Diary of a WoW Noob's Addiction

Noobab writes "There's an absolutely hilarious diary style article in CNET's Crave blog about Nick Hide's first experience playing World of Warcraft. It starts off pretty tame but soon enough the man has turned from unsuspecting casual gamer into a fully fledged 'Warcrack' addict." Your mileage may vary. From the article: "I can't say that I'm experiencing withdrawal symptoms after two weeks of fairly casual World of Warcraft play (a couple of hours a night, tops. Honest, doctor), but 'neglect of other activities' made me rather worried. Last night my girlfriend got hold of an extra ticket to Wicked, the new musical. 'I, er, I'm going out tomorrow night, I'd like to stay in and, er, get an early night,' was my pathetic effort at hiding my spiralling dependency on WoW."

Cost

[Joe The Dragon]

If it where free or cost you per hour in game then there likely less people Addicted to it as if you are paying $15 a month you feel like that need to play all the time to get most out of it.

treatment

[abe ferlman]

Serious question now- does anyone personally know of someone who sought treatment for WoW addiction? I don't mean you read about it in the news, I mean personally. People seek treatment when they realize they have other sorts of non-chemical addictions but even among the most obsessed WoWers I know, none of them seem to see it as a problem that requires intervention to solve.

Re:treatment

[TheWaz]

I haven't read or know anyone needing actual medical assistance when quitting WOW. I played the game for a while and got my character to 60, and also became an officer in my guild. After a while I wasn't too thrilled with the game and went cold turkey. I think the most intervention that is needed is for mommy to come over and tell the addict that it's bedtime.

Re:geek rejects girlfriend for Wow?

[Aadain2001]

I've found myself doing that once or twice long ago. I pretty much ignored my girlfriend for a few weeks back in the spring of 2005 when WoW was really starting to take off. But all it took was one go whap upside from said girlfriend to help me re-prioritize things. Now she comes before WoW, always. But even the best of people can make a stupid mistake and recover from it.

Re:geek rejects girlfriend for Wow?

[megaditto]

That's what makes this an addiction: rejecting the natural rewards (food, sex, sleep) in favor of a virtual reward of some sort.

If you need help getting rid of your game addiction, try imbibing some emetic shortly after you start playing (check with your doctor). Or try taking strong laxatives each time you go on a gaming spree.

Or even simpler, buy two galons+ of whole milk, then each time you score a "kill" or whatever it is you score in those games, reward yourself by drinking a whole glass.

Re:Warcrack the New Evercrack?

[StikyPad]

Yeah, I actually preferred EQ, because it was NEW new. Nobody had ever done a 3D MORPG before, and it was just insane. There's nothing quite like 1000 level 1 characters running around with absolutely no clue what they're doing, or what they're supposed to do. (There wasn't the level of hand-holding back then, which was both good and bad). Later games, including the omnipotent WoW, just seem like rehashes of the same thing. Granted, EQ had become a complicated, noob unfriendly monstrosity by the time WoW came out, and many veteran players were tired of EQ, so that probably contributed to WoW's popularity.

I never really got into WoW though, despite my best efforts and friends that play religiously. I think the main reason was grouping. In EQ, grouping was essentially mandatory for efficient leveling. Grouping made gameplay more interesting, rewarding, and entertaining, although very often more frustrating. It also provided a bit of a safety net, since there was usually someone to make travel faster (teleport), ressurect, etc. In WoW, there are largely the same benefits to groups, but the benefits don't outweigh the drawback of waiting to find other players. It's simply faster to go solo for XP in almost every case. As a result, the people most desperately looking for groups are often people who can't survive on their own because they can't play their class effectively, so grouping is frequently disasterous in WoW. Even worse, when grouping IS required, people are so accustomed to soloing that they don't function well as a team. It's like watching the NBA "Dream Team" at the Olympics, where everybody's trying to be the star. I'm sure that probably changes at the higher levels, but I just didn't have the patience to continue the extremely tedious process of grinding through levels on my own.

Additionally, I suppose I had become disillusioned by the fact that any sense of accomplishment was fleeting and incomplete, with another "challenge" (aka time-sink) constantly waiting in the wings. The never-ending process of obtaining new items to enable you to fight new creatures to obtain new items to fight new creatures to obtain new items just gets old after a while. That's probably a good thing though, because for at least 5 years, I was an EQ junkie. I should thank them for making boring content, otherwise I'd probably still be one.