Can of you WOW heads relate to any of this? Some of these are quite nuts...

Here is one story that I have read on the internet from someone who is addicted to the game so much it really is interfering with his work, family life, and many other things. I was absolutely shocked seeing how this person was able to become so addicted but the stories kept coming with more people chiming in. Anyway, here is the story:

My Husband started playing WOW almost 2 years ago and our marriage has slowly deteriorated since. A “friend” of his gave him a free 10 day trial and he actually asked if I cared if he tried it out…and I said “sure it’s a free try why not” I can’t tell you how much I regret that statement.

First he played a couple of hours ata time then he announced friday nights were now his “Raid night” and I could not make plans that included him on fridays from then on. I asked for him to talk to the other 50 raid people to see if they could switch it and he said no, he said that was the night that worked for everyone else…(regardless of whether it worked for his family). I was told to expect this indefinitly. Every “date night” essentially gone.
In addition to “Raid night” He started playing every night after dinner, the routine was, he’d come home, have dinner watch an hour of TV with me, then go play until midnight or so. Later he told me that OTHER players’ were having a hard time with the friday thing so they changed it to Wednesday AND Thursdays instead. OTHER people had a hard time so they moved it, it didn’t seem to matter that I had a hard time with it but, at least other players cared what their wives or family thought or needed. He also has a raid o sunday afternoons now which don’t seem as urgent so, he does miss them every now and then.

His MD started him on this drug for his ADD and he now plays until 3 or 4am almost every single night of the week. He gets up at the last possible second, has a shower and barely makes it to work on time. He does not eat breakfast or make coffee anymore and of course buys his lunch IF he remembers to eat during the day at all.

He gets home and is so hungry he’ll have a huge dinner and then after I go to bed, he’ll binge on something else (Like a whole bag of Nachos or A tub of frozen Yogurt). I don’t keep a lot of junk in the house but even a whole tub of frozen yogurt right before bed can make you fatter. His weight has shot up and he weighs close to 100 pounds more then when we met. I don’t know what to do anymore, i’ve tried so many times to talk to him and he just doesn’t listen. He’s cut off friends who aren’t gamers and doesn’t talk to his family much anymore.

If plans are to be made, I make them and its often a battle to get him to go. We don’t have kids although I want at least one. I just see how neglectful he is of me and our dog (yells at him if he noses him to get some attention, doesn’t remember to feed or water him in the AM ’cause he’s so rushed) and I don’t want to put a child through that. I don’t want to get divorced but it’s starting to look like the only solution. I miss the man I married, the guy who was fun, who loved to hike and take our dog for runs together. I feel like a failure because I wasn’t enough to keep him interested and that really hurts.

Also remember it isn't just the guys who can be addicted to this game. There are tons of women addicted to WoW as well. Here is one example story:

I find all of this a bit strange. My wife is addicted to WOW. I dont know what to do. she plays with every free moment she has. Ever since BC came out she has been playing nonstop. My problem with it is all the time dedicated to playing. She spends more time with her online friends, which are all guys, than she does with me. I have also found that she has one of her online friends phone number and they are conversing out of the game.

I am at my wits end. I feel i should call this guy and let him know she is married and not on Wow to hook up but i am afraid of what the consequences of doing that will be. I am this close to filing for divorce. And when i do i will send blizzard and dell a thank you for ruining my marriage. without them (blizzard and dell) i think i would still have my wife.

I want to put another story I've read into here as well. The other stories listed were from married couples (not sure the age) but this one comes straight from a 16 year old student and is probably yet another example of many stories like this as well.

My names Josh, im a 16 year old High School student, and im a Wow addict. And by addict, i mean the real deal. Its humorous to hear people say how hard it is when there husband plays like 40 hours a week, Look at myself, and see that i play anywhere from 70-90 hours a week. Its rough, but i enjoy it. I realise, a lot of people just see the bad sides of WoW, and in no way am i here to justify it, more of just to give another perspective.

For a while, i had family problems, and WoW was a shelter. It was my anti-depresant. Ive been playing WoW since the release, and ive been playing with the same group of friends for that amount of time. Ovbiously theres been some variations, but the majority of my close friends have been for 2+ years. So WoW was my source of fun. It kept me in a good mood and what not, but… theres a few problems that came with this oh so amazing bliss.

Im a smart kid, im mature, im not bragging, but growing up in a school system where you get kids form down town, you can realise it. Ive been in a program called TAG - talented and gifted, basicly honors / ap for elementary school. Droped out. Why you ask? Too much work, not that i couldnt do it, but i didnt care. I have no drive outside of what i care about, and honestly, what i care about is my girlfriend (which the relationship has gone to ****), and WoW. Now in highschool, my GPA is 1.7. Yet i want to get into college? Its really a reality check, but i cant stop. Ive had… lets start with before TBC. 60 tauren warrior, Deleted 3 times and restored each due to addiction, 60 priest, quit, 51 mage, alt that i quit when trying to quit, 60 human rogue, traded for horde rogue, who upon level 70 and nicely geared, was hacked. Now im playing another character who ive level to 30 in aprox 4 days.

WoW isnt just addicting for the never ending repetive system, more so for the social enviorment. When you get so close, and you see them making comitment to “spend time” it feels like a freaking relationship, but you enojoy it, and its blinding (as some relationships are). There really isnt a easy balance when your hardcore. Between farming consumables, making sure your arena team is 2200+, and being a raid leader? Where does real life come in? Especially when your parents pay for it all. What should i feel like i need to work for? Paarents also bought me a new car. I dont blame The companies, i blame my parents. And for my friends, i blame there parents, as most have the same story as me. Kids today, my peers, have no work drive.. we arnt given a reason to work for anything, and yes, knowing that this is the problem, i should be mature enough to correct it, but i dont have the -drive-. I want it, but i dont have it. Slowly, im getting back into school, focusing more, doing my work, but its only because I want it, and changing myself, which im proud of.

Basicly, the point of this, is so you all can see that WoW has good and bad sides, more bad then good. If you are a parent, and dont want this to happen to your child, MAKE them work for something, make them do chores, make them have a drive, because if i could go back, i would tell my mom to make me work for everything i have, my 30,000$ car, my 1.3k computer, all the crap i never use in my room, and more importantly, the 300+$ my parents pay in MMORPG/FPS monthly funds.

I love my mother, im so apprecitave of everything, but parents, money isnt everything, toys arnt everything, and if you dont do something, they may end up like i did, and honestly, its not worth it.

Now what am i gonna do when i get home? Ill tell you, im going to forget this article, double click ventrillo, connect, scream in joy at all of my friends, ask how there day went, log onto wow, and level my butt off untill its time to go to bed.

These are just a few stories of people addicted to the game from the many, many more out there. World of Warcraft can be as addicting as anything else out there. It can be addicting just like poker, alcohol, drugs, etc. While it's impossible to tell exactly how many people are addicted to WoW I believe it has some huge numbers. Luckily, some addicts are starting to realize their addiction and are working on getting out of it. Here's yet another story:

(Quick thin bio: I’m a 30+ married father of 2, I work full-time, my wife is a stay @ home mother, both kids are young, not in school yet.)

I finally rid myself of my WoW account. This will be the 3rd…yes 3rd, time I’ve walked away from the game. The 1st time I deleted the character, but then created a new one a few months later. The 2nd time, I deleted the character and walked away. I came back a 3rd time, and what do you know, but Blizzard can un-delete your character if you ask them. At the time, I was THRILLED of course. I started playing this 3rd time and actually seemed to be keeping it in check, it wasn’t becoming a problem.

Slowly my play time ramped up slightly, still it was a problem. Fast forward a few months and I was playing a lot and was already becoming addicted, the last 2 months were downright shameful at how addicted I’d become. While the time playing and neglect of life was a major problem, one of the more interesting aspects was how it affected me when I wasn’t playing. My wife could tell, it was all I thought about.

I remember going to meetings at work and just zoning out and thinking about WoW. I’d take the kids to the park and sit on the bench while they played, I’d just sit there thinking about WoW. I must’ve looked like some drugged out loser, I’m sure I had a 10-mile stare. But let’s not forget the time played. While I was leveling from 60-70, I would actually set my alarm to wake me up @ 3am so I could get in a few hours before work.

Of course I was exhausted at work, hardly did anything productive, and spent most of my day surfing about WoW. On nights when my wife worked, (she works a part time evening job to help out) it meant maximum WoW time without me feeling like I actually needed to spend time with her (sad on my part, I know.)

I would hurry to get my kids in bed so I could start my WoW session for the night. Of course, I always had WoW running while I was getting them ready for bed, whether it be scanning the auction house, getting that enchant that I just HAD to have, or moving my character to the next fly point so I could hit the ground running once they were down. I started to actually regret weekends that we had social activities planned. I didn’t want to give up my Fri/Sat nights, those were my maximum WoW nights. Sure, I’d still play after we got home, but that meant I’d lose out on a few hours.

No matter how you look at that, I was sick and pathetic and hate that I actually behaved in this manner for any stretch of time, and for a game?!

Anyway, to avoid me re-installing and asking Blizzard to un-delete my account, I sold the account. Yes, some may frown and say that I’m actually contributing to the problem with WoW addiction. But, this was the one way that I could be sure that I couldn’t get this account back. While I was addicted to the game, I just don’t have it in me to level a character from 1-70 all over again, so no chance of me doing that. I’m just thankful that my wife put up with me through it. She couldn’t have been more thrilled once I made the decision to end WoW for good. She was sweet, she actually left me a card the other night, thanking me and letting me know she could already see a difference in me, for the better. On nights when she works, I actually spend time with my kids and I’m not in such a rush to get them off to bed so daddy can be glued to the keyboard and try to grind out “just a little more rep with….” Wish me luck, I’m just glad it’s done and I walked away.

So, while WoW addiction might seem like something that couldn't be real, it really is. If you are someone that is worried about becoming addicted just limit yourself from playing the game so much and treat it seriously. Anyway, hopefully this will put some light into the subject of WoW addiction.

Yes the WoW addiction is a real thing. I have been off that crack for a little while now. It used to be pretty bad, I was barely eating, not really talking to anybody, and getting pissed off every time someone tried to talk to me. Not as bad as one of my good friends though. He was living with his g/f when he started playing and has gone all the way down to rock bottom. He lost his job and his g/f and has never really tried to find a new job and has been unemployed for almost 2 years. Never tried to communicate with any of his friends, in all reality i think im his only friend atm. He just sits at his sister's house all day and him and his brother(who has become just as bad with that game) and they switch off all day playing. He lives about 30 min away so its hard to go and see him, but I do manage to make it out there at least once or twice a month to just let him know he has a friend.

        whats my point? DONT PLAY WOW.  I realized that the game is nothing but grinding, farming, and LFG. I have much more fun playing my XBOX 360 and found out that I do have some friends=)