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So here's the thing. Ive basically played WoW every day of my life since I was in 6th grade and have been horribly addicted to it, playing at the least 4 hours a day and often times over 15 hours at once. I'm 17 now, meaning I've been playing wow for over 6 years now, nearly half of my life that I can remember.
Like i said, I've been horribly addicted to it, id go so far as to say that Ive been brainwashed to log in to wow every day. I honestly don't know how to stop myself.
The problem is, I've never had many activities that I've done, and playing WoW usually filled up all of my free time when I wasn't hanging out with friends/etc.
Now that I've been cutting it out of the picture, I honestly am so ridiculously bored with my life that I think any doctor would say I'm depressed. I've been trying to fill that time Starcraft 2, a game that is easy to put down after a while, but the problem is, WoW was pretty much one of my biggest means of social interaction with other people when I played, and Starcraft offers very little in terms of social interaction.
I've never been good with people, I only have a few friends. WoW was an easy way for me to socialize and interact with people in ways I could never do in real life. Since It's gone I feel so alone and bored all the time. I can't sit and watch TV like a normal person because I'm so used to the constant interaction of video games like WoW.
Look, the summary is, I honestly, truly think that I'm physically addicted to the game. I can't stop myself from logging in no matter how hard I try. I've even started sweating and twitching and acting noticeably irritable when I'm on the computer trying to stop myself from logging in.
I haven't Logged in for 2 weeks now and I CANT GET IT OFF MY MIND AT ALL.
What the HELL can I do to fix myself?
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Meet some people in real life? That sounds like the only solution. I don't understand how you can stand to play a game for more then 2-3 hours at a time.
User was banned for this post.
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Sign up for other activities. Play or coach a sport. Every time you want to play wow go for a run.
Any of the above will eventually break you of it.
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All you need to do is freeze your account and pick up any, I mean ANY activity that involves getting out and meeting people. The rest will kinda just come on its own from there.
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Do you buy prepaid cards or do you pay by credit card? I waited until the 2 months finished, then I tried my best not to think about the game and I also forced myself not to buy the prepaid card if I went to any gaming stores. It's tough the first month or so, after that you will be over it
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1) Find a hobby that you relate with 2) Find Goals for that hobby. No, not the retarded mediocre goals they give you in school to make you feel special. Substantial goals, like turning that into a profession, winning a competition, etc. 3) Put your entire mind on attaining that.
Hell, that could be Starcraft progaming for all i care. And regardless of what that hobby is, theres going to be a community revolving around it, as long as you engage in it beyond the dilettante level, its going to be far more engaging then socializing in WoW.
Also, make an effort to excise each day :3.
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Get a job and a gym membership. Both will eat up a lot of time, be very good for you, and provide some more social interaction. Easier said than done but once you make the first steps its actually not so hard/bad. GL.
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Listening to dubstep keeps my mind off games in general. All you technically have to do is cancel that subscription... if you can bring yourself to do that, you're set. (Unless you make another one subconciously.)
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continue not playing. If you have been doing it every day for 6 years its very natural that you are thinking about it a lot now that you are trying to stop.
You could delete your characters and that would prob reduce your drive to return, but that might be going a bit far because you may want to start playing in a year or what ever. You could let your subscription lapse and then just stop your self from paying for it. or turn on the parental controls to stop you from logging in at any time of day, then get a friend to change the parental password so you cant change the settings back. Uninstalling the client from your computer also makes it much easier to not play, since it would take hours to get it working again.
These things will stop you from playing, but wont necessarily get it off your mind. Really there is no quick easy way to break any habit, it just takes time.
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realize that WoW is simply a grind. Everything you do will be made obsolete in the coming months, so in order to keep at the top you MUST continue playing. That realization made me quit pretty damn quick.
The only WoW I will ever play again is MAYYYYYBEEE get my lock maxed in cata and PvP a little when Im really bored.
I will never set foot in a raid again.
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continue not playing. If you have been doing it every day for 6 years its very natural that you are thinking about it a lot now that you are trying to stop.
Honestly people who are addicted to WoW aren't addicted to WoW itself, but rather, desensitized to other elements of life. Constantly playing WoW isn't really a problem, its a symptom. Of not having a "life" (and I don't mean just not being socialized/having lots of friends, I mean not really being engaged in anything).
Look, the summary is, I honestly, truly think that I'm physically addicted to the game. I can't stop myself from logging in no matter how hard I try. I've even started sweating and twitching and acting noticeably irritable when I'm on the computer trying to stop myself from logging in.
That would make sense. You're not craving WoW, you're craving something stimulating to do with your life. You need something stimulating to do in your life. People do. Replace WoW with something else.
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destroy your PC...Pretty simple
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Try to find some other hobbies, Like really try. Pick up a sport to play, or to watch! Go grab books from the library, get back into console gaming or something. Socialize is a good answer but understandbly may be hard for you. Just try a lot of things until something clicks and goes 'hey, that was awesome, let's do that again'
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do what these guys said, give someone who doesnt give a shit about wow and have them delete everything ( i know it can be restored but w/e ). just dont do what that idiot on tyra banks show did, all they did was trash the CD's rofl.
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On October 05 2010 06:16 Half wrote:Show nested quote +continue not playing. If you have been doing it every day for 6 years its very natural that you are thinking about it a lot now that you are trying to stop.
Honestly people who are addicted to WoW aren't addicted to WoW itself, but rather, desensitized to other elements of life. Constantly playing WoW isn't really a problem, its a symptom. Of not having a "life" (and I don't mean just not being socialized/having lots of friends, I mean not really being engaged in anything). Show nested quote + Look, the summary is, I honestly, truly think that I'm physically addicted to the game. I can't stop myself from logging in no matter how hard I try. I've even started sweating and twitching and acting noticeably irritable when I'm on the computer trying to stop myself from logging in.
That would make sense. You're not craving WoW, you're craving something stimulating to do with your life. You need something stimulating to do in your life. People do. Replace WoW with something else.
This guy hit the nail in the head. Im feeling somewhat like you are atm OP (except i quit WoW ages ago), even before WoW ive felt like that sometimes. Don't blame the game necessairly, just try to find something else you're interested in. Its just your interests changing.
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Maybe I can offer you some honest advice. I started playing wow in it's open beta, and continued for one full year before quitting the first time after the guild I raided with disbanded. I used that three or four weeks to make some irl friends, only to find out that they also played wow. So, I got back into it. I quit again halfway through TBC for personal reasons, only to come back, completely re-roll horde to play with some IRL friends, and get into a guild doing hyjal/BT by the skin of my teeth. At that point I realized why I wanted to play. You obviously want the social interaction, I get that. To be honest I hated pretty much everyone I met in that game, and played only to be in the best guild, committed to excellence. And, for about a year after wotlk was released, I was. However, quite frankly raiding got ridiculously boring.
I don't know about you, but I got into wow coming straight out of SC:BW. I never thought video games were supposed to be easy, but at the top level WoW was just about the easiest game there was. I remember times when I logged on every day, all my roommates raided in the same guild as me so it was extremely social and fun.
Then, one day my most recent guild disbanded. I decided that I was done, once and for all, after quitting 3-4 times previously. I sold my account for $400 and 4 months later the SC2 beta was out.
Honestly, it comes down to what you want. Do you want social interaction? Well, real life social interaction is a thousand times more provocative than the interaction you'd get in WoW. Trust me. My old roommates and I still drive 400 miles to oklahoma to hang out with our old guildies every labor day weekend to get blasted and have a good time.
Do you want to play video games? Well, there are multitudes of video games that are way more stimulating than WoW could ever hope to be. Starcraft is obviously the best example. You're never going to play starcraft "perfectly" like you would if you were raiding at the top level. The same goes for DotA/HoN. That's what I want out of video games: a challenge. So, as you can see, I replaced the social aspect of WoW with real life interaction between both people in my professional life and my ex-guildmates alike, and I replaced the gaming aspect of WoW with better games.
And I've never looked back. I'm completely desensitized to the entire genre of MMO. I doubt I'll ever pick one up again.
Edit: Like the guy below me says, selling your account is the most sure-fire way to end it for good.
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Sell your account so there's no going back. Find something else to do like a new sport or a job, join some club, do social work, or learn a programming language or a music instrument. As long as you keep yourself occupied, you won't long for WoW. You'll get over it after some time.
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Yeah I was really addicted to WoW and the internet for awhile too. You say you've never been good with people but you probably haven't tried very much to interact with people since you've been playing WoW and thinking about WoW all the time.
You aren't physically addicted to WoW. That's impossible it's a video game. You can be psychologically addicted though. The physical withdrawal symptoms you speak of are just anxiety. Anxiety is a psychological response that can cause physical symptoms. I personally have high anxiety at times and deal with physical symptoms myself. Cocaine isn't physically addicting but it has physical withdrawal symptoms because of anxiety.
Anyway just put yourself out there socially no matter how awkward you feel. Just do it. And start running too that makes you feel good.
Also there are less time consuming addictions that exist that are social too...like weed. Replacing one addiction with another less harmful (and more fun) addiction can help you. You are probably used to your life revolving around an addiction.
Good luck on your road to a better WoW-free life.
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Osaka26999 Posts
I don't think the answer is as simple as "find one thing to replace WoW". It sounds like you have been missing out on a lot of things. My ideas are based on the fact that you have played WoW rather than learn other useful skills in life. Time to play catchup!
-Delete everything, uninstall everything. Make sure that it takes a lot of time to get back into the game (similar to the credit card frozen in a block of ice theory for spenders).
- Make a list of things that, if you could go back a few years, you would like to have tried / started / seen.
- Get out of the house. Take a bus somewhere. You live close to the greatest city in the world. Go take some pictures. Develop them. Put them on your wall to show yourself where you can go.
- Find a free or cheap class at a community center. Learn something random and new, even for just a few lessons. I took Aikido once for a few months before losing interest. It was still fun. You don't have to be pro at everything, just dabble!
- Learn to cook three new meals. Your family will appreciate you doing something to help them (rather than having to call you away from your computer) and in the future you can cook for girls. Having a go-to dinner is a must-have skill.
- Learn to fix something. Find one thing in your house that needs fixing. Recently I painted over a tag someone sprayed on our garage. It gave me a sense of accomplishment.
- Write down what you did today, and what you want to do tomorrow. I personally don't remember so much of my youth, I wish I had kept a journal of things. You will appreciate it so much when you are older.
- Read George R R Martin's series, A Song of Ice and Fire. Big books that will hook you for life.
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On October 05 2010 06:24 xMiragex wrote:Show nested quote +On October 05 2010 06:16 Half wrote:continue not playing. If you have been doing it every day for 6 years its very natural that you are thinking about it a lot now that you are trying to stop.
Honestly people who are addicted to WoW aren't addicted to WoW itself, but rather, desensitized to other elements of life. Constantly playing WoW isn't really a problem, its a symptom. Of not having a "life" (and I don't mean just not being socialized/having lots of friends, I mean not really being engaged in anything). Look, the summary is, I honestly, truly think that I'm physically addicted to the game. I can't stop myself from logging in no matter how hard I try. I've even started sweating and twitching and acting noticeably irritable when I'm on the computer trying to stop myself from logging in.
That would make sense. You're not craving WoW, you're craving something stimulating to do with your life. You need something stimulating to do in your life. People do. Replace WoW with something else. This guy hit the nail in the head. Im feeling somewhat like you are atm OP (except i quit WoW ages ago), even before WoW ive felt like that sometimes. Don't blame the game necessairly, just try to find something else you're interested in. Its just your interests changing.
Yeah I was in a similar situation, except not even with WoW. I wasn't around for that and didn't get the luxury of WoW (wasn't out t-t). All I got were drugs, my fucktard friends, and wc3.
For me actually, entering a hacking community and ending up really loving programming helped me out a lot.
I don't think the answer is as simple as "find one thing to replace WoW". It sounds like you have been missing out on a lot of things. My ideas are based on the fact that you have played WoW rather than learn other useful skills in life. Time to play catchup!
lol. Maybe I was projecting too much. I guess your advice would be more suitable to him. For me, I guess I was alright in other areas, I just lacked anything I was really passionate about in my life.
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On October 05 2010 06:34 Manifesto7 wrote: - Read George R R Martin's series, A Song of Ice and Fire. Big books that will hook you for life.
Seriously.
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My only actual raiding/addicted stint with WoW culminated in a wave of ennui that washed over me after I got Kingslayer and realized that I didn't really care about any of the ostensible draws of the game. BW, hell even SC2, is more competitive, society and literature are more emotionally stimulating, art is prettier, most anything else is more cognitive and challenging (unless perhaps if you're on the cutting edge of WoW coding spreadsheets, designing and debating weights, and pioneering firsts).
If you've played WoW for so long, chances are you might be amenable to other games as ways to spend your time. Try some, or try anything else you've heard about that might've sounded interesting (I'm assuming your guild-mates talked about non-WoW topics from time to time too.)
Though from the tone of your OP I feel that WoW mainly filled social needs before activity needs, so you'll need to attack the perhaps more deep seated issue of becoming comfortable socially.
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Get a job. Get a hobby/ learn a skill (programming, ultimate frisbee, drawing, web design, fixing bikes, etc). You can find communities for almost anything. Take classes. Volunteer (dog shelter). Do anything.
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Buy a giant bottle of lotion from Costco. Remove pants. Go nuts.
Endless hours of entertainment.
Acquire Chloroform. Visit a Blizzard convention. Kidnap WoW cosplayer, female/male, of your choice. Remove pants. Go nuts.
1 minute to hours of possible entertainment followed by prison time.
User was temp banned for this post.
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Cancel your WoW subscription and sell your account. That's pretty much quitting it for good.
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BW, hell even SC2, is more competitive, society and literature are more emotionally stimulating, art is prettier, most anything else is more cognitive and challenging (unless perhaps if you're on the cutting edge of WoW coding spreadsheets, designing and debating weights, and pioneering firsts).
On that note, you should participate in TL community events if theres one near where you live. Go out, meet new, like minded people.
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/index.php?show_part=37 http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=123571 http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=149088
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On October 05 2010 06:51 n3gative wrote: Buy a giant bottle of lotion from Costco. Remove pants. Go nuts.
Endless hours of entertainment.
Acquire Chloroform. Visit a Blizzard convention. Kidnap WoW cosplayer, female/male, of your choice. Remove pants. Go nuts.
1 minute to hours of possible entertainment followed by prison time.
That's an awful and pathetic attempt at humor.
To OP: Delete all your guys, cancel your subscription, uninstall wow and break the discs. "But all that effort and money is wasted!" No. The amount of time you wasted playing wow is worth far more than the 100 bucks you payed for the game. That time is gone, you can't get it back. At this point you're in a deep hole and you've got to stop digging at the very least. Mani listed a bunch of great ways to find hobbies. I'd also suggest forcing yourself to exercise everyday. Exercise puts you in a great state of mind, and is of course very good for you.
Cut off all your social ties to WoW. You had good times withe those friends, but I promise you they'll forget you quickly once you're gone. It's the sad fact of online relationships. As genuine and real as they can feel to be, they just aren't. You'll both be bummed about not hanging out anymore, but you can take your life in a brighter new direction and your old friends will meet new people addicted to wow. It's the 21st century circle of life.
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That is really too bad, a lot of my friends got really addicted, and it must be a lot harder at a young age.
just to gauge how addicting wow is, one of my friends quit smoking because wow was more addicting then it.
You are actually more along then you think, now that you understand that you do in fact have a problem you can properly address it. Get distractions, anything you can get passionate about like a hobby. Try to sell your account, I know that did the trick for many people. Join a sports team, from there social connections well become easy.
best of luck man
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if you have the ability to be obsessed with one thing; you can definitely use that ability towards another thing.
some say obsession is bad; but when you ask a footballer(soccer player) if he's obsessed with soccer; he'll say yes.
but to them and to sports fans, that is to be expected of them. it's not a bad thing.
wow combines what? dueling? competitiveness? take up fencing, tennis, something 1v1.
or do you like the ability to do raids/dungeons
do a team activity; whether it's creating art projects around the city/town or joining a sports team or intermural league or community centre league, whatever.
the frist step...
reformat your computer and don't install wow.
the rest is up to you.
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Canada2480 Posts
my pick: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go_(game)
after playing online go to your local go club and try to make friends there I guess...
On October 05 2010 06:34 Manifesto7 wrote: I don't think the answer is as simple as "find one thing to replace WoW". It sounds like you have been missing out on a lot of things. My ideas are based on the fact that you have played WoW rather than learn other useful skills in life. Time to play catchup!
-Delete everything, uninstall everything. Make sure that it takes a lot of time to get back into the game (similar to the credit card frozen in a block of ice theory for spenders).
- Make a list of things that, if you could go back a few years, you would like to have tried / started / seen.
- Get out of the house. Take a bus somewhere. You live close to the greatest city in the world. Go take some pictures. Develop them. Put them on your wall to show yourself where you can go.
- Find a free or cheap class at a community center. Learn something random and new, even for just a few lessons. I took Aikido once for a few months before losing interest. It was still fun. You don't have to be pro at everything, just dabble!
- Learn to cook three new meals. Your family will appreciate you doing something to help them (rather than having to call you away from your computer) and in the future you can cook for girls. Having a go-to dinner is a must-have skill.
- Learn to fix something. Find one thing in your house that needs fixing. Recently I painted over a tag someone sprayed on our garage. It gave me a sense of accomplishment.
- Write down what you did today, and what you want to do tomorrow. I personally don't remember so much of my youth, I wish I had kept a journal of things. You will appreciate it so much when you are older.
- Read George R R Martin's series, A Song of Ice and Fire. Big books that will hook you for life.
good ideas
especially the last one
/blatant ASOIAF fanboyism off
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You know, I had the same problem about 6-7 months ago (4 year player). I just dropped it. There is more that delves into why I quit, but bottom line is that I just dropped it and stopped logging in.
Did it suck? Yeah, I had a tremendous amount of spare time I have no idea what to do with. I spent it playing Console RPGs and starting up on the beta, when it came out.
However, the first step to quitting is definately not to post about it, even if it is how to quit. Putting your mind on the topic isn't helping your cause when you want to forget.
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How I did it: Stop paying for it.
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i played for a similiarly long time, and have almost every question memorized without reading it from lvl 1-80, really sad actually.
i always liked pvp, but i hated the class imbalances and the fact that i got outgeared, not out skilled made me quit and never look back.
during the first 2 months or so afterwards, i just kinda of constantly downloaded new games (largely mmorpg's), free to play, and other games to fill the time til i found something i liked and never really got attached to that, other than that realize, its a stupid game that rewards time spent, not skill learned. Also, watch that video that talks about how Big gaming companies test their theories on how to hook people onto video games by toying with rats, and making them do something similiar to grinding to get food and stuff. its sick.
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Canada5565 Posts
When I quit WoW I started reading more, playing a variety of different games, following the StarCraft scene very closely, watching more movies, and spending more time on school. In other words, it gave me more time to do the other things I enjoyed doing, and as a result I started to delve deeper into them and find them more interesting.
So my 2cents worth is, explore and immerse yourself in the things you already interested in. From those new interests may arise as well. As for the social aspect, I'm not sure. Internet forums are good, and once you get to know people through that medium you can move to Ventrilo or the like. But if it's socializing in general that's lacking then you could try joining a school club or something along those lines.
You could also join a clan or form a group of practice partners for StarCraft, which would be really easy to do. There's a lot to talk about with StarCraft so it would work well as an icebreaker, as well as getting you more involved in the game and community.
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I would suggest devoting time to your studies. It's a move that you will never regret... I know a lot of people who spent time playing WoW or Starcraft and ended up regretting "shelving" their academics. If you craft your own future, you can't go wrong... Say down the line you get your degree but want to try playing poker for a living or something, then you will always have that degree to fall back on if something goes wrong. Use academics as your motivation
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Other things I've learned to fill my time with instead of gaming:
- Working out and learning a sport: Go download some P90X tapes and try to look good, it's professionally and socially awesome to be in shape while looking attractive to the opposite sex is a super plus.
- Read a book: I particularly have some side interests in Fantasy Football and night life (I have a side-gig as a DJ for parties). I found "I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell" to be one of the most entertaining books I've ever read (the movie was terrible, it did not do the book or Max Tucker justice at all). Facts about this author: after publishing this book, Duke's Law Schools National Ranking dropped from #6 -> #11 because about parts with him spending an entire semester in Cancun while also passing his classes.
- Get a job: You're fairly young, but playing WoW from 6th grade -> 12th grade seems like it may have effected your school and career pathing. Getting a job is great ways to meet people and learn how the real world works at the earliest age possible. It might suck at first since you probably have no experience and will probably have to do low-tier jobs, but it's part of a molding process that'll make you a better person in the future.
- Learn how to fix things around the house: Recently, I installed hardwood floors in my house with my roommates and it felt like one of the most rewarding projects ever. We started with no experience and looked up YouTube guides to tell us what to do. The first day we didn't know to stagger the wood but eventually we re-did everything and it looks amazing now.
- Make goals and do them: I really really wanted a new computer badly recently for SC2, as my current one was a Core Duo with an AGP slot that I bought to play WoW. It's terrible to play on low settings, so I figured out the cheapest way possible. I've built computers throughout my life since I was 14, mostly through looking up guides on the internet. I was lucky enough to have a friend at Best Buy, made a deal with him to build his computer and mine to use his employee discount (employees get to buy everything at manufacturer price) was able to build a top of the line computer for about $500 (worth roughly $1100~).
- Get a girlfriend: I'm fairly bad at keeping them since I've had a tendency to prioritize gaming over their needs sometimes, but I still manage to somehow meet ladies all the time. If you really really want to quit a time-sink like WoW, a girl will be the easiest way to tell you to shut it off. I've had so many girlfriends try to pry me away from the computer, in my profession and standing, I would rather dedicate my time to gaming and I've met a few ladies recently that respect it (and they too acknowledge my passion for something).
- Learn to have fun: I was a fairly big drinker high school and the navy, but really, it's fun as hell to get drunk with your friends and it's even more fun to get drunk with gamers. Gamers love to play drinking games: beer pong, beer hockey, flip cup, card games, land mines, etc... These are games you should learn and drinking tends to "loosen" up people to socializing. One of the best ways to meet people at social gatherings / parties is to start a drinking game or teach people one.
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wow combines what? dueling? competitiveness? take up fencing, tennis, something 1v1.
Accomplishment and accomplishing nothing.
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What killed wow for me was learning to play fighters in arcades. Met a ton of people, and have even traveled a bit for tournaments.
I've tried to go back just to screw around with some friends, but I just can't find the time to burn on it so I end up chatting with people through sc2 =P
Man, if I had just spent that high school free time on mvc2 or 3s instead of wow I'd be such a beast by now 8[
something else easy might just be to go replay all your favorite old games or rewatch old tv series / movies.
Or just take most guys approach to inactivity: bored and not sure what to do? fapfapfapfap
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wow I can't believe people still grind away at WoW. I played for the first few months, when it was the most exciting. After that it's just a grind, grind instances for new equipment which become obsolete so you grind some more new equipment. Then you grind some more in the arena and etc.
The best way is to sell/delete your character and find things to replace Wow. Being addicted to wow makes you a candidate for addictive behavior so you're gonna have to replace one addiction for another. Hopefully it will be a more positive thing that you'll be addicted to next.
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While I've never been a WoW player, I have recently dealt with some psychological issues with the help of counseling (specifically depression and OCD). You say that you think you're depressed and some of your thought patterns definitely look similar to mine a few months ago.
I've never been good with people, I only have a few friends. WoW was an easy way for me to socialize and interact with people in ways I could never do in real life.
This is an example of a non-constructive thought process. If you tell yourself you can't get along with others or use words like "never in real life" you're creating a self-fulfilling prophecy. A lot of my problems came from having problems making friends my first year of college. Those problems were compounded and made far worse because I thought I couldn't make friends and couldn't get along with others. Over the summer, I realized that that way of thinking not only isn't helpful or constructive, but in my case it wasn't even true. I can tell you, if you believe you won't get along with others, you probably won't. If you give yourself credit for your good qualities and start valuing yourself, others will value you too. In my case, I eventually realized that I actually do get along well with others, which was something I just needed to convince myself of.
So my advice to you is to give yourself credit for your own good qualities and be positive about yourself. You say you could never make the connections IRL that you made in WoW. To me, that just seems like you're being illogical. You've proven in WoW that you can make connections with others, but you're limiting yourself by saying that those qualities could never transfer into real life. You've set up this artificial barrier between real life and WoW that's reinforcing this non-constructive thought process about how you can't make friends. You made friends in WoW, can it really be that much different IRL? I'm sure most of the reasons you made friends in WoW, such as being friendly, or humorous, or whatever can translate to the relationships you try to make now IRL.
Really, you just want to identify when your thought processes aren't helpful or are illogical. It's tough to do at first, but if you practice it gets much easier. Counseling can also really help, and I'd recommend it if you really are feeling depressed and addicted. Finding a good counsellor can really change your life.
As far as some of the comments in this thread go:
Cocaine isn't physically addicting but it has physical withdrawal symptoms because of anxiety.
[citation needed] I've always understood that cocaine is rather physically addictive because of the way it affects the dopamine receptors in your brain. Still, I agree that a WoW addiction can only be psychological.
Also there are less time consuming addictions that exist that are social too...like weed. Replacing one addiction with another less harmful (and more fun) addiction can help you. You are probably used to your life revolving around an addiction.
The notion that you need to fight addiction with addiction is stupid. Don't listen to it. You can find ways to enjoy your life that are addiction-free. There's no need to sell yourself short and resign yourself to always being controlled by something.
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I've played WoW since release and have quit about 5 times, each of those times ranged anywhere from 3 to 8 months. I forced myself to quit the first time and that was probably one of the lowest moments in my life. I was 14 and failing school, I cried a shit load and had legit withdrawal symptoms. Every time I've gone back since then I've become less and less attached to the game, I happen to be subbed right now and I could stop playing at the drop of a hat.
I think a lot of people will disagree with me but in all honesty just keep playing if you really feel like it. I have no doubt that I was genuinely addicted during vanilla and that looking back on my life I have easily spent more time playing WoW then anything else besides eating and sleeping. But at the end of the day I had a huge amount of fun and I honestly cannot see what I would have done with that time anyway. I was in high school so I was pretty much locked down at that point in my life, not like I could have really done anything else with my free time. I still went to friends houses, got drunk my first time, and all that stuff too though. In fact I'm pretty sure I lived the exact same life and had the exact same experiences as all my peers except they watched TV instead of playing WoW.
I give the advice that you should just keep playing with 2 things in mind though, 1. You're in high school and 2. You have other interests.
Despite having played so much I have NEVER considered WoW one of my main interests. Even when I was sinking hundreds of hours into theorycrafting and the meta game, not being even 100 feet from a computer with WoW on it I STILL didn't consider the game a real interest of mine. I've always considered my main interests to be things like music, film, art and all that good stuff and even when I was playing WoW (and especially when I wasn't subbed) I still kept up with other interests and that's why despite having played so much I still consider myself a very balanced person, even someone with some expertise in certain areas.
If you weren't high school (eg. locked down to something that takes up 90% of your time anyway) or didn't have any interests beyond WoW then I would be concerned for you and would probably give completely different advice. But I think if you're like me then the amount of time you play doesn't matter because it will never define you as a person and will always just be something to mess around with.
Lastly I give this advice because I think I'm proof that playing a shit load of WoW during high school isn't a big deal. I'm 19, planning to go to a film tech school next year, have had two girl friends, read 2-3 books a month, watch an absurd amount of films, am teaching myself French, go out every weekend, and play some video games when I can. I'm also someone who at one point in their life broke down emotionally over losing a roll for the fire resist slippers off Rend.
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Think of it this way. Being good at WoW will never get you legions of screaming fangirls. SC might.
On a more serious note, out of all unproductive activities, I think wow is the worst. I had to quit it myself, and it was usually due to the fact that I wanted to do other shit. Find something to do. I suggest these 3: Go work out at the gym. Learn to cook. Learn to play the guitar. All three are not only very, very productive and useful skills, they are also chick magnets
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Don't overthink it.
Cancel any schedules you have in the game, don't raid. In 2-3 weeks the game itself will start to bore you, it's gonna become a chat room (And this is fine! Talking to people in game is not bad!). You will start spending most of your time alt-tabbed, and soon it's gonna feel natural to just close the game so your pc runs faster.
If your guild has a ventrilo, perfect, join them and have a blast while playing something else(i.e.TF2 or SC2), you get your fun chatter without the wow gameplay.
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Tbh it's not going to be easy at all to get your social life started at the age of 17. Just try not to be socially awkward.
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Here's what I did I uninstalled it and I stopped paying easy as that
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Like most have said the quick solution is to subscribe to some activities you want : sport, music, theatre etc.
On the other hand I think really getting to know your addiction helps. The issue with WoW and most mmorpg is that it is very slow paced. Meaning you gain little for a lot of time investment. When you kinda aknowledge that most of the time you spend in wow is just useless you have to just say "all right i log off" when you are doing nothing really productive. Just ignore all the garbage like farming achievements and stuff. You will also have to leave your super guild at 7/7 and join a smaller one. When you play 2 to 3 evening a week it will be a lot more normal behavior for such a game. Then strangely with your other activities you will just see this game is a huge waste of time.
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On October 05 2010 06:09 Diuqil wrote: Meet some people in real life? That sounds like the only solution. I don't understand how you can stand to play a game for more then 2-3 hours at a time.
Every single post I've read of yours, I realllly can't decide if you're joking or not. For instance, you just posted the last statement on a professional gaming website where probably at least half of the user base has regularly played a game for more than 2-3 hours at a time. Then I take a look at your anti-drug arguments (which are fallacious) among other things and start praying to a God I don't even believe in that you are indeed kidding and making fun of ignorance or something
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Start dating, unless that is totally out of your realm. (punny ) Anyways, imo you should try to develop your social life more!
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In China, they use shock therapy to cure gaming addiction. I'm not saying you should go stick a fork in the electric socket, please don't do that, just putting some interesting information on the table here.
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Yeah, toaster in the bathtub is so much better.
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Philadelphia, PA10406 Posts
Look, there's no one thing or another that we can give you to replace WoW. You're going to have to find something else you're interested in. I can list stuff that I like, but that won't be helpful to you. I could tell you to get a girlfriend, or join a random after-school club, but that's easier said than done. There are some concrete steps you should take however. You've already taken the first step in deciding you want to change your situation, so honestly you don't have far to go.
Three things that you should do immediately: - Delete WoW from your computer. Freeze your account. You might want to delete Sc2 while you're at it. This is non-negotiable really. As Mani said, you've got to make it not worth the effort to re-install.
- Get your parents involved. Give them your CDs for WoW and have them hide them. Tell them your situation, and tell them you want to find other stuff to do. They'll probably have some ideas, but you don't need to take them. But you might want to. Your parents also probably know more than any of us what you're liable to like.
- Figure out your musical tastes. I'm serious. You doubtless have heard at least some music you like, and now is the time to seek it out, and find similar artists and songs. Music is a wonderful thing to be interested in, and is a great way to connect and meet people. Everyone loves music.
Post back and tell us how you're doing!
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Osaka26999 Posts
It is important to make yourself accountable to others. If you went to your parents and told them you want to change, I think it will be easier to stick to it than just telling yourself.
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If you want to quit you have to actually WANT to quit and have a reason. My reason was the fact I was bored with the game and Blizzard recycling content. I decided I'd rather have an extra $30 a month and just cancelled the subscriptions of my 2 accounts and stopped playing.
I still have it on my computer if I want to play it again but right now I'm having more fun doing other things. I've never been tempted to log back in for anything.
I can't help but wonder about the age of people "addicted" and also wonder if you are the ones paying for it with your own money. If you aren't paying for it then I suggest you get a job and take control of your own life. This is as good a reason as any to stop playing WoW if you think it has become a problem.
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On October 05 2010 06:29 Scorch wrote: Sell your account so there's no going back. Find something else to do like a new sport or a job, join some club, do social work, or learn a programming language or a music instrument. As long as you keep yourself occupied, you won't long for WoW. You'll get over it after some time. Agreed. You get money for all that time you invested in WOW and you can’t go back without restarting.
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Firstly, I advise to get over the "I've been addicted to WoW" mentality.
This, and all other claims to addiction, can be understood as "I have habitually decided to play WoW".
Note this, addiction is but an excusitory myth for people of weak character to suffer.
Your body becomes used to sitting a certain hours of day and muscles atrophy. That is why your sides ache and you may feel nauseous if you do not visit Orgrimmar. But, let me assure you that you are not a victim.
You are an agent with choice. Choosing requires the will to choose. Fostering a strong will requires intuition and experience. There is no clear way to manually buff intuition unless you are a mage. Are you a mage? If so maybe WoW is a good choice. Otherwise, get up and break a sweat.
Manifesto's suggestions are all splendid and should give you plenty of ideas.
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sell your charcater for cash, break the cd, uninstall everything, use the cash to get some nice clothes and go out for a drink with friends at bars. hook up with girls and get laid.
edit if u cant or dont want to sell it, just delete all your charcaters for good and dont look back. i was addicted to wow once, but i just quit and never look back, takes some will power but doable.
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Australia7069 Posts
Go and see a psycologist. I had a huge wow addiction, i'd quit and come back 6 months later. Go and see someone to make yourself accountable and have someone to talk to honestly. and dont lie. seriously. whoever you're getting support from, whether it be parents or psycologist, dont lie to them. If you keep playing, tell them that. tell them why, dont just start up playing again and keep telling them you're clean, it just wont work
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Honestly the best thing I think you can do is concentrate on school. You're 17, so you should be going to college in a year or two. Maybe just concentrate most of your efforts on finishing high school on a high note. Join some clubs as well.
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Wait for Cata to come out. Go out and buy it, you'll be happy for another year or so. Once you get bored, pray for the next expansion to come out.
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now he is hanging out with some smaller kids acting all macho man
Call the police...
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I think you should treat it as if it's a drug addiction, since a lot of research shows that game addiction is basically the same thing. Talk to a counselor, or at least a friend who can help you, and remind you to stop playing.
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