1. Greetings everyone,

    In this topic I want you to really talk about your "worst days", when all you did was wake up, play 12-14 hours then go to bed. I know this is kind of a controversial topic to discuss since people tend to get offended or triggered when someone says they're "addicts". Feel free to write down everything and anything that crosses your mind when it comes to deciding whether it's good or bad to be completely swallowed up by a game, its effects on your life and health and really, anything. I'm going to write my story down, my ups and downs and how I managed to reduce my playtime to 1-2 hours at MAX a day, and of course the reason behind it.

    First things first, I'm a 20-year-old soon to be pilot student with a loving family and an amazing girlfriend. WoW has always been a major part of my life for many years, I started playing in 2010 and pushed it all the way to the end of WoD when I had a break of 2 years. I didn't want to return to the all new BfA stuff and that's when I found Warmane and it was just amazing, the nostalgia, the number of players, the feeling of "old school" difficulty and leveling. I got completely hooked and I neglected my friends, family, school. I often made up fake excuses and medical problems just to avoid school and play all day, non-stop. I got 4 characters to 80 and maxed out every proff, farmed a ****load of gold, bought everything I needed, I even spent money on the game of course. On my main I got fully geared, both pve and pvp, farmed out every possible achievement that I could do solo. I somehow graduated high school in the meantime with not-so-bad results eventually. However, my grades and %s were not enough to get into my desired university where I wanted to study psychology ( oh the irony ). That's when I realized I have hundreds of days played and by that time I had nothing else to do in the game, I was bored and just freaked out that I spent my last 2 years playing. It was at that moment I deleted the game and returned to my childhood dream of becoming a pilot. I learned hundreds of pages of maths, physics and pilot related stuff all by myself to make up for my wasted school days. I was in a very strong high school which focused on science so I wasn't that bad at all, I just neglected it. Currently I'm spending my "gap year" with working an 8 hour job and learning in my free time to prepare for the pilot tests. I already got accepted luckily, both the medical and English tests were successful. The only test left now is the so called compass test, which is a 5 hour IQ based test for pilot candidates ( at least in my country ). Having learned everything needed for that test I only started playing again about a month ago. Even I was amazed that I could really reduce my play time, usually I only go online for the daily points and 1 single rhc + bg. That can take anywhere between 1-2 hours, but there are days when I'm just not in the mood or don't have time, and I'm completely fine with that. Back in my worst days I would be really mad if I couldn't collect my daily points or have my "mandatory" dailies completed.

    World of Warcraft is indeed an amazing game and by no means I want to tell anyone to stop playing it. The beautiful lore, the endless content and feasts you can achieve, the community, the raid nights, the well fought battles and all those quests that are waiting to be completed. It is an excellent hobby and a great way to have fun and let some steam out. It's only dangerous if you can't control it. And that's the keyword here. Are you playing the game or is the game playing with your mind just like if you were puppet? Who's in control? It's like drinking a few cold ones every night after work. If you have control and only drink to have some relaxation and fun it's completely fine, but there's a point where you're an alcoholic who just NEEDS to have those drinks every day otherwise you lose control and become depressed and have actual withdrawal symptoms.

    Most people find it hard to admit addiction but that's the first step towards making a change.

    That was my story. What is yours?
    now this is a really eye opening thread discussion. Good to have. Key is moderation, but at the end of the day, this game is 80% of time procastination from real life activities, the amount you put( Input) into this game and the amount you get (Output) is HUUUGE, you soak lots of time, but you get.. you don't "rewarded" i mean you do, false sense of achievement, and it tricks your brain to false dopamine.
    i will be back to discuss here more xD

  2. Thread necro, but for good reasons. I've asked the exact same questions to a 60 something theraphist. Completely out of the gaming community and with no personal involvement in the matter, so I think I can rely a pretty objective answer.

    In a nutshell, play for as long and as guiltlessly as you care. If you feel like the game isn't satisfying anymore and you want other things, go and pursue them. Also, out of personal experience, completely giving up your hobbies if you are a huge nerd to pursue "real life" is more often than not a one way ticket to ticking all of those sweet life achievement boxes and feeling completely unfulfilled. Or worse, getting nasty and actually life threatening burnouts.

    I also asked if there's any merit in the "game life" vs "real life" argument, or online vs offline friendships being inherently more "valuable". They're not.

    Playing and free time is extremely important for your mental health. It is also a pretty good coping mechanism if your life is particularly rough and you can't do much about it for whatever reason. Just keep a good eye on whether or not playing is actually fun for you. If you resent it, then it's not worth it. Otherwise, do whatever the hell you want. It's not hurting anyone :D


    Edit, to answer the original poster:

    "I want you to really talk about your "worst days", when all you did was wake up, play 12-14 hours then go to bed."

    I remember those days very fondly. Early days of medication, and doctor-mandated rest. An absolute banger. Over time it becomes boring and you start exercising/doing other things/wanting to go back to work, organically.

    Pps:

    If you're depressed, go see a doctor. I mean it. There's a lot of bull**** flying around about depression being "caused" by gaming, or it being it your "fault" for "wasting" time unproductively, which is a pretty toxic and whiny way of putting it, and really just makes things worse.

    There's absolutely zero point comparing spending time d***ing around fruitlessly (for however long) with issues as serious as being addicted to cocaine, being an alcoholic, going bankrupt and having your home repossessed because of a crippling gambling addiction, or claiming it's the root of a medical issue as life-threatening as depression. It's not the same thing.
    Edited: March 26, 2021

  3. Long story short, GF breaks with me for playing too much other MMORPG.
    Starts playing WoW while thinking how to kill myself, as punishment, because we had promised each other we'd never play such addictive crap.
    While playing and thinking suicidal, met a random noob, helped the kid, got attached to her. She grew up eventually and broke my heart 10 years later but that's another story.
    WoW had been both the WORST and the BEST life waste experience I've had over the years.

    How much is my played on Molten only, on the main? /played was over 173 days. (My current /played is 22days for the past 2 years just comparation of how much had changed)
    And I've played so many other chars and servers and so many other games and did so much in IRL, School, Work and Games.

    Do I feel bad for wasting my life in escapism? Sometimes.
    Do I feel good for resting after heart-wrecking dramas and getting over exes with games? Always.

    And the friends I've made in games? Like family, flew around the globe to meet some :)
    Edited: April 27, 2021

  4. May 5, 2021  
    It's been a long time. I'm glad to see some people replying to my post even after all this time.

    Well, it's been over a year since my post. I had my ups and downs. I returned to the game many times, tried to quit it many times. As you may have seen it on the Support and Q&A thread, I'm giving all my remaining gold away on Icecrown in the next 2 days. I deleted almost every single one of my chars ( around 50 ), mostly bank chars and some alts with 5-10 days /played. I kept 1 useless bank char on both Horde and Alliance to give the gold away with, and most importantly, I kept my main. I simply could not force myself to delete it. That character has a serious emotinal bonding with me. All the people on my friends list, some of them I traveled huge distances to meet. All the memories, feats, achievements. The countless screenshots, the crazy RPs, the never ending raid and pvp nights. Sometimes I ask myself "What if it was all just a dream?". What if all that /played ( 4000h+ on my main only, I know, rookie numbers for some players here ) was just a bad and at the same time awesome dream.

    Anyways, with no wealth anymore, no guild banks and bank / proff characters anymore, I can finally rest and focus on my stuides. I feel sad and happy at the same time. This thread could go into serious depths. Personal experiences and replies are always welcome, you can write complete essays about this and I'll be glad to read them but I think I'm really finished here.

    Once the giveaway is finished, I'm deleting wow on each PC and laptop except for the screenshots. There might be time, years probably, when I get drunk and download it again to check up on some old friends and some old vibes. I don't know for sure.

    In these final lines, I want to thank Warmane staff and all my friends who'll read this. I had possibly the best days of my life playing here, but I can't stretch it anymore, it's wearing me thin. I'll still be active on the forums sometimes tho, I like helping other players.

    Cheers!

  5. May 13, 2021  
    When you get absolutely assmad because someone pulled before timer, not letting you pre-pot, throwing a hissy fit and going afk for the fight.

    That's when WoW is too much

  6. June 2, 2021  
    Was thinking about this yesterday, after a day long pvp session.

    The amount of time this game demands to even be mediocre is completely incompatible with adult life.
    My self control improved a lot, but the only way i can play this without giving up on my life and my other passions (im a med stundent) is by being a casual, raiding only in PUG's and bad guilds, etc
    The reason i still play it is: Its better to play a game that im already good at than trying to learn a new game from scratch

  7. June 6, 2021  
    i wish i hve never heard of this game
    time wasting and addictive

  8. When you prioritize WoW over any other things in your life, that's when WoW is too much.

    I spent almost all of my free time playing WoW back in my middle to highschool years, and to be very honest, the only real practical thing the game has given me other than fun and joyfulness, was my English language proficiency. My English was terrible back then and WoW forced me to improve as I needed to understand the game content more and to get better at the game, I watched a whole ton of videos, and also had to speak to people in raids/arenas, and the result was mind-blowing. As much as I hate the unproductiveness the game has to offer, I'm still gonna say that I'm really glad I stumbled onto this game more than a decade ago.

    But really, other than that and the temporary happiness, it's not a smart idea to prioritize WoW over any other stuffs in anyone's life. You're gonna miss out tons of fun and meaningful in life if you spend your time on just WoW, regardless of your age.

    Also I hate the fact that I will never meet my in-game friends in my life in person because of the Moltdown which happened in end of 2014 or early 2015, and we have no each other's contact.

    Though some of my greatest moments in my life were from WoW, and there were no terrible moments from WoW except for the server wipe out in 2014/2015, I would still encourage people to not get too attached by WoW. It's kinda... "toxic", lol.

    Wish anyone who's reading to have a great day ahead.

First 12

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •