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So…
Obviously I’m not very well known here on TL(haha under 50 posts), but I have been playing starcraft since ’01 or somewhere during that time, I actually remember SEN (Staredit.Net) V3 (the really white one with purple) for those of you that are old SEN’ers.
Anyways, in this blog, I’d like to talk about a game called World of Warcraft. I bet most people probably shuddered and won’t read the thread now, but meh, it’s all good ^^. This is a fairly long blog, to warn people in advance, so I’ll try to summarize a TL;DR at the end.
Continuing on, the first time I heard about the game “WoW” was when I was playing starcraft, actually. People were talking about this new game that everyone just HAD to try. I didn’t, mainly because I heard that the charge to play the game was 15 bucks a month (which was outrageous to my 14 year old mind at the time). I continued to play Starcraft, eventually starting to play Runescape (Yeah, what fail) out of sheer boredom from my friends quitting SC and playing Runescape instead.
Runescape, in all honesty, probably wasn’t much above WoW, infact, it was probably worse, but that’s beside the point  . Around this time, some friends and I went to a gaming Café (They’re pretty rare in Colorado, I think) and we saw some people doing a Molten Core raid. Watching WoW, I thought the game looked INCREDIBLY complex and not really all that fun. Against everyone’s better judgement, we all made undead characters on some random server and started playing. I think I played for at max a half hour before quitting the game and deciding it wasn’t worth my time. We went back to playing whatever it was we were playing and I forgot all about it.
A while later, a friend of mine that we were talking to made the decision to try WoW again. I, like everyone else that hates the game, made fun of him for it, and pretty much ignored him for quite a while, he hit 60 just a few days before BC was to hit, and convinced us to try the game about a month after BC came out.
Up to about level 15, I hated the game, I was only playing because I got the free month with buying the game, I didn’t understand the point, what was so fun about it, anyways? I tried my hardest to like the game, because frankly, I thought I needed a new game to play. After I hit about level 30, ‘it’ clicked. I can’t really describe it, but for some reason, the game suddenly became fun. Like, really fun. I ended up hitting 70 about a month after BT was released. I began with casual raiding, the occasional Kara run, some attempts at Gruul/Mag, and in general, just kinda playing the game for fun (except I was playing it like 6 hours a day).
About a month after I hit 70, I did a heroic with a guy from a ‘hardcore’ raiding guild. At the time, I had no idea what that meant, or anything about the hardcore WoW mentality. He explained a little about it to me, and he said that I had the potential to be in a hardcore guild (at the time, our server was REALLY struggling for Priests, which is why he was talking to such an undergeared player ha). I decided to try it out.
Little did I know what I was in for. Hardcore raiding, no matter what anyone says, is not fun. I was playing the game AT MINIMUM 6 hours a day. (I was in a 5x5 raiding guild, for those who don’t know, that’s 5 days a week, 5 hours a night.) Including farming, being on for the extra time, and raiding, I was steadily losing everything that I had gained in life. Now, at this point, I loved the game, I really did.
People are probably wondering how in the fuck I managed that. The truth is, I think the addiction comes from spending so much time with other people that you’re constantly interacting with (usually 24 others) and on top of that, how easy it is to have discussions in the game. It’s so simple to start a theorycrafting discussion that can go for hours upon hours. You learn to love the people that you play with, and you feel this Obligation to play with them. Raiding, especially hardcore, is basically a contract. You don’t really have the option NOT to show up.
I continued with the hardcore mentality up until Sunwell was released. At which point, I was probably playing the game 8+ hours a day. My grades were starting to fall, I was becoming somewhat irritable, and I rarely talked to my friends. My parents called my downstairs one morning and pretty much bluntly told me they were going to put parental controls on my internet access because I was playing the game SO MUCH. I decided to be the super rebel and prove to them I could live without WoW. The first few days were ridiculous. After talking with other people who suffered from addictions, I was literally showing withdrawal symptoms from a GAME. It was truly sad, looking back on it.
About 2 weeks ago, I finally had my final straw with WoW, the game has gone horribly downhill and is really not worth playing anymore (not that it was in the first place) I learned to control my addiction, I joined a casual, 9 hour/week guild and just pretty much played during those times.
It makes me sad, looking back. I gained so much weight that I’m struggling to lose STILL(Currently 6’1” and about 218 pounds) and I really do hate myself for ever trying the game. I'm fairly socially awkward still, i'm horribly quiet, and i'm approaching 19 without ever having a girlfriend. It became a job, unnescessary stress, and just, something that I grew to hate.
I’m not looking for any sympathy, I’m here because I wanted to try to explain the grasp that WoW has on people, and the addiction that it causes. I’m open to any questions you want to ask about the game or myself or whatever.
On a somewhat brighter note, I've been doing alot better, I play Starcraft, Team Fortress 2, Portal, and Bioshock with my spare time, and spend less time playing videogames than I have in a long time.
Thanks for reading.
Tl;Dr summary:
I got addicted to WoW, I told my story, I'm open to questions about why I found it to be so addicting or whatever you want to ask.
 
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You can play WoW like you play SC/TF2/Portal/Bioshock, but you just have to play it for what it is - a game.
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I quit wow ages ago when the cap was still at lvl 60, but let me tell you one thing, you're lucky you didn't raid back then, there were no walkthroughs or tutorials on how to down bosses and the farming you had to do in order to be prepared for all the bossattempts were INSANE! This was back when you had ONE try on Ragnaros and then he despawned for god knows how long.
I got bored of just idling in orgrimmar all the time when i wasn't farming shit for pots, i quit and i never looked back.
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i bought WoW 2 years ago, logged 12 days in my 1. month and then a friend of mine deleted the game from my computer and broke the cd in half while i was asleep lol
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I was addicted to WoW for about a year. Then I realized it was repetitive and a big waste of my time. I wish I had all that free time back.
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i was a top PvPer on my server in CHINA several years ago. raiding is for nerds. the only respectable people that play wow... the only one's deserving of the appellation "gamer" play PvP.. i quit before arena's came out.. but i smoked fools with my Mage, preist, and warlock with mediocre PvP gear and a few trinkets from that one 40 man fire instance and the jungle one with the trolls and the red bird boss... i dont know english names cuz i played in china,... anyway. wow is fun. but i got my fun out of it and quit during the year and a half it took for the BURNING CRUSADE to come out in china. by that time i had all the pvp mounts and gear. i started raiding the two 40 man firepits and farming onyxia. fucking raids are so boring. even when your gear drops one out of 10 tries... you realize that it is all just a scam for you to waste time playing. actually the egyptian dungeons were pretty fun. the ruins in sithillus or something like that.
WoW players all have gambling addictions... not "gaming addictions" they are addicted to the purple drops. just like in diablo. the only mistake was that in diablo they didnt charge by the minute.
the way Chinese do casual raids is pretty cool actually and a great way for baller tanks and priests to make gold. they are called GOLD GROUPS and what happens is two tanks and a few priest/DPS will shout out in ogrimarr (cuz alliance is for queers) that they are starting a gold raid in X instance. then they get the proper regiment of dps, tanks, healers, support etc. always one or two warlocks of course... then everyone meets up and rapes the dungeon. when the boss drops loot.. the raid leader calls the loot out and one by one the gear is auctioned off to the highest bidder. instead of DKP its gold and the highest bidder gets the loot. so if you beat so and so boss and your staff drops.. you and the other mages have a bidding war. sometimes you get lucky and everyone has it/doesnt want it so you get it for 10G or the lowest bid.
then at the end of the raid everyone who buy an item splits the pot. this way everyone wins... some get loot and for the others who do a two hour raid and their shit doesnt drop.. they still get a portion of the Gold that the buyers threw down. sometimes that can be a fat pot. especially when the instance is new. its a sweet system. i dont think they do that kinda thing in the west.
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I feel you man, I really do, you can check my blog about it. Weight will come back down again if you like doing sports somewhat and if you manage your food input.
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Wow I can totally relate lol
when WoW was announced I was like "rofl this won't work for me, looks like there's too much to do" but I still picked it up. PVE wise, I ended up finishing Naxx before BC got out and getting Muru to 41% to easily downing him post-nerf. PVP wise, I grinded Grand Marshall with 2 WSG premade teams (before cross server bgs) to later peak 124th best 3v3 in Season 3. 2 weeks into S4 I quit, never got to see WotLK.
I can tell you honestly, it won't be ezpz to go back to a regular life. Especially if you still have the need to play the game. But I wish you gl 
On September 10 2009 01:55 grobo wrote:
I quit wow ages ago when the cap was still at lvl 60, but let me tell you one thing, you're lucky you didn't raid back then, there were no walkthroughs or tutorials on how to down bosses and the farming you had to do in order to be prepared for all the bossattempts were INSANE! This was back when you had ONE try on Ragnaros and then he despawned for god knows how long.
lol, I remember turning in Onyxia's head for the hour buff and going in (L?)BRS to get the Orc +80 FR buff using MC.
good times, good times.
(I think the respawn timer on Rag was like, 1 hour or 30 minutes. Long enough to get mob respawns haha)
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Snet
United States3573 Posts
I was really addicted to WoW at one point too, but in my situation I was playing with people on vent that I knew in real life from school. So even though we were playing outrageous amounts of WoW, we were still socially active and got together INRL alot.
I understand what you're talking about though. MMORPGs can be really addicting. Don't be surprised if one day you see an advertisement for some new awesome MMO coming out and have an extreme urge to start playing it.
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51518 Posts
On September 10 2009 04:40 Snet wrote:
I was really addicted to WoW at one point too, but in my situation I was playing with people on vent that I knew in real life from school. So even though we were playing outrageous amounts of WoW, we were still socially active and got together INRL alot.
I understand what you're talking about though. MMORPGs can be really addicting. Don't be surprised if one day you see an advertisement for some new awesome MMO coming out and have an extreme urge to start playing it.
haha yeh, that's what i'm getting with aion
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Pretty much the same as the op. But for me, at the end I realised I would spend hours online just flying around on my mount talking to friends on vent, friends realised they were doing the same thing, so we figured we can do that WITHOUT being in WoW, so thats what we did. =).
Initially it was fun, it was new and exciting, making new friends, epic adventure (it really is), but it ended up just being about the cool people I was playing with.
I don't regret anything though, I spent just as much time being addicted to Starcraft, probably didn't play as many consecutive hours though.
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192 days /played on one character.
HIGH FIVE ANYONE?!
Thanks for everyones comments .
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On September 10 2009 07:15 Kaialynn wrote:192 days /played on one character. HIGH FIVE ANYONE?! Thanks for everyones comments .
212 days, 5 days, 23 hours, 21 minutes and 9 seconds on the last time I /played my dwarf priest (vanilla main)
180something on my UD priest (BC main)
 so much time wasted
but not as bad as
+ Show Spoiler +
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Your parents stepped in, which means you have awesome parents. Lots of people dont have the luck of having people responsible for them that can bail them out of things like this. Only when you are out do you understand how much of a waste of time it all was. In my opinion EVE is the worst of the time wasters.
I would argue against the poster before saying all WoW players have gambing addicitons, its more they want to achieve something. Recognition of achievements by people you know might not exist in real life which can lead to depression.
There is quite a difference between being addicted to WoW and being addicted to a game such as Starcraft. Although it would require a massive essay to detail all the differences, WoW is inherently easy if you have the time required. Aion sure looks pretty but sparks no interest in me, what scares me is this new MMO Blizzard are producing and how many souls will be absorbed by it!
My view is pretty jaded though, till a few months ago I was in a 'world 100 guild' whatever that is supposed to mean. From my experience though, some people have the ability to manage their time to fit WoW into their lives, but I worry for those that are not able to do this and destroy their lives as a result.
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Snet
United States3573 Posts
On September 10 2009 06:06 GTR wrote:Show nested quote +On September 10 2009 04:40 Snet wrote:
I was really addicted to WoW at one point too, but in my situation I was playing with people on vent that I knew in real life from school. So even though we were playing outrageous amounts of WoW, we were still socially active and got together INRL alot.
I understand what you're talking about though. MMORPGs can be really addicting. Don't be surprised if one day you see an advertisement for some new awesome MMO coming out and have an extreme urge to start playing it. haha yeh, that's what i'm getting with aion
Same, lol. I am playing the open beta and this game has monster potential.
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On September 10 2009 08:44 Red_Storm wrote:
Your parents stepped in, which means you have awesome parents. Lots of people dont have the luck of having people responsible for them that can bail them out of things like this. Only when you are out do you understand how much of a waste of time it all was. In my opinion EVE is the worst of the time wasters.
I would argue against the poster before saying all WoW players have gambing addicitons, its more they want to achieve something. Recognition of achievements by people you know might not exist in real life which can lead to depression.
There is quite a difference between being addicted to WoW and being addicted to a game such as Starcraft. Although it would require a massive essay to detail all the differences, WoW is inherently easy if you have the time required. Aion sure looks pretty but sparks no interest in me, what scares me is this new MMO Blizzard are producing and how many souls will be absorbed by it!
My view is pretty jaded though, till a few months ago I was in a 'world 100 guild' whatever that is supposed to mean. From my experience though, some people have the ability to manage their time to fit WoW into their lives, but I worry for those that are not able to do this and destroy their lives as a result.
The bolded. Im scared of when they release it, because I KNOW I will want to play it, and that could be dangerous for my addictive personality. I played WoW for a while, I was never really addicted to it, and it never affected me much emotionally/socially mainly because I had brothers that played too, so I was never on for a long time at once. I suppose that controlled the urge to play it all the time. (although there were soooooooooooooooo many tricks I learned to get on more then they knew I was without staying up late lol...)
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Hmm I guess even at my height of playing WoW I was never as hardcore as some of you guys lol. I used to be in a vanilla wow hardcore raid guild. People were hardcore but we were also a guild that was flexible so people could go off and do things in real without any punishment, hell its your loss on DKP and we had plenty of people so no worries. My guild had on farm status every wow raid before BC and then the guild broke up for various reasons (MT/co-leader kicked out for profiting from guild bank and half the guild that were the hardcore pvpers as well (these guys must not have had lives as they raided AND grinded HW when it took forever...) transfered to the most competitive pvp server.
When I was 60 I would just do a few BGs talk to people go out and get "side" stuff like pets/mounts. I would only spend like 3 hours online a day besides raids and we never were required to farm that much as most people were rich and just bought shit if they needed it.
Now I am playing the game just to get pets and the new venomhide raptor mount and argent tourney stuff as well as some Naxx raids to complete my earthshatter set heh. I usually just do daily quests and some other shit everyday and am only on like an hour or 2 a day. Maybe someday I will actually get myself into uldar and TOC but im lazy haha.
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On September 10 2009 02:24 omninmo wrote:
i was a top PvPer on my server in CHINA several years ago. raiding is for nerds. the only respectable people that play wow... the only one's deserving of the appellation "gamer" play PvP.. i quit before arena's came out.. but i smoked fools with my Mage, preist, and warlock with mediocre PvP gear and a few trinkets from that one 40 man fire instance and the jungle one with the trolls and the red bird boss... i dont know english names cuz i played in china,... anyway. wow is fun. but i got my fun out of it and quit during the year and a half it took for the BURNING CRUSADE to come out in china. by that time i had all the pvp mounts and gear. i started raiding the two 40 man firepits and farming onyxia. fucking raids are so boring. even when your gear drops one out of 10 tries... you realize that it is all just a scam for you to waste time playing. actually the egyptian dungeons were pretty fun. the ruins in sithillus or something like that.
WoW players all have gambling addictions... not "gaming addictions" they are addicted to the purple drops. just like in diablo. the only mistake was that in diablo they didnt charge by the minute.
the way Chinese do casual raids is pretty cool actually and a great way for baller tanks and priests to make gold. they are called GOLD GROUPS and what happens is two tanks and a few priest/DPS will shout out in ogrimarr (cuz alliance is for queers) that they are starting a gold raid in X instance. then they get the proper regiment of dps, tanks, healers, support etc. always one or two warlocks of course... then everyone meets up and rapes the dungeon. when the boss drops loot.. the raid leader calls the loot out and one by one the gear is auctioned off to the highest bidder. instead of DKP its gold and the highest bidder gets the loot. so if you beat so and so boss and your staff drops.. you and the other mages have a bidding war. sometimes you get lucky and everyone has it/doesnt want it so you get it for 10G or the lowest bid.
then at the end of the raid everyone who buy an item splits the pot. this way everyone wins... some get loot and for the others who do a two hour raid and their shit doesnt drop.. they still get a portion of the Gold that the buyers threw down. sometimes that can be a fat pot. especially when the instance is new. its a sweet system. i dont think they do that kinda thing in the west.
this guy does it on my server, except he doesn't split the gold.
he keeps it. if you dont pay for an item he de's/deletes it. rofl
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On September 10 2009 02:24 omninmo wrote:
i was a top PvPer on my server in CHINA several years ago. raiding is for nerds. the only respectable people that play wow... the only one's deserving of the appellation "gamer" play PvP.. i quit before arena's came out.. but i smoked fools with my Mage, preist, and warlock with mediocre PvP gear and a few trinkets from that one 40 man fire instance and the jungle one with the trolls and the red bird boss... i dont know english names cuz i played in china,... anyway. wow is fun. but i got my fun out of it and quit during the year and a half it took for the BURNING CRUSADE to come out in china. by that time i had all the pvp mounts and gear. i started raiding the two 40 man firepits and farming onyxia. fucking raids are so boring. even when your gear drops one out of 10 tries... you realize that it is all just a scam for you to waste time playing. actually the egyptian dungeons were pretty fun. the ruins in sithillus or something like that.
WoW players all have gambling addictions... not "gaming addictions" they are addicted to the purple drops. just like in diablo. the only mistake was that in diablo they didnt charge by the minute.
the way Chinese do casual raids is pretty cool actually and a great way for baller tanks and priests to make gold. they are called GOLD GROUPS and what happens is two tanks and a few priest/DPS will shout out in ogrimarr (cuz alliance is for queers) that they are starting a gold raid in X instance. then they get the proper regiment of dps, tanks, healers, support etc. always one or two warlocks of course... then everyone meets up and rapes the dungeon. when the boss drops loot.. the raid leader calls the loot out and one by one the gear is auctioned off to the highest bidder. instead of DKP its gold and the highest bidder gets the loot. so if you beat so and so boss and your staff drops.. you and the other mages have a bidding war. sometimes you get lucky and everyone has it/doesnt want it so you get it for 10G or the lowest bid.
then at the end of the raid everyone who buy an item splits the pot. this way everyone wins... some get loot and for the others who do a two hour raid and their shit doesnt drop.. they still get a portion of the Gold that the buyers threw down. sometimes that can be a fat pot. especially when the instance is new. its a sweet system. i dont think they do that kinda thing in the west.
holy shit i don't play wow anymore (quit early 09) but that's an amazing way to do I can't believe it didn't catch on on the US servers..
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Braavos36389 Posts
nice story! i always find this kind of stuff extremely interesting, because its a side to gaming / personal story that i rarely ever read
your honesty is refreshing, glad you improved your life
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EPT![[image loading]](http://aycu15.webshots.com/image/8814/2005704576356631824_rs.jpg)
