world of warcraft

[sandiegosurfer]

Does anyone else have a boyfriend/husband who spends all of their free time playing this game? I'm about to pull the plug on my boyfriend's computer. Talk about wasting you life and time away!

[malmalthekiller]

Can't say it bothered me too much when he played, because I played too. Now we're both not really into it.

But I had a friend who's boyfriend was addicted to WOW when he was a freshman in college. At one point he was having a guild meeting going on an hour a night they were supposed to hang out, and she finally walked out of the room. The worst part is, he didn't even notice she was gone for another 45 minutes!

They actually almost broke up over it. But she set him straight and he beat his addiction.

[jzmom]

My son was hooked on it for many years until he got a girlfriend.

[Cuppycake]

LOL My husband and I BOTH play WOW TOGETHER! In fact I met him in a similar game we both played called Knight Online. I suggest perhaps you might consider joining him. You might like it. We find it to be a cheap form of entertainment. 

[kniskern]

I've been playing since July 17, 2004. :| I've spent about $650 on just game subscriptions alone for that time. When I raided back in 2007, I was doing 80-90 hour weeks of playing. I didn't have a job at the time, clearly. I was dating a guy of 2.5 years and he played as well. During that year he gained 80lbs and somehow I lost 20lbs.. guess I always felt like I had no time to eat. I dropped down to 105lbs for a 5'4" frame. Which, I'm not complaining, but I literally just wasn't eating much. I lost a lot of muscle not doing anything outside the house. Believe it or not, but a year of playing a video game, not socializing.. come time to get a job I had a hard time just talking. I got a retail cashier job and would stutter, or not know how to greet someone, or not know what to say.

I stopped playing for 9 months when I got that job. I also had moved to a different state where I knew no one - kind of started my life over. Eventually I wanted to keep in touch with the friends I made in WoW so I started playing again. The sad part, I continued to pay for my subscription for the 9 months I didn't touch it. I kept thinking one day I'll get back into it. It's like I wanted to go back to that life. Last month is the first time since I started playing that I canceled my subscription. I met a great guy who *surprise* is NOT a gamer, and does not play world of warcraft. Just seeing this polar opposite lifestyle - being outdoors and active, I want to be a part of that, of his life. I also need to focus on my school. I dropped from a 3.5 GPA to 2.7 in one semester. I didn't know why until I counted the hours I played during finals week - 50 hours in game. It was a wake up call.

So come July 27 this month, I won't have an active account. I'm kind of excited. I don't want to delete my characters.. how terrible is that? But I've spent so much time. I'd feel like I was throwing something priceless away. I've known people to sell their accounts. One friend made a whopping $1000. But counting the hours he put into his characters? $1000 doesn't even seem fitting.

It's an addiction. It's hard to understand if you don't play. It's hard to see how bad the addiction is if you do play. I still down play my addiction, not because I'm trying to seem normal, but because it FEELS normal. To tell a friend that playing 5 hours a day is NOTHING. I believe that. Back then, 5 hours would be like 4-5 dungeons. That time goes by so fast. Some of my non-gaming friends say more than 2 hours a day online is ridiculous. I live online. I do almost everything online. Hobbies, side income, research, learning something new, etc, whatever it may be. I don't go to a library or bookstore to find what I'm looking for, I look online. Technology is a poison too strong for me to cut out of my life.