How to Know if You're Addicted to World of Warcraft
I am a recovering World of Warcraft addict.
Having stepped away from the game, it's becoming increasingly easier to see how much of an impact the game had on me. I thought I'd share some thoughts about how I came to recognize my addiction and what I did about it. The purpose of this article is not to define 'why' WoW is so addictive, but to help players, or players' friends/family know whether there is addictive behavior or not.
For me, there were four major ways that I could identify an addiction to World of Warcraft
- Impact to Weekly Life
- Time spent thinking about WoW while away from it
- Defensiveness at the suggestion I give it up
- Neglect of 'Real Life' relationships
Impact to Weekly Life - I had justified my playing because my raiding guild had pretty light 'requirements' for raiding. We only raided three nights per week, and only required 60% attendance. That translates to only two nights per week. The way I justified it was by comparing the commitment to a softball team. Most guys I know play once a week and practice once a week. It's about the same time commitment, or so I thought.
While it's true that the 'requirement' was only 2 nights per week, RARELY did an entire 24 hours go by that I wasn't online at some point. Even if it was logging in to quickly check my mailbox for auction sales, and make a quick run to the Auction House to relist some items. Or I would do quick round of a zone collecting herbs and ore to sell later, to keep myself deep in gold so I could afford the potions to raid. And, in fact, even though the 'requirement' was 2 nights per week, I never missed a raid night unless I was out of town...and even then I'd sometimes make it on my laptop, playing from my hotel.
I'd login quickly in the morning before my family was up so I could do the auction house stuff, and then I'd usually login after the kids go to bed, and play until I was ready for bed. Granted, that wasn't every night. My wife and I had certain TV shows that we'd watch together every week, and a Friday night date night. But after the shows or after the date, I usually popped back on WoW to say Hi to my guildmates, help some lowbies with a quick dungeon run, or do some gold-farming.
This went on for a LONG time before some friends called me on my addiction. And they suggested I look at the impact to my weekly life.
There were things i noticed that weren't getting done around the house. There were things that were getting put off. I raided on Tuesday and Wednesday nights, so if I realized on Monday that something needed to be done, it would be Thursday before I could get to it. Even weekends started to get impacted. I passed on some fishing opportunities (and I LOVE fishing), because I wasn't going to have enough time to get my boat ready before the trip, because of my raids. That was red-flag number one.
Time Spent Thinking When Away From The Game - This was another huge indicator. At work, I'd be surfing my guild's message forum, the World of Warcraft forums, and about 3 or 4 other related forums. I was downloading spreadsheets to help me calculate what gear upgrades I should look for next, or what spec would give my character the max damage output. So it actually meant that I was stealing time from my company, and devoting that time to a video game. Not fair to the folks that were paying my salary.
I also found that my mind would wander to WoW in meetings, or at any idle time. During lunch every day I'd call my best friend in Real Life, who I had gotten into WoW, and we'd chat about some aspect of the game, the guild, etc. Even at home, in the evenings when I'm sitting around with the kids watching TV with them or playing with them, I would think about the game. There were times where I'd just let them watch TV themselves while I went and logged in for a bit. So it was stealing my time away from my kids.
Defensiveness At the Suggestion To Quit The Game - When my real-life friends told me I was addicted, I laughed. I told them they just didn't understand the social nature of the game, and that in my case it was an actual commitment to other folks, just like a sports team. They said, "OK, if that's true, why not give it up for two months." On the outside I just laughed, shrugged and said, "I don't know why I really need to do that. That seems silly." On the inside I got defensive and very angry. In fact, that night I woke up in a cold sweat, really mad that they would try to take something so 'innocent and fun' away from me.
THAT reaction got my attention. Any time I feel that angry or defensive, or like I need to 'cling' to something that strong, it's like the check engine light coming on the dashboard...time to pull over and take a look under the hood. Why was a video game THAT important to me? Why was I clinging to it so tightly? I had other hobbies that I loved, too, but I had set many of those aside for WoW. Why couldn't I set aside my WoW hobby and engage in a different hobby for a while? Something was wrong.
Neglect of Real Relationships - As mentioned earlier, my kids were no longer getting my full attention. My wife was getting me part-time. My job was not getting my full attention. Even my friends with whom I'd go fishing were seeing less of me. I had my 'online friends'...but eventually I had to recognize that, as nice as they were (and they are all great folks), none of them were going to be there for me in the hard times of life. I was not spending time with folks who really cared about me, in order to hang out with folks who thought I was a short, bald gnome. There really is a substantial difference between sitting down to dinner with real friends and raiding a dungeon in an online world.
The purpose of this article isn't to be clinical in diagnosis. It's not to prove that someone is an addict or not, or that someone needs therapy. It's to share my story, in the hopes that if you see similarities that raise red-flags in your mind, you can choose to act.
Basically, within about two weeks of my friends' challenge to me, I didn't quit altogether, but I decided to step back. I gave up my role as an officer and a raider. After that, I quickly played less and less...I couldn't keep up with the rest of the guild, and found that as I got involved in other real-life hobbies, I couldn't focus on keeping up with all of the changes (patches), as much as I used to. And the game lost it's glory and power over me. About two weeks after that, I logged on for the last time.
I hope that if any of this story resonates with your experience you will consider the cost of passing up Real Life for a fantasy one. Seek help if you need to. Ask your Real Life friends (who AREN'T gamers) to help you quit if that's what you need to do.
Go out, and enjoy LIFE!
