Sean Ridgeley - Monday, April 21st, 2008 | 11:51AM (PST)
IGN says there's still hope
Remember those "Winners Don't Use Drugs" messages they would put in arcade games? I'm thinking the Feds wouldn't know what to do about World of Warcraft (WoW) today if that kind of thing was still around. My brother said to me the other day, "Hey, if you ever want to mess up your life, play WoW." It was the first time I'd talked to him in months. There's a good reason I've avoided the game all this time: I don't want to ruin my life. Now, this isn't to imply all WoW players have no lives or something, I'm sure there are some that balance out their playing with "RL", but I've seen the effects of how addictive it can be, and that's enough for me to stay away. This is how it all starts, folks:
Cam Shea over on IGN is a former WoW addict, and goes through the trials and tribulations of his experiences, offering help to those who can't seem to fight the addiction. Perhaps some lost soul will find his message while perusing the web for WoW information and see there is some hope left. He (I'm going to assume it's a he for the sake of ease) starts it off like this:
"The scourge of addiction; it consumes everything in its path – families, neighbourhoods, puppy dogs, bicycles, you name it. It's the ghastly boil on the face of humanity - a boil that's about to burst. Sure, humans have always found something to become addicted to, from the ancient Egyptians, who would smoke dried dung beetle for its soporific effects, through to the shamanic Chihuahua lickers of Mexico, but the times they are a changin'. You see, in recent years we've seen an alarming development. Drugs that were once regarded as the most destructive and addictive ever devised - cocaine and Evercrack, to name just two - now look nothing short of quaint when compared with the new 'super drugs' – crystal meth, triple-sod, clarky cat and World of Warcraft. It's a dangerous new world teetering on the brink of utter annihilation."
Talking to some players about the addiction, Shea finds the social aspect is a big part of the reason it's so bad. Sounds a lot like smoking, actually. So his advice is to be an antisocial jerk:
"..if you have to play World of Warcraft, DON'T – UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES – MAKE FRIENDS. Be as isolated as you can within the game, and respond aggressively to any players who try to speak to you. Not only will you be keeping personal addiction at bay, but you'll be doing your part to reduce other incidences of addiction within the game. Pissing off other players, after all, makes them less likely to have a good time, thereby they're less likely to become addicted."
The interviewees eventually broke the addiction, thanks to real-life committments outweighing the importance of the game and the realization it is in fact just a virtual world (or is it?). Writes Shea:
"The temptation to once again suckle at the teet of the dark mother that is World of Warcraft will never truly go away for either of these players, but at least they got out. For millions more – players hopelessly caught in the web of World of Warcraft, about to be devoured whole by the gigantic spider Blizzard – the future doesn't look as bright."
Just remember, players, WoW can't make you happy when you're blue (obligatory Simpsons reference). Godspeed, WoW players, godspeed.
jeez who cares what other people do? they r wasting their money to play the game and it is there life so who r we to try and interfere with other people? if u want to beat it lock it up somewhere and ask someone to hold the key. but if they want to play it good luck to em
Ok this addiction nonsense is going too far, sure some people take the game way too far but its not to mean that playing it a bit will get you addicted for years. I've been playing it for 2 years, not excessively though, only hit lvl 70 (the maximum level) about 3 months ago. I might play it quite a bit but I know I'm not addicted because whenever my friends plan to go out, I go with them, I don't stay at home to play.
I have 3 irl friends who play the game, 1 plays it as much as me, another has stopped now due to being bored of the game and another just plays about 2 hours a week. None of them are addicted (well the first one did used to play quite alot but that just replaced tv/console time for him, so no real change)
I would like to know at what point its an addition. I'm pretty sure that people would consider me addicted, hell I even consider myself addicted. However, I have a full time job (in an upper level position) and I have a wife (who was with me before I ever began playing). I play approx four hours a night with a end content raiding guild. I consider the guys that I play with for the most part friends. Are they my best friends? No. Do I talk to them about non-wow related things? All the time.
I work and support my gaming addiction. It has effects on my "RL" life for sure, but I also know that when I used to play drinking games with my friends in university every night of the week, it also had effects on my "RL" life.
In the end, people need to leave other people alone to lead their lives. If someone wants to lose their job, home, wife, kids, friends, and lives over a video game then darwin wins and the world continues. The gene pool didn't need them anyways.
I love how these kinds of groups crop up once some 'new evil' comes out to threaten the American way of life, and the faulty logic they use to prop up their theories.
If I enjoy the game I am addicted? If I'm not a jackass to everyone I meet, I'm contributing to the problem? What about the people who spend their vacations and call in sick to see their favorite sports teams? Oh wait, that's not an addiction, that's 'normal.'
Call me an addict if it makes you feel superior, but I've met people I never would have known otherwise. Three people I know in WoW are in the armed forces, a handful are from Canada, and one is a college kid in Australia. I've also made friends on the east and west coast.
But wait, my experiences are invalidated, because I'm a WoW addict, and thus a social pariah. It seems my only hope of acceptance is to quit WoW and adopt a socially acceptable addiction, like alcoholism. Because that's clearly less damaging than meeting and making friends through a game.
WOW isnt an addiction, it is an escape from the day to day stress of life. I play, I have RL freinds, I have a girl friend and I am a great dad to my kids.
WOW allows you to stop thinking about what happen at work, or coming up short on bills. It is nothing more than cheap entertainment! People pay $20 to see a 2 hour movie, I pay $15 for 30 days of game play (and I actually have to think to play wow) People watch on average 30 hours of TV a week! I play wow for 20 to 30 hours a week, I dont watch TV...
Anyone "addicted" to a video game is going to be "addicted" to anything that allows them to escape from there crappy lives.
I am a former wow addict. It was very hard to quit, I lost 2 years to this game. I still have urges and I hope I never go back.
I've never had an addiction before and this game got me. I don't have an addictive personality.
Even people who don't play video games or like them get addicted to wow which leads me to believe there is some other habit forming methods used in this game. Perhaps wow is a medium to slowly lead you into certain patterns?
One other thing i've noticed.... when I tried to get my wow friends to stop, they becames angry and were in denial. Wow addicts hate to be told they are addicted and will defend their drug at all costs. Alot even lie and say oh I have a life I go to school, work, have 3 jobs, spend time in soup kitchens helping out etc but in reality, it's impossible to spend 16 hours playing wow and doing all the rest of the things mentioned. But this lie helps them justify their addiction.
I'm an ex-Evercrack user and abuser, When I was stationed in Korea, soldiers would go out and blow their money every two weeks on hookers and booze, or even worse cry and complain about how much they hate the military. Now,I had a great time in Korea and I personally didn't mind being in the Military, but at one point i found myself bored of everything and needed something to do. I knew lots of people in my unit who played Evercrack, They introduced me to the game and I learned that my character can drink alcohol and get drunk, I found that the coolest thing ever and decided that I would play Everquest Drunk in "RL" and in my "VL".
Everyday after that,I found myself up and ready to leave post (we had curfew, we were only allowed to leave post at a certain time and had to be back by a certain time) at the crack of dawn to play Evercrack. All of my friends who played gave me outstanding EQ support because they were already addicted. They would help me out, give weapons and armor that I definitely shouldn't have had, for example, I was able to Solo enemies 10 levels higher then me. Which I believe is where my addiction came from. I leveled my character from 1-60 in 7 months and this is with no prior knowledge of any MMORPGs. Now, its been about 5 years since then, bored out of my mind with my game consoles and looking for something more in depth than any Platform based game could offer,(Except for Elder Scrolls: Oblivion which I've put ridiculous hours into). I was yearning for a Everquest type game on console but could never find anything to satify my I guess you can say "need" to play something fun. All this game is doing is replacing another addiction. But anything can be an addiction. I have a fiancee, a dog,2 birds and a rabbit, Full time job, Going to school, and am now in the army reserves, this helps me escape to a world where I can kills things and not worry about what might happens after. It allows me to do what I can't in RL. Funny part is, I've been playing Warcraft for 2 weeks now,My fiancee is already looking at me funny because I look forward to playing the game, BUT the 3-4 hours she spends watching, Guiding Light, Young and the Restless, The Bold and the Beautiful, As the world turns and don't get me started on Deal or no Deal is absolutely normal!? I agree, Watching people get greedy and lose everything is great entertainment,but when the show is done, Its just the crap all over again. I am starting to feel the withdrawls of not playing WOW, But its more like looking forward to getting away from my life. I mean who wants to work all day, why not summon a little demon to kill things for you?
Ah, yes, the blanket statements that put everything in black and white. If I refute the claims that WoW is worse than crack, then I'm obviously an addict and my arguments are invalidated.
Here's a what-if for you: If some ape was constantly crawling up and down your back, screeching that you're an addict because you have a hobby, wouldn't you get agitated? The only reason the 'addicts' defend their hobbies so venomously is because they're tired of getting ridiculed for it. Don't believe it? I'll throw you another hypothetical.
Go up to a friend who's religious and call him a cultist. Keep calling him a cultist wherever he goes and warn him that you know what he needs to do to get better since he's obviously too brainwashed by his cult. Don't stop for about two weeks. Now get a random stranger to walk up to your religious friend and call him a cultist. Odds are, your friend will just ignore this other person, but there's still a good chance he'll give into the frustration of having to deal with narrow-minded fear mongers and he'll tell that new person where he can stick his cult.
And the last great pitfall of the internet, is the fact that nothing we say about ourselves can be concretely proven or disproven without giving away personal details that should not be released on the Web. I could be a 67 year old veteran living off disability and pension payments. I could be a teenage girl with nothing better to do. Heck, I could say that I have never played the World of Warcraft but just like arguing things like this.
My point is, I cannot prove to you that I am a 24 year old college graduate with a secure, full-time job and home, that eats healthy and plays WoW less than two hours on an average day. The flipside is that you cannot disprove it either.
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Addictions are hard to break...
I've never played WoW, but I know how hard it is to break an addiction.