Expert: 40 Percent of World of Warcraft Players Addicted - Page 6

yea, it's a nice compromise... BUT that will only make it MUCH worse. It's sending the wrong signal to his problem (affirming that his excessive playing is ok)... she'd be essentially a crutch. Plus, it's not the quality time together that relationship needs.

I equate it to a spouse becoming a drinking partner w/ an aloholic. A very bad idea.

I know a bunch of fathers who have a gaming problem. Since their time is finite, they teach and encourage their kids to play video games. They see it as killing 2 birds with one stone... but the reality is that they are not providing the proper type & amount of nurturing to their kids. It's very sad.

Plus, they often let their young kids play games that are much too mature for them and/or online games (everyone knows how uncensored it is online).

She needs some tough love on this...

I knew I would get a reply like this.

I was thinking she could use "I spent time doing what you want, now be fair and do something I would like"; which would get him off the game and outdoors. But yeah, I can see why that isn't the best option.

As for the fathers with gaming problems? Give the kids some CIV or R:TW for History, Sim City for economics and Windows ME for advanced IT troubleshooting

But seriously though, I've actually learnt a lot about history from video games through RTS. I've also learnt that no matter how strong your character is, they will always be killed instantly any time they go near water.

But yeah, I agree with the tough love. This may sound like a totally stupid question but since I don't play WoW I don't know so:

Are WoW characters saved on the server or on the users PC? If they are saved on the PC... (Oops, sorry hon, I accidently hit the "format" button).

yeah, there are programs to log keystrokes... very common use when a spouse suspects unusual computer activity (e.g. cheating, going to bad websites, etc.).

yeah, there are programs to log keystrokes... very common use when a spouse suspects unusual computer activity (e.g. cheating, going to bad websites, etc.).

How is she going to get him off the computer long enough to install the keystroke logger?

She's his girlfriend - use your imagination.

I'm SURE all you gamers are way smarter than a doctor of psychology! Come on people, it says 40%. So some of you are not addicted; CONGRADULATIONS! However the results of a study done by a doctor is somehow more convincing than gamers in denile! IF YOU ASK ME I'D SAY PAYING THAT MUCH MONEY TO PLAY THE STUPID GAME AND MONTHLY AT THAT, PLUS BUYING EXPANSIONS AND WHAT NOT! HMMM I'D SAY THAT SHOULD DECLARE AN ADDICT RIGHT THERE! 8O

The ugly side of denial... the yelling friends.

Do you have some personal stake in game addiction? Just seems like it struck a nerve. 8)

Well. Ofcourse people get addicted. Everyone want the epixx and have to grind there ass off all the time!

Take a short cut. Got se http://www.mmoverload.com and let them help you out. Helped me get my epic flying mout as lvl 70 and the fastes way througe Karazan, Grulls lair etc.

I can't stand the game, been playing 2 months, have a 46 mage and 32 druid, I just can't stand it, but I do play other games that I have commitments to, such as battlefield 2 ladder. I guess, if I would've started playing when it came out - I would be a zombie by now, I wouldn't of known there's other types of quests other than escort this or kill this xxxxxx many times by playing better games.

I have Crysis and GW Eye of the north preordered, just waiting for ut3, sc2, and quake wars release dates (I don't preorder unless I know the release date and it's a game I want).

I think that anything, weather it be, drugs, video games, gambling, sex, alcohol, whatever the object is, it can be addicting.

People who want to put down others who feel this way are just as 'confused' as they think the ones doing the research are. If you have never experienced addiction on the forefront, never had to expose yourself to the losses that it can cause, then I think you have no right to place negativity on those who have.

I believe video games, especially ones like w.o.w. are extremely addictive, and dangerous. The ones who play, aren't always aware of the addictions they have, but without a doubt, the families, friends, workplace, and whatever else is involved in thier life, knows about the addiction, and suffer from it.

Before you jump on the case of someone who says that games are dangerous, take a look at what exactly they are saying, look at the symptoms, do you suffer from this disease? If so, maybe you should take this seriously, if you don't, then these articles are not specifically meant for you.

The main purpose is to help those who need it, and their lives that suffer.

Well here's my experience.

I don't blame Blizzard, people make their own choices. I would say this game is addictive more in the way gambling can be than drugs.

I don't think that shows up well until people get into a raiding guild. I would say most raiding guilds have a LOT of addicted players. Players that would stew all night if they suddenly quit. This occurs for a lot of reasons.

First of all, every time you kill a boss is like a pull on the handle of a slot machine, "will it drop that purple I need?". You feel you need it so you can progress, but you also feel you need it for the bizarre fashion show that the forums and armory have become.

You become willing to try the same boss over and over again week after week until you a) succeed in killing it, and then b) the item you want drops. Now someone else may want that item too and have more DKP than you so now you have to keep going.

Downing a large raid boss for the first time has a certain elation to it. People will honestly cheer if it was a particularly tough fight. My guild got stuck at Morogrim for instance and when we finally got the mechanics down and won, I almost lost my eardrums for the screaming in ventrillo.

Well while you are doing this you build relationships with real people in an imaginary land. You start to feel like you are letting them down if you don't show up, they need you. This becomes part of your reasoning to play more and more. I HAVE to show up Thursday, my friends need me! Because of the nature of pulling 25 like minded people together, you end up with a schedule. So on raid nights, everything at home stops so you can go try to get that next purple and not let your 'friends' down.

OK, well raiding is expensive. Figure you'll spend 100g per raid night in a SSC/TK or higher progression guild. This includes repair (my gear cost 45 g to repair from 10%), 2 flasks at 25g a piece, and food for 5 g. You can farm this but making money is usually faster than farming at this level of the game. So now you dedicate your off raid nights to making money. You have to do about 8 dailies to keep this pace going. Dailies take between 10 and 20 minutes plus flight time between zones. So you have now dedicated 2 hours of your off nights to make enough gold to play for 4 hours on your raid nights. This puts you at a minimum of 18-20 hours a week every week.

You get a piece of t5 gear and then you start thinking, "we're only 2 bosses off the 2nd piece now" then the next thing you know you're spending an additional hour or 2 reading strategies in your off time...

I really don't know that addicted is the right word. I still knew when it was important to skip nights to go to parent teacher conferences, etc. However it's insidious and as you get better gear in more complex content you just keep wanting more, like your next big gambling score. I am not trying to make anyone quit, I'm just letting you know- this isn't the same as CS or SimCity

ok so like, here's the truth... they other day when i logged into wow (been playing since beta), I noticed my time played was 57 days... blah blah... now this is just on my 70 level mage... it like hit me hard... 57 days (57*24 hours = 1368 hours) that i had wasted on this char alone... not to mention all my others (have about 15, but only 6 above level 35)... HOLY FRIGGIN HELL! how many hours of my life have i wasted playing a stupid game? I need to go see this Dr. lol. Seriously this is friggin sad, disgusting, pathetic... I mean, why the hell do i still play? I have pretty much done it all, seen what i wanted to see, and killed all the alliance i wanted to... damn what a waste... time for this troll to retire... lol. I swear I am NOT loggin in tonight... i have to break the chain. This is just sickening.... I need to add up all the hours on all my chars to really make myself sick

I know what its like I was addicted to a MMORPG before, played it like 4h a day for 4months.

To be fair I did almost make £1k by selling stuff tho lol. See my computer specs for proof

i have been a mom for the past 8 months and my fiance has been addicted to w.o.w for the past year...he gets right into his game...hes a completely different person when hes playing..he pays no attention to whats going on around him at all...he has lost 2 jobs because of it and he is about to loose me and his new daughter he pays absolutly no attention to us what so ever when he is playing and when hes not playing im happy but hes miserable he has admitted in the past he is addicted to it and he just recently admitted again he was addicted to it....he is depressed(it runs in the family) and he takes zoloft but it doesnt help he sees a shrink and has told her about his addiction and she only said ill see if i can find a program for ppl who are addicted to this game because she has a dozen more clients whom are addicted to w.o.w it effects his whole life and it is effecting me and his daughter terribly...i need help i dont know how much more i can take...i love him but i dont want to live liek this anymore....he doesnt spend anytime with his daughter and i am and have been raising our daughter alone...after i gave birth he left to go home and play w.o.w....how low can u possibly get.....aghhh im so frustrated will someone out there please help me....any advice will be taken to my heart just please help me.....i dont know how to cope.....thank you

I checked out this thread wondering why somebody would pick up another old thread on this topic, but after reading desperatenewmom's post I felt like it was something important discuss. I think Morton's suggestion is way off base. She's not dealing with somebody who just likes a game too much. I'm not going to re-hash the whole "Gaming addiction - Reality or Myth?" discussion because I've already made my opinion there clear, but I see a much more serious issue then being addicted to WoW and I hope desperatenewmom that you are reaching out for help elsewhere too. Generally in a place like this you're going to get advice like Morton's, which while well meaning is not any good to you.
It's good that your fiance admits to being addicted, recongnizes his depression and is seeking help. But if he's doing all this and still isn't getting better then maybe he's using it all as an excuse. If like you said he's taking meds but they're not working, he probably shouldn't be taking them, I'm not a doctor but the Zoloft could be contributing to worsening the problem if it's not helping. It could be that he's using all this as a crutch and really just needs a swift kick in the ass. As far as WoW goes you need to make it clear that he won't be playing it anymore. WoW has the advantage that it requires a paid subscription and isn't exactly easy to install if it's not already on your PC. If you can take over all finances to guarantee that he isn't paying for WoW at least by credit card or out of your bank account. Also force him to give you his pass word and delete all his characters. I would even go as far as telling an in game GM that you are intentionally deleting these characters and why as it may make it harder for him to get them to restore them if he tries. Then uninstall WoW and delete every WoW or Blizzard file on any computer you own and destroy the install CDs. All this won't guarantee that he won't try to play again but I've seen many a dedicated WoW players quit the game because of lack of payment, loss of characters, or having to reinstall the game and every update from the past 3+ years - doing all three to him may actually work. If you have any questions on how to go about any of these things please feel free to PM me.

Getting away from the WoW aspect of his issues here's a few things to consider. How old is he, what's his education/job status, has he been diagnosed with anything other then depression my his shrink? Also was your pregnancy/engagement unexpected? These are obviously pretty personal questions but I ask because on a very personal note I went through something somewhat similair to your situation when my girl friend got unexpectedly pregnant right after high school. It didn't involve video games (actually I think my being depressed for me made gaming so un-fun that I actually spent far less time gaming then I did before or after that period in my life) and was probably not as serious; I didn't need profesional help or meds to get over it. But maybe thats what your fiance needs to do, just get over it. I don't want to get into too many personal details in an open forum but if you want more specifac advice please feel free to ask. I just get a sense that your guys issues may be very similair to what I've been through and may be able to offer some advice.

hehe, no wonder if these wow gamers are addicted, if i had to pay so much money for a game per month, and it even counts down when you don't game , so every day is a waist of money

but what with the kids who play this game on a free rpog server? still so high?

Thats sounds really stupid but I agree that part of the reason people play so much is to get their value. I dont think it causes addiction but I know when I played WoW I sure wanted to get my $15 a month worth. But then again I do the same thing with my Gym membership. I have a treadmill and full weight set at home, but they're bought and paid for so I don't use them. However paying $50/month for a Gym membership makes me want to go as much as possible. While Blizzard has no real reason to do so I know that a lot of WoW players would like the option for a lifetime membership. At this point it may not be worth it (how long will WoW last beyond the next expansion before a whole new game is needed to compete with new MMORPGs) but when LOTR Online came out they offered $200 for a lifetime membership. I know a group of people who bought that and they will just once a week or so get together and play because there's no sense of needing to acheive something before your subscription runs out.

Desperatenewmom - if he acknowledges the problems and won't quit, you have to make him decide what is more important to him: family or game. If his answer is "game," do yourself a favor and leave - no good will come of staying for you or your child, or your husband for that matter. He needs a good healthy kick in the pants, and needs a reason to quit, and while you are around he won't realize what he has to lose. If he willingly lets you go to play WoW, he's probably a lost cause; sad to say, but likely true...

It's a mistake to call someone an expert just because they make something a profession. Psychology can successfully diagnose a problem with around the same rate of success as a random dice roll. They can't even agree on what addiction is, and hence they have no way to diagnose it.

Clinical psychology has been completly debunked, or at least thats what I'm learning in my psyc degree. I wonder how come their theories are still given so much weight.

lol about time someone pointed that out. wow actually stand for With Out Willy

Don't psychiatrists / existential sociologists /etc. Count people toward their statistics even if what the person has is an extremely mild form of something? That's their policy right?

Paranoid personality v.s. Paranoid schizophrenic
40% of WoW players show some traits that resemble addiction v.s. 40% of WoW players convulse and act violent when confronted, foam at the mouth. It's still considered 'addicted' regardless of how severe.

Of those, I could not claim to have had any more than 3 at any given point. I know at least one person who had 4. That does not qualify as an addiction. I had one friend ever who had 5 and he was in bad BAD shape at the time. His girlfriend had to force feed him in order to get him to eat. Fortunately he quit on his own after about 6 months.

I think I can say with confidence that if anyone exhibits 5 of those symptoms, intervention is warranted.

To answer your question. Yes all addicts are lumped together, but it does take an extraordinary level of dependence to be considered an addict so such lumping is fair.

Thanks for being so thorough.

Heya,

I hit level 60 with my paladin. I started with the battlechest that has the original WoW + Burning Crusade. I played for about two months. I prepaid for 3 (4 if you count my free month for buying the box). I found myself having to give up other activities just to keep up with the people I was playing with, and playing alone in that game is one of the most stupid things ever (go play minesweeper, it's about as exciting).

So I canceled my account.

Uninstalled it.

Addicted? I felt the pull. But fortunately, the game is actually really bad, so I didn't get harmed by becoming a WoW junkie.

Very best,

my mother and aunt are completely addicted to wow. my aunt is the most addicted of the two. she dosnt eat properly and is skinny as a skeleton. all she does is play wow and only stops to work her part time job at walmart that provides just enough money she can play to no end, she neglects her child (who is thankfully old enough to support her self now) i try to call her and she cant even talk a phone call because she always has to fight something in the game. the only person she takes calls from is my mother when they are raiding something together.

my mother plays every second of free time she gets but at least she works a full time job and makes descent money. my brother came to visit (who we haven't seen in years) with his kids and she couldn't even turn off the game, she just sat playing wow. she doesn't go any where and do anything else with her time but play. she takes 4 and 5 day weekends sometimes and plays 18 hours a day, every day, of every weekend, non stop. and if she stays up too late playing wow and doesn't get enough sleep, she calls in sick, and guess what... she spends that day playing too. i know its not just the games fault other than not having an ending, there are plenty of people who play in moderation. i just wish i knew how to pull them away from it before either of them end up in the hospital or alienating them selves from the family.