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.
My WoW story is the following…I started playing WoW when I was 13 and BC was not out yet,on a private server with some friends from school but I didn’t like it verry much so I stopped playing it.At 14 I entered high school and a coleague of mine introduced me to another private server wich was pretty good and in 1 month I had a lvl 70.However I soon realized the difference between a private server and Blizzard so after another month I bought the game and started playing it on Blizzard,realm Sylvanas(European realm).I made in about 3 months a lvl 70 rogue but somehow the game began to be boring.I got some epics for the rogue but eventualy I stopped playing the game and began focusing on other single-player games.
In april 2009 however,after talking with some friends on YT,after seeing how nice WotLK is from videos around YT,and after being incredibly bored of SP games I started playing WoW again.Right now I have a lvl 80 DK and a lvl 78 Mage on Al’Akir(European).Things are great.
My thoughts on this ”addiction” are that is nothing wrong having a hobby like WoW.It’s allmost the same thing as socializing.What non WoW players can’t seem to understand is that this is not just a simple game.It’s a comunity.I can’t say I play WoW every hour of my life but on 90% of my free time this is what I do and I feel great about it.
And an advice for those of you that don’t want to get addicted to the game yet they want to play it.The main reason why this game is so addictive are it’s instances.So,instead of doing them,make only battlegrounds.Make sure you make a good PvP character like a Paladin or a Rogue and start doing battlegrounds.Of course they can be verry frustrating but at least they are not as addictive as raids are.
And if you want to quit the game then you Must search another hobby.People play WoW because,like me,don’t have anything else to do.The ”destroy your computer” thing or ”lock you computer in a safe” doesn’t work and will only make you feel worse,so search for a hobby that will replace WoW and that will not have the same efect like playing WoW.
Hope this helps.
[...] There’s obviously more to it, but what’s important to understand here is the fact that a lot of unhappy people absolutely lose themselves to this game in the same manner as a drug addict. It gets pretty dark, to say the least, but let’s have [...]
I used to be addicted in WOW. I had 4 lvl 80s and full geared too. I knew from the beginning this game is very addictive and lots of my friend gamer warned me about it.
However, Let me tell you why did I start playing WOW and how I quited the game.
I am a easily depressed person. I’m Asian, and lived in a very strict, accomplishment bounded rule. Every time I accomplish whatever order given by my parents, instead of getting praised, they will tell me what I missed to the very last detail. I am totally fed up and my only way to get joy is by playing game.
So I decided to purchase WOW and play the game. From the start it feels kinda fun playing this game. I keep playing and playing till I reached the achievements and found guilds. The guilds treat me well, they congratulate me on every accomplishment I have, treated me as human being (eventhough it is through the net). I like the environment, the friendliness in WOW.
Later I found out, I seperated myself from my social life, I gained weight (used to be 180, now I’m at 250), my grades dropping (in fact I got a W in one of my college subject), and I keep paying blizzard 15 bucks per month. I have a feeling that I’m going downhill. So I decided to stop my addiction.
My first stop only last for 3 months then I played WOW again. The reason I got back is the same reason I wrote above. But to add my discovery, I had nothing planned on my free tim (since I seperated myself from the social life before). So I got back in, but this time is different. I planned my time carefully, for study, for playing, and for activity. I had lots of helps from my friends to remind me for every activity comes up. Eventually I finished my degree until Master Degree (YES, while playing WOW too), and I’m proud of my timelining.
After a lookback on my age(25) and my future, I have yet get any job or making any money. Through all those thinking, I decided to give another stop from WOW and tried harder into finding more activity. I decided to open up my own business. All research, data, and work to build this business really keep my mind off from WOW pretty good. My second stop lasted until now (I’m 27 now). I have yet touch anything WOW related. I successfully build my store and it is growing steadily now. And so this is my story.
NOTE FOR ALL!! WOW is not all bad, yet not all good either. Some players have good reason why they got addicted into WOW; is all for escape from harsh life reality, seek comfort, and goal achieving, or even try to find social life. However, LIFE is HARD. Reality check, WOW, not only get $15, but additional $8 (minimum wage salary in CA)per hour everytime you play. Easy calculation, say you work full time (40 hours a week) in one month you can actually MAKE $1300, but instead of working you play WOW, so it can be calculated as you wasted $1300 in that month PLUS $15 (not yet calculated, internet bill, electricity, and food/snacks).
To conclude everything, I should say for those people who have problem with their relative, spouse, family, friends who have this addicting problem, FIND the reason why they play this game. Find out what did they find pleasure in this game. Try find the subtitute to fulfill those pleasure they got in the game through real life. Remember, WOW is a repetitive kind of addiction. Eventhough you delete your character or even delete your account, that urge for coming back to re-do the character will come back.
So, call some friends, try get a job, try keep your mind busy, try find those what you seek in real world, and I guarantee you, you will be able to break the addiction.
WoW is the most addictive game ever invented. It uses the most basic psychological method to train you to need to play to get the dopamine rush from acheivements, gold, leveling, etc. As the game progresses, it takes more and more time to get to the next level, to get the same effect. So the addict invests more and more time into it, shutting everyone and everything else out in order to keep the rush going. WoW has destroyed marriages, friendships(like mine with my former best friend), the parent-child bond, careers, and altered the personalities of people who were once worth something to the world. I’m glad I quit WoW. In fact, I’m planning a little party to blow up my discs. Explosions are awesome.
I have a story to share about this game as well. I am 33 years old. Personally, I have no use for this game. My father is the addict. He is 65 years old, and is completely addicted to this game. He plays 16 hours per day. He lost my mother to this video game. He decided he would rather live in this fantasy world than deal with reality. Our entire family tried to reason with him time and time again. In 2008 we all gave up. No one talks to him anymore. Not myself, not my brothers, not my mother, no one. He gave up everything in order to live in the game. He refuses to admit he has a problem. He believes everyone else has a problem if they are unwilling to play the game as well. He needs counselling but will never go. I decided quite some time ago to give up on even picking up the phone and calling him to say hello. He is incapable of having a discussion about anything other than the game. I eventually became tired of him belittling me for refusing to join him in the game world. Attempting to reason with him is a useless endeavor. In his eyes, my mother is to blame for their failed marriage as well. He is just completely blind to the fact that he is the one with the problem.
My husband is an addict. Currently, WOW and drinking are his addictions of choice! WOW is an addiction for addicts just like drinking, drugging, sleeping around etc. Once an addict gets started with WOW there is no stopping them. They stop at nothing to play! They lie, cheat, blame it on you, give you the cold shoulder all in the name of playing a video game. My husband promised not to play on his off nights from work (he is a fireman and works every other day 24 hour shifts) and promised not to let it come between us again. Well, after becoming the raid leader here we are in a mess again! He now gets mad at me when I remind him of his promise. There is no talking to or reasoning with an addict while they are in the middle of it. Telling them how you feel does no good. All we can do is take care of ourselves! Good luck to all of you who are living with a WOW addict.
Well. I’ve been playing WoW for a little over a year now. I did terrible in school as a freshmen due to playing WoW nonstop. I used to be fit and in shape now I’m decently shaped. I spend all my time thinking about what I want to do on WoW how I want to raise my DPS what raid I want to do, what gear I want to get. However just recently some of my family members read to me about a 13 year old that killed himself over WoW, and I think to my self, how can you possible do that over this game? Then it hit me, if this can happen to someone else why couldn’t it happened to me sometime along the road. When I’ve become so addicted if something insanely huge goes wrong that I might hurt myself. I really do know I have to quit I try. I study more then I ever had I hang out with my friends more often then before, but I still can’t find myself to stop playing WoW on the weekends and talking to friends that I used to know, and then bringing a laptop to watch T.V while I wait for something exciting to happen online. To be honest i really just want to quit and get my life in order again. I’m 15 and im addicted to WoW and I can’t stop, I don’t even want to think about how my life will be if I don’t stop playing. So all in all I want to know WHY is it that out of every single game I’ve ever played that World of Warcraft has to be the most addicting most…played game ever… (All the grammer mistakes. All because of WoW (imo))
Hi.
I’d like to add a few thoughts on this subject, addictions I have and my thoughts on them.
I’m 27 years old now, around 2005 I started playing World of Warcraft and very quickly fell in love with the game. I was completely addicted and I was putting in huge amounts of hours. I had also just started working at the time, I was doing Seven Twelve hour shifts every fortnight, 3 days on, 4 off then 4 on 3 off rotating over the 24 hour clock. Now on my days off i would very easily play 24 hours straight and quite often 36. On the days I worked I would do a 12 hour shift come home turn the computer on and play till I fell asleep. There were a number of times I came off a twelve hour shift, played eleven hours without sleep and went back to work for another twelve hour shift. Scary no? I was always tired, hated talking to people in real life, turned my phone off, ate very poorly, had poor hygiene and was generally a complete mess. I had one good friend who called round often (thank god for him) who i would tell to f-off most of the time but he never would ha ha. So I would still go out sometimes and interact in real life. This went on for about four months. My parents actually called round to check if i was still alive once as i wouldn’t answer the phone. This had no effect on me either. I didn’t care. I couldn’t be convinced i had a problem, no one understood my passion. The only reason I stopped playing was that I left my job, partly because of World of Warcraft and partly other reasons. I was planning on moving also and had a period of having no internet access of my own but constantly thinking of WOW and looking at forums and anything WOW related online. This break of internet service was a godsend. When I did relocate and eventually set up my broadband again I went straight back to the game but I wasn’t as interested. I had hit the level cap (60). A long time ago. People were talking about the Burning Crusade expansion but it was still 6 months off or so. Instead I turned my attention to poker and sports gambling, and still playing a little Warcraft. Gambling was another addiction I battled with, and had already struggled with before my addiction to World of Warcraft but in terms of socially and even health wise I was better off(financially not so much). I was also working in customer service for a large online gambling agency which didn’t help
. I met a girl during this time who really didn’t know much about my gambling or World of Warcraft addictions (still doesn’t know the extent of how bad i was or can be) but over a period of two years she eventually became my addiction. I would spend all my time with her. During this time It is well worth mentioning that I left my job at the gambling agency and got a job as a Game Master(customer service) for World of Warcraft haha the irony. I was very excited by this, believing I would meet lots of kindred spirits, make new friends and play WOW in a controlled manner. Whilst I did meet some nice people there I generally found that everyone there was pretty much into themselves and their own avatars, these were the elite players in the country and they knew it. It was just really stupidly competitive about who had the most general knowledge and lore about the game, and the majority of them were also WOW addicts, this wasn’t who I wanted to be anymore. When I finally finished training and started to answer tickets/questions/requests it made me dislike the game, sucked any remaining thought of fun out of the game for me. The burning crusade came out about three weeks into the job, I got to around level 64 i think and quit permanently, I haven’t played since, I also quit the job. I started working for a delivery company closed all my gambling accounts saved money and went traveling, I am still away from home with my girlfriend today.
Please note I have not beaten my addictions, I have simply replaced them or been distracted, at the moment I feel I am just distracted by being abroad and have played online poker for twelve hours straight and Football Manager on a few occasions since over heer, once i start one of these activities i do not want to stop and play for lots of hours, overall tho I am much better off than I was with WOW in terms of balance and stability, Its worth noting that every time I have changed addiction I’m usually going through major life changes, I believe wanting or needing a life change is a big reason of forming an addiction like WOW and one of the best ways of curing or changing the addiction. WOW is the perfect escape from making these changes. You can continuously make accomplishments in this game for for X amount of HOURS, have complete control of every facet of what you do, who you talk to, what you want to accomplish in a completely safe and controlled environment. In real life accomplishments take X amount of MONTHS or YEARS of hard work to accomplish and are never sure to happen. So for those of you who have partners/friends/family who are addicted to WOW and asking for help, there are no easy answers. It is starting to be recognized more as a serious addiction but specialized help and therapy is not yet readily available. I hear there are psychologists who want to treat people in the game through the game but this has not happened yet. Also I believe the first online addiction therapy retreat has been opened but this will be way to expensive for the average person.I believe general therapy/counseling could help if you can convince the person to attend.When I worked the few weeks as a game master for blizzard and the outsource company they partnered with there was no policy for someone who claimed they were addicted to the game (that I remember) and I never heard of any cases coming to us, we had procedure for people who claimed to be suicidal or abusive and such. For gambling however if you claim to be addicted you can opt out for life with the company permanently locking you out and tracking your credit card, name, address and date of birth account details to ensure they are never activated with an account again. This is somewhat ineffective tho as there are so many gambling companies and they do not collaborate, its easy to open a new account with another. It would be an idea for WOW tho as there is only one WOW really(other mmorpg games but none with the same appeal) so it may be worth contacting Blizzard and requesting this to see if its possible to lock them out. I believe the problem is tho that your partner or friend is probably extremely bored and jaded with life and desperately wants a change, this is the problem that needs to be addressed. The first step is trying to communicate with a person addicted to the game(i would not talk to anyone), I would recommend joining the affected person in the game, buying a second computer and asking them to help you start and level. Tell them since you can’t beat them you’ll join them. This will give you access to all the lines of communication of the affected person allowing you more influence but will likely require time and patience. From there I do not know, you should know the person better than anyone, try not to be to negative and finger wagging tho. Try methods like “do you remember when we did X event”. Jog memories of real life that were good and try and peak interest in real life activities, offer exciting alternatives to what they are doing, maybe job change or a job fullstop, whatever you think they need, it may have to be drastic!
Any way I’ve been ranting forever, hope this helps someone, this link has some handy tips also http://www.wikihow.com/Break-a-World-of-Warcraft-Addiction.
Good Luck.
Dudes , i play WoW for 4-5 years , since the day it arived to my country. I am Addicted : i have 5 lvl 80 chars , 4 lvl 70 , and my DK is lvl 68 . I am addicted but dont want to remove wow from my life (i dont belive wow is my life ) i go to the swimming pool daily for 5-6 hours ,i usualy play in the morning 2-3 hours and near the night 3-4 hours . If you can , dont start playing , is a addicting game . Just listen me
PS: i have a hot GF to
and she has a night elf female rogue , and she kicks my ass 
)
I wouldn’t consider myself highly addicted, but some of the things said here are surprisingly familiar. I have a love/hate relationship with this game and have told myself “no more” only to log back on later for another 4-hour raid. I didn’t really know anyone else in RL who played until recently, and hearing them describe their low-level ambitions made me think back to three years ago and how I was the same way, and how I’d never predicted spending so much time on WoW. I really enjoy the Player vs. Player aspect of these games, and it used to be that I could log for an hour or so a day and advance at a satisfactory pace (TBC). Not so anymore, if you want to be a good PvPer you need to raid and arena now takes much more time than it used to, with many higher rated players averaging well over 2,000 games a season (I played around 500).
Reading these posts has almost seemed therapeutic, I cannot imagine many of the problems (losing family and house) but many others ring true. I just went on and cancelled subscription, and am anxiously looking forward to a life free of WoW influences.
ARE YOU GUYS SERIOUS? GET A FUCKING LIFE SERIOUSLY.
My “girlfriend” moved down here a few months ago and after a few weeks ask if I would buy her a subscription card. I knew she had an account and I knew she liked to play….I just didn’t realize how much.
She gets up at 2 P.M. and goes directly to her computer and starts playing WoW. She doesn’t cook anymore, she never cleans, she just plays WoW until about 6 A.M. and then does it all over again. I am so kicking her out next week. I can’t deal with this crap anymore.
I seriously hate the wow game i have been with my bf for almost 5 years now we fight non stop about the game when i met him he would be so active play basketball always outside so fun to be around now i get an hour or 2 of his time and he gets bored and wants to play i have to go to bed alone and wake up 2 him playing it at times i feel bad wanting to take something away i know he loves and its hard but its even harder for me and i cant stand it any longer im afraid if i stay with him i will just be unhappy forever i just want things the way they use 2 be i dont know how to get through to him and now that im looking it up i see so many more people have the same problem i dont know if there is hope when we talk about this it ends up in a fight or he calls me crazy and thinks its not a problem he says that he can stop any time he wants he just chooses not 2 i feel he loves the game more then me and im just not important to him anymore i gave up so much for this relationship and im not saying he is a bad person who does nothing cause he does go to work eveyday and gets me things i want and need but i just feel like thats all it is anymore i thought writting this would make me feel so much better but it just makes me feel worse oh well at least i got to say it and get everything off my chest
Hi Im 14 years old and I used playing wow in the age of 12.I was addicted.I was playing for around 6-7 hours a day and \I wanted more.I was aalways arguing with my friends because I wasnt hanging out with them.One advice.THINK FOR YOUR LIFE.Unistallations or other action will not work.THink man,THINK
WoW isn’t a horrible game. It was created and is still being developed for entertainment. I personaly have tried playing to passify mu husband. However, I’m not into mmorps like he is. He struggles with the addiction and has for years when it comes WoW. Our relationship has deteraited for years due to the complexity of the game’s addiction. Not but a few days ago, he threw the keyboard and an ashtray at me becuase I was complaing to him about playing. A few minutes later he choked me and slapped me…(this is the first time he ever used physical violence toward me) His problem is pretty serious, and so is mine. When he’s not playing WoW, he is a wounderful man. When WoW is on his agenda, he becomes someone I despise. I have got to the point to where I can’t actually sleep (i work nights) during the day, because i here constant typing from our computer room… taling too with vent… He told me after our incident a few days ago that if I would stay with him, he would quit the game. I really want to believe this, but he has quit before in the past. It doesn’t last long, maybe a few months. This is his last chance. Time will tell.
As for any others out there dealing with this addiction, please be aware that it is a real problem. Addictive personality dissorder has a major contribution to this addiction… It’s sad to watch your loved ones drink, do drugs, gamble, etc. It’s even as sad to watch them become warped into a game. If you yourself have ever been the grips of addiction, you know what it feels like to be the person adicted. It’s hard to tell someone they have a problem, but it’s even harder admitting to yourelf that you have a problem.
WoW will be ariund just like street drugs or alcohol or porn… whatever your posion is anyway. You have to be strong to let it not become part of your life. That’s why I am in the process of looking into divource. I walked away from my past clean. I am not an addicr, and I wont live with one either.
good luck,
~K~
Its not wow that ruins..everything…any other game could do that…its not blizzards fold…its just that your wife…lost herself in fantasy world…wow is great game…you just need to control yourself….
I have a friend who has a serious WoW addiction. He makes up B.S. reasons to skip work so that he can go home and play WoW! And then looses yet another job, and of course he doesn’t mind at all since he can then just spend more time all day at home playing WoW again. Dude might apply to ONE job posting online and he’ll tell his mom “I’VE BEEN JOB HUNTING ALL DAY BUT NOBODY WILL HIRE ME!”. The dude needs serious help.
Guys i am not an adult and i am not going to tell my age for safety reasons.2 years ago i would hide the fact that i had tests from my parents and play for 5 hours a day, i would beat my brother if he was on the pc and i would shut to people.When i went to school i would have black-circles around my eyes and i would get low marks always beetwen 40% and 60% even though before i started wow my average was never less than 80%.i would not go cinema with my m8s and i would look like an idiot:walking with clothes smaller than my size, bittng my nails and not beeing able to speak.Then a funny thing happened.i accidentaly uninstalled the game.When i didn’t paly wow after nearly 1 1/2 years of pure hardcore addiction i would find a lot of thigns that are worth more than the ime consuming game.i re-started wow 3 months later, this time i wasn’t the die hard player i was before(i played 8 hrs a day), i would play a total of 8 hrs a week.Imprvment was made.In summer i tried other games and i also started writting for a webpage.I did productive work and i didn’t care that my Gamecard run out.Now i got again my gm and i barely play more than 1 1/2 hour a day.if you qui the game and find something else to do,something productive and then restart you will lose the addiction.AT LEAST IT WORKED FOR ME
I wish WoW never existed. My boyfriend is in denial about the time he spends here. I slammed his laptop shut the one night saying “game over.” He can’t part with the computer long enough for repair, so I suppose the warranty will expire.
My guy is also overweight. He’s more interested in playing this game than getting into shape. I think anyone spending this much time out of reality should be getting compensated monetarily. I can think of 100 different ways to spend time in a more healthful fashion.
Hello i have ben addicted to wow for 3-4 years at some points it have ben really bad raiding every single day and so on i was a hardcore gamer in the best guild on alakir and so on….. you might find this funny but i quit wow by duing 3 things. i tought of my self 2 years back and asked my self what have i acomplished … and i realised it was all a bunch of pixels… funny i dident see this before..
Anyway i started with going out with my friends in the weekends and so on and now i sold my char 4 months ago and its all good (:
Anyway on the downside i smoke weed every second day now…. dident do that when i played wow (: but oh well aslong as its only weed (:
I’ve been playing WoW on and off since release, I first played whilst I was still at school. At one point in my life, I was involved in a serious “road traffic accident” and went into a depressive state, which caused me to play WOW an awful lot.. which cost me my GF. I stopped playing once me and said GF got back together, we went on holiday, moved out.. got engaged! Once we got our own house, I started to play again, not often, just when I had spare time and that was good. I played when I could, which meant I enjoyed it! I didn’t raid and haven’t since i was depressed. My fiancé is currently at university studying a fashion degree, and is very, very busy.. I only work part-time so I have alot of spare time. So I started to play WoW more. My Fiancé doesn’t mind me playing aslong as i’ve done my chores and don’t ignore her (which I never do) Tonight she was researching something for her Uni work, and decided to read through some comments. She now thinks i’ll ignore our children (if/when) we have them, and her.. I told her i’d get rid of my laptop if thats what she wants, and that still isn’t enough. Any suggestions? Do I sound addicted to it? If so I will seak out help.
Thankyou
P.S I cook for an hour every evening, and eat 3 meals a day, and i’m physically fit.. so i’m not fat, or malnourished as most of you say you are/or know people are.
A world of warcraft addiction is just like every other addiction. It is up to you to say no and move on. It is imperative though that you understand what the addiction is costing you and in most cases your social life. Gaining an appreciation for social interaction is one way to get an understanding of the costs of a WOW addiction.