World of Warcraft 'more addictive than cocaine'

I believe WoW is quite addictive. So are other video games.
Not all though - stopping to play Mario was so much easier...

I played WOW for about a month. The game was just too cartoony for me. I did however play Everquest and Everquest2 for a total of 10 years. These kinds of games are Extremely addictive. You cant just long on and play for a couple hours and accomplish anything. You need at minimum 8 hours to play a day. The game is set up with quests that can take over a month to complete. Unless you can devote all your free time to playing you just wont get anywhere.
I had to decide between my family of the game so I quit cold turkey. I uninstalled it and broke the disks. It was the hardest thing I've ever had to do. I went through withdrawals and all my dreams were that of the game.
These games are great fun but you can get sucked in and lose yourself.

Well this would certainly not be the first person to have been severly affected by a video game. Yes, of course these games are addictive and they are well designed, so you just can not stop playing them and always say, hey just one more hour. I have a friend who also plays FRP games like these and he does not leave the computer unless really have to (and he even pees in an empty bottle so he does not go to the bathroom). In any case, that is not the sole issue here. This player is a child and therefore his parents are responsible for his domestic activites. But all I see today is parents who simply do not have time for their kids and rather see them play video games all day and night, so that they have them under control under their roof and not outside in the big cruel world. I understand that from a certain point of view, where you would want to protect your kid - but for what price? Making him a video game addict? Disconnecting him from reality and installing a virtual world into him? Kids these days have really lost touch wiith the real world and are more relaxed in all sorts of virtual worlds; all this MySpace and Facebook and MSN and Skype and all kinds of non-personal communication really dones not lead into something good. These kids will lack real communication skills in a real world and will always be somehow connected to a virtual reality they really know. And THAT is the problem here - not video games.

And we could blame this dangerous world of ours - but it is no more dangerous then it was a decade ago and kids back in those days did not have all this virtual-computer-reality. I remember when I was a kid we used to play all day somewhere outside; riding a bike, playing in the woods, playing with marbles - there was definetly an outdoor activity. Today the only sport kids know are EA Sports video games on Playstation 3 and X-Box 360. Are they to blame? Or is the aggressive video game industry guilty, along with parents who have no time for their kids anymore?

[edit on 5/3/09 by Souljah]

Where were the parents?

I play wow almost everyday. During the week about 5 hours per day, on the weekends I've been known to go 10-20 hours.

I actually met my partner of three years on Wow. Moved to the UK to be with him. We did stop for about a year, to make sure our relationship could work without Azeroth, and it did.

It's our hobby, something we do together.

But we are adults amd we have jobs and common sense enough to eat and drink whilst we play.

If your children are playing this game, then the responibility lies squarely on the shoulders of the parents for what the consequences might be.

Wow has an age rating of twelve plus it has parental controls built in where the parent can determine how much play time the child gets. If the parents don't utilize the tools available to control the play time then that isn't the fault of the Blizzard.

For the Horde!

I'm another WoW player, and have been since European launch (four years ago now).

I gradually swapped a thirty year alchohol/drug addiction for a WoW addiction and I'm glad I did! I used to spend most of my money on booze and drugs, get into all sorts of trouble and kill my brain cells. Now I just kill pixels.

WoW suits me as I suppose I have an 'addictive nature', but I would say that for ANYONE to spend all of their time playing to the detriment of a real life is way bad. I have two kids over 20 (kids - that's a laugh ) but even when I was wrecked when they were younger I never let them sit glued to a PC or game console for hours on end but took the dog for a walk, went to the beach or played footbal (soccer to our north American cousins ).

I don't think it's the fault of the game or the game companies that teens like the one mentioned by the OP get addicted but more likely down to lack of involvement of the parents. But then, when did a teen ever listen to their parents?

And like Merigold says: For the Horde!

Chasyb

Oh it's definitely addicting and has a ridiculous time committment needed to keep up, so to say, with other players. I played shortly but with my two very young kids it wasn't worth it.

I do have several friends who are 100% addicted. They spend more time on that computer game in a fantasy world than with their own families. One friend even admitted he puts his one year old to bed at like 6pm so he can go play all night.

oh and GO HORDE

I don't understand how WoW is so addictive. If anything FFXI is. I use to play FFXI for like 4 years and I'm just now "recovering" but I wont lie, I would love to play again even though it's boring now. Most of my friends play WoW and they're so into it they'll ditch their plans irl to play WoW. w/e

The whole matter of WoW being addictive completely lies in self-control. Personally, I love video games, am a sucker for a good rpg, and am also an indy game developer...so the interest in video games is there, but addicted to WoW, I am not. Why? It's a video game...it will be there later. I also got my girlfriend involved in WoW. She loves it, also not addicted.

As far as the kid dying and what not, completely the parent's responsibility. What happened to parents being parents and instilling some responsibility, mine seemed to do a good job. As somebody mentioned, there are parental controls built into WoW so that parents who actually pay attention to the things there kids do can maybe do a little research and realize "Hey, I can make sure they don't play too much and get out to do other things."

For the Horde!

sorry, double post.

[edit on 3/5/2009 by numo16]

counter srtike FTW.
I dont find mmorpg´s addicting i actually find those games very boring , but if you want to know i have lot´s of times played for a whole day with friends pro evolution soccer , we would play until we fell asleep on the couches.

Originally posted by infolurker
LOL.... I love it.

The allure of the game after a time is the "feeling of accomplishment" and "community" with a guild once you start raiding.... And that allure kept us hooked for a long while

And don't forget... all this time you are wasting on these raids week after week for the gear will be TOTALLY Freeking Negated with the next expansion!

It was fun before "burning crusade".... it "seemed" like the time invested amounted to something. But then the expansion negated everything accomplished and generally level 60 became level 1 again as if a "reset" button was pushed...... Then a new expansion to 80..... What next... why waste the time? It is all for nothing..... Once you realize that... the addiction is OVER!

[edit on 3-3-2009 by infolurker]

This is so true, but the decline of the social environment in the game and the excessive amount of time required to do anything anymore is what kills it for me. I have started playing XBOX Live with my son. Shorter amounts of time, more fun and a variety of different games. I think my long time (13+ years) as run it's course.

I started playing Everquest in 1999 when it first came out. After a while people started calling it EverCrack, because of its addictive potential.
I think EQ was one of the games (mmorph) that started it all.

It was amazing in the beginning, nothing like it. However after a while you join a guild and it becomes almost like a job. I can see the attraction to some. Some guild leaders became likened to rock stars in game, and big guilds like rock bands.

I was a guild leader for a while and found myself online easily 10-12 hours a day. You get home from work, go online at 4-6pm and sometimes not log off until 6-8am the next morning just in time to go back to work. Nevermind the weekends.

I lost contact with friends and family it was awful. Then suddenly in 2003 I had enough, all the bickering the social crap, childish behavior of players and the lack of reality (real life) got to me. I deleted all my characters and accounts in one instant moment and never played again. And never contacted anyone I played with.

These games are a definate escape from reality. They also give less than social people or people who feel like nothings in their real lives a chance to be something special in game or somebody important.

There is however something special, magical even, about the first 20-30 levels when I first played, everything was new. No one new anything more then the next guy. There were no elite players or super guilds or twinks.

The game is so good that it has these outcomes.

I have played it before - and it really does eat up A LOT of peoples social lives and relationships.

But so does excessive drinking, drugs, and any habit your peers do not accept.

WoW gives people power that usually have no say. The more you play - the more "power" you have over others really.

I can fully understand the addiction factor, but like many things in life, it should be the parents job to decide what their children do. I do not know about more addictive than coc aine, but it sure is a pinch away probably.

Still, there shouldn't be any type of bans except the average age requirements (E,T,M,A, AO, etc).

LOL.... I love it.


This "addiction" can be cured quite simply.... Turn up Vent or Teamspeak really loud and go on raids with "hardcore want to be leader types".... Listen to some child scream at your raid members and spout threats and go on a total power trip. Have some teenager rant on about "his raid" for an hour or so and go bat sh it crazy for awhile over a freeking game. After a few experiences like this the game will loose it's appeal and you will wonder why the hell you wasted so much time on something that is really unimportant.


The allure of the game after a time is the "feeling of accomplishment" and "community" with a guild once you start raiding.... And that allure kept us hooked for a long while

And don't forget... all this time you are wasting on these raids week after week for the gear will be TOTALLY Freeking Negated with the next expansion!

It was fun before "burning crusade".... it "seemed" like the time invested amounted to something. But then the expansion negated everything accomplished and generally level 60 became level 1 again as if a "reset" button was pushed...... Then a new expansion to 80..... What next... why waste the time? It is all for nothing..... Once you realize that... the addiction is OVER!

This basically sums everything up. I used to play a lot and I mean a lot people said I was addicted but I knew I wasn't I just felt I needed to achieve whatever I wanted in the game. Once I got the best gear, status etc and a new expac coming out it was over for me. I don't want to go through that again sure it was fun but I already did what I wanted. I guess people still play because they are still trying to accomplish something or haven't experienced whats it like being on top and then back down again. WOW is truly an amazing waste of time like any MMOs.

well then why can't they sell coc aine at best buy?

reply to post by Tentickles

My Brother play WoW as an Officer in a guild. He hasnt had a job for 4 years, lives with my mother and even failed college because of the game.

Here's the first step, stop enabling him. Stop paying for the game. Does he just have a ton of savings or is independently rich? How can he not work for 4 years but still afford the montly fee? Someone must be paying for it..If he still lives at home with mom maybe she should make some rules. That whole, while you're living under my roof thing ya know.

Secondly, he clearly has issues that have nothing to do with the game. Maybe you should try and get him some counseling. Maybe he's agoraphobic, maybe he doesn't want to face reality, whatever it is, it's not the game's fault.

It's easy to blame the game, but in this case, don't hate the game hate the player.

Good luck! I hope he comes around to face reality. A little gaming can be a wonderful thing, but when you block out reality it becomes escapism. I play WoW myself...as a hobby. I probably play about 3-4 hours a night, but I do that instead of watching TV. Some people go home and plop in front of the couch, I would rather interact with other people than stare at a screen myself. But...too much is too much, you have to set limits. Life should always come before any game, and that should go without saying. It's pretty sad that it doesn't all the time.

mental addiction only takes place in the mind of a weak person. WOW is not physically addicting like coc aine and heroin. this is just children with bad parents. i wouldnt allow my son to sit in front of the computer like that for 24 hours.

It's not their fault they invented the best game ever made with the most options possible and the most to do at any given time night or day.

They were given a job of creating a game like no other , and experience like no other and they did. congrads to them for making this game and making a ton of money.

I used to play maybe 2-3 years ago i quit because I was moving out of state and had to focus on school. I have a best friend who still plays when he can but up until maybe 3 months ago he would play a minimum of 6 hours a day with sesions lasting 12 hours no problem.


He no has a great job as an acountant and can not find time to play much anymore .

Even though he is really really good at the game ( I'd argue one of the best......atleast prob the best in michigan......no joke he literally plays pvp with top teams and players ) He still found what was more important and cut back.


All you need to do to get you off any addiction is to find something to take the place of that addiction or addiction time.

Say, does anyone know if this game will play on Vista 64?

I've played the heck out of my old favorite games such a Unreal Tournament, GTA, etc., and I want something new. I saw WOW in the store a couple weeks ago but it did not state if it worked on Vista 64, and I've come to learn that unless some product does, there's a chance it won't. ? (please, don't ask why I am using 64 bit Vista, there is a reason but I don't want to repeat why)

Ha, addiction .. so what. Most of the best things in life are addictive. AND dangerous if not used in moderation. Take food for example. Frankly, I'm surprised water is still legal, considering how many people drown on the stuff every year, lol. Life is a learning experience, let the over-indulgers learn the hard way if that is what is necessary. Some people have to stick their hand in the fire before they can believe what happens when you do.

Well it is not strange that video gaming is sometimes compared with drug addiction.
Video gaming can cause the release of dopamine in the brain that is as powerfull, if not more, as any other synthetic drug around.

Here is some info on that:

A number of studies have revealed that game playing triggers dopamine release in the brain, a finding that makes sense, given the instrumental role that dopamine plays in how the brain handles both reward and exploration.
Jaak Panksepp, a neuroscientist collaborating with the Falk Center for Molecular Therapeutics at Northwestern University, calls the dopamine system the brain’s “seeking” circuitry, which propels us to explore new avenues for reward in our environment.
(snip)
Of course, dopamine is also involved in the addictiveness of drugs. “The thing to remember about dopamine is that it’s not at all the same thing as pleasure,” says Gregory Berns, a neuroscientist at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, who looks at dopamine in a cultural context in his book, Satisfaction. “Dopamine is not the reward; it’s what lets you go out and explore in the first place. Without dopamine, you wouldn’t be able to learn properly.”
discovermagazine.com...:int=2&-C=

dopamine

By the way, the wowdetox.com site was very interesting, i never played wow myself but i played many others over the last 25 years.
Online multi play is much more adictive than single player games i find.

An other thing i noticed is that you can get very addicted to the rate of the action.
The rate of constant action can be very high in several fist person shooters for example, the shear rate of the action can be pulling at you.

But keep in mind that it is not just pixels on the screen, a very large part is the activity in the brain at a certain rate and of course the natural heroin like chemicals the brain releases during gaming