Recovering WoW Addict- give me that push!

[Jike Ichi]

I also played WOW since it came out. Only stopped recently. Good thing is to reduce the hours...and stop raids.
When you stop that it becomes incredible boring and you quit after some time.

Looking back I can\'t believe how many hours I spend in WOW. Allthough at least I met some poeple I\'m still in contact with, but thats also possible without logging into WOW =).

Also good thing to quit is to start something you liked before you started playing WOW. Something productive and especially something not to close to your PC would be good.

Cheer up! You gonna make it into RL again!

lol

 

[Gilvan Blight]

Originally posted by veggiemanuk

Originally posted by Gilvan Blight
I\'ve been playing MMOs since they existed, and never had a problem with addiction. I started with the first real MMO, Neverwinter Nights on AOL,

So Ultima Online, the Grandfather of MMORPG\'s slipped you mind then?

There\'s no way Ultima should be the grandfather of anything MMO related. Maybe the Grandfather of PC RPGs, but not MMORPGs. Ultima is newer then Neverwinter Nights, the original one that used the Gold Box edition code from SSI. It started in 1991. Ultima Online was released 6 years later in 1997. Before Ultima was also The Realm from Sierra, I played that as well, it was my first Beta actually, then kept up with the game for a few months after that. Amusingly both games are still online, though not supported by the original makers.

Heck before even that were online Text Adventures hosted on Bulletin Board System. I would think the MUD would be the fisrt real instance of a MMORPG. Now as to which the first MUD is there is some dispute. I personally was active on Midnight Sun for a long time, but played many others with many different themes, including a great Dune based one.

I did actually skip Ultima and Everquest, they came out when I was firmly addicted to Playstation games on my couch. It took Final Fantasy Online for the PS2 to get me back into online Gaming.

EDIT: I think the main problem with, or I guess brillance of, WoW is that it\'s accessable. It\'s made to run on a pretty much bare bones system, it\'s easy to learn, and it\'s easy to beat, buy at least getting to the top level, and it never ends. I personally think there are better games out there that are even more engaging, but they don\'t have the mass appeal. It seems the addictive qualities seem to hit people who don\'t have much of a pc gaming background. It seems to really addict people who have never immersed themselves in a virtual world before. It lets you escape and be something you could never be IRL. For those of us that have been doing it all their lives (odd for someone in their early 30s, but we had consoles and PCs in my house since I was born), WoW\'s just another game.

 

[uberdark]

hi my name\'s uber and i\'m a LARP addict.

i used to be into vampire the masquerade so much that it nearly ended my relationship with my then fiance. who is now my wife. i got so hardcore into it, that i went to chicago, bloomington, indianapolis, columbus, and cincinatti almost every week. at one point i became the \"prince\" of a city and then really got into it, it was then that my soon to be wife, said i needed to live my life instead of pretending to live it.

that meant a lot to me, and i never looked back. in fact i havent played since the fall of 2000.

just another geeky game that us geeks can try to avoid.

 

[Xaivis]

I got horribly addicted to WoW as well. During my year and 1/2 gaming I gained 70 pounds, sacrificed friends, and never got to paint. I\'ve been \'clean\' since december, have lost 40 of those pounds, and have finished my Space Marines as well as beginning my Empire army. That game is a drug, and as such offers nothing but a brief high in return for hours of servitude.

 

[Duren86]

My name is Rob, and I was addicting for about 2 1/2 years.
I enden up using WOW as a way to cover up a failing marriage. I was raiding 4-5 nights a week and not doing much else in life than working and playing WOW.

When I eventually decided to pull the WOW IV out of my arm I had to cold turkey it. I logged out, uninstalled them game, and then gave my account info to a guy at work for him to have fun with it.

I think I was lucky though, I quit just before the expansion came out. I had 4 lvl 60\'s and a bunch of others in the works.

Now a life without WOW is much brighter. I go mountain biking when the weather permits, and spend alot of my fre time either with my daughter or painting.

It\'s a hard transision at first, but it is well worth it! Good luck with trying to stop!:beer:

 

[airhead]

Originally posted by uberdark
... said i needed to live my life instead of pretending to live it.

That is one of the best reasons I\'ve ever heard to quit or not start into any deep immersion game.

I limit my D&D to one night a week for that very reason.
I caught myself becoming lost in Diablo and realized that after hours of play, I had nothing to show for it. I could have painted minis and had them on the shelf. I could have gone fishing and had lots of real memories. I could have written the great American novel.

I have a daughter that does not seem to understand the difference between the two and will play for hours and hours.

 

[vincenti]

TOOL OF THE DEVIL !!!!!!!!!

As a lover of sword & sorcery I can fully appreciate the lure of WOW.I have played DOW and various PC games and I was given a PS2 a couple of years back.
I appreciate the compulsive nature of such things ,BUT any game you cant save and walk away from is bad news in my book.

Recently experts have been noticing a new variation of autism.This variant is not caused in the womb or by birth trauma because its developing in adolescants ( usually male ).

To cut a very long story short its being put down to compulsive & habitual game playing .( years after year )
Young people are losing themselves in fantasy worlds,ignoring the need for social interaction and emotional development,and in turn missing out on vital character development. Add to this cocktail ,parents who are too busy to challenge such behaviour from stroppy teenagers and peer pressure and you end up with stunted and inadequate young people.

If such games are dominating your life walk away from them .
Communication and the ability to listen to people are 2 of the greatest skills you can have in life ,they come by social interaction and a genuine love for people.

Miss out on these 2 and your in for a very difficult life and very poor & shallow relationships. NO silly game is worth robbing you of that kind of rich & fuffiling life.

Get out there and live life !

GOD Bless ................ VINCENTI

 

[Sand Rat]

I\'ve had people I know ask me why I don\'t play WOW or other online games - my response is simple - \" when I\'m gaming I like to be able to throw things at the player when they screw up and you cant do that online.\"

 

[Einion]

Originally posted by vincenti
Recently experts have been noticing a new variation of autism.This variant is not caused in the womb or by birth trauma because its developing in adolescants ( usually male ).

To cut a very long story short its being put down to compulsive & habitual game playing .( years after year )
Young people are losing themselves in fantasy worlds,ignoring the need for social interaction and emotional development,and in turn missing out on vital character development. Add to this cocktail ,parents who are too busy to challenge such behaviour from stroppy teenagers and peer pressure and you end up with stunted and inadequate young people.

They\'re having this problem in Japan, where lots of young people (men mostly) are withdrawing from life and sticking to online interaction only. For a long time in Battlefield 2 there was apparently this Japanese player and all he\'d do, pretty much, was hurl grenades. For five hours a day. Or more.

I don\'t know whether they might have similar problems in Korea, but judging from how unbelievably popular one game is there I can\'t imagine they haven\'t got this to some degree but they\'re off the Western media\'s radar screen so I imagine we just don\'t hear about it.

Originally posted by steelcult
I\'ve had people I know ask me why I don\'t play WOW or other online games - my response is simple - \" when I\'m gaming I like to be able to throw things at the player when they screw up and you cant do that online.\"

Man, lemme tell you I wish there were some equivalent in online gaming... I really really do.

I was playing BF2 earlier - it\'s all my brother\'s fault for getting me into it! - and in one game the pipsqueak squad leader kept on exhorting us to do better in his high-pitched voice. I felt like finding my mic and hooking it up just so I could shout at him full volume to shut the hell up and do better himself! I\'m sad, I know. Back to the peace of Sim City 4: Rush Hour for me.

Einion

 

[wiccanpony]

my-oh-my

saw the huge lines of geeks waiting to get the hot grubby paws on the new grand theft auto game.

with the usual cry from parents of underage teens should they get a hold of this game.

 

[Gilvan Blight]

Okay I\'ve been checking out the local Kijiji... I assume that there is one for pretty much everywhere, and I have a new suggestion for anyone looking to quit WoW....

Sell your character, don\'t delete it. The damned things are going for $600 each for level 40 or above. I\'m thinking I may quit my day job and just level up WoW characters. It would be so much better then the External ISO audit I had to endure to day (no N/C not even an OFI, Thank you very much).

 

[redarmy27]

Today is day two and I\'m feeling pretty darn good, especially after getting a great night\'s sleep.

This morning I opened my inbox to see a fun email my buddy sent me. He\'s taking me this weekend to buy me a Mordheim set at our local hobbyshop and spend the day there enjoying the painting club they have going on. Once I\'m done painting the badboys up, I\'m going to learn how to play!Needless to say, I\'m pumped. Now I just need to decide which army I want....

I\'ve thought about selling my character, but I\'m not sure how I\'d do it or if I\'m ready to do so. For one thing, I imagine you can\'t sell it on Ebay; they\'ll ban your account. For a second thing, I\'m afraid of getting ripped off or having my credit card info.

Who knows, I\'ll sleep on it.

 

[Kinslayer]

WoW is awesome

CS is awesome

9 years of playing says so :]

 

[miniDrake]

I loved WOW though it did take a lot of my spare time up which was good as it cut my drinking from 3 nights a week down to one.

Helped run one of the best guilds on the server we played on.But at some point it became a second job and not a fun thing to do so I packed up by bags and left.

Will be playing war-hammer when it goes live and hooking up with people I have played with for over 5 years.I know people all across the world though mmo\'s.
Just a shame mythic stuck with the safe fantasy setting as they could have made one hell of a 40k game.

 

[james sequeira]

Ive been playing WOW since last march now, Its a fun game as long as you dont waste time, i mean there are lots of people who will just basically spend all their time stand around in game or boosting low levels, i only come on for the daily quests or raids which i lead now in kara, gruuls and ZA, its all fun as long as you dont spend your whole day or week on it.

After you play it for a long time you do get really into and also with the people you are friends with and your guildies, I met my recent gf of 9 months on wow but when we finished i totally had no desire to play the game at all.

To some people you can go on for a few hours and chill, to others its 6 nights a week raiding hardcore or you do 3 night a week raiding and have some important roles to play that people depend on.

 

[Rigged4Mini]

I used to play alot of WOW till I met my girlfriend..then stopped.. 4 years later we have broken up and I\'m wondering if I should get back into it.. then again.. Age of Conan is coming out this month so maybe I\'ll give it a shot..

 

[Gilvan Blight]

Age of Conan is very different. Fileplanet members can get into the current Closed Beta and MMOrpg.com is running a contest to get into the closed beta as well. In addition I\'m near certain there will be one more open beta, probably over a weekend for one final stree test of the game. This would be a good chance to check the game out.

I\'m currently playing it in another Window (it has insane load times between zones) and I have a good feeling it won\'t be for everyone. The combo based combat system will turn a lot of WoW, Guild Wars, Final Fantasy, LotR etc. fans off.

If you do get in look for Onyx - Aquilonian Dark Templar on ClosedBeta - 4.

 

[redarmy27]

Well I\'ve been off WoW for over a week now. I\'ve had so much free time because of it. I\'m back to painting now and loving every minute of it. I do feel the urge to play now and again, but it\'s nothing too big. I may try to play a little when I get done with finals and such for the year, but if I were to play it\'d be only for a little bit. Yet, I\'m thinking I should wait before I ever play.

My goal this summer is to really excel at painting and to get above a \"7\" in the rankings

 

[vincenti]

Dear RED, if I were you I would just forget W.O.W forever.If its been such a problem stay away, FOREVER !!!!
I heard so much about the game and when I finally saw it and the graphics I was surprised how weak it was.
If you are now modelling and being creative thats much more rewarding .And if its going to help you stay away from compulsive gaming you can P.M. me any time for any modelling or painting advice.(I have no secrets to my skills, nearly ALL of them I learnt from other folks any way
Keep going my friend..:innocent:..
\" When the going gets tough the tough get going !\"
I first heard that 30 years ago in the Paras.30 years later I have come to realise mental toughness counts more than any thing.Being built like Rambo counts for ZERO, some of the strongest people I have met have been ladies.It sounds clich\'ed and corney, but it IS who you are inside that REALLY counts.
And dont forget to get out and socialise as well :flip: :bouncy:

GOD bless .............VINCENTI

 

[Elly3438]

Just walk away from WoW... I got involved with Everquest, the mother of them all, for a very long time... it basically ruined my life for many years... part of the reason I took a long hiatus from painting was because of that... now anything that says MMO on it I avoid like the plague...
Delete it from your computer, throw away anything, like rule books, boxes, cds, and move along... you will be thankful in the long run~
From my experience WoW, seems like the ultimate addiction, the lenghtiness and expansiveness of EQ, plus the redundance and Skinner-boxism of Diablo II.... spend tons of time for pixelated objects, only to realise one day you have NOTHING, and the game will never end and always supply you with more ~needs~
Like vincenti says, if it has no save game where you can pause and get up and give attention to say, your wife, instead of \"hang on a few I\'m in a raid\" (which lasts 2+ hours), then move along from it... bad news, you are only making Blizzard billionaires (12.95 a month times 5 million subscribers... PER MONTH...)
Thats just my sour take on that whole business...
cheers :beer: