games such as diablo 2 and generally has an unhealthy lifestyle (he’s fat and he’s only 20), i rarely ever see him anyways as i have my own life that involves mostly outdoor activity, and on the rare occasion that i see him he’s endlessly playing WoW… in fact the reason i’m even looking at this website is because i’m sitting at his house bored out of my mind because he invited me over and then he started playing WoW with headphones and talk set for hours, it pisses me off that he just doesn’t seem to care, i don’t think he has any other friends outside of WoW, i’m thinking the force him out of his bedroom and taking away all his power cords is the best approach… any suggestions to help out my loser friend?

I play WoW. A lot. I like it. I don’t see anything wrong with it. What’s “more useful”? Well, I exercise regularly, so I’m not out of shape. I don’t hiss at the sun, I don’t pee in bottles, and I certainly haven’t lost my real life friends. However, because it brings so much joy to my life, and little destruction, I find nothing wrong with playing WoW. I’ve met plenty of people who I enjoy spending time with, even if it’s not physical. It’s a very social activity, in my opinion. Say what you will, but this life is meant to be enjoyed. And if there is so much joy in WoW that you’d rather do it than something else, like watch television, go for it! But that’s just my opinion.
~LvL 70 Tauren Druid, Uldum.

I used to play WoW…….After having realized that it was taking too much time to advance after level 60 i decided it was best to stop. I started playing during the summer of 06′ and stopped in December that same year. During that summer I had done nothing but go to work, come home play wow, rinse and repeat.. every day. When i finished school in december my grades suffered tremendously..One day i just logged on my computer and deleted the game and all the mods i used. Sometimes i get this urge to log back in and start playing, but I always ask myself, “What do i really want out of this game, what will happen after i get it?” “How will I and the others around
me(in real life) benefit?” Simple questions like these have kept me off WoW for 4 months.

Well to begin i agree with both sides, WOW is a cool game and a colosial waist of time. I’ve been playing about 6 mo nad have a lvl 66 mage, I simply have other intrests, and wow dosen’t cover them, I now play casually(much to my friend’s dismay) and just desided to quit recently. I do know some of my friends who will keep from going out because they have to “help a guildy” and can be antisocial because of a stupid game. I do use it as a social out but that all it is now so whats the use of paying 15 bucks a month to be social? Play if you want, but don’t forget it is just a game and it really dosen’t matter in the REAL world.

Hey guys i play Wow, i got hooked form my friends at school and then i got my bro hooked and our game card ran out like 1 month ago and we didn’t bother re-newing it because we are taking a break and now i feel great leaving my 7 lvl 70s behind even though they are kick butt but it just isnt worth your time.

Ok everybody who play’s world of warcraft needs to seriously listen to me. You guys are just sad. Letting a stupid game take over your entire live’s like if your eight years old. Grow up and do something a little bit more productive with your time. Im telling you because my 26 year old brother has completely changed for the worse and pretty much wakes up goes to work comes home and its nothing but world of warcraft until like 3 in the morning.He can’t go an entire day without playing. It’s all he thinks about. That’s his life. What a waste. We only get one life and to waste pretty much all of your time on something so lame.Well lets just say I pity you guys who can’t stop from PLAYING A GAME. Seriously my brother is losing his girlfriend as we speak and soon he will lose his family for his ridiculous excuse of it’s just a game.It was just a game until he became addicted.He’s 26 and lives at home and does absolutely nothing but play world of warcraft.Wow what a life. Seriously please realize how pathetic this is. If it was just a game then there wouldn’t be all these websites talking about how its an addiction and how a 13 year old boy committed suicide after 36 hours of playing.Pathetic and sad to end a life that way don’t you think. Can you see how lame, pathetic,sad,ridiculous,and if i had more words to express this trust me i would list them all.

Okay, i used to be addicted to World Of Warcraft, The way i quit is i deleted my 3 lvl 70’s (Yes, i know i was terribly addicted.) and made about 10 Human Paladin’s. I still had my addiction while i did all this and a tear fell from my eye when i deleted my 70’s. Anyways, i worked on all the paladins all humans, Once i was at my 5th i was soo bored of doing the same old quest’s and same spells. So, i quit. I Recently Got Bored Uninstalled it, and now i am addiction FREE! i still can’t believe it sucked my life out thorugh my eyes…
I recomend this to all you addicts out there!!! It’s really affective.
Sincerly,
Draniwarrior (used to be)

I think that an addict IS an addict, i mean if its not wow it would be drugs cigarrettes alcohol cards or whatever, the impulsive feeling of playing wow its just a consecuense of the addictive personality, im 26 and I´ve played videogames since I was 8, that didn´t stop me bein one of the best at school, practice martial arts or finishing my university career and working, I think all you have to do is organize your time and life, I been playin wow for two months now and before wow I´ve played many other games, that didint stop me having a girlfriend, partying with my friends and being responsable at work.
Just schedule your actvities and enjoy!

Wow.. well, i haven’t been playing that long. Initially I feel as though I got very sucked in and recently I’m pulling away a little bit. I hate that people are blaming Blizzard, although I guess I can see why…. yes, it’s a very fun, very addictive game. What is saving me is that I’m not into dungeons so much and I”m really just into playing the game to do quests one at a time. Yeah..boring! Make sure to make time for your life.. real life. And keep it fun!

How would you go about stopping somebody who doesn’t realise they have an addiction? My brother plays from when he;s home from work till sleep and it’s affecting his relashonship with his girlfriend because he treats her like shit. You ask him to do something and he can’t he’s “busy” playing fucking warcraft. She’s sick and asked him to get her something but he can’t he’s “busy” playing warcraft. I’ll be doing something important on the computer and I’m basically eatan alive. How do you stop people with addictions + short fuses?

i also have another addiction i also dont listen i zone out and i cant stop i dont pick the phone up i dont listen to people and some times it pisses every1 the hell off because they hate it and it only happens when im playing wow and again hlep me please

i have been playin this game sence it came out, i still play it i hate it but its so hard to stop playin it. dont start this game. i have 3 70s geared out. so its even harder for me. i have spend about 200days on all my chars. this is retarded. im workin my way to quiting. parents dont let ur kids even start to play this game. if i knew it would do this i would have never played it. im almost 20. and im goin no where in life with this game. writing this makes me feel better about quiting, i limit myself to playing this game now, and my longest time playing it was for 20 hrs i used to play this game min 8hrs a days. its a stupid game that sucks u in so far its hard to get out. here are some pointers cut off the internet at times limit the play time. kids will fight i used to give my mom a hard time when i lived with her but u tell them go outside play for a bit or do ur hw and i will let u play for 2-3hrs or whatever time. get them outta the house for a bit. if you want them to stop playing, be involved with them, do things with them watch a movie. like i said i have been through it all i have played this game from the day it came out. get ur kids to play other games if they like to play v-games such as like battle field 2 counter strike things like that. in WOW its hard to just get up and do something cuz example u spend 30 min getting somewhere u need to leave for 20 min u come back u have to spend another 30min getting back to where u ended from. the other games i talked about, u can come back just where u started off from. its a sick game get off it im stopping very soon just takes time.

Hi,
Having read all of the comments above, I’m still in shock as to how a freakin game can take over perfectly good lives.
I just got married about 5 months ago and my husband’s addicted to WoW. he’s only started playing less than 2 months now but he’s already showing the signs all of you mentioned.
I was talking to him when he said ‘hold on..’
more than an hour later, i’m still waiting while he continues playing like there’s no tomorrow.
I’m honestly concerned.
I was hoping that this is just a phase. but realising that WoW is a neverending game, i’m pretty much screwed aren’t I?
Help please?
I read a comment from someone about how his/her friend was ‘saved’ and that person mentioned a link. I couldnt find the link though.
Can somebody please help me?
I’m seriously worried.

I am 15 years old, I’ve been playing like 2 years. it started with about 4 hours per day, but now i play all the time, i play whenever i can. and if i’m not home i’m thinking of how much honor or what level i could have got of i were home playing. atm i have four level 70, a night elf priest, a draenei shaman, a dwarf warrior, a draenei hunter and a bunch of around level 40 chars. All on the same realm.
Actually i feel kinda bored when i play, but i totally lost my fantasy to do something else.
i know if i delete all my characters i am going to start after a 1 month time again at level 1.
my grades a school are bad. but the was good before i got addicted.
If my mum and dad wont let me play or cut hte power or something i use violence.
It’s terrible cause we never stop fighting.
I know i should do some homework for my feauture but i never do it cause i just drawn into the game.
and without wow i loose alot of ingame friends and people i know at school playing wow, without wow i feel like nothing.
Please help me!! btw, i’m from Norway

Dude WoW is not an addiction… If you feel your wasting time playing the solution is simple “log out from WoW, turn off the PC.” As for the kids well of course kids play video games to excess its normal because usually kids have curfues, or their friends from school live far away so WoW is a great way for them to have fun with their friends. Myself I’m 19, most of my friends have gone off to various universities around the UK and so we all keep in touch and some of them happen to play WoW. The fact is, is yes sometimes you can spend too much time on WoW but its not the games fault its YOUR fault for allowing yourself to spend that much time on a game. If you’re a parent of a child “addicted” to WoW then simply cancel to the account or put parental filters on the account that only allow a set amount of time gameplay or on a certain time frame. Its about taking control of your own lives rather than having someone tell you what to do. Wake up take responsibility and most of all have fun. WoW is fine so long as you take it for what it is, a game, nothing more. I think the problem is alot of people get wrapped up and stressed out over the game but thats their problem not the games problem I mean I’ve seen this happen on a ton of games from the Xbox to Monopoly, the fact is though that these games are escapism and without that we’d lead pretty depressing lives what with all the war, hate, backstabbing, and heartache that goes on this world. Peace out guys.
Simon – UK

thanks for the help man. ive been on and off wow for about 1 year now after been playin it for about 2 years. today i typed /played and realized that my main 70 rogue had 62 days worth of playtime. i calculated all my other characters play time and it added roughly up to 90 days. after seeing that many hours i realized that its time for me to grow up and move on away from wow. thanks man.

My son is in his mid 30s. He makes all types of excuses to no longer look for a real job, and only takes some day labor when it’s absolutely necessary. He prefers to stay up all night to play WoW and sleep until late afternoon. There are times I have to shout at him to bathe. He doesn’t know I know but he often urinates in plastic bottles so he doesn’t have to leave his WoW game. I know this because his older brother showed me where he piled the bottles up, without even bothering to empty them. He lives off of the sympathy of family members mostly, or he just wouldn’t eat. He has no friends, male or female left. At his age I have no legal rights to get him help, and I have confirmed this, so what do I do? How can I help him, because he has already lost over a year to this insidious “game”, and life is leaving him in the dust.
Thank you,
A worried mom