How to prevent WOW addiction?

[zebraman]

How old are you that you have GTA IV? If your old enough to play that, and I strongly believe this game shouldn't be played by youngsters, then you can maybe get a job for the summer. Not only will you be socializing with teh 'real folks', but you'd be making some cash as well. And cash leads to buying your first car.. then you'll be thinking 'wow.. I can't believe I ever played that!'.

Now, if any fellow WoW'ers on here are also on Dragonblight, shoot me a message if you need the help of a lvl 35 warlock, Deathmagis.

Haha good advice.

 

[harveypooka]

Just stop. I really don't see the problem.

You don't see the problem. That's why you're not addicted!

My advice: know yourself.

 

[Huntn]

Some call it a compulsion rather than an addiction, but the bottom line is it can be a hard to kick habit. You can suck months from your life with nothing real to show for it. Some tips:

1. Play with dedicated partners or solo *and* limit your play time to 1 or 2 sessions a week, max 3 hours per week. I'd consider a dedicated partner as someone you know in person to be desirable.
2. Find how much play time is too much for your significant other.
3. Manage play time so it does not interfere with important real world social times, something like Friday or Sat nights.
4. Don't commit to raids unless you know it won't interfere with your social life.
5. Or don't play.

 

[Sun Baked]

Don't worry if you are too addicted to quit.

Just think of quiting Wow as passing a kidney stone ... lots of pain, might need something to kill the pain.

And soon you'll forget all about it, like in a year.

 

[mahashel]

Played WoW for about 6 months and just up and quit one day. It's a decent game, but it just didn't do it for me. Now StarWars:Galaxies.. that's a different story.

To avoid MMORPG-addiction, it's best to just go outside. Take the 15 bucks a month you were going to spend on a subscription and go buy your girlfriend some ice cream, or take her to a movie or something. You'd be surprised how trivial video gaming seems when your life fills up with reality.

 

[zebraman]

Don't worry if you are too addicted to quit.

Just think of quiting Wow as passing a kidney stone ... lots of pain, might need something to kill the pain.

And soon you'll forget all about it, like in a year.

Lol i hope so cause even thought its been 3 months when i think about it i still get tempted to go back lol. I guess im not gonna play. But I gotta find something to do thats not to demanding XD

 

[Spritey]

Jeez.

The best thing to do is not play. At all. It's $15 or $20 a month, too, isn't it?! That's insane! Get a Wii or DS and pay nothing for going online. That way you can stop and start whenever you want.

I thought it was expensive too, until i realized every time I go to the movies, a 1.5-2 hour thing, I spend $10.50 on the ticket and roughly $10 on a small popcorn and a soda.

Furthermore, you get updates every week more or less, so there's always new things happening or being added to the game.

To address the 'how not to get addicted':

I recently started playing again as well, after 1-year off. My boyfriend and I play together, so to avoid getting sucked in, we agree on a set play-time before we log in. Put on a timer, or download an addon-timer because it's really difficult to keep track of the amount of time you spend. It seems to much shorter.

It's a great game when you set limits for yourself. A countdown timer and decide how long you want to play is really the important part.

Oh, and don't bother too much with the auction house. Set aside 1 hour a week to do that kind of stuff. You'll be amazed how much time you can waste in the AH.

 

[Spritey]

As soon as i told my girlfriend she got pretty worried and i promised I wouldnt get addicted. I miss playing with my friends. You guys got any tips on controlling and preventing addiction? or any time managment advice?

You could roll a new character with your girlfriend, letting her use a 10-day trial. Then maybe she'll understand the fascination of the game, and it can be a thing you do together if she starts to like the game. Just ask her, despite any negative feelings that she might has towards WoW, to try it for 2 hours. Maybe she'll like it. However, if she likes it, just make sure that you and your gf's character keep the same levels.

If you play together, it's also easier to keep track of the time you spend playing.

I play with my boyfriend, and I have several "friends" in WoW that are also bf/gf teams that then play with their friends again. There's actually a surprising amount of girls that play WoW, and no, they're not just the geeky kind of girls you might picture.

If she likes the game, you could always treat her to a copy of WoW.

I hated computer games before WoW, and constantly told him to stop playing those stupid games - not just WoW. And now I kick my boyfriend's behind in WoW ;c)

 

[Spritey]

The solution is to get a social life (or one that you enjoy more than wow). Wow provides an easily accessible pseudo social life that has a tendency to destroy your real one. If you're finding that wow is doing that to you then you should probably look at your social life and figure out why you need something like wow to fill the void.

I don't think it's true that by playing WoW you give up your social life by creating a fake social life online which many people seem to believe.

I play with many of my real life friends in there. Some which are scattered all over the world, others which live nearby. Those who I can't see in person because of distance, I meet in WoW instead of catching up over MSN. Those friends who live nearby, instead of going to a club to "socialize" where you can't hear anyone talk anyway, we do a 2-hour instance and chat and catch up over voice chat while working together to beat the instance. I'd still consider that to be a social thing. Furthermore, I've met people in WoW I now socialize with in "real life". So it doesn't have to be destructive to your "real social life".

But yeah, it's about keeping it in perspective and moderation. If you no longer or seldom see your friends in person, then yes, it's obviously become a problem.

 

[zebraman]

I no longer see them cause they play too much. Im not good at time management so thats why im scared ill become like them. They dont wanna do anything anymore. I invite them to the movies they dont go. I invite them to mall, or parties they dont go. When they are forced to go to something they dont enjoy it. Theyve completely changed and i miss them. Thats kinda why i wanna go back, cause i wanna talk to them since they dont talk outside. But i dont want to become like them. Thats why id rather take them out and get their life and my life back.

 

[Spritey]

I no longer see them cause they play too much. Im not good at time management so thats why im scared ill become like them. They dont wanna do anything anymore. I invite them to the movies they dont go. I invite them to mall, or parties they dont go. When they are forced to go to something they dont enjoy it. Theyve completely changed and i miss them. Thats kinda why i wanna go back, cause i wanna talk to them since they dont talk outside. But i dont want to become like them. Thats why id rather take them out and get their life and my life back.

My brother and his friends were like that, until they discovered a new fun thing to do with their time. They wouldn't do anything but play WoW outside of school, and on the weekends they would all hangout in one place and be physically present while playing. One day I guess they discovered something else to do, they all kept saying how stupid WoW was and how they would never play it again. However, 1 year later, they all start playing, but this time they actually just casually game and meet a few times a year to "binge out on WoW".

Maybe it's this phase some people go through until they get so fed up with the game they stop completely. If they go back, I guess they learn from their mistake in the past and play more casually.

If you do go back though, don't join a serious guild, join a very casual guild, even if it differs from your friends. (You can do instances with your friends, not raids.) Being in a serious guild often require that you spend insane amounts of hours just to keep up with the virtual joneses, and it's not worth it.

Most importantly, ALWAYS set a timer when you play. When you hear that alarm go off, heartstone from where ever you are and log off.

And/or give your girlfriend the parental control password and fill out the time sheet together.

 

[willcodejavafor]

Sign up for Age of Conan instead.

 

[CJM]

Sometimes the fear of addiction is worse than the addiction itself. Just be careful with your time. Some people recommend allotting certain hours of the day to WoW, but I think that flexibility, along with common sense, is the best bet.

I repeatedly quit WoW every now and again when I feel I haven't really been spending enough time on it to justify paying. Since I've been into the game since beta way back in '04, it's really interesting to see how far it's come.

I wasn't going to go back until the next expansion. Sadly, my gf recently started playing again and brought me along with her...

I really recommend you get yourself a good friend or leveling partner so you watch how much time each of you are spending. A bit of friendly "You're an addict!" teasing doesn't hurt either ;P

 

[recoman3]

I have not really been addicted to WoW (played a total of 2 months, 6 months apart), but while playing I guess I did spend a lot of time on it. I'm just going through my 3rd month atm, generally playing 1-3 nights a week depending on work and social committments.

Anywho, if you want to get sick of WoW do what me and my friend did after our 1 months subscription ran out: Hop on a pirate server, with massive exp multipliers, and just grind to level 70 and buy the best goods. As many times as you want.
By the time I was at level 60 I was bored of the game so much that I didnt want to look at it for 6 months.

The main reason I play at the moment is because I trade Oil contracts over the night, and its generally boring staring at a graph go up and down at 2am in the morning (while out of the market). Much more fun when accompanied with windowed WoW...

 

[NAG]

I don't think it's true that by playing WoW you give up your social life by creating a fake social life online which many people seem to believe.

I play with many of my real life friends in there. Some which are scattered all over the world, others which live nearby. Those who I can't see in person because of distance, I meet in WoW instead of catching up over MSN. Those friends who live nearby, instead of going to a club to "socialize" where you can't hear anyone talk anyway, we do a 2-hour instance and chat and catch up over voice chat while working together to beat the instance. I'd still consider that to be a social thing. Furthermore, I've met people in WoW I now socialize with in "real life". So it doesn't have to be destructive to your "real social life".

But yeah, it's about keeping it in perspective and moderation. If you no longer or seldom see your friends in person, then yes, it's obviously become a problem.

The people who let wow be a problem for them do though. I'm not saying that wow is a universally bad thing, I actually said the opposite.

 

[duysibo]

well,Im playing wow too and cant really stop playing it. It's an online game, so if you have friends there, you will miss them when stoping playing, it's just simple. If you just play for enjoyment, it's really easy to quit

 

[Oraichu]

Answer to all your questions:

Don't play the game, and get a life.

 

[G4DP]

Get a girlfriend?

 

[AoWolf]

As you can guess by my sig/armory profile I play waaay to much wow. I used to think I was cool getting friends involved but now that I have grown older (and hopefully wiser) I am trying to kick the addiction myself.

btw if you can read and understand my armory your addicted to =p

 

[zebraman]

Get a girlfriend?

If you read my first post ull see that I already have one

As you can guess by my sig/armory profile I play waaay to much wow. I used to think I was cool getting friends involved but now that I have grown older (and hopefully wiser) I am trying to kick the addiction myself.

btw if you can read and understand my armory your addicted to =p

Same thing here. I was the first to play and i got all my games into it. Now that im out they dont wanna go out with me DX

BTW saw ur amory..holy crap!!! thats insane.

 

[Cloudsurfer]

I played WoW because my girlfriend did too. We were pretty hooked. Then suddenly, she didn't feel like playing anymore and I had no problem quitting too.

I guess it varies per person how fast you can just drop something.

 

[boz0]

Don't play the game, and get a life.

It's sometimes easy to get addicted, even when you've got a life.

The trick is to not get heavily involved in groups of players who take the game super seriously, go find a casual guild, avoid things that require you to be online and in a certain area at a set time and you'll be set

True. Though that can also be frustrating : it means that you'll never get a tour of the raid instances, or get your share of the "phat loot" that can make the game much more enjoyable.

I played WoW for about 18 months after the game came out, and half of that time in a raiding guild. At the time, I decided to quit just before moving in with my girlfriend : there's no way I could have satisfied myself with what WoW has to offer to the casual gamer after tasting the whole pie.

 

[MRU]

Someone had to do it.

As others have said, just stop playing it period. There are better things in life.

And if your parents are concerned about you playing GTA IV during weekdays, then they are hypocrites, because to be frank you shouldn't be playing an R rated mature game at all, let alone just not on school days.

 

[zebraman]

It's sometimes easy to get addicted, even when you've got a life.



True. Though that can also be frustrating : it means that you'll never get a tour of the raid instances, or get your share of the "phat loot" that can make the game much more enjoyable.

I played WoW for about 18 months after the game came out, and half of that time in a raiding guild. At the time, I decided to quit just before moving in with my girlfriend : there's no way I could have satisfied myself with what WoW has to offer to the casual gamer after tasting the whole pie.

Best post yet XD

 

[Gasu E.]

The problem for me was never really addiction, so much as the time demand to play the game fully. There are parts of the game that are essentially closed off to players that are not involved in high level raiding. I was briefly involved (4-5 months) in a raiding guild, but found even 25 hours a week of (inconveniently) scheduled time was not enough to keep up. Once I realized I had progressed as far as I could without putting in crazy hours that impinged on RL, I quit cold turkey.