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Breaking a WoW addiction

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Re: Breaking a WoW addiction

#31

Post by smanek »

oemera wrote: post #10
forensic wrote: post #5

Caveat: it's very easy to extend the criticism of WoW to life itself. Working all these years to be a paramedic, going to school, going to work, for what? To drive some people to the hospital? They're all just going to die anyway. Life is meaningless! What the author is really saying is: "I find more meaning in the real world than in WoW." But this isn't necessarily true for everyone. Having said all that, I think WO…

OH Come on! Life is not meaningless and maybe those people will NOT die anyway. Maybe it's just because you didn't found out by now, what is important for you in live. One example what changes life for ever is having kids. Seeing them grow, laugh and learn things is just amazing. I dunno if this is cry for help, if yes I would like to help. Edit: Why study to become a paramedic? Cause you want to. Cause it is your dr…

Everyone will eventually die anyway.

And your reasons can just as easily be turned around.

Why work hard to win at WoW? Cause you want to. Cause it is your dream. Cause you ever [sic] wanted to be lvl 80. etc.

If your 'argument' applies equally well to any position it is completely meaningless.

Re: Breaking a WoW addiction

#33

Post by michael_dorfman »

VB6_Forever wrote: post #19
stuaxo wrote: post #8

Exactly why I don't play these, also why I don't try crack or heroin.

I haven't tried crack or heroin either but I wonder if they're more addictive than alcohol or tobacco or anything else that gives instant gratification. I tend to lean toward the addictive personality viewpoint. For instance I know people who can open a bar of chocolate and eat just a square or two. If I open a bar it's all gone

Yes, but do you know people who can smoke crack a few times, and then forget it? Or take heroin a few times?

Yes, some personalities are more prone to addiction than others. But it's also true that some substances that give instant gratification are more addictive than others.

Re: Breaking a WoW addiction

#34

Post by VB6_Forever »

michael_dorfman wrote: post #33
VB6_Forever wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I haven't tried crack or heroin either but I wonder if they're more addictive than alcohol or tobacco or anything else that gives instant gratification. I tend to lean toward the addictive personality viewpoint. For instance I know people who can open a bar of chocolate and eat just a square or two. If I open a bar it's all gone

Yes, but do you know people who can smoke crack a few times, and then forget it? Or take heroin a few times? Yes, some personalities are more prone to addiction than others. But it's also true that some substances that give instant gratification are more addictive than others.

What you say sounds right.

I wonder what, if Heroin was as freely available as alcohol or tobacco, its addiction rate would be like. It's my suspicion that drug addicts tend to come from the addictive personality subsection of the population

Re: Breaking a WoW addiction

#35

Post by davidk0101 »

forensic wrote: post #5

Caveat: it's very easy to extend the criticism of WoW to life itself. Working all these years to be a paramedic, going to school, going to work, for what? To drive some people to the hospital? They're all just going to die anyway. Life is meaningless! What the author is really saying is: "I find more meaning in the real world than in WoW." But this isn't necessarily true for everyone. Having said all that, I think WO…

Why the fuck are you getting upvotes? Your hijacking of the points and arguments he makes doesn't even warrant a response.

Re: Breaking a WoW addiction

#36

Post by Sharanga »

How do you avoid this trap? How do you prevent [subject] from hooking you into a shadow of what you really want? The answer is simple: don't [do it] blindly. Consider what it is you get out of [subject] . Nearly everything the [subject] provides can be found better and more real elsewhere.

Fattening foods? Alcohol abuse? Sex Addiction? oh, WoW.

This is written with the assumption that the reader cannot think for themselves and is quite insulting to anyone that reads past half of these subjective assertions.

"at the same time there was something disquieting about the fact that all these people were still around"

Sorry your friends didn't die, change all of their habits entirely, or live up to your random expectations of what constitutes too much and too little involvement in a computer game.

Seriously though, its been out how many years, and using plenty of comics and quotations to express this point, its taken you 18 months to regurgitate this same tired public service announcement? This is just trolling literate people that have thought about playing games in the last decade!

Re: Breaking a WoW addiction

#37

Post by awt »

Here's my perspective as the friend of someone who became addicted to WoW:

I lost a potential programming buddy/co-founder. we used to collaborate on projects, but eventually WoW took up all his spare time. We both graduated with CS degrees, but he is now unemployable. He played WoW instead of working (he worked from home), and has never spent any time outside of work maintaining his skills. I say worked because he no longer works. Hasn't for the past 3 years. Right now he's into starcraft. It's frustrating to me that he and others I built relationships with in college have chosen this path.

Re: Breaking a WoW addiction

#38

Post by access_denied »

JanezStupar wrote: post #22
forensic wrote: post #5

Caveat: it's very easy to extend the criticism of WoW to life itself. Working all these years to be a paramedic, going to school, going to work, for what? To drive some people to the hospital? They're all just going to die anyway. Life is meaningless! What the author is really saying is: "I find more meaning in the real world than in WoW." But this isn't necessarily true for everyone. Having said all that, I think WO…

There is a substantial difference between improving your physical life and your Avatar. The illusion of success is there and almost tangible - if you didn't have to "wake up" to your neglected real body and nonexistent/handicapped real life. And most people I know don't play WOW due to nihilism or at least not initially. They play it just for opposite reasons - it makes it easier for them to achieve something . Discl…

> I instantly felt sick ... It just made me want to throw up.

Interestingly I have the same torwards tobacco. There seems to be something, maybe in your sub-consciousness that wants to prevent you from going back there and it is so strong that it evokes reactions on a physical level.

Re: Breaking a WoW addiction

#39

Post by alexdias »

ThomPete wrote: post #28

The problem for me with games like WoW, EQ and so on is that they aren't based enough on skills so to compensate you need to spend a lot of time in the game. To contrast. In a game like Quake you are only as good as your Rail-gun aim it's pure skills. Or StarCraft for that matter again skills based. The advantages from these kind of games in combatting addiction is that they are hard to become good at. you can't just…

I think you're mainly viewing WoW from the PvE (player-vs-environment) perspective. In PvP (player-vs-player), there is a system much like the one present in Starcraft II (except that there are no leagues, only ratings).

In a game like Quake you are only as good as your Rail-gun aim it's pure skills.

If you spend years playing Quake/Starcraft, you will be good at it.

The advantages from these kind of games in combatting addiction is that they are hard to become good at

I don't see how that combats addiction. I played competitive Counter-Strike Source for some time, and the main thing that kept me going was just that feeling of competition, and wanting to become better.

WoW's addiction factor is different. It's more like "if I don't do X on day Y, I get behind other people" where in games like Quake/Starcraft, that just doesn't exist.

Re: Breaking a WoW addiction

#40

Post by sliverstorm »

VB6_Forever wrote: post #19
stuaxo wrote: post #8

Exactly why I don't play these, also why I don't try crack or heroin.

I haven't tried crack or heroin either but I wonder if they're more addictive than alcohol or tobacco or anything else that gives instant gratification. I tend to lean toward the addictive personality viewpoint. For instance I know people who can open a bar of chocolate and eat just a square or two. If I open a bar it's all gone

The issue with crack & heroin as I understand it is the magnitude/intensity of the instant gratification. Tobacco and alcohol are definitely addictive, but the gratification is weaker.
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