Woes of Warcraft

I am sure that I am not alone in this, but I have two friends (If I can still call them that) that do nothing but play World of Warcraft all the time.

It is to the point that thier schedule revolves around the game. I had a day off from work and asked them if they wanted to hang out or something, they just replied "we have a raid tonight, so we can't go out anywhere". Their manners are no better when you visit them, they do not leave their computers at all.

I have another friend that is into the game but has the decency to leave the computer when you visit or want to hang out.

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?

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Or you could ditch them and get some real friends.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Join them. Get in on that raid action, yo. Gotta get those tier pieces.

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

Well, first of all get the name of their game right. Calling it "War of Warcraft" in front of them will just make them laugh and/or kick you out.

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.

EDIT: I'll add in that I'm not trying to be overly cynical here either. I played WoW for a little over a year, and although it consumed all of my time that normally would've been spent on console gaming and such, it never went beyond that. I saw plenty of this, and people who let the game rule them are pathetic.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

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.

I was speaking idiomatically.

I played for a year and a half or so, and I was pretty addicted. If I wasn't working or in class, I was playing warcraft. I made time to sleep every now and then. Hindsight is 20/20 of course, but it really wasn't worth my time--I've yet to play an MMO that is.

Unfortunately, nothing anyone said to me before I came to the realization on my own swayed me. Your friends sound like they're even worse off than I was--I hated raiding to begin with, so I didn't usually schedule things like that in advance. Realistically, you're not going to be able to convince them. They'll probably wake up eventually, so either wait or hang with some other friends in the meantime. Rag on them about it when they come to their senses, but keep in mind that it really is an addiction. Blizzard counts on that fact.

Edit: Oh yeah, one other thing. Don't start playing it just to hang out with them unless you want to become another casualty of warcraft. Once you start, resistance is futile.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Sorry about the spelling on my first post. I knew that it's really call World of Warcraft, I just made a type-o. It's fixed now.

I fegured leaving them alone would be the best option, I just wanted to know what people would think about this situation, I especially value the opinions of other Warcraft players... at least you guys would know what the game is like.

FELIPE NO

Originally Posted by Chibi Neko

It is to the point that thier schedule revolves around the game. I had a day off from work and asked them if they wanted to hang out or something, they just replied "we have a raid tonight, so we can't go out anywhere". Their manners are no better when you visit them, they do not leave their computers at all.

Steal their shit.

They're obviously not paying much attention to you. Take some games, movies, silverware, etc. If they live with their parents, at least let their families know what you're doing. Explain that you aren't keeping it but you wanna send their kid a lesson. If they're good parents, they'll go along with it.

If they live alone, then it's open market on anything that's not nailed down. I wouldn't sell their stuff or do anything with it. Just hang on until they bitch at you for snagging their loot. When they get all indignant, turn the argument against them by pointing out how their shitty WoW habit pretty much allowed you to get away with it.

I've got a bunch of friends who can barely get their asses away from that parasitic crap. I know exactly how you feel about them.

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Yeah I have a question; I hope it's valid here. How are Warcraft III and World of Warcraft different? Just yesterday I had to write a paper on Warcraft III, which required to me to play the game for a bit and I felt no pull or compulsion to keep playing. What's the addiction in World of Warcraft that's not present in Warcraft III?

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by Cellius

Yeah I have a question; I hope it's valid here. How are Warcraft III and World of Warcraft different? Just yesterday I had to write a paper on Warcraft III, which required to me to play the game for a bit and I felt no pull or compulsion to keep playing. What's the addiction in World of Warcraft that's not present in Warcraft III?

World of Warcraft isn't a strategy game like the rest of the Warcraft series. It's your typical MMORPG where you create a character and wander around the world doing quests and such for items. Most people who get this addicted are into one of two things:

- The PvP rankings, which require you to put in an absurd amount of time to get more points than everyone else on your server if you ever want to reach the top. You slowly lose points if you go awhile without getting kills, and the equipment you're rewarded with at each tier becomes unusable if you drop below the necessary rank.

- Raiding the higher level dungeons/instances. One run takes several hours, plus all the organization and such that it takes.

Thankfully I never cared about either of those things.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

I have a friend that's worse. He can't live without an MMO. He sold all his consoles and about a year ago when his parents TV broke they came into his room and said "You don't use this anyhow" and took his TV and he didn't care. One time when I actually got him to hang out awhile back we were watching Family Guy and a commercial played for one of thos American Idol wannabe shows and he said "Poor SOBs, don't realize they could be playing an MMO instead of wasting their life away." He basicly views anyone who isn't playing an MMO, the same way regular people view MMO addicts.

Everytime I mention that I might just play console games instead he responds with an "ugh". Everytime something dissapoints him or he hears something bad that he didn't know about because of his addiction he says "Ugh... it's a good thing I only care about WoW". If you ask him to hang out nowadays he actually straight up says "That would be a waste of (insert MMORPG name) time!"

How ya doing, buddy?

Many of my friends back home are hardcore gamers like that and do nothing but play (mostly) WoW. I really just hated when more than one of them was together with me at any one time and suddenly every fucking thing was a reference to WoW. I found it REALLY annoying and just quite sickening. My roommate/best friend now is pretty much a WoW addict. He plays pretty much all day but he's not as bad as some people because he just drops it the moments something important comes up. I can't even imagine what he'd be doing without Warcraft anyway. Just filling up time I guess.

My one friend Paul (who hated high school anyway) didn't graduate high school because of just not going, due to playing a combination of Halo 2 and Diablo, Warcraft later on. He tried to repeat a grade but failed and got his GED later. Still now, he doesn't have a job, car or license and basically spends a lot of time still playing Halo and WoW. I can't imagine he'll ever do too much besides play games. My other friend, Brian was quite the same, except way more responsible - always working, at times taking care of his family and managing his relationships effectively. My roommate and Brian handle gaming addiction effectively. Paul does not.
I almost had that "can't beat em', join em'" mentality where I was almost about to play (and I DO have plenty of free time), but I just don't want to become one of those people who become hopelessly addicted. I think some of the art and lore is cool but hours of raiding and running around just never really appealed to me.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

I used to be play WoW, just couldn't leave the damn thing. however, I did quit after 1 month or so. maxed out my character traveled everywhere there is to travel. and it just became BORING.
how do people manage to stay addicted for years?

I was speaking idiomatically.

I have a couple of friends like that. Towards the end of the summer it seemed like they might be coming around and quitting. However, that expansion pack came out that allowed them to become higher than level 60. Now I hardly ever see them at the university. If I do, its because their internet connection at home was down. So their at school with their faces plastered to the screen. Me n all my other friends at uni simply make fun of them. Luckily they've gotten the hint and they've stopped ditching out on movie and bar outtings because of raids. But its still pretty sad. Quite frankly I can't eer see myself getting that addicted to any game. Video games just aren't that important to me. Plus, I like FPS's more than RPGs and so its hard to have the same kind of addiction with those anyhow.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Leave them to rot.

Their just addicts after all not worth your time.

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The expansion was what made me quit.

I still log on once in a while, to chat with friends, but I no longer have the desire to level up or get epic gear (purple fever ).

Even though my social life was limited at best before WoW, it really died when I got into raiding. The only saving grace is that I played mostly with real life friends.

However, the expansion came and all my time spent raiding for better gear literally became a waste. I can see it happening again when another expansion comes, and I don't care to waste the time and effort on something like that again.

By the time I was done, I hated raiding and everything that comes with it.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

I was never into the whole raiding thing nor the PvP, I just wanted to have fun, maybe a few World PvP here and there and that was pretty much it. I quitted recently and found a whole new options of things to do. Even when I was in WoW, when my buddies came over WoW stops there, even during mid-raiding, sure they were pissed but I wasn't in a guild to begin with. Hell, I was more intrested in the lore and backstory behind WoW rather than the mindless aspect of PvP and Burnout Raids. I'd say. tell your friends that it is IT. If they can't hang out with you in RL, hell even blizzard had a tip, Bring your friends to Azeroth, but make sure to go outside of Azeroth as well, tell them its over.

How ya doing, buddy?

Originally Posted by Crash Landon

Steal their shit.

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

There's nowhere I can't reach.

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.

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

Randomly rearrange crap in their house if they live alone. switch where the glasses and dishes are, switch DVD's and their cases, just do random acts of stuff that will take hours to fix

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Originally Posted by Denicalis

Or you could ditch them and get some real friends.

Nothing truer has been said. Even if his avatar sucks.

Most of my real life buddies quit life for WoW as well.

You can:
A) tell them "50 man raid? More like a 50 man gay orgy."
B) Steal their shit.
C) Get new friends.

I was speaking idiomatically.

I have some friends who are addicted to an MMO called Called Dark Ages of Camelot. For like 4 years, they've been playing it constantly, and I just never caught on. They've used the "it's fun, why don't you join us, and we can contact each other a lot more!" gig on me, but I prefer consoles, and of course I have a job and school to deal with.

They're not the types who are jobless, though. And occasionally we all hang out once in a while. they do tend to talk about their progress in the game and crap, which I just phase out. Thankfully there's another friend who comes along, and so I'm not drowned in MMO talk constantly. If I were to call em all out to hang out, they'd oblige willingly (barring any family circumstances, they've never used the "can't. Got a raid tonight" line on me so far).

Oh, and I have other friends aside from them as well, so it's not like I'm feeling lonely.

So yeah, long story short: Your MMO-addicted friends are hopeless. Find some new friends.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Originally Posted by DarthSavior

I have some friends who are addicted to an MMO called Called Dark Ages of Camelot. For like 4 years, they've been playing it constantly, and I just never caught on. They've used the "it's fun, why don't you join us, and we can contact each other a lot more!" gig on me, but I prefer consoles, and of course I have a job and school to deal with.

They're not the types who are jobless, though. And occasionally we all hang out once in a while. they do tend to talk about their progress in the game and crap, which I just phase out. Thankfully there's another friend who comes along, and so I'm not drowned in MMO talk constantly. If I were to call em all out to hang out, they'd oblige willingly (barring any family circumstances, they've never used the "can't. Got a raid tonight" line on me so far).

Oh, and I have other friends aside from them as well, so it's not like I'm feeling lonely.

So yeah, long story short: Your MMO-addicted friends are hopeless. Find some new friends.

Haha, that sounds more like the friends who caused me to forever hate Starcraft and Diablo than MMO addicts. Constant badgering to play and hours of ranting about strategies, campaigns, stats, etc. The Diablo talk wasn't so bad, but these days I just walk off if a Starcraft conversation starts up.

FELIPE NO

Ask them why they're bothering.

Raids are pretty boring affairs, not unlike working on an assembly line. Most players put up with it for the purpose of achieving a shared goal, but most importantly, having a shot at the phat lewt. This is why raids really blow donky nuts, incidentally - out of 40 people, maybe a handful actually go home with anything. But of course, they'll tell you that this is the purpose of raiding.

Follow up with that most damning of questions: then what?

It's worth a shot, but appeals to logic probably won't work once you realize that it functions a lot like that one old anti-drug ad. You raid so that you can get better gear, so that you can get stronger and raid more efficiently. Fun never enters into the equation. The only purpose is keeping up with the Joneses.

If you actually care about these guys, my reaction would be to sabotage their internet. Just be careful about actually following that advice. Since you're dealing with an honest-to-God addiction, they might get really violent if they can pin it on you. I know my brother sure did during his addiction period.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

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 ...

How ya doing, buddy?