This seems like more of a problem then before.

[Mooks]

Everyone has heard about it, how WOW (World of Warcraft) is so incredibly addicting that people lose boyfriends/house/job for it. But today I heard about it face to face and not from somebody over the internet.

This guy walked into my Cisco Networking class because he was a former student there. Then he gives a speech which my teacher requested. He goes on a 15 minute speech discussing how WOW completely destroyed 2 years of college for him. How he was so terribly addicted to the game he didnt care about his girlfriend or his studies. How he spent 15 hours on the game sometimes, and even had a calender set out for special events (Raids or something like that) on WOW. Then he warned us vigorously to limit our gaming time to not everyday, and never get into WOW.

In the middle of his speech I remember something vaguely familiar with it. Then it hit me. My 5th grade class once had a DARE intervention. Basically a couple or more speakers come in and speak to us about the dangers of drugs. One of them was a ex-crackhead (Or still is, my buddy there swore he saw the guy smoking out of a pipe but thats beside the point). The guy spoke about the same length of time about crack cocaine and how its addicting and it destroyed his life and you should never touch the stuff. How it destroyed his home and fiance etc etc.

World of Warcraft ....and crack. Same results. Discuss.

[Crazed Rabbit]

In before the "Away to the backroom" post from Lemur.

Anyways, I guess the important thing is to control and moderate your activities.

Though I think crack is more damaging than WoW for most people.

CR

[Sasaki Kojiro]

I'm no psychologist, but I don't think people get addicted to drugs or obsessed with a game if everything else is peachy. Seems like you'd have to be dissatisfied with regular life.

[Subotan]

Since Blizzard is an American company, an addiction to World of Warcraft is clearly a patriotic addiction, and every man, woman and nerd's duty to their country and their economy. Unlike crack gangs of course, which are run by dirty Mexicans, and therefore anti-American.

[Scienter]

Drugs can be both physically and psychologically addictive (i.e. heroin withdrawal, booze dt). So, I think they're worse than WoW, which is just psychological. I don't think I've heard of a case where someone stole or pawned their stuff to pay for their next month of WoW.

[The Stranger]

im sure there are cases in which that happened :P

but youre right, its only psycologically addictive, so atleast less damaging for the body. and once you are over your addiction there is no damage but the time you left unspend on stuff you now think you should have spent it on. such as school and getting laid. and booze... and drugs... so the cycle starts over!

[CountArach]

This may sound strange but I know not one, but two girls, with an addiction to WoW!

[Rhyfelwyr]

I used to pay M2TW for about 12 hours a day.

But I wasn't addicted, I could have stopped any time I wanted to.

It's the cliche, but I mean it (I think).

[Secura]

I can speak from experience on this one; I got into playing WoW shortly after it's European release, which would have been in February 2005. I played on and off through the vanilla game, got into the whole 40-man raiding thing, killing pretty much anything at the time (Rogues were pretty strong :P).

Anyway, I played the game on-and-off for three years until the end of Burning Crusade, where I committed properly to the game, bought Lich King and all that jazz. I was having a bad time in real life, and Azeroth was quite the escape. It eventually got to a point where I was logging on for social interaction because things were so rubbish outisde the game... it was essentially an addiction.

In the December just gone, finally decided that I'd have enough after nearly five years of playing the darn thing; cancelled my subscription, deleted screenshots and addons, removed WoW-related bookmarks, uninstalled the game (18GB of my harddrive back <3)... completely purged of it.

I still keep in touch with people from the game over Facebook, though I have to decline their requests that I come back and tank... it was really difficult to stop playing, and I'm glad I took the leap to do so. It was probably harder than quitting cigarettes for me. :/

[Lemur]

In before the "Away to the backroom" post from Lemur.

Hmm, the topic is not obviously political or religious, so I don't see why it needs to be banished to the hinterlands. It can stay.

[Mooks]

Subotan, its un-american to be sarcastic. Keep that in mind, comrade.

Secura, its a myth that theirs womenz on the internet. Stop propagating these obvious lies.

The real funny thing about the speaker though, is that it was completely random. I could tell it was from the heart too. My teacher was NOT expecting something like that, he meant give some advice for college or something.The whole class was stunned, didnt even ask a question. Afterwards I told a friend on the bus ride back home about the experiance, and he said hes making some serios dough off of nerds like him. He and 2 of his mates set up a private server and charge people 300$ for the best armour and people flock to him because its usually 400-500$. All he had to do is type in some stuff on his computer to produce the armour. Besides the server costs and game fee's his team has over 8,000$ in profits already.

[Secura]

Secura, its a myth that theirs womenz on the internet. Stop propagating these obvious lies.

Yeah, yeah, we're all FBI agents trying to catch you by hook or crook... xD

The real funny thing about the speaker though, is that it was completely random. I could tell it was from the heart too. My teacher was NOT expecting something like that, he meant give some advice for college or something.The whole class was stunned, didnt even ask a question. Afterwards I told a friend on the bus ride back home about the experiance, and he said hes making some serios dough off of nerds like him. He and 2 of his mates set up a private server and charge people 300$ for the best armour and people flock to him because its usually 400-500$. All he had to do is type in some stuff on his computer to produce the armour. Besides the server costs and game fee's his team has over 8,000$ in profits already.

Isn't this against Activision-Blizzard's terms & conditions? In fact, isn't it plain illegal? o_o

[Subotan]

Subotan, its un-american to be sarcastic. Keep that in mind, comrade.

Touché

[Mooks]

Yeah, yeah, we're all FBI agents trying to catch you by hook or crook... xD



Isn't this against Activision-Blizzard's terms & conditions? In fact, isn't it plain illegal? o_o

Most likely it is. Its a hell of alot better way to pay for college then my idea though.

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

Personally, I think I spend too much time at the .Org. Not because my social life sucks, per se, but because it has got a lot quieter after leaving Uni and randomly going to the Pub is more effort than firing up the old desktop. Having said this, I knew a friend who was in serious danger of being addicted to WoW. I think it happens because it combines social interaction with the ability to RP and nuke stuff.

[pevergreen]

I used to play Warcraft 3 too much. I'm very glad I stopped playing. It wasnt fun, it was something I needed to do.

Addicted, in my eyes, no.

But what do I know, for the last month, I've been on the computer...around 16 hours a day. Every day.

[Viking]

I used to be "addicted" to this MMORPG for a year or two in high school. Stopped playing when I got bored of it. No harm done, I still remember it as a fun time.

[Mooks]

I used to be "addicted" to this MMORPG for a year or two in high school. Stopped playing when I got bored of it. No harm done, I still remember it as a fun time.

Was that before or after the judge sent you to rehab?

[Yoyoma1910]

I've never smoked crack or played WOW, so I guess I'm a success as a human being.

[Megas Methuselah]

I can speak from experience on this one; I got into playing WoW shortly after it's European release, which would have been in February 2005. I played on and off through the vanilla game, got into the whole 40-man raiding thing, killing pretty much anything at the time (Rogues were pretty strong :P).

Anyway, I played the game on-and-off for three years until the end of Burning Crusade, where I committed properly to the game, bought Lich King and all that jazz. I was having a bad time in real life, and Azeroth was quite the escape. It eventually got to a point where I was logging on for social interaction because things were so rubbish outisde the game... it was essentially an addiction.

In the December just gone, finally decided that I'd have enough after nearly five years of playing the darn thing; cancelled my subscription, deleted screenshots and addons, removed WoW-related bookmarks, uninstalled the game (18GB of my harddrive back <3)... completely purged of it.

I still keep in touch with people from the game over Facebook, though I have to decline their requests that I come back and tank... it was really difficult to stop playing, and I'm glad I took the leap to do so. It was probably harder than quitting cigarettes for me. :/

Damn girl you crazie!

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

I was probably too into Kingdom of Loathing back in high school. But that's just a straight-up good game.

[Centurion1]

im addicted to sports. i dont have time for wow.

(plus i have dialup, )

[Beskar]

There are a few clarifications which need to be made.

No one can become addicted to WoW, because an addiction is a physical. Such as drugs/drink/smoking. WoW, would therefore fall under the category of "Obsession", such as constantly re-washing your hands (People who call these addictions are misusing the word).

So just what is this World of Warcraft-ness?

Definition of obsession:
"Any idea that haunts, hovers and constantly invades one's consciousness. Obsessions are seemingly beyond one's will, and awareness of their inappropriateness is of little or no avail".

Sounds like your average World of Warcraft player? Let's take an even closer clinical look.

The illness associated with this is as people will know, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.

This is an anxiety disorder associated with recurrent, persistent thoughts, ideas and feelings and the repetitive ritualized behaviours and when you attempt to resist the 'urge' produces tension and anxiety which is relieved immediately by doing the desired action. You might now go "Shopping!" "Gambling!" "Eating!" "World of Warcraft!", but you are actually incorrect, a true obsessive-compulsive disorder does not derive pleasure from the activity (where Eating, WoW, etc does) and only do the actions to release tension.

So now you can start talking about sex clinics, combating gamble-ing, 'internet addiction'. etc, but what really is the issue at hand?

Centurion1 brings up an interesting insight, he is 'addicted to sports', so he is probably running around pitches playing football, baseball, etc. He really enjoys doing this activity, and it sort of affects his grades, because he would rather play football than write-up a boring homework. Does this mean Centurion1 is actually got a serious problem? The answer is pretty simple, and it is a big NO.

Unlike World of Warcrafters, Centurion1 would most likely have a "lot of downtime", in order to play football, he will need a bunch of friends to actually do this activity with, and of course, there are things like food, homework, etc, which will make him stop doing his fun game for the day and do those things.

In World of Warcraft, you just plug up and play, majority of this is with complete strangers you never met, and unknown untouched masses all over the world unlike Centurion1 which is limited by geography. Due to this, people can have almost unlimited social contact with people, constant company and all sorts of things.

One of the main driving forces behind WoW are really social outcasts, as in, people who do not have many friends, as maybe they are not 'pretty enough' or good enough at sports and other such activities which exclude them. These are the core elements. These people do not have girlfriends (most likely not even seen a naked one) or even boyfriends. Here they are, now in this world, as a pretty Blood Elf female, or as a macho Human warrior, they have a bunch of people they can actually communicate with, and actually fills a void of social interaction, possibly even friendships they have never even experienced before or have very little of. You go up to this person, and go "Why do you not go out and play Football?" and now you have this exposed person, with no friends, cannot even play or even derive enjoyment from the game, and you are suggesting this as an alternative? It is a completely ridiculous notion.

While the above does not composite all WoW gamers, it is the core element and its main attraction to many people. There are obviously advantages in terms of access, the fact it doesn't require much computer resources and other things and $15 is ultimately pretty cheap, especially as the cinema for you and two friends is the same price for tickets alone.

So where does this problem lie? Is World of Warcraft the spawn of the devil that sucks in peoples souls, or is it a greater problem of society at large? In short, it is both the individual and society, not World of Warcraft and summed up in one word "hedonism".

To break this down and keep it simple, I will split all the problems into two categories. "Private" and "Society".

Private:
Priorities - Not spending enough time with your schoolwork? Not going on that date with your girlfriend? It is your fault. You have the power to do your school work, you have the power to go on that date. Ignoring it and playing World of Warcraft is simply the lack of your responsibility for your actions.

Problem with Private:
Depression, Anxiety, an Escape - World of Warcraft isn't the cause of the problem, it is simply a way of people try to escape one. There are problems with the individual which attracts them and keeps them "hooked" as a crutch. There are obvious problems with this, such as a decrease in activities outside of the game. These people would need an intervention, not because they are actually 'addicted' to the game itself, but to address the underlying concerns.

Society:
Catering for Interests - Not everyone cares about sports, There needs to be more accessible places of social interaction. Allow people the opportunity to mix, to talk, to do things they want to do. Also, have these at least at a price that can easily paid for. Cinema ticket for £5 for an hour and a half? It is very non-cost effective.

Problem with Society:
Practicality and Access - World of Warcraft, $15 per month, log onto computer. Going to a lan convention? $15 for 5 hours (or so) involves travel, etc. There are a host of issues involved with our cyborg culture which cannot be remedied so easily.

Anyway, I am in the middle of some work, so I cut corners all over this post. But there you go.


Edit: Also, I thought Louis did the topic, weird.

[Centurion1]

that was actually a good post beskar....... *polite applause*

[johnhughthom]

that was actually a good post beskar....... *polite applause*

Yeah I was shocked too...

Only ever played LoTR online myself and it bored the pants off me. I may get the Bioware Star Wars MMO but I doubt it.

[Secura]

that was actually a good post beskar....... *polite applause*

Yeah, you don't become a BSc in Psychology without being able to talk the talk! :P

So to correct myself, I was obsessed with WoW, rather than addicted, which would have been the case with cigarettes.

[Centurion1]

Yeah, you don't become a BSc in Psychology without being able to talk the talk! :P

So to correct myself, I was obsessed with WoW, rather than addicted, which would have been the case with cigarettes.

awww momma secura is so proud of her little beskie.

im sorry its just too rich.

[Zradha Pahlavan]

WoW isn't as impressive as the name suggests.

[Madoushi]

I'd have to say I'm addicted to gaming in general, though no MMO has ever really tickled my fancy.
I suppose if I could have gotten a career ina field I loved I'd be a workaholic, but since I'm stuck doing blue collar jobs, probably for years to come, I basically just work so I can come home and play games and hang out with friends. I play Total War every day, even if only for an hour. When I'm at work, I always want to race home and play some games, but often by the time I get home I'm too lazy/unmotivated/satisfied from a day's work to really get into it, and often find myself watching TV instead.

So.. yeah. Games an be addictive, not just MMOs. However, like pot, you can quit anytime without getting sick.

[Thermal]

World of Warcraft ....and crack. Same results. Discuss.

Well games simulate parts of your brain which makes people obsessed with them, similarly to drugs, there aren't all that many differences, I would agree.

I would also go along with what Beskar says, that people enjoy being able to interact with others without being judged, whether that be on a game or chatting online.