Confessions of an MMO addict: WoW took an undeniable toll on me |
Ó
"Too much of anything" is a one-way street to disaster. A self-confessed World of Warcraft addict recalls how he got trapped under WoW's compelling game spell. Why did he leave after achieving 60 levels, 30+ epics, and a seat on the oldest and largest guild on our server's council?In a nutshell (the guy wrote a rather long explanation) he left WoW because "Blizzard has created an alternate universe where we don't have to be ourselves when we don't want to be... as a guild decision maker, I've seen it destroy more families and friendships and take a huge toll on individuals than any drug on the market today."
While that seems harsh, the reformed WoW addict claims the game took a huge personal toll on him. He dropped plans to whip himself into shape and instead gained 30 pounds "and it is not muscle." He abandoned a lot of his hobbies including music, writing, and martial arts. And his biggest gripe: he basically exchanged his real world social social life for the imaginary one.
But that, he says, is nothing compared to some of the things he'd seen. People have actually turned their backs on their families, partners, and kids because they would rather play WoW. What makes WoW so addictive?
Blizzard created a game that you simply can not win...the only way to "get better" is to play more and more. To our average "serious" player this equates to anywhere between 12 hours (for the casual and usually "useless" player) to honestly 10 hours a day, seven days a week for those "hardcore" gamers. During my stint, I was playing about 30 hours a week.
Does this mean you should not play WoW?
First of all, "addiction" doesn't just apply to heroin junkies who look like cadavers with barely beating hearts. A simple definition for this complex issue would be the uncontrollable compulsion to repeat a behavior regardless of its consequences. It could be traced to genetic, biological/pharmacological and social factors. We're not Dr. Phil so we'll leave the psycho-babble to qualified shrinks.
We do think that if you don't have the self-control (based on other aspects of your life) perhaps it's best not to indulge in any activity that promotes that behavior. Whether it's WoW (or any other video game), gambling, drinking or whatever. Hey, we've heard of people addicted to exercising and plastic surgery!
So it's not WoW itself that is to blame. Sure, Blizzard makes money from getting players hooked on their game. But we don't think Blizzard execs are cackling behind their offices enjoying the emotional wreckage WoW may be causing millions of people and their loved ones.
WoW is a game. It's meant to be fun. If you honestly think you can't handle it, then get out. Better if you don't start. Or if you feel you're already in too deep and can't get out, seek professional help.
Contact Us:
The QJ.net Network |
 |
| Site | Feed |
| QJ.NET | RSS |
| Nintendo DS | RSS |
| PlayStation 3 | RSS |
| PSP Updates | RSS |
| Wii | RSS |
| Xbox 360 | RSS |
| MMORPG | RSS |
| Personal Computer Games | RSS |
| iPhone - iPod Touch | RSS |
| QJ.NET Forums | RSS |
Add QJ.NET
User Favorites - December
User Favorites - December
Categories
Archives
December 2009
November 2009
October 2009
September 2009
August 2009
July 2009
June 2009
May 2009
April 2009
March 2009
February 2009
January 2009
December 2008
November 2008
October 2008
September 2008
August 2008
July 2008
June 2008
May 2008
April 2008
March 2008
February 2008
January 2008
December 2007
November 2007
October 2007
September 2007
August 2007
July 2007
June 2007
May 2007
April 2007
March 2007
February 2007
January 2007
December 2006
November 2006
October 2006
September 2006
August 2006
July 2006
June 2006
May 2006
April 2006
March 2006
February 2006
January 2006
Comments [refresh]
friends dropping out of college, losing jobs, ignoring all responsibilitie s, and one who became malnurished. thats what wow has done to me. wow isn't just addicting, its the new plague, and i feel sorry for all you fanboys who can't suck it up cuz your a bunch of *****'n drones and see what blizzard is doing to you. blizzard doenst need anymore of your money, and to them thats all this game is. people need to get this game off the face of the earth.
wtf lmfao
I lol @ every single idiot who plays wow. basically if you play or played wow, be it for 3 hrs or 130 hrs, ur an idiot period.
personally i played wow for like 1.5 hrs which a friend lent me to (try out), saying it was like ALL GOOD lm*****ingao, I couldnt even concentrate, the gameplay sucked so much, and what kept me going was i promised him to reach at least lv5 before saying it sucks and throwing it back to him. i almost threw it back to him after almost deleting his stupid elf characher.
once again, if you play wow, ur an idiot. curse ur mom *****got
...so I guess that makes you an idiot, huh?
I have been really hating blizzard lately. Look at Diablo 2. Millions, upon millions of characters, many servers, yet no monthly fee.
Now look at WOW. Apparently 8 million users now. $240,000,000 if sold every copy at $30. Now about $12 a month for one month is $96,000,000. $96,000,000 FOR JUST ONE *****ING MONTH. Now multiply that by 12 months, and you see just how *****ing cheap blizzard is being.
Do you think it costs 96 million a month for the servers? For the updates? For the 'amazing' programmers'? Look at guild wars, they are always fixing, and updating to make the game better with no monthly fee. ( Dont forget they will be getting more cash for their "character transfer" or whatever it is.
Blizzard has turned into another money grabbing cheap company that charges where it doesnt need to.
"Look at Diablo 2. Millions, upon millions of characters, many servers, yet no monthly fee."
Look, diablo servers hold a grand total of 4 people at a time with no maintenance and sometimes going a year without a bugfix/patch and hardly any new content...
not only that the game is MUCH shorter.
New content is being added to WoW in EVERY major patch (thats 11/12 patches now) +an expansion on the way +weekly server maintenance, ongoing support a thriving community and an ongoing storyline.
All I can say is, WoW is teh biggest pile of wank ive ever had the misfourtune of playing.
Now WOW has been out for quite some time I assume. They are JUST comming out with an expansion pack with new land, etc. So, Blizzard claims they need the monthly fee to pay for the creation of this new expantion.
lets look at guild wars now. Just about 6 months after the first game came out, they came out with an expantion. Did they need a monthly fee for all the new content, the new servers, or new servers for more players? No. They didnt need this cash at all. And now 6 months after guild wars factions came out, they are releasing yet another expantion, guild wars night fall. Hmm, I wonder what blizzard has been doing with that monthly fee now? Any guesses? Blizzard has turned into a cash whore.
Oh so wait, if you guys were Blizzard you wouldn't accept 98mil a month? You want them to just turn down that money?
They are saying they shouldnt be charging that much from the start. And now that they are making so much, they could drop the price a little, to entice more players and make happy the ones that are already enthralled with the game.
Personally, I played WoW for a month or two and didn't find it all that appealing. I'm more of a free-PvP/PKer, meaning I like to be able to kill and be killed whenever I'm not in town. Not when I'm on the wrong continent.
I agree no Namaru, charging $12-$14 a month when they are making $98 million a month is insane. Dont forget that, that $98 million revenue is increasing as people buy the burning cursade, or the origional wow. If those 8 million buy the expansion, and say it costs $49, they will make an additional $392,000,000.
Now do you understand how much blizzard doesnt need monthly fee's? To companys, they usually think " Oh doesnt mmorpg mean monthly fee? I mean, we always hear that we need money for servers...." When your game has gained a revenue of one billion dollars, I think it may be a bit unfair to charge people that money.
I like WoW. Personal preference. It's by far not anywhere near the greatest, but it's something to kill time and it's decently fun.
Blizzard needs to drop/lower the monthy fee cause, well.. yeah. The popularity of this ***** has gone to their heads. Terrible, terrible thing, as they used to be one of my favorite game companies.
And anyone who gets addicted like that to anything is a dumbass, much less a bloody video game. Period.
I can understand if they had a lower number of players, they would need a monthly fee, but with all this cash...this is just unacceptiable. Just think about it, 98 million a month, and rising. Thats almost 1 billion a year, in MONTHLY FEES alone!
hey guys maybe we should send a email to blizzard to say to decrease the monthly fee I would play it if it were like 10 or 5 bucks 15 gets a little insane. I really wanna play this game. That's is my idea don't have to do anything with that. There we go good day
ass hole
Blizzard has about 8 million people subscribed to Wow but out of that about 6 million are asian and they pay far less then other people to play. So you really only have about 2 million paid subscibers. Out of that money they have to pay for their building costs (rental), workers (I am not sure on the number of people that work for blizzard but even if it was say 200 people at 40,000 each / year = over 8 million). They have the costs of upgrading servers and equipment, huge bandwidth costs, development money, advertising, electrical bills to run all this equipment ect. I dont think any of you have an idea what it costs to run a buisness of this size.