Thank you SO much for this article! I couldn't have found it at a better time! My bf and I have been playing WOW for over a year now together (after he introduced me to it - as he had been playing for over 3 yrs off and on before meeting me). We finally made the "big move" and UNINSTALLED the game from our computers - even though we had a full month left **GASP**!!! We have come to the scary thought that since neither of us have addictive personalities for anything else (like alcohol, drugs, gambling, etc), why would we be so ADDICTED to playing a video game??

To give you some background, we are both working adults (over 30)for the past year we have been playing every day for sometimes 12 hrs straight on the weekends and up to 6 hrs each night on the weekdays!

So, as you can imagine, this has sucked up a LOT of our time. We pretty much wasted a YEAR of our life together playing a worthless video game!

Now, the question goes back to...WHY HAVE WE FELT SUCH A NEED TO PLAY???? Why couldn't we stop until now? What kind of brainwashing has been occurring??? What kind of money is Blizzard making off people like us who have been possibly been convinced to play more via subliminal messages???

Originally posted by Anonymous ATS
Thank you SO much for this article! I couldn't have found it at a better time! My bf and I have been playing WOW for over a year now together (after he introduced me to it - as he had been playing for over 3 yrs off and on before meeting me). We finally made the "big move" and UNINSTALLED the game from our computers - even though we had a full month left **GASP**!!! We have come to the scary thought that since neither of us have addictive personalities for anything else (like alcohol, drugs, gambling, etc), why would we be so ADDICTED to playing a video game??

To give you some background, we are both working adults (over 30)for the past year we have been playing every day for sometimes 12 hrs straight on the weekends and up to 6 hrs each night on the weekdays!

So, as you can imagine, this has sucked up a LOT of our time. We pretty much wasted a YEAR of our life together playing a worthless video game!

Now, the question goes back to...WHY HAVE WE FELT SUCH A NEED TO PLAY???? Why couldn't we stop until now? What kind of brainwashing has been occurring??? What kind of money is Blizzard making off people like us who have been possibly been convinced to play more via subliminal messages???

First off, I don't play that long, though I used to in the Blizzard servers! Now I play it for free via private servers, almost as good!

Sounds have nothing to do with with its addictive nature. I have proved it. I'm playing it for months now without any sounds - muted but I'm still addicted to it... I think it has something to do with the occult symbols that is all over the place in Wow.

Occult symbols have power. The US Gov uses occult symbols a lot too! Why would the seat of world's power use it a lot when it does nothing???

Originally posted by ahnggk
I play wow with all sound muted, seriously, that's how I want to play it, the sounds are annoying somehow.

But I'm addicted to the game so it's not in the sounds, but the game mechanics. I'm a hardcore gamer and played all sorts of games, including flight simulators, racing simulators, FPS, RTS, even had the gaming equipment for a particular game. But nothing is as addictive and personal as wow.

Good thing I play in a private server so I don't have to pay anything, but I'm thinking of quitting because time is also money :/

Wow community is like a cult.

I also played WOW with the sound off. WOW made me sad and nauseous. It just seemed like a list of chores when I'd rather be doing something fun. When I told someone how miserable it made me, they suggested I turn the sound on.
???
How did they know I played with the sound off, and why would that make a difference?
I never got into it enough to pay. I didn't go as far as the whole ten days of the trial.

[edit on 26-12-2009 by TheCounselor]

Originally posted by Bob Sholtz
I played wow for about 2 years, and quit about three weeks ago. I began to suspect subliminal messaging when i ended up having about 8 wow related dreams since i quit. All of the dreams focused on me reactivating my account.

i played WoW for a year, quit for 6 months, never had a dream about it,

started again in the summer holidays when i was bored for 2 months, then quit for 4 months,

then played again for 1 month, then quit,

1 year later, (present day) iv started playing again, im not super addicted to it, i often get bored of it, and go do other stuff.'

so yeah i think this is BS

TYPICAL

Blame the video game not the parents or even the kids
If they rot away on the pc all day its their fault.
Not the game

Originally posted by TheCounselor

Originally posted by ahnggk
I play wow with all sound muted, seriously, that's how I want to play it, the sounds are annoying somehow.

But I'm addicted to the game so it's not in the sounds, but the game mechanics. I'm a hardcore gamer and played all sorts of games, including flight simulators, racing simulators, FPS, RTS, even had the gaming equipment for a particular game. But nothing is as addictive and personal as wow.

Good thing I play in a private server so I don't have to pay anything, but I'm thinking of quitting because time is also money :/

Wow community is like a cult.

I also played WOW with the sound off. WOW made me sad and nauseous. It just seemed like a list of chores when I'd rather be doing something fun. When I told someone how miserable it made me, they suggested I turn the sound on.
???
How did they know I played with the sound off, and why would that make a difference?
I never got into it enough to pay. I didn't go as far as the whole ten days of the trial.

[edit on 26-12-2009 by TheCounselor]

Most people play with the sound off in favor of their own soundtracks. However the in game music gets you more into the mood to play, as it changes when you go into battle, or into an Instance, or if you are doing something different.

Not everything is brainwashing you, and if you think everything is brainwashing you, then that makes you even worse than the people who listen to everything that comes at them. Living in a completely paranoid world is no way to live. It's just a game, and that is all it will ever be
Lvl 68 BE Rogue Combat Spec and lovin' every stabby minute!

Im going to have to stop you all right there

I dont think anything is as disturbing to me as the calibre of person that would want to know what the Spirit Healer was saying. And even if it is in fact what the Spirit Healer mumbles while you are dead in World of Warcraft, it is of little consequence as the factors that make the game what it is will be more than enough to keep people playing

Next up, define addiction, which is frivolously tossed about in explanation of any MMORPG player, not just World of Warcraft

Phychologically creating habits, where its cessation will cause severe trauma. lets have a look at this. We would not normally take an instance of one friend visiting another on a frequent occasion over a spaced period of time, and call it an addiction. Nor would we say going to the beach with them was an addiction. World of warcrafts main appeal is the socializing aspect ( believe it or not, contrary to what subliminal man will tell you ). I have heard no claims of anyone suffering trauma from this game or any of Blizzards products apon not playing it anymore. And to actually believe an MMORPG has the ability to affect anyone into a mental disorder is a stretch.

Another part of addiction. Any habit that interferes with normal everyday activities. Heres the thing about the majority of MMORPG gamers. Do you have any idea how many children have grown up with videogames, socializing in games and revolving around them. Saying that it was an addiction to them, would be telling them their social mechanics in their head was an addiction. It would be the equivalent to me going up town and telling people they are addicted to socialising by being up town. Also that upkeep of their appearance or anything else they do to fit into society was an addiction. Actually, you telling them that, here on their medium ( The internet ), is the equivalent of what i said.

Gotta ask yourself, what exactly gives anyone the right to downplay a successful companies pinnacle achievment in gaming ( Which it undoubtably is... google it's pro's instead of con's sometime ) into as simple a device as a cigarette. By that logic, since Christians have claimed World of Warcraft to be a " Spiritual Gate " that is a tool for evil to be avoided, should i not be in the religious forums tearing down their invisible walls? Case in point, World of Warcraft is only addictive to those with a Weak / Diseased mind ( and those types of people could make an addiction out of anything ). People who enjoy the genre and culture cope just fine with it in their lives. Like how i like cars and ironically have one. ( although if i did lose it while driving there would be trauma, but only intensive care kind of trauma )

I played WoW for about 1 year and a half and it's probably the only game i've ever played that didn't make me dream about it or affect my grades in the University. Now, the only reason i stick to games like that is because of the friends i make, otherwise i quit them within a week, subliminal messages never made me stick to something.

Originally posted by Droguza
Im going to have to stop you all right there

I dont think any#$%#!!...

Droguza, I’m really happy for you. And Imma gonna let you finish, but Guild Wars had one of the best necromancers of all time! Of all time!

I mean your necrotic revival of this thread is noteworthy, and certainly bolshy, however it fails to underpin any of the subliminal elements which this thread has brought to the front to date.

On a side note you have got MMOs being talked about again here so good thing

Go Go Good Team!!

-m0r

Originally posted by ScarletNyx

Originally posted by TheCounselor

Originally posted by ahnggk
I play wow with all sound muted, seriously, that's how I want to play it, the sounds are annoying somehow.

But I'm addicted to the game so it's not in the sounds, but the game mechanics. I'm a hardcore gamer and played all sorts of games, including flight simulators, racing simulators, FPS, RTS, even had the gaming equipment for a particular game. But nothing is as addictive and personal as wow.

Good thing I play in a private server so I don't have to pay anything, but I'm thinking of quitting because time is also money :/

Wow community is like a cult.

I also played WOW with the sound off. WOW made me sad and nauseous. It just seemed like a list of chores when I'd rather be doing something fun. When I told someone how miserable it made me, they suggested I turn the sound on.
???
How did they know I played with the sound off, and why would that make a difference?
I never got into it enough to pay. I didn't go as far as the whole ten days of the trial.

[edit on 26-12-2009 by TheCounselor]

Most people play with the sound off in favor of their own soundtracks. However the in game music gets you more into the mood to play, as it changes when you go into battle, or into an Instance, or if you are doing something different.

Not everything is brainwashing you, and if you think everything is brainwashing you, then that makes you even worse than the people who listen to everything that comes at them. Living in a completely paranoid world is no way to live. It's just a game, and that is all it will ever be
Lvl 68 BE Rogue Combat Spec and lovin' every stabby minute!

If you read some of my posts, you would find I'm not what you assumed. I do, however, find it strange that they knew I preferred sound off.

Okay, so how do you figure out if this is true or false? You can check this yourself, actually. I did, but I am not 100% convinced, but I am sure that this is the most addicting game ever made. And I know it has ruined countless of lives.

First off you need World of Warcraft installed. You can download it for free with the 10-day trial version.
You don't have to log on, or anything.

Then you need a mpq editor. I use Ladik's, you can search on google for Wow(world of warcraft) mpq-editor.
Then you load in the file common.mpq from the data-directory of wow. Inside that file you will look after Sound\Ambience\GhostState.wav

Now you need some audio-software to process this file. Audacity is free if you don't already got some other piece of software. I use different software, so how you process this file depends on what you use. But, some of the things are really the same. You look for the parts in the file where you hear a faint whisper. Then you use something like a equalizer(EQ) to remove some of the noise on the high and low part of the sound-spectrum. Remember that vocals are in the middle of the sound-spectrum.

And now you turn up the noise and listen to the sample and make up your own mind about this. Afterwards you compare your results with the Youtube-clips about this and review comments. I did, and I am kind-of leaning towards that there is something there. I played this a lot, but I won't touch it anymore.

I like the universe more than the game itself.

I came off a 5 year "addiction" but i am still drawn to the game universe's ongoing story that i prefer to relive Azeroth through the classic way to RPG, with dice, a table and some friends.