Woes of Warcraft

Originally Posted by Chibi Neko

There isn't a 'online gamers anonymous' around here. What can I say to these guys to stop their gaming habit and realize that I am real person?

Leave them because they're not worth your time. Obviously your time isn't important to them as much as the 10, 15, 25, or 40 other people it is that's playing the game with them. You deserve better than that kind of treatment and you are worth more than a lump of stone sitting behind them to be ignored while they play their little game.

Leave them. Don't waste your time on them; you have better things you could be doing or that you have to do.

If they become friendless in the real world and lose all contact with the actual real world revolving them, resulting in their loss of actual friends, family members, social activities, even scholastic lives and jobs, that is their own fault, mistake, and responsibility for them to worry about. Not yours. And if they value you as a friend as you think they think of you, then they will come to reality and realize that once they notice the fact that you've left them because of their own inability to be respectful to you.

EDIT/ADD: I will also add that I've played WoW as well for more than a year and a half and I've come to the conclusion of the above. "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em" is what the old saying goes, and I have, but there comes to a point where a line needs to be drawn and you take the time to enjoy things outside of the game. Playing the game works to a certain extent but if my friends didn't respect my time and wishes for making time to spend with them (I was working well over 50 hrs a week and going to school at the time), it wasn't worth wasting the time to try to come to their senses, and it was simply, "their loss."

Originally Posted by Tritoch

Deni's right on this one. Everyone I've known who got addicted to that level was pretty much a hopeless case. There isn't much you can do to get them to quit; it's something they have to do for themselves.

Yep. Second that. Usually the first "brick to the face" I see all other players get once they get hooked to that point, is their girlfriends leaving them. If they don't quit after that then there's pretty much absolutely nothing that you can do to make them stop. If they don't have girlfriends to begin with, the process just takes longer, that's all.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by Chibi Neko

*snicker* I just might do that, it's not like they would notice me taking anything anyway.

Well, if they don't notice, it's not going to be much of a taste of their own medicine.

It takes a lot to peel someone away from that kind of an addiction. You just kinda have to let them come to their senses and it takes a fuck load of almost sickening amount of patience to wait through that. It helps if you give a little push in the right direction, but it's exactly the same as any other drug addiction--they have to realize what more hurt they are doing to themselves by indulging in the game to that extent, before they can even come close to being normal people again.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by uematsufreak

I just lost my first girlfriend to Everquest II, and I'm going through some extremely rough times because of it. I think I'm quitting MMORPGs for good simply because of the lives they can help ruin. She'd stay up literally 30 hours straight at my house in my room and completely ignore me. I'd log on to do something with her, and she'd get ready to go out in game to do something with me then she'd suddenly say the guild's doing some heritage quest and I wasn't high enough level for it ... so I'd even be left out in game. I got too sick of it. MMOs are evil, and I'm giving up on them. I was with her for a year, and we were so happy together until she committed suicide and was resurrected as her EQ2 characters.

If you can somehow get them over WoW, let me know. Maybe it'll work on my ex ...

You know, the words "If the game means so much to you more than me, you can take that to your own place and leave" works pretty well.

It's not because you're playing it that helps the situation at all. Pretty much you've lost her already so if you're not already dumping her, it's likely no chance for you to get her back. If she wakes up and realizes you're not going to be there sooner or later with her current gaming addiction, (provided she cares that you two stay together) then you can try to help her ween herself out of it; but you know, strict guidelines and constrictions don't go so well with any sort of addicts (druggies or gamers).

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.