On things that aren't fun, and fun that is bad…

I don’t think we’re constructing toys that are any more effective than they’ve always been, but they are more immersive due to increases in raw processing power, and as the population of gamers ages, the themes in games are becoming more adult-focused. So while a child could easily lose himself in blowing bubbles, we’re just now developing the toys in which an adult could lose himself.

I can imagine coming to hate the game and yet still wanting to play it.
Many middle aged smokers express their feeling towards their their smoking habit (or nicotine addiction) using the exact same apparent contradiction. And there is still considerable debate, even after all these years, over whether smoking is a psyiological or psychological addiction.
Gambling is another “addictive activity” that you might infer results from. Online gaming isn’t that far removed – it is a competitive, social activity after all…

I actually find the social perspective of the game the most addicting. I don’t want to disappoint my online friends by not showing up for a raid. I want to know what they’ve been doing all day and how they are. I love chatting both in game and using TeamSpeak/Ventrilo.
I know studies have been done on chatroom addiction, and I’m sure that is a major contributor to both the success and longevity one can play a character on WoW. I know I’d be bored stupid w/o it, and jumping around orgrimmar for hours wouldn’t happen with out it either.

Hmmm, was thinking of starting WoW. this article caused me to pause. after quiting fags an grass, not sure i wanna go thru the rollercoaster again soon 😉
40 Percent of World of Warcraft Players Addicted
“Orzack believes that game addiction is a true mental disorder. As a result, she has worked with numerous gamers over the years to help them break the hold that games have on them.
Having treated all types of addictions for more than 15 years, Orzack says there’s little difference between drug use, excessive gambling and heavy game playing.”
http://tomshardware.co.uk/2006/08/08/world_of_warcraft_players_addicted_uk/
ps u worked at time out just after i left. we met once.

are we as a culture starting to construct toys that are too effective and end up hurting people
Fascinating thought. You may be onto something. That sounds analogous to the difference between coca leaves and cocaine or coffee and shooting up straight caffeine. The same active ingredient, games, in this case, could have very different effects if it triggers neural circuitry in addictive ways. Time to look at functional magnetic resonance imaging of fantasizers’ brains under different conditions: reading the perfect novel, taking LSD, playing solitaire with cards, playing it on a computer, playing WOW, and so on and on. I’d be very curious how much depends on the personality of the player and how much on the game.

“The thing about WoW – and in this, it’s fairly unique amongst MMORPGs – is that hitting the top level is only the beginning of the game.”
Hardly unique; this is commonly termed “the elder game.” In WoW, as in EverQuest, it’s actually much delayed; in other games, such as Ultima Online, the “end” comes much much more quickly — sometimes on the order of days, and the “end part” is played for months to years.
In WoW, as in EQ, raiding is a major part of the endgame. In other worlds, it’s been world administration, politics, economics, or PvP.
Tom, the phenomenon of hating a game you are addicted to is also quite familiar and recognizable from years worth of experience with virtual worlds. I would diagnose it as “you should have moved on already.” The goalpost was illusory; the real reasons to advance are internal ones within the player. You learned what you needed to learn; everything since has been repetition. Often, the reason people hang around is guilt over abandoning friends.

I cannot believe you chose a human. What a loser *wink* Just kidding.
Great article.
David

The 40-man raid game is even more strange. You have to show up at a certain time on x, y, and z days, and you can’t be late or you might lose your spot. It becomes a much more social game, but there’s often a large bit of group drama and clique-forming. And you do the exact same dungeons every single time for months on end, over and over until you can do it right. Eventually, what you realize is that raiding is like being in an orchestra. Each night is a rehearsal, and the dungeon is the piece you’re learning. The challenge isn’t that you have to learn your part of the music, it’s that you all have to figure out how to play as one unit.

I can’t say World of Warcraft has evr been something good for me. I never played the game but my boyfriend is addicted to it and it is pulling us apart. I wish he would admit he is addicted to it. He can’t talk to me on the phone anymore, hang out with me or so anything for that matter. He goes to work barely goes one the game invites me over i sit on the couch he plays the game and life goes on. I don’t think i can take it much longer someone help him….. please

The thing about addiction is that it’s not simply a relationship between the addict and his vice, there is an underlying psychological reason for the addiction. A person who has these underlying issues can be addicted to anything; a drug, alcohol, television, sex, baking pies, or playing a computer game. The addiction fills a need within that person and therefore they continue the addictive process.
Now specifically to World of Warcraft; it is a game. It is no different then any other game you might participate in. Just because you play it on a computer does not mean it is any different then any other game like chess, basketball, or, as someone else has mentioned, tic tac toe. All these games have their logical “ending”, one side winning over the other, but wow is no different then them in that, just because you have won, it doesn’t mean you never play a the game again. WoW, like a lot of MMORPG, is open ended and if you think about it, it is really a device by which you can connect with other players to complete a series of “games” each with their logical ending; Killing enough mobs to reach a pre-designated point cap (leveling through xp), completing assigned tasks (quests), kill other players (pvp), or complete an adventure with other players (instance). We can collectively refer to these “minigames” as content.
Most activities can have their up and down days. Like any television show, we might tune in each week to find out what happens next or to share in some small story which we can relate to. This content is similar to the content you might find in WoW; some of it is good and we don’t mind watching the same episode more then once, some bad and we curse the box for wasting our precious time. Or, to switch analogies, sometimes we might go to the beach with our friends but it’s cloudy, drizzly and cold, but because of their company they make what would otherwise be a crappy day into something more special and enjoyable.
Productivity? What does that mean? Cleaning one’s car can be productive. Doesn’t necessarily mean it’s enjoyable. Does one have to always be producing some end product in life? Has our culture poisoned us into thinking that if we do not constantly provide output that we have somehow devalued our lives and that of society as a whole? I don’t think so. I think it’s perfectly acceptable to accomplish nothing on occassion. Go ahead and vegetate. Discover the bliss of absolute nothingness. Discover your “Tao” maybe? Some days it’s okay to not be the rat.
What about creativity? Does WoW eat into what would otherwise be your creative time? I worry that some people might confuse creativity with productivity. They want to create a product, and that’s perfectly fine and it requires time but I can sit in front of my stack of synthesizers and create music all day long with no end product at the end to prove I’ve done so. Creativity is in the eye of the beholder and it can be just as addictive and non-productive as any other activity.
Entertainment is subjective. What’s terribly boring for one person could be Nirvana for another. Anyway, I think it’s time to end this long rant. It’s not terribly enlightening and poorly written but it’s my thoughts on the subject in a rather messy nutshell. I’m not a writer, either by profession or hobby, and it’s creation has already taken way to much time out of my day (thank the great coder for spellcheckers or I’d be here all day proofreading). Time that could have been spent elsewhere doing other things, like getting my troll rogue to level 60. 😉 Still it felt good getting some of that out to others who might be able to appreciate it.
See you in Stonemaul. 😀

Get out.
While you can.
You’ll never regret it.
Once the magic is gone, it never comes back.

It is an anti-climax, at least for me, just a doorway into months and months of raids to gain epic items/armour i.e. further goals to keep you in there and playing or feed the addiction, whichever way you want to look at it.
I know from other MMOs that this is always the way. You set yourself goals within the framework of the game design, maybe getting a mount at 40, then reaching 60 and where these goals were achievable on your own terms as it were, by questing solo and grouping for fun or to complete key quests in a chain, fun which wouldn’t take more than a couple of hours or so for instances, this is no longer the case for the end-game. 20-40 man raids are now compulsary if you want to get yet more gear and that’s pretty much all there is at the end, gear and a choice of ways to obtain it. I find it’s still fun to help lower-level players in my guild and PvP will keep me going for a while but having to grind out tens of thousands of reputation points and finding 3-6 hours of time to tackle a few bosses or complete one end-game instance, with 39 other players isn’t going to happen too often.
My own competitive urges might keep me in there for a bit longer at the same level of play I sustained for 3 months when going from 1-60 but I’m aware of time I used to be creative which is no longer there (being abused?) due to obsessive playing. As I’m in a guild where there are a good number of other, equally obsessive players, all going for their sets of armour and epic weapons, there’s a false sense of justification, as I’m not alone but the day is almost there where it’s no longer ‘fun’.
The game’s over for me at 60. Now it’s a wind-down with occasional gear raids and the odd session of grinding rep points until, of course, the new expansion arrives.
Everything in moderation.

I’m actually glad to hear that you have reached this strange stage of gaming watershed Tom. I suspect that many people writing about MMOGs have never actually played the games enough to reach this stage and are as such commenting from a limited viewpoint. The switch from 0-59 to 60+ is can be a sombre revelation, where the 2 sides of typical MMO gameplay switch.
I think that in many cases this change of pace and play is due mainly to the developers need to tread water in the endgame content. its impossible to build an endless world of quests withouth allowing the community to build and become those adventures themselves (something I see as a potential solution to MMOG endgame issues). So as content runs out, players are forced into more exponential curve and the grind becomes the main aspect of play.
Of course it can still maintain its players as months of investment in levelling and socialising are not easy to throw away. But players often end up making the choice between hardcore and casual, rerolling or raiding etc. In my opinion Blizzard have made a finely crafted MMOG in a traditional style, its success based on the craftsmanship of its design and implementation. However there is little new in the conceptual structure. Certainly nothing that attempts to break out of the now predictable endgame problem. But perhaps a playtime of 3-6 months for 1-60 levels is enough for most people and enough for Blizzard (as long as the newbies keep coming). The lack of decent competition in the MMOG world at the moment only strengthens the glue that keeps even bored players in azeroth.

This game is addicting and the sad thing is that the people cant even see that they are. My son claims to not be addicted but he fluncked out of college. Can’t hold down a job and stays up all night and rolls out of bed in the am and starts playing it. The game people should limit the time people can be logged into if they cared about their players. Oh yeah they don’t since they pay a monthly fee to play. I have seen first hand it destroy a marriage, cause other players to become like hermits in their bedrooms. I shut off my cable modem to stop it but he just goes somewhere else with his laptop and plays. We are not just talking little kids here we are talkign adult men. Any suggestiosns on how to shut this game down would be great

Just wanted to say thanks to Kat for the essay about your WoW experience, it was very touching.

all wow players out there have fun with the game because i had some real laughs on that game but for the people who hate it dont be gay to people who do play it for no reason what so ever and everyone says o.0 well there are assholes and pricks in the game well look around you its not in the game it is in the world where there are pricks…… PEACE homes

The idea of virtual worlds contained in a computer has been explored in science fiction for decades but its only recently that its turned into reality. Now admittedly the more realistic and entertaining such worlds become the more their inhabitants will want to stay. MMORPGs are especially entertaining since they offer rewards and recognition for their players when they meet milestones. However, most people are not addicted to these rewards and can understand that they hold little or no validity in the real world.
In my experience the few people that become addicted to these virtual worlds are those who do not receive enough recognition or reward in real life. Its not that these people begin to become mentally ill and think the virtual world is real life. Its that they know it’s much easier for them to gain rewards, recognition, and even friendship in the virtual world. Its these people that tend to keep playing even though they have long gotten bored or even begun to hate the game. The best way for you to help someone in that situation is to make them feel appreciated and wanted in the real world.
Girlfriends and Boyfriends: the fact that your significant other plays two hours a day does not make them addicted. Older people watch television for 4 hours a day, some younger people play video games instead. Get over yourself and learn to have interest in his or her hobbies.

After a while at level 60, I found myself bored, even at times disliking (not yet hating) the game. So I decided that either I would find a way to enjoy it, or stop playing. I ended up changing my play style from the one that I leveled up with. Instead of doing the same thing over and over (which I got tired of very fast), I explored the entire world, and looked for interesting and unusual things to do.
These activities did not advance my character – but they were fun. I would try to sneak into areas that a single player wasn’t normally supposed to be able to sneak into. Or I would try to defeat monsters that a single person couldn’t usually defeat with normal tactics. All of this took much more creativity than the normal activities the game expects you to do, which is perhaps why they were so fun.
It takes a very different mindset to generate your own content, so to speak. But believe it or not, the game actually has room for some creativity, it just doesn’t require it. And in my opinion, many people would complain if they were forced to put the energy into being creative.

My 15 year old son has been playing WoW for sometime. He’s also heavy into FPS games (Halo3, Half-life, Counter-strike, etc.).
It seems at times that he is locked away into his room or in the family room playing for days. No TV, no playing outside, just a lot of games.
We’ve often had talks about being balanced in our life and our activities. I’ve tried to explain that everything is enjoyed best in moderation and in moderation our enjoyment with things will last longer.
Two interesting things about this post:
First, games as learning without pressure. This is a fascinating concept and one that I don’t think most people take advantage of. Pressure, in and of itself is a mindset. Ask anyone who is trying to level up, and I assure you that some of the words they use to describe their motivation will approximate words we associate with pressure.
But, I think if you’re able to adjust your mindset accordingly – most things we associate with work – could be considered a game. I have a B.S. degree but I continue to take classes at a local college – for fun. Some people associate school to a burden. For me, it is a game.
My second point is specific to online gaming, and not games in general. I think the best games, by their nature, games have always been a social activity first, and a learning experience second.
My son is a well-groomed, somewhat well behaved teen and while he won’t be crowned homecoming king anytime soon – he’s always been fairly popular wherever he has lived. He’s known some of the kids in our neighborhood for half of his life and he’s spend countless hours with them playing, hanging out, etc.
However, he remarked to me a few months back that he actually feels closer to his online friends. A core group of 5 guys – all met individually in one gaming scenario or another (Xbox live, WoW, Halflife, etc). Listening to the conversations they have and watching the things they do online – it is obvious that socializing is a bigger deal to him than any actual gaming.
Over the last year or so I’ve created a few characters on his account. Played around a little killing the local critters, doing the small quests. It was fun for me. A diversion. I never felt the need to level up or to take it further.
But over the weekend, I wanted to get more in touch with this phenomenon, so I created my own WoW account with my own character. I spent probably 6 or 7 hours leveling up. I’m not addicted in the sense that when I’m not playing, I feel the need to be playing. But I can see where you can lost in the game you’re playing and that time can get away with you.
If down the road I get addicted, I’ll be sure to check back in.

Wow… about all i can say i recently started playing and have kinda found its diverting my attention from other things in my life, Namely loved ones and studies, increasing stress and leaving me unable to sleep, i never ahd this issue with other games, but i use games as my unwinding time not as an addiction. I mean where to next is the scary thing? i dont blame blizzard at all, i blame the direction life seems to take us, blizzard is just meeting demands and creating games that get progressively better and more immersive. But the cost to society really outweighs the benefits.
Hence after what i’ve read here i wont be topping up my account.
( thanks to Kat whose post really made me think )

I was a pretty regular player at one point, I had alot of fun in the game for a while, even somewhat through level 60. I got a few of my freinds(co workers) into the game, and now I feel responsible for turning them into zombies who care of nothing else, they never go out anymore, only caring to get more and more better gear for their virtual selves. One of my freinds puppies died of parvo because he was too wrapped in the game to take the dog to get its shots and he was going to let the dog die, I had to step in and take the dog myself and pay for it to be put to sleep becasue it was so advanced. This was the first of many reasons why I have backed off the game. One thing that really hit me was a woman with whom I was guilded with was neglecting her 5 month old baby(whom I could hear crying on teamspeak) because she wanted to play more than take care of her child stating “he is crying because he likes to be held, he need to learn to be on his own”. I could not beleive what I have heard, I was angry, so angry I stopped playing for a while. I always took WoW as just a game, but now I see different. I always joked about the game calling it “warcrack”, but I really had no idea how true that is. When I started to try raids I was floored by how it was treated like an obligation,a career even, like it was mandatory to your very existence to be there. Like many others I started to hate this game, it got to the point where I am wasting my 15 dollars a month just keeping the account open because I played so little. I voiced my concerns to other players, but it seems to just fall on deaf ears. I guess that epic gear just means so much to them. What started as fun between me and a few freinds turned into a loss of respect, trust, and freindship with alot of them and myself because of a damn game, a game! Never again will I ever come near another mmo.

Here‚Äôs a few of my thoughts on mmorpgs, having been an addict to Anarchy Online, a having just tried WoW for the first time. I have to say I’m finding it hard to get back into a mmorpg. I think it’s because I see all of the tricks WoW is trying to pull, the little addictive tendencies it has, yet it releases no satisfaction for me.
WoW by design is a mix of great elements from pre existing mmorpgs it’s not bringing much new to the genera, it’s more like the mc Donald‚Äôs of mmorpgs. Come here a get a quick fix of success!
It’s a very clever mechanism, Level 1 – 60 in a very safe very spoon fed environment, very clearly mapped for you, so you as the player put little effort in and almost no punishment for bad actions. It’s almost like a Hardcore Gaming Trainer designed to take the casual gamer and turn them into a lean mean money spending machine.
By making it all so achievable with little to no effort (Time is not effort) this gives them a hock, by putting quests everywhere you get a small sense of “ahhh” each time you complete a quest/mission an then a big “AHHHH” each time you level.
Ok maybe you quit at 60 because they “duped” you and there isn’t much after that thing you have worked so “hard” for. But here‚Äôs the best trick of all, The EXSPANSION!!!!!!!!
“woooo it will be like playing the game all over again I’ll have so much fun, oh I will reactivate my account just for a short while”
Don’t do it, same shit different name, I have rarely seen an expansion that has been made that adds that feeling back, the game is dead an expansion will only lead to a let down in most cases but it can re hock you to the game, an this is why they chuck them out, After paying 15 dollars a month for 2 or 3 years shouldn’t the “Expansion” have been yours to have for free? Oh no they charge you again for the expansion with the lure…. without the expansion your character will be half as effective as everyone who has bought it, go on… oh go on buy our expansion it will make the game fun again and you will be competitive.
I believe mmorpgs can be very detrimental to your health I have seen it happen to me an quite a few other people, Of course not everyone is going to be a mmorpg crack head a lot of people will be able to play in moderation, and keep it under wraps but a lot of people can’t they get hocked it wrecks lives and I believe there should be more awareness of what these games can lead to, Educate people about what can happen, In fact a portion of mmorpg subs should go to a support group designed to help people who get in a bad way mentally on a mmorpg. Oh no what was I thinking…. that’s not profitable silly me.
“Oh just quit the game it’s only a game what’s all the fuss about?”
Easier said than done mmorpgs offer a space where people who may have a tendency for escapism can really let go, couple that with depression low motivation and you have a mmorpg crack cocktail ready to blow.
Meh I don’t even know what my point is, I’ve not been able to express what I wanted with this note,
All I can say is take it from me be careful with mmorpgs just like with drinking, smoking etc… keep an eye on it and regulate yourself don’t get yourself too addicted to virtual worlds as reality although harder to deal with is actually better than a fabricated reality, rather than going from 1 to 60 why not get the real satisfaction of learning something new an contributing to the world in some way other than lining the pockets of game companys.

This is a personal story on how WOW has affected my life:
I didn’t purchase the game when it first came out as my friend and I started playing coop RPG games at work (of all places) starting way back with Baldurs Gate, IceWind Dale, and Neverwinter Nights. We had a blast at playing these games.
Well we then moved on to GuildWars for a while, but got bored with that for whatever reason, and finally tried the 10 day demo of both WOW and EQ2. We had a tough time deciding on which to prurchase and decided on WOW, not because of the experience itself but because Gamespot was having a weekend sale for $29.99 on WOW and after reading various online-reviews of the game.
Nov 2005… we were addicts but mainly played with just the 2 of us in a group after work and and never really explored the other aspects of the game (like PVP and instances). Kept to ourselves for the most part, helping each other with quests and so forth… (didn’t even join a guild until we were something like lvl 35s.) I feel we missed out on some enjoyable grouping experiences.
Anyway, March 2006, my son was born and had a real rough tme with him and had to put the game on hold. Cancelled my account in May but my friend kept playing. Since them he has 2 moved his 2 desktops together in the same room and has to accounts so himslf and his wife (both 60s) can play together and his 2 kids (age 6 and 8 I think) play together. I just don’t get it. Now they have some alt characters but they never want to play with me anymore, totally engrossed with their 60s doing raids and whatnot. I’m insignificant.
Anyway, I got an urge to start up my account again in October (my son has settled down again) 8 months old now. I can play the game very casually at night for a few hours at a tme when my kids go to bed. I’ve ran an instance (Deadmines) and got ridiculed for trying to do things like collect the armor set at level 24. “Why are you trying to collect that?! That’s like a level 19 set.” Made me feel stupid.
You know, I don’t spend countless meaningless hours learning all the nuances of the game. I HAVE A LIFE. A wife and 2 young kids that I DON”T NEGLECT by playing WOW. I like to experience the social aspect of the game and dont care about having ALL THE BEST STUFF!! The game has been around for years now and I feel like an outcast, a NOOB if you will. Makes the game now almost unenjoyable because everyone I have encounted on there has been playing since it came out. What a bunch of asses! Whatever happened to a FUN environment? Maybe I just need to go back to playing Oblivion and give up the MMORPG stuff.

Greetings my fellow players. I am amazed by the depth and intelligence of this tread in most of the posts, and I’ll be happy to add to it. However I am ashamed at the stupidity in some of them, those that have no idea what they are talking about or flame eachother or the game itself based on their own very limited experience.
My addiction to this game carried over from my admiration of previously released Blizzard titles. I was shown this game by a rommie of mine during closed beta in fall 2004 when I was in the military. I had played off and on since then being in and out of the military and gone through life changes etc, to settle down with a full time job and my own place after being released from the military. This is when I decided to reactivate my account, and start a new character, stick with it alone and leave all my old characters behind. I was single, living alone, and unoccupied, what did I have to lose?
It all started then, mid July. I would come home from work, fix a meal, and log on. Everyday I would play until I had to go to sleep to get up for work the next day. Since I already knew what I was doing, it felt like I was racing myself. I would level and level and level blowing through all of the content. I hit sixty on my new guy within 3 weeks, but it didnt stop there. I wanted to experience the vast social, economical, player versus player, and end-game aspects of WoW. This was an adventure that would take time multiplicative of my adventure from 1-60.
After five months of playing 5-7 hours a day, 7 days a week, I am left with a powerful character with highly specialized equipment and great skill to match. My character has completed a lot of long reputation grinds, been through dozens upon dozens of raids with hundreds of different people, both leading and following and the like. Upon my time and experience on this character I have achieved position of our Guild Master, in which I hold responsability for the direction and health of the guild.
Am I addicted to WoW? I have invested a lot of time and energy into my community and my character and don’t really wish to give it all up, stop playing. I can stop whenever I want, but why would I want to? I want to make more friends, experience more content, and gain more rewards than I have to this day. Until I have reached the end of that line where time invested does not yield any reward wether it be material or social, I dont believe I will ever get bored of this game. I may slow down and find other things to do alongside of WoW when my goals are reached, however.
I think for each individual player there is a satisfaction level or ‘goal’ that they have. The game is very fun and exciting when you are reaching and almost acheiving these goals. Once these milestones become more and more difficult and time consuming to acheive, that is where people lose interest. Theere are things integrated into the social aspect of the game, such as guilds, circles of friends, etc. that do HELP you in acheiving these goals and making them seem less unattainable. Yes, people get in bad guilds where the leadership is corrupt and there is drama and bad things left and right. But not every group has problems.
Does WoW interfere with my ‘real’ life? Depends on what you define as real and interference. Yes I do admit, it does occupy most if not all my free time, I don’t have a lot of local friends because of the game and I dont go out much if ever. But in effect, all of this is majoratively contained within WoW’s social universe.
Can my experience here apply to the ‘real’ world? Well after all this is said and done and I finally put this game down, we’ll see. Lots of different people skills and group management skills come to mind. Yes I will have lost a good portion of my time on this earth to WoW and I have to postpone my dreams and aspirations IRL but I can accept that for now, I am just having too much fun. Fun is a part of life too.
If you have read down to my thread, you have read a lot of viewpoints, but you must do what your own heart says.

Fascinating and slightly scary thread for a WoW newbie. I can really appreciate the difficulty WoW can cause. It breaks my heart to read some of your stories. I really hope that those of you who are still feeling a compulsion to keep playing when you long since should have walked will find the strength to do so.
Nonetheless I think we would all concede that WoW is a breathtaking acheivement in terms of an entertainment product. I’ve played a load of the FPS games on line, but nothing has felt as exhilerating and absorbing as WoW. And yes, addictive.
However, perhaps where my story is different is that WoW has become, in our household, our major social activity. Not socialising with the others online, but with each other.
It’s a bit like TV. Me, my wife, my eight year old daughter and six year old son sit down altogether and play. We take turns on the controls, and talk to each other about what we will do next, what spell to cast when, whether we will wear the green shirt or the red one, who we should team up with, should Daddy do the hard bit, or Mummy? And so on. Of course we are still all staring at a screen but the huge difference between this experience and television is that we are talking to each other as well, sharing an experience.
No doubt that we are in the “honeymoon” period, as we’ve only been playing a few weeks, but so far WoW has been abundantly positive. It’s fun, family time. We probably spend as long playing the game as some people do watching TV – maybe 2 or 3 hours a night after dinner, washing up and homework. At the weekends sometimes a little more.
We all love the game, and myself and my wife so far have had the discipline to moderate our childrens (and our own!) playtime. We still see our family, do well at work, read stories at bedtime (although at the moment this does mean Eragon, which, if you swap “Urgals” for Orcs…)
I have to say I do think the game is producing “real life” benefits for us. Not only is it bringing us closer together as a family, sharing a wonderful fun experience, but it’s also bring up lots of very interesting issues and learning opportunities for the kids, and consquently learning opportunities for us as parents.
Much of our time in WoW is spent thinking about how we should behave towards the other players in the game – should we be nice or nasty? How can we maintain the neccessary alliances with our friends? Should we play again with that character who uses bad language? How should we decide what guild to join? Should we save up our money or just go ahead and buy that shiny new axe right now? How about that sense of accomplishment when we’ve worked really hard to achieve something and done it? Is there not some learning there? How could we apply this lesson outside of the game?
These are real life issues and WoW has supplied a really interesting and comparatively safe environment for us explore all of them with our kids. Not to mention giving them an insight into what we used to call “netiquette” and building their keyboard and mouse skills to an unprecendented level (no one types faster than a WoW player in need! And often with just a left hand too!)
I expect we’ll keep playing for a few weeks yet, and then have a break – probably when the new series of 24 comes along which we find equally addictive but unfortunately cannot share with the kids! I think when summer returns to our damp little island home we’ll be back in the park, and our WoW characters will gather a little dust. But maybe next Winter, as this one, all those dark and miserable rainy evenings will be brightened by the glow of a double handed fire-axe causing 100 damage per second to a Murloc, Fleshripper or Defias Overlord!
Whilst I can see that addiction is a danger I do think there is some learning and some value, in MMORPG games, if you share the game with your friends and loved ones rather than excluding yourself from them, have the discipline to keep playing time reasonable, and keep an open mind to the learning experiences that are there.
Oh and of course, as long as you don’t care whether you’re level 60 or level 6. It’s supposed to be fun after all – and it is just a game. Maybe that’s the real lesson.

My brother plays WOW. Once he showed me how to use it and I played for about an hour before getting bored so I never really got into it. Besides that I was too busy with work, study and many other social commitments to ever find the time to play. He and I used to be best friends, would talk about everything. He started playing WOW I think about 3yrs ago, at first it was ok, my parents had time restraints on him so he could only play an hour a day. He began hiding the computer under a blanket so late at night they couldn’t see the light under the bedroom door.
This morning I woke at 8am. It is now 1pm and I haven’t seen him at all – I know he’s up because I can hear him typing, this is how it is every day.
I don’t like my brother anymore, we’re not friends. He only shows his face to go to the kitchen or the bathroom. He has a lot of other friends still – because he has LAN parties and they spread out all over our house to play WOW. They drink coke. They have bad bo, terrible posture and you can see bags under their eyes.
The other night we went to dinner and came home at 11.30pm, as i was brushing my teeth preparing for bed, I heard him turn the computer on. My friend told me her brother is the same.. except that he is 25. I asked my brother if he thinks he is addicted and he says no, I just can’t disappoint my guild.

So For those that don’t know, Here are the methods WoW uses to keep you paying.
1. No skill, creativity, or other thought required. It’s very easy and the clases can not be played incorrectly because they are so specialized. All that is required is a time commitment.
2. Random rewards. ‘Good’ drops are random and can be goal orientated. This is designed to fulfil an instinctual urge for further gratification through persistance. This is the psychological element that causes gambling addiction.
3. Diminishing returns. Animals look for more food when less is found. The more you look the more you will find, but a diminishing return based on playtime (as wow uses) is a hook to keep players playing longer than the last login, and feeling an urge to plan more play if they can not.
4. Peer pressure. Even if you are not in a guild there is a level and qeuipment system designed to foster a ‘keep up with the joneses’ mentality. Blizzard cultists adopt this mentality and perpetuate it to other player.
Now here is a question for you. If you are to take advantage of these well developed methods of human and animal psychology, use them to exploit others for their money, are you a bad person?

This game was very cleverly designed. I feel that it plays on the human desire to become important, somebody that can make an impact and wield some clout over others. From personal experience (I have played this game for 2 years and just recently quit) it translated my desire to be somebody into something that was attainable, in the game. Even the tiniest upgrade made me feel good. Strutting that new piece of armor in a major city to have people come along to inspect my character was a good feeling, and ultimately pointless.
The designers of this game had many precedents to research before creating this game. It really isn’t anything groundbreaking in the big scheme of things. It’s the little improvements over games like Everquest, DOAC, etc that make the whole of WoW much more addicting. And I feel that that is the business model that Blizzard has been shooting for. To create a game that never ends, and has a hold on each player so that they continue their subscription and in turn create a huge profit for the company.

Great thread,
Many good points in both camps so far. I especially enjoyed the post about the family of four that plays together on the same PC. I think that is a brilliant way to introduce this product to children. That may be the most creative way to enjoy WoW that I have ever heard of. Hats off to the parents in that post! Teach me!
Most parents today are no good. They simply hand a video game off the game to a kid, no restrictions and no strings attached. Then for a while the parents are happy when it holds the childs attention. Eventually the parents become concerned that ‘lil Billy’ is spending too much time online. Now World of Warcraft is to blame. Bull.
Unlike crack cocaine or heroin where a person can be hooked on one ‘dose’, a WoW addiction takes time to develop. All the boo-hooing parents whose kids have gone off the deep end over this game need to ask themselves where they were when this problem developed. Ask them what they knew about the product when they purchased it. Ask them if they ever played it, tried to use the parental controls to monitor and limit their son or daughters gameplay. Those tools exist to protect the children from overuse. Don’t you want to know what your child is exposed to, what they are playing with? Do some homework, and engage your offspring in other enjoyable activities. They’ll thank you one day.
Bottom line, as an active account holder and player, I can tell you with no reservations that this game has addictive properties. It is most definitly not for younger children to play unsupervised. Basically, behind every WoW adict below the age of maturity stands 1 or 2 overly permissive parent/s or guardian/s. I can remember wasting portions of my own childhood in front of the ole television, and my mother and father forcing me outside to play. I had many more enriching experiences outdoors than in front of the TV learning life lessons from ‘Full Houses’ Danny Tanner (Bob Saget).
For adults addicted to the game, I can relate. I used to play obsessively for a period of several months before I stepped back, took stock of things, and realized some important truths about the nature of the beast. I suppose the turning point came when I began to research boss fights and guild strategies duing work. I played over 20 hours per week for a period of 4 months while this occured. At 20 hours a week you no longer have a hobby but a part time job. When you already have a 40 hour a week office gig, there isn’t a lotta time left over. So join a guild, you make some online friends, and for a while a person truly beleives that they are a valuable part of a fun community.
Gradually the fun fades, replaced by a sense of obligation. No more is the mindset, “I want to play, I have fun playing, it’s my free time to do with as I please, here I go. Wheee!” The new mindset is, “I have to log on, I have to be in raid, if not I lose my spot or let down the ‘team’. Here we go again.” If you get to this point like I did, and start to realize the things you are missing out on, you may change your attitude towards the game as well. Here is a good example, I decided to play WoW, and I have a Dwarf Priest with Naxramis epics. I the time it took me to acheive that, my girlfriend took night classes and learned to speak German fluently. So um, I can like, heal real well and stuff in a totally fake online world. She can speak to real people in a real language that sounds like obscene grunting to me. Ultimatly it’s a presonal choice, how would you rather spend your time?
One final thought,
A while back on this thread I saw a mother who described her son as having threatened to ‘hurt himself’ if she deprived him of WoW. Suicude threats are serious business. If I were in your shoes I’d go with 72 hour involentary committment. Your son needs a psyche elavuation ASAP. Show him you love him and get him the help that he needs. That is truly a tragic situation.

I heard world of warcraft was an addiction. But i play to and it’s really fun when you get bored and a chinese boy jumped off a 24 story building and died because i guess he played world of warcraft to much.

Wow can definitely be a great learning tool for the family. Just the other day I was playing with my son, we were fighting humans and night elves (we are orcs) and my son turned to me and said ‘dad, I can’t wait till my skills in this game can come of use in the real world’. I smiled and said, ‘yes, wow is a wonderful tool for learning the ins and outs of racial elimination, exterminating enemies, and creating bonds with sociopaths while growing rich and powerful’. I don’t know if I conveyed to him quite fully my joy at helping my son better prepare himself for the long task of killing and stealing our way to lordhood. I hope he learns to be proud and exhibit his pride while doing the necesary deed of killing as many people as possible. As it is often said, all is well that ends well! My hopes are that he will be the greatest genocidalist this century can be proud of.

I read the begging thread. I wanted to post this as a small testimnt to my world of warcraft life. i worked at a lan cafe in bakersfield WOW came along and got into it shortly after beta. in short the biggest break i took from the game was a 7th month leave of play. I just turned 22 years old and have a girlfriend that l live with. i have a 70 troll mage on darkspear and a few other random 31’s 36 ect. the game has destroyed every ones life that i have known. all of my friends that i knew back at the lan cafe have all lost jobs live with there paretns and have gone thru seriouse depresion resluting in moving away to diffrent states just to come back some months later. i introduced the game to my brother he started a priest lvl 60 then a druid lvl 64atm and then a pally who he got to lvl 70 first he has a handfull of 29twinks and he out of every one i know has felt the wrath of world of warcraft. he was a 4.0student and bodybulder. he had 5percent body fat and could bench more than my weight wich is 185lbs he had a girlfriend for 2years her name is annie. a year later he has all of thoes charchters mentioned above he is addicted to vicadien oxy methadone any kind of pain pill because he has chronic migrans from staring into a computer screen for so long. he has gaind 40lbs his girlfriend jsut broke up with him and he is jobless b/c he cant work with bad headaches and lives at home with mom. a year ago i had jsut started playing again and thats when i got him into it. i met a girl her name is katie she is painting at the moment and were listening to bayside. she hated wow for ever we fought countlessly and finally she made a char i got her an account as soon as the burrning crusade came out she has a 34 blood elf mage and tonight we have both been seriously depresed. we dont feel like going out any more we would rather stay home and play wow. it feels as our happyness has been drained that the game is the cause. i googled world of warcraft depresion. and i found this so here i am putting in my 2 cents and if any one ever does read this whole post or finds it in the countless number of posts above it i just want to say… world of warcraft is a hell of a game and taken in moderation keep on playing but put boundries up

This site is really cool, in my opinion there needs to be more sites that deal with WOW addiction.
Lets see how can I sum up the last year and 3 months I played WOW. My story is like many others. I started playing casually maybe every other day for a couple hours. It wasn’t long before I was playing 30+ hours a week. Once I hit 60 my addiction went into overdrive. I would avoid friends and family just to get home to play wow. I remember leaving work early a few times to get home as well as taking off the whole day when BC came out. I remember several times getting upset about something this did I knew and losing a whole night’s sleep over it. I would work 8 hours a day and then come home and jump on wow first thing. I think I averaged about 4-5 hours of sleep during this time. I would be tired at work constantly and sometimes driving home on the freeway I would almost nod off.
I look back at this time and wonder what was going through my head. Why did I put myself through all of that. I think it boils down to a compulsion to play, even when most of the time I wasnt having fun. The guys at Bliz are evil geniuses if they can make a game people will play even though they dislike it! A lot of this compulsion was fueled by greed and fear. Greed for wanting the epics, fear that some other member would get said epic if I wasn’t there with my dkp.
I think Bliz knows exactly what they are doing and they should pay for it. Everyone wants to say “Oh you can’t blame Bliz”. I say absolutely you can, they understand full well the psychology behind the game and have created it with deliberate effect.
By the time BC came out I was completely burned out with end game content and raiding. Shortly after I hit 70 I quit. Anyone reading this thinking about playing WOW please believe me when I say you are not missing anything, but trial and tribulation and wasted time. I could go on and on but please just believe me.

My real life is going worse… but my char is growing strong… Im becomig weak and im wasting a lot of time so – REAL SATISFACTION = + WOW and +WOW decrease REAL SATISFACTION… there is it.. we found the point. People who feel alone and need to chat or share an experience, old harcore gammers which have decided to spend 15 euros monthly than purchase many games every time… those who like RP.. and many more.. What a paradox this is not a game for normal guys, but they are the only ones who can resist the consecuences. IF YOU DONT HAVE A STABLE LIFE DONT PLAY THIS GAME IF YOU DONT WANT TO START A NEW LIFE IN ANOTHER PLACE. I love it.. I need it, and emptiness apear when I leave it. WOW RULES…aganist your will.
(Im not from UK, US… sorry if you cant understand me)

WOW is for the people too stupid to realise that they’re being mugged for 15 euro’s a month for a poorly moderated game filled with sociopathic sadacts, and will keep playing just so they don’t have to admit that they made a mistake, and that they should be playing Guild Wars, which is free, these are probably the same type of people that also have Members accounts on RuneScape.
They spend their money on this 3rd rate game because none of them can get involved in a relationship in real-life and spend their money on jewelry and wine for their partners.

When you’re old and infirm you’ll have plenty of time to play wow in the nursing home (provided you can remember your password). Experience the sounds, tastes, smells, touches and colours of the real world.

Something fun to do when your bored on W.o.W. is to go to Darnasus, go to the very back of town where you will find a waterfall. Step over the waterfall(yes this will kill you and actually if done my way you will have to die about 2-3 times for the true fun) you will be instantly killed on impact with the ledge below. Do this twice, more but be very careful not to go to far as a ghost or you will have to walk all the way around to Rut’ Theran, after a few deaths you will be on a branch of the Teldrassil tree walk all the way to the end and jump off. If done correctly you will survive hitting the water and will be able to hearth to your home inn. All same and sound and a suicidal, ski diving, deap sea diver. (: 🙂 P.S. to all add me as a friend if your in server AZGALOR my name is Animaster. T.y. all and happy exploring.