WoW Addiction

I wrote about this before on here (somewhere, gotta find). Anyway here is a interesting site about wow addicts after they break the addiction.

So...after Phalea and BRK left the game to spend more time with family, and visiting that site, it was time for a wake-up call. Recently things have been rough; both of us are extremely stressed, but whereas I saw WoW as a stress relief, it actually made my wife more stressed. So...I'm going to try hard to scale down WoW time. That means no more going home, heating up something, and eating in front of the computer. No more playing on weekends all day or during the day at all. I'm going to try to limit my WoW time to 5 hours a week.

Am I an addict? Well, life would be better for us if we didn't play, but it would be hard for me because the only friends I have are online. However I dont sit in front of the computer for 12+ hours a day, I haven't lost anyone (yet) due to playing, haven't lost my job due to playing. Certainly it hasn't helped my career, but my career is of the type where if you are going to get ahead you need to be both talented and willing to invest 60-80 hours a week. 40 hours a week gets you nothing but a paycheck.

I think the game is a symptom but not the problem per se. It's like alcohol, if you are abusing alcohol you are doing so to mask other problems. But I can see it developing into the problem. You can't meet friends because you are online all the time. You can't have normal relationships because that would take up all your wow time. And it doesn't really matter that all your friends (people you know in real life) are WoW addicts. It just means there is more people on the sinking ship.

However, I find myself asking continually what is better? Is it better to go out with buddies and drink instead of get online and play with them? You are still socializing the same amount. Is it better to sit in front of the TV with your spouse instead of playing with them? I think for us the answer is yes because we can have normal conversations and its a limited time frame, whereas when we play we are focused on the game at first and its hard to have real conversations.

People say WoW is cheaper and healthier than drinking. Yeah, but again it's all the missed opportunities in life. You give up healthy meals, working out, and relationships. You miss out on career and life development, for an endless circle of pixel satisfaction, which is completely virtual and lacking.

Anyway i'll attempt to chronicle my recovery here in the hope it helps someone.