Is WoW worth it?
It's more likely that this game will make you feel bad than good.
Usually you will feel that your overall experience of the game is bad if you're not getting what you want when you want it. Therefore around Most of the time you play will have been a bad experience for that reason alone.
Not every succesfull raid will be a good experience. If you weren't instrumental to the bosskills or the item you wanted dropped but someone else got it you will probably have found the raid boring.
If you only gain significant positive emotion when you’re instrumental in a bosskill and you get the loot you want then it’s considerably more likely that you won’t enjoy a raid than you will enjoy it.
More people express extreme upset after a bad raid than extreme happiness after a good raid so it’s fair to assume that a bad raid isn’t outweighed by a good one. Does the upset you feel when someone fails a defile or iceblocks the entire raid outweigh the happiness that you feel from when they don't?
Not only is it more likely that a raid will make you feel unhappy, the unhappiness you stand to feel outweighs the happiness you stand to feel.
Therefore playing World of Warcraft is objectively a bad idea.
Is World of Warcraft addictive?
You might think that if World of Warcraft is not an enjoyable use of time then you wouldn’t keep playing, but what if you're doing it because of addiction?
Sometimes users get banned to be prevented from playing, this indicates that they realise they are addicted and can’t stop themselves.
“Behaviors … that offer … a spike in brain dopamine levels are the most addictive” (
https://www.mentalhelp.net/articles/...ors-addictive/). In this game, a large spike in dopamine is experienced when the player progresses towards having a BIS character, which only happens in sudden bursts (e.g. the player wins Deathbringer's Will Heroic). The rest of the experience is comparatively dull.
Activities that "provide the opportunity for immediate reward" "are particularly conducive to addiction"(
https://www.psychologytoday.com/basi...tive-behaviors). This is mirrored in World of Warcraft, unless you're playing to win a certain item (a longer-term goal) then any enjoyment that you trying to get is immediate and momentary.
Psychologist B.F. Skinner observed that animals were most easily trained when intermittent rather than constant rewards were administered for desirable behaviour. World of Warcraft produces dopamine spikes at random, rather than during or after every bosskill consistently, mirroring this idea.
The illusion of being able to control chance is part of why gambling is addictive (
http://www.jeu-aidereference.qc.ca/w..._en.asp?cmpt=2), and is mirrored in raids.
World of Warcraft is very addictive and produces more suffering than wellbeing, so it’s likely that most people use the game because they’re addicted rather than because they enjoy it.
How to quit Wow
Don’t get banned, delete your account, or even tell anyone that you’re quitting, via the forum or otherwise. Quitting is a mindset as well as not playing. Your reason for not playing should be because you don’t want to. If you can’t play but still want to then you haven’t quit. Your ban will expire or you’ll remake your account and you’ll be as addicted as you were when you left.
There are three types of users: grinders, competitive raiders, and forum posters. One person can fit into all three categories but the only one I can think of is Noobpunisher on Lordaeron. Wow has its talons sunk so deep into him that it will be a miracle if he manages to quit before all servers explode or he dies. I bet he has dreams about World of Warcraft.
Grinders
Quitting grinding will involve two things: Realising how much you hate the game, and then lowering the number of hours you play every week to zero.
Score how much you think you enjoy playing WoW out of ten and save it in a file on your desktop. Play as much as you would normally for a while, but after each hour rate how much you enjoyed it and save it in the file too. I wager my life that you’ll realise that you don’t like WoW as much as you thought you did.
Now you really know how much you enjoy playing, create a timetable for the number of hours you’ll play over the next few weeks, lowering it to zero. If you’re not weak then soon you’ll have quit. Continue scoring how much you enjoy those hours. After you’ve quit keep the file as a reminder of why you shouldn’t get hooked again.
Competitive Raiders
If you raid a lot but you don't try to be the absolute best at the game then follow the strategy for quitting grinding.
Otherwise, decide in advance which raid will be the last one you run on. If you don’t decide now then you’ll keep getting drawn back in by the lure of a theoretical jackpot where you win all the gear you need to be on the top of the damage meters forever.
Once that raid is over, follow the guide to quitting grinding.
Forums
If you want to quit the forums, the first step is to stop posting, but to continue reading. Later, cut out the recurring threads that you frequent. Then work on quitting the forums entirely.
Pattern interrupts
If you reach freedom, place a pattern interrupt between you and World of Warcraft. If you navigate to WoW by starting your PC and clicking the WoW icon on your desktop then remove the icon. Interrupts like these will stop you from opening the game semi-consciously by force of habit.
If a small pattern interrupt isn’t enough then write something you won’t remember in a text file and save it, then change your password to it, disable the autocomplete passwords feature in your browser for the Warmane site, and sign out. That way you will really have to think about it next time you sign in. If you do want to then you’ll be able to, but at least this way you’ll have 30 seconds to change your mind.
Final thoughts
If you’ve been in this game for a few months then you’ll never be totally free of WoW. You’ll have to live with it, so expect that. It will never go away. But the further away it is from the front of your mind, the better. That’s why you should quit as soon as possible if you understand that the game is just an addiction. That’s also something you should think about when you feel tempted to come back.
This thread is primarily directed at the players that no one would recognise that do their dailies every day and join pugs praying it will go well. I think that encompasses most players. The game does less for them than anyone else because they don’t have a group of guildies to have progression and good interactions with. They also have the best chance of escaping.
Am I hypocrite for coming back here? Maybe, but I’ve spent way less time here this year than I did in previous years, and consider this to be use in moderation. I use the game differently to anyone else, and I think I can justify my being here, at least for a while. At least I understand that playing the game is a stupid use of time. Even if I am a hypocrite, what I have written is still the truth.
Please do not leave negative responses in the comments section of this thread because you are upset. I know it is difficult to read inconvenient facts that you know in your heart to be true, but please do not respond by getting angry and trying to make me feel bad. Sometimes when I read the comments sections of my threads I am brought to tears by all the hurtful things people say.
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