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On August 08 2011 10:35 Sablar wrote:
I can't help but get the impression that a lot of people are proud of being or having been addicted to WoW. Like this so called addiction is something cool and mature, and helped one grow as a person when getting closer to adulthood.
I don't get that impression from the OP though. Just throwing it out there because it's pretty standard for WoW players to look back and talk about how crazy they were playing so much, comparing stories about who was the worst. I doubt that it actually caused any significant trouble for most people and if there wasn't such a culture about calling it an addiction, people would look back at it in a more positive manner and not fret so much about it.
Many people who were addicted to it while in college have many valid regrets about it. I know I did. Back in high school, okay I can see your point - there isn't much responsibility during those times. It's more the opportunity costs involved of not enjoying other facets of life. I still think those are very important personally.
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to OP, that's called teens. some kids spend their adolescence playing bitches & gangstas, others spend it closed in their room with a computer. the problem would be if u kept playing when u were +18 or +20, but mother nature did its work and u spontaneously realized when u matured that wow wasn't any good.
you were able to go through that hard stage of life, you had a lot of fun and new sensations/experiences, and now that you're an "adult" you have a healthy standard life. what is there so bad about that?
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And about spending your time from WoW in different video games being no different, I totally disagree. Part of what makes gaming enjoyable to me is the problem solving aspect of it. I like doing challenges where I feel rewarded for how I did. I just did not get that sense of challenge or reward from WoW. When I play a game as challenging as SC/SC2, I always feel like my efforts helped make me a better player throughout many of the important decisions to be made.
I remember countless nights on WoW staying up until 4am farming shit and then going into class on little sleep. Everytime I did it, I never felt "that was totally worth staying up late for"
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I was like this from 14-16, almost completely trashed my highschool grades but somehow i managed to pass. Now i just play games in short amounts and read forums for most of my free time so i don't fall back into the trap, but i still don't have a social life and have never had a girlfriend.
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I gotta admit that browsing TL is my addiction 
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although I've had a ton of unforgettable and valuable moments playing WoW with my friends, I will always regret it. My school life, my priorities, became so fucked up because I let myself get absorbed into that game. Now I just do arena with my friends. Although I'm very competitive it isn't time consuming at all as PvE raiding is. If only I was like that during my school years... But I must admit, the memories that were made were amazing, yet at a cost.
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Is this really specific to only World of Warcraft? Why pin down a single game or genre of games as being "addictive" or "bad"? BoxeR himself had issues managing RL and Star 1 if you've read his book. I have a friend who's lost two good relationships while pursuing his career in electronic music. A different person lost friends when he became "addicted" to working out. It's always good to hear when a person breaks a bad habit, but these things are inherently neutral. It's the user that causes problems, not the activity itself.
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Good thing I never got into WoW.
Monthly fee to play the damn game? No thank you.
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On August 08 2011 07:21 Sc2ttyl wrote:
I dont see how anyone could feel bad about playing games that long. Your on a website called teamliquid where the point of the site is to advertise a team of DEDICATED gamers who play well over 8 hours+ per day. We all GREATLY respect these players, as well as many others (especially koreans). All of these people play HOURS AND HOURS a day and LOVE it. They have no regrets and also have SOCIAL lives. I mean look at tyler, his wife is smokin hot and no need to explain how awesome geoff is. Just play how long you want, exercise and ENJOY everything your doing.
As someone has already mentioned in this thread, there is a big distinction between a game like WoW and a game like Sc2.
In WoW, all you need to give is your time and you will achieve the goals set out in that game. In Sc2 you really need to give more of an effort. You have to train, as opposed to merely grind. The tasks in WoW are extremely monotonous and provide almost no intellectual stimulation. In Sc2 you have to study the game, you need determination, effort, and even a bit of talent. There really is none of that in WoW.
Of course, to get philosophical you could say it doesn't matter what you actually do as long as you feel accomplished for it. In the end, you create your own reality. But I think many WoW gamers ultimately realize that their accomplishments in WoW weren't "real" and that it was all just addiction. I have never seen an accomplished StarCraft player look back on their time playing and say it was all a waste, because they know how many people have tried and failed to be good at StarCraft and they know how mentally stimulating of a game it is. For similar reasons we seldom see athletes look back on the time they spent playing a sport as a "waste" and we seldom see Chess players with similar sentiments. There is something that distinguishes these games from WoW; they have a sense of "realness" which is hard to capture with just words.
Of course I'm going to come off as an elitist, but I don't think you should tell people its "alright" to play WoW excessively just because some Sc2 pros play 8 hours a day. There is a reason why Sc2 pros are respected within the community, but the average WoW addict is considered quite ordinary.
Of course, I suppose what you're trying to say with your post is that it's alright to play games in moderation. There's nothing wrong with having a hobby, but just don't let it control you. Keep everything in balance. That I definitely agree on.
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lol reading OP felt like i was describing my own life... youll get over it.. trust me
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On August 08 2011 15:10 Divergence wrote:Show nested quote +On August 08 2011 07:21 Sc2ttyl wrote:
I dont see how anyone could feel bad about playing games that long. Your on a website called teamliquid where the point of the site is to advertise a team of DEDICATED gamers who play well over 8 hours+ per day. We all GREATLY respect these players, as well as many others (especially koreans). All of these people play HOURS AND HOURS a day and LOVE it. They have no regrets and also have SOCIAL lives. I mean look at tyler, his wife is smokin hot and no need to explain how awesome geoff is. Just play how long you want, exercise and ENJOY everything your doing. As someone has already mentioned in this thread, there is a big distinction between a game like WoW and a game like Sc2. In WoW, all you need to give is your time and you will achieve the goals set out in that game. In Sc2 you really need to give more of an effort. You have to train, as opposed to merely grind. The tasks in WoW are extremely monotonous and provide almost no intellectual stimulation. In Sc2 you have to study the game, you need determination, effort, and even a bit of talent. There really is none of that in WoW.
This is not quite correct here. You are comparing average Joe 5000 in WoW to someone with serious goals/determination in SC2.
I was heavily into WoW for quite some time and the whole reason why this happened in the first place was that me and some (RL!  ) friends were running a guild. We were doing quite okay in raiding, but someone had to be the organizer. That is, the raid lead, high command, whatever.
Being along the guys who _run_ the whole raid for 40 or later 25 people requires a crapload of determination, effort and even a bit talent, I can tell you. I was the main tank plus warrior "boss", if you want to call it that way, and when the main raid leader wasn't available or needed a break, I would do it. This requires to babysit a whole bunch of people, being prepared for the encounters in the sense of knowing what _everyone_ has to do, bringing new ideas how to approach encounters which we didn't beat yet, laying down tactics in the strategy board and finally even gearing/farming for my own character (potions etc.).
I was there when people had problems, couldn't come, I searched for substitutes, etc.. The organizing and social interacting part was at least 80% of my time spent for WoW outside of the raiding itself.
The problem here is that this organizing/social interaction is exactly the part which is incredibly rewarding. Spending 4-5 hours organizing all stuff, preparing tactics etc. feels completely worth it if you manage to kill the fucking dragon in the end and was exactly the thing which got me hooked up in the end. On top of that, it wasn't easy to leave the guild as one of the most central persons in it, since you've known all the people for (literally) years, met them in RL several times, you've worked on the guild etc..
You are completely leaving this out and basically missing the point for a lot of people if you are seeing WoW as a dumb monotone grinding machine. I do realize there's others (which we also had in the guild) which had like 8 max-level chars which all were equipped ready to raid or even had PURPLEZ!!1 from raids, these guys seemed to be more addicted to gearing or collecting stuff. However, for me and most of my friends it was definately the social/"accomplishing stuff together"-side of WoW which hooked us up.
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Same here, only with with Lineage 2.
At least i got some good bucks for my account when i FINALLY quit it.
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You should totally try cataclysm in wow. The lvl 85 content is great and 70>85 is a pretty quick grind. Fuck marathons - jogging messes your knees up!
But seriously, everything in moderation should be fine.
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I played WoW from mid-2006 to January of this year, so about 4.5 years. I'm glad I picked it up at age 35 and not when I was a kid, since I had enough problems focusing on school anyway.  While I really enjoyed playing for most of the time I did it, it felt pretty good to stop.
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mine was ragnarok and it took a chunk out of my life--literally. i was so groggy from playing almost 3 days straight (20 minute naps, crisps and soda, scratching myself: "hygiene") that on my way to school oblivious to everything around me *screech*my right foot got run over by a van. you'd think it was just like cartoons, no big fuss you just go: "ooh ah, ouch!"
man was i wrong.
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WoW doesnt destroy anything it is the players themself who destroy their social life.
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On August 08 2011 20:45 Skilledblob wrote:
WoW doesnt destroy anything it is the players themself who destroy their social life.
OP clearly said that
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I'm just lucky that I was never really attracted to the whole MMORPG thing or anything social to be honest :{ I hate facebook, MSN and all other things that require efforts on my part to socialize.
It's wonderful as I have the decency to get addicted to hobbies
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It's possible to get addicted to any game with a do something - get reward system. In 2004 I managed to get addicted to Yohoho: Puzzle Pirates. In 2008 I was crazily addicted to The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, which is basically a Massively Single-Player RPG as I describe it, because before then I've never played such an extensive game. There is so much to do in that game that for the entire month of July I played 10 hours per day. I skipped most of my engineering classes and nearly failed out of the program. My life would be shit if I had.
Since then I've kicked the habit and most of my video gaming has been in moderation since then. Certain new games have prompted me to play a lot, but not in a way that would cause me life troubles anymore. (Modern Warfare 2, Fallout 3, Starcraft 2 )
I've learned though that there is much more to life than video games. Video games are an engaging and excellent way to kill time if you have the time to kill, but only when there is little else to do. This summer I've enjoyed working out and hanging out with friends as an alternative to video games. Dating would be the cherry on top if I could meet a nice girl.
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On August 08 2011 16:45 lGy wrote:
lol reading OP felt like i was describing my own life... youll get over it.. trust me
Pretty much this. I lost some friends and got them. But have the sitting in front of PC changed? well not really - now i do something else. Had some great times when i played WoW, but i won't go back. :p
Great blog btw.
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EPT
