Him: "Would you like me if I started playing wow again?"
Me: "..."
Him: "What?"
Me: "Good luck finding a girl that would like you after finding out you play WoW."
The above is a text convo that I had with someone that I've been seeing. He mentioned it because he knows how I feel about the game. I have teetered on weather or not I should go into more detail, but I think I'll just leave it at that.
Seriously?
WoW.
Fuck.
I know fists full of lives that WoW (World of Warcraft) has messed with. I have had several conversations with people that have had to personally deal with a WoW addiction, or family and friends that have had to deal with the addiction. I am sure that you can randomly ask anyone and they will know someone or knows someone that knows someone that has a or had to deal with someone that has a WoW addiction. It's just crazy!
I don't just want to hammer down on WoW, although, it is the biggest culprit. There are other popular MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online or MMORPG which stands for Massively Multiplayer On-line Role-Playing Game.) games out there that people are overly obsessed with. Second Life is another popular one.
I am an active person. I get out of the house, do stuff. I socialize, interact with REAL people. I know this is where many MMO players will argue that they are socializing. Talking to people online is a whole other level of socialization, it’s the anti-social of “Socialization” and it's not a healthy. These gamers are sitting around for hours, “talking” to people, getting to that next level. Anyone can see that there is a problem with that... Though, I know that some gamers have and still will try to defend this topic.
I'm not making these comments and writing a blog on this topic blindly. I have several friends that had to deal with a spouse that had video game addictions and online/Internet addictions, 95% of those relationships are no more. I see, observe and learn from everything around me. Even though I know many people that play video games and I have dated many that have played a lot, it hasn't become a direct problem in a relationship. However, I have had roommates that played MMO games, lost jobs, hibernated in their rooms and evidently could no longer pay rent and had to move.
WOW! (LITERALLY!) There is a website for WoW addicts. www.wowdetox.com. There are some really sad stories on there too. This was one of my favourite quotes from the site, “World of Real Life > World of Warcraft”. They recommend suicide hot lines. Holy shit.
There is even a Wikipedia page: www.wikihow.com/Break-a-World-of-Warcraft-Addiction or how about www.wikihow.com/Overcome-an-MMORPG-Addiction
A friend of mine, that has played MMO games and has experienced someone being addicted to a MMO game, wrote, "I think MMO players in general have a harder time maintaining relationships because they can't differentiate between real life and the game and they fuck up their priorities." Very true.
Anyway, in the end, isn't there a reason he stopped playing in the first place? I will not tell him what to do. That is not my place but I do have a choice. I don't know if I want to invest more time and potentially more of my heart into someone that is into that stuff.
I welcome people to comment... current players, ex-players and even ones that have been personally affected by this problem.
More interesting links:
http://www.spike.com/blog/10-deaths-caused-by/74056
http://ezinearticles.com/?Deaths-Caused-by-Video-Games&id=1916512
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_controversy