Thankyou

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 (:

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.

PS: i have a hot GF to and she has a night elf female rogue , and she kicks my ass )

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.