Ya, so end of March was the 6 month mark, and I'm glad to say that I don't feel any inclination what-so-ever to go back to the game. I'm writing this because I know that I have friends that are addicted, whether or not they want to admit it, and truth be told 40% of WoW players are addicted, with a subscription level of over 10 million, that works out to at least 4 Million people, so don't feel like you're the only one. Don't tell me 'its fun', that's the same response you get from heroin addicts, alcoholics claim to love their booze, and don't tell me Tiger Woods is saying all the sex he had he didnt enjoy. Of course it's fun, that's why you're playing.. it all the game did was send signals to your brain to burn your genitals every 5 minutes, it wouldn't be fun, and chances are you wouldn't be playing for very long.
Anyways, I spent 1000's of hours on that game within a 2.5 year period, so trust me - I did play as much as the rest of them - most likely more at some point - some weeks playing 85+ hours. Thankfully for me I did not have a relationship or job that I was neglecting.
To those of you that are still playing, remember - it's a game, and nobody outside of that gaming community cares what-so-ever about the accomplishments... Achievements don't pay bills, running countless brainless dungeons/raids doesn't earn you anything, and chances are your significant other (if applicable) would much rather prefer a night out, or any time alone vs. hearing you talk to people on Ventrillo/Teamspeak.
It's over 6 months now, and I'm back on the road to college, exercising like a fiend, and have my nutrition finally in order. I didn't do this by myself, I had help, but I made the decision to quit and be done with WoW on my own.
In any OTHER situation besides online gaming, spending countless hours with that many people under the age of 14 would consitute as very weird, if not creepy/illegal unless you're in the teaching profession. So in that respect, you don't need to waste time on the game. Also, unlike real life where if you leave someone important to you they will feel it, most of the time your characters/avatars are fulfilling a specific roll, only for that game. That being siad, should you leave, you will get replaced very fast... and even if you are the best at what you do (heal, tank, dps), it means that you can click a mouse and press a keyboard more effectively than a bunch of other people. You're not actually wielding a weapon, like a sword to a swordsmen, (In fact I would like to see most WoW players try and wield a 5ft Claymore, that would be awesome), or taking hits like a boxer, or healing people like a doctor... it's just mouse clicks that are scripted to change numbers inside tables inside a database that determine whether or not your avatar lives or dies, and the computer generated enemy falls down. Also, the whole construct of an MMORPG is a very simple psychological experiment that makes several companies millionaires. In basic terms, it's a reward system, rewarding the client with different things for good behaviour, and removing things for bad behaviour - similiar to disciplining a child. For example, you kill several hundred enemies - you're rewarded.. if you get through half and they kill you - you die. For killing the enemies, you get wealth, considering greed has been around since the beginning of human existence, this was probably a good thing to include in a game played by humans, who live in societys where wealth is required to survive. So the game continues, starting off very easy so that rewards are quick and fast, and building a dependancy that causes the player to engage in more game time because psychologically they have accomplished something and enjoy the feeling. So you go on and on, the rewards become less and less pronounced(experience required for next level increases, difficulty of quests increases etc). So eventually you have to spend much more time to get a reward. Once you hit the max level, the dynamic is still the same, but presented differently - the reward is when you go through a dungeon, but this time, it's set on a timer so only once a day can you try it - adds an element of risk, meaning you have to try that much harder. However, the reward is still there when you complete it, and completing several dungeons/quests brings us to raids, which are more spread out, and again - harder and harder requiring more time. The so called 'expansions' are nothing more than a package of rewards requiring more time to achieve, combined with a few new features for advertising sake that really don't change the overall aspect of the game - they're just the shiny things on the box that attract people about the same amount as red cereal boxes. When all is said and done, the only thing that WoW has done, is robbed you of years of your life, and compromised your health to the point that withdrawing from the game seems nearly impossible because you have nothing to show for outside of it. I will admit I did relapse a couple times, I'm not saying quitting is easy. To non-gamers they don't understand the addiction, because the medical industry has not written a book on how to handle computer-game addiction. There have not been long drawn out studies of long term effects, and the advertising money is already used for things like cancer and alcohol treatment, so help is hard to find.
If there are any friends of mine out there that need help to combat their addiction, I will be more than happy to assist them. I don't have any medical qualifications, or certificates, I was just a gamer that got sucked into WoW, and broke his way out.
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