World of Warcraft Addiction Stories
By William on Monday, July 16th, 2007 at 9:35 PM PST In World of Warcraft
Are you addicted to WoW? Warcraft addictions seem to be fairly common. I’m definitely not saying there is anything wrong with video game addictions. We all need to have at least one addiction or two in life. Video game addiction is better for you than say an addiction to crack or meth, plus video games don’t turn your lips purple, at least in most cases anyway.
AskApadwe.com put together an interesting collection of WoW addictions. Head over there to check it out sometime and see if any of the stories sound familiar. Some of these stories are on the sad side, but they are part of life. Fortunately whenever my girlfriend complains about me playing too many games, I can tell her it’s for work and everything is good.
I find all of this a bit strange. My wife is addicted to WOW. I dont know what to do. she plays with every free moment she has. Ever since BC came out she has been playing nonstop. My problem with it is all the time dedicated to playing. She spends more time with her online friends, which are all guys, than she does with me. I have also found that she has one of her online friends phone number and they are conversing out of the game.
I am at my wits end. I feel i should call this guy and let him know she is married and not on Wow to hook up but i am afraid of what the consequences of doing that will be. I am this close to filing for divorce. And when i do i will send blizzard and dell a thank you for ruining my marriage. without them (blizzard and dell) i think i would still have my wife.
I just quit WoW after nearly 2 years of it. I had three level 70s with six more alts in the 30-45 range…so yeah, I played a lot. Like many of the other stories you read, WoW was the only thing I ever did when I wasn’t working. I didn’t quit by choice though. My girlfriend of nearly 9 years gave me an ultimatum to either quit the game or get out.
Of course now I’m blogging constantly, so it’s either one addiction or another.
that’s the thing people do not understand about addictions…it’s a personality trait and I firmly believe that anyone who is addicted to something will have to replace it with something else before quitting.
Yea, I’ve been playing WoW since it came out and I can never stop playing it. The problem is I am only 15 and just left school, now waiting for my exam results I fear that because I was playing WoW alot between my exams that it would have a major effect on my results. I know it’s a problem and that I need to stop playing but its just so dam hard to quit.
I’ve always said that everyone needs an addiction and I agree with William, it’s a trait of life and yeah, this isn’t as bad as drugs, but it can kill your social life in exchange for saying “Awww dude, just got me some sweet epic gear. +20 endurance” (or however it goes, hell I dunno). I’m sure I’d like the game, but I just don’t want to get drawn into it.
Additionally, I dislike the idea of paying monthly. It forces you to want to play it. Also, I prefer to go from game to game. Yeah, if a game is addicting you’ll play it for hours on end (Star Ocean, first disc, very addicting) but you need to break it up (Wipeout: Fusion).
How can World of Warcraft not be addicting? Although I no longer play, I sometimes feel tempted when I think about it. I had to quit when I realized it was sucking the life out of me (which is fine) but I have other priorities.
If I ever win the lottery….aside from making sure my family is taken care of and I do all the things I’ve dreamed of, I would definitely start playing WoW again.
Will ur not alone
my gf of over 4 years did that shit to me… gradually she played more than spending time with me…even on my b-day she played wow then spending anytime with me…theres no winner in that situation bro… think about it before you do something stupid…i made a choice that basically destroyed everything
My husband played WOW in the hospital delivery room while I was in labor having our son!! I now have 2 kids and find myself alone many nights (2-4 nights a week) taking care of them. It has put such a strain on our marriage, not to mention he is sneaky about it, spending money, buying gold and characters without my knowledge, etc.I absolutely despise this game and everything it has done to our lives.
Holy piss! You’re afraid to talk to your wife?
That’s the real problem
Blizzrd or Dell didn’t ruin your marriage. Obviously you should be going to counseling if you’re thinking about a divorce because of a video game. Talk to her about it. Tell her you don’t like her playing that much. I don’t play when my girlfriend is home. I play in my real free time. True, I’m not leveling nearly as fast with this character, but there are other things that are more important than a video game. I talk to many people outside of the game. Some of which are female. I have no other intentions other than talking to them. Basically what I’m saying is:
Stop blaming companies and start blaming someone who’s really at fault.
If you get addicted to a video game then you fail as a human being.
hm …
So you’re blameing your complete failure to keep her interested on a online game, which could at least satisfy her time?
there is cause and effect here – except it isn’t
Dell and WoW stole my wife!
It’s simply becuse you’re a failure.
Gameover, please try again.
In response to the guy that losing his marriage.. If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em! Seriously.. Get on there, especially when you know she is playing too.
When you are a pathetic newbie, other players usually want to help you out.. Tell them your plight. You might find an online romance to counter your wives. Find a bunch of girls on there and get their numbers too. Make her jealous..
She obviously likes to play games. My guess is that she’s into mind games just like all women are. Become more powerful than she is with a bigger following of friends! You never know, the two tribes could merge and you may end up with an online romance with your wife, imagine that!
I was addicted to WoW for 2 years, I got a job at a net cafe just so I could play it constantly all day long, I failed all my university courses and alienated those who love me. I would dream about dungeon raid tactics whilst asleep and I lived off microwave noodles.
I didn’t do any laundry, I hardly left the house apart from going to work, and I also started drinking heavily during long night raids.
My girlfriend eventually told me it was her or WoW, and I spent a few days weighing the two up (I actually made a pro-con chart between the two) and in the end, she won over Warcraft.
I can’t believe i nearly choose a video game over my girlfriend….
now I stand firmly against WoW and all online games, it’s all solo RPG’s for me now.
Tom, I thank you SO very much. I don’t know what it was about your comment, but for some reason when I read your comment, my mind just ejected the idea of WoW out of it. My life was most likely saved because of you. Once again, THANK YOU!
I thank you for your comment, it reminded me of myself a whole lot…
But on my part, it’s Education or World of Warcraft.
I can’t believe I almost screw my education because of this game……
Live life hard my friend…………………..
I played WoW for 4 months and got utterly tired of it…I am probably one of the rarest gamers who actually didn’t like WoW since it was soooo time consuming. I only had a lvl 47 war and never played BC. I believe addiction isn’t a innate, it’s a characteristic of the person…i also believe wow addiction is pretty similiar to drug addiction
wow addiction – play 15 hrs a day, loose money, first friends leave you and then loved ones leave you and end up alone
drug addiction – smoke/inject w/e 4-5 times a week, loose money, first firends leave you then loved ones leave you and again end up alone….
its very say but true
look forward to everyone’s feedback, bad or good
It sounds like you let this problem happen by not talking it out with your wife. You can’t blame the game for being a game, or the game company for making games, but you can blame yourself and your wife for not dealing with the problem sooner. Talk it over with her and tell her that either the game goes or you do. This method is incredibly effective (I saw it used on my friend) Fourtunatley it’s never been used on me, I would rather spend time with my girlfriend than a game
I played it for 6 months and got one char to lvl 56. I kinda quit around lvl 50 then left the game. I came to WOW with no experience of MMORPG and was dissapointed to find there were not a 100 thousand players forming a community but different servers subdivided and seperate, mostly with about a few thousand players and a few hundred online, at my lvl and playing.
So after joining a good guild an playing fo a bait the whole thing started to become pointless, kill X number of animals and fly to 3 places then return got really boring. I would say to anyone play it for the first 6 months and enjoy the whole experience of discovering the world and getting into it then quit because there is no hidden part to WOW.
The easiest way to quit WoW is to look at Everquest. I spent so much time on that thing, and even if I wanted to keep up with that addiction, there’s no one left to play with! WoW will be just like that. In 5-6 years, the game will be dead as any other MMO and you will have wasted your time. Just try to look at the fact that your efforts, no matter what, in the long run will be for NOTHING. Look at it like that and it’s damn easy to quit those.
No, WOW will be huge for at least 10 years. Suddenly 11 million people can’t quit like that
Sure they can. AION comes out Sept. 22., and there’s been mass dissatisfaction with the meganerf that was 3.2; not to mention the utterly lame-sounding upcoming Cataclysm expansion (no new continent, no new classes, Goblins and Worgen as new playable races, WTF?). I think Blizz shot themselves in one foot with 3.2 and is about to shoot themselves in the other with Cataclysm, and they’re going to see a mass customer exodus to AION which will probably displace them the same way they displaced Everquest. That said, after a year of WoW, I’m done with MMORPGs for good. I’ve got a real life to live.
i had a wife, 3 houses, 3 cars, money in the bank. i stopped working. i went through a divorce. i had to sell a house. i had to sell a car. i have nothing in my bank account now, but good thing my wow account is paid in full a year in advance. my credit is in ruins.
i don’t care.
i am l337
The best thing to do is not to play on line, that’s it. When I used to play online, I could never stop, there was always someone around the world to play with me, never boring. So now I stopped, and I play only off line, so it’s easier to stop. When a good game comes out, I finish it, then pass to the next one. Also less frustrating.
I decided not to buy the game after burning up almost a month of my life using the free trial discs. My wife knew I enjoyed the game and bought it for me as a Valentine’s Day gift but I immediately returned it for fear of what might become of me.
As far as addictions go…yeah everyone has “addictions” and some people are more susceptible to becoming addicted to specific things. It’s just that some products/things seem to be designed in a way as to addict consumers (i.e. tobacco, WoW, etc…).
Rather than say “eveyone needs an addiction”, try saying “everyone needs a hobby”, which is essentially a well managed addiction that doesn’t take control of your life.
I actually found a good blend to enjoy this game at its’ max. while playing WoW, I often times felt that i was too tired to even move my fingers, thus ending my playing session. a friend introduced me to something called “crystal meth”. boy, oh boy! how amazing! now i dont have to worry about falling asleep at the computer. I can stay up for days at a time now, thanks to methamphetamines!
Im just joking. I’ve never tried meth or world of warcraft.
You morons! That’s an addiction? How about this…A couple were just sentenced to prison because they were TOO BUSY WITH WoW TO FEED THEIR BABY!!!
I am not a WoW addict. My “friend” is though. After introducing him to it he sold his business and stayed at home for 14 months sometimes playing for 36 hours before sleeping. He finally had to get a job b4 almost going bankrupt and losing his house. Now he works for a couple of weeks, just long enough to take care of bills, and then quits, so he can go back to “full time” WoW. He ignores his kids and when he has custody of them (every other week) they eat ramen noodles and wish their dad had more time for them. The whole thing is really sad. I gave up WoW 2 weeks after BC because I didn’t want to end up like the sad loser that was my friend.
You know, in the first year I was playing wow it seemed like I would just die without it. But then I turned 12, got a leather jacket, jeans and some awesome shoes. So I decided Hey why not just live a lot more in the reality. So I got a GF and I was still playing wow in between the weekends for an hour or so to get my char up. I leveled quickly though, I didn’t really play much or know, I just kept plowing through every quest I could find and after a year or so I was up to 70, and I just leveled a another char to 29 and partly did battlegrounds to get the items and got him to 39 and left him at that with best gear, but one day my GF decided to surprise me for my 13 Birthday so she sneaked into my room and saw me. She was staring at me in a really weird way, and I thought that was the end of our relationship, but she smiled a huge grin and said “YOU PLAY?” and I said yeah and showed her my chars. Later she told me she played because of her brother who’s in college and her whole family plays so they stay in contact and have fun together. She said she didn’t tell me because I might think of her differently and we just talked for a while and then she showed me her chars on Azjol Nerub and she was way better than me. Later I switched to her realm to play with her. Soon Wrath of The Lich King came out and so her family decided to give it as a present to me, while I was gonna get them WOTLK too. So we got into her dad’s van and headed off to SF blizzard company to get the games and we were waiting in line and everybody rejoiced with hot cocoa, blankets and earmuffs. Soon we had the game and we headed to their house and I downloaded it on the way since I had my laptop and then we all got on it and the death knight area was so packed and lagging, but our computers were very fast and we did our quests and by 11 we had gone to OL and had a 5 man group and we all focused on getting to 80 fast and we did it in about 3 months, and rejoiced our victory by raiding Naxx on heroic and then we went to have a party and her brother had been visiting from college that time around. Now I have an 80 DK named Timebombz on Azjol Nerub and my druid Survivers and we are a happy family and lately my parents have started playing and now I’m in high school and doing great with my GF who turned out to be my soulmate
My boyfriend introduced me to WoW last summer, thinking it would be a good thing for us to enjoy together. Needless to say, he got into it pretty heavily, while I started getting bored. He then decided to quit the game. I, however, would still like to play a few nights a week. We came to an agreement that I could raid Tues-Thurs. Other than that, I may get on for an hour or two, with his ok. Now he says I am addicted, and I need to give up the game. Is this an addiction? I don’t agree; WoW is the first and only MMORPG I have ever played. He has given me an ultimatum – him or the game. I don’t do well with ultimatums – especially over something I feel he is making a bigger deal out of than is necessary, and that it’s more a power issue with him than anything else. I’m curious to know what other people think.
Help! I did not believe women can get addicted to Warcraft – but its true!
My wife doesnt work, just looks after house and 2 kids, 8 and 4.
She started on this game couple years back to pass some time, now she is addicted.
I know she is having an affair on the internet now, not sure if that parts thru Wow though. I caught her on with a Webcam with some naked guy on the screen. she just said she has no idea how she gets porn on her screen – but im not that stupid.
The house is a mess, the kids run around doing anything they want. I came home the other day and kids had smeared s*** on the bathroom wall!
My son’s pants are 2 sizes too small, and now I have to do groceries because she just gets them mcdonalds every day.
We yell and fight every day now in front of kids. The kids cry and I am pulling out my hair!
I work really long hours just to pay the bills, because my wife does not work.
I still love her and dont know what to do next.
Accidentally break the computer
She’s cheating on you let her live her loser life..you don’t need her anymore. Plenty of other better women
First off, I wanted to express some sympathy for those who have friends, loved ones and the like who are addicted to the game. Many people don’t seem to take it so seriously, it is after all “just a game”… but it IS possible to get addicted and the consequences won’t be pleasant. People’s lives get ruined because of these ridiculous games that they let take control of their lives. I am not saying people should quit playing, only that they should limit themselves… most of them simply can’t see how negatively it can affect their lives if they become reliant.
My boyfriend plays WoW. He “quit” once but ended up starting back up again. Now it’s starting to worry me a little bit… the past few months he’s decided to put his effort in at school and do his homework… now all he does is go home and play, I have no idea when he gets off the computer at night. I’m not even sure if he’s been doing his schoolwork… last night he was complaining about how he didn’t want to do it, around 9 pm. He used to not delay it…
I see him like… once a week, and most of the time (recently), he’s been leaving early to go do his “raids”.
I’m scared for him… he has so much potential, he could become anything he wanted to! However, the game seems to be dragging him down just as he started actually caring about education. When I thought he had realized the importance school, he slipped. I know I may sound like a mother, but that’s only because I am in love with him, and I want to spend the rest of my life with him… and high school counts because that’s what colleges look at, and to have a good career it really helps to be accepted into a good college. Know what I mean? He has high goals, but I don’t know how he can achieve them by playing from 2:30 till midnight basically every day…
I don’t want it to ruin us. La