WoW is ruining lives

GDJustin

stuck my tongue deep inside Atlus' cookies
We've all made jokes about MMOs taking over people lives, consuming souls, etc. We've probably even seen the serious news reports about people playing everquest for 36 hours straight, etc.

But what do you do when it happens to someone you know?

I turned a good friend of mine on to WoW with my extra beta key. He spent a lot of time playing it, as did I. But we're big dorks, so it was no big deal. We'd even discuss WoW when we were out getting food or at parties or whatever.

When the game hit retail that all changed. He's seriously always, ALWAYS on. We used to hang out at least once a week, even if it was just to chill and play monkey ball or something. Now he never answers his phone or returns my (or anyone else's) calls. He never even signs on AIM anymore. It's literally just WoW, all the time. His fiance tells me that he literally runs upstairs and garfs dinner and runs back to his PC.

Speaking of his fiance, she's told me in private that she is straight-up going to leave him if he can't control it. They met online, but don't laugh. They're very very much in love and she moved here to live with him sacrificing a pretty good thing she had going for herself along the way. They've lived together for about a year now. She's signed them up for couple's counseling and that was enough to keep him off the game for about 4 days, she said.

She's going was going to school, and she found out recently that very few of her credits are going to transfer, so she told me that because he ignores her and everything else she's going back home to finish her education in august, whether they work through this or not. He doesn't know yet.

Now I know GAF might not be the best place to be asking this... but I want to help him as a friend. What can I do, to help him realize that WoW needs to be enjoyed in moderation, and that the game is going to cost him his fiance, plus lord knows what? Should I set up some sort of intervention, or something?
 
Yeah, Belgurdo's suggestion worked for me.

Until I fashioned hooks out of my Collector's Edition box.
 
This pretty much happened to all my friends who play WOW. Sad thing is, their girlfriends and wives play too. Time to find new friends bud..
 
WoW is not the first MMORPG to do this. That's why I don't play them. I prefer regular RPGs because I know there will be an end.
 
Littleberu said:
Huh... use your legs, and go over his house, and talk to him.

He lives at home with his parents (while he goes to college), and I'm not welcome at his house. It's a long story that involves dating his little sister. I'll tell it later, but this thread isn't really the place.
 
Disclaimer: My advice is absolutely worthless.

Tell him his girl thinks he's a total 'dweeb'. Use that word, because it's a 90s buzz word which not only makes it lame, but the actual connotation of the word will imply he's lame too. A double lameness so to speak. Tell him he's going to lose her if he doesn't cut a bit of the gaming out. And that will mean no sex. For a long time.

But put it in more sensitive words or something. If they don't work, say it exactly like I said it. If that doesn't work, he's toast, and she's game :D
 
GDJustin said:
He lives at home with his parents (while he goes to college), and I'm not welcome at his house. It's a long story that involves dating his little sister. I'll tell it later, but this thread isn't really the place.

I see WoW isn't the only thing ruining lives...

I KEED I KEED!
 
radioheadrule83 said:
Disclaimer: My advice is absolutely worthless.

Tell him his girl thinks he's a total 'dweeb'. Use that word, because it's a 90s buzz word which not only makes it lame, but the actual connotation of the word will imply he's lame too. A double lameness so to speak. Tell him he's going to lose her if he doesn't cut a bit of the gaming out. And that will mean no sex. For a long time.

But put it in more sensitive words or something. If they don't work, say it exactly like I said it. If that doesn't work, he's toast, and she's game :D

Although she doesn't really like to talk about "that stuff" his fiance implied pretty heavily that they were already not sexing because of the game, and he continues to play.
 
damn WoW must be good :D

he'll give a shit if it happens. I guess that's his mistake to make. But if you can get a word in, despite whatever happened with his sister (:lol another thread please), then that'd be a nice thing to do. Probly the right thing.
 
That's just insane. I have WoW (and have played other mmorpgs) and I never play more than 4 or 5 hours at the MOST. After that I just have to get away from the computer and do something else non gaming related. I really don't know how someone can get so addicted to something to start ignoring loved ones. Clearly this person should not be allowed to play this any longer. Perhaps an intervention like you mentioned is necessary.
 
The End said:
dude, you totally need to sleep with his Fiance.

She's unattractive. He loves her though, and he'll be devastated when she finally does leave. I just feel like he doesn't think she'll really do it. He sees her threats as idle.
 
Tell him the truth. Just stop by with a case of his favorite drink and just flat out tell him. He may not want to hear it, but make him.

Edit - If you can't stop by his house then call him up and have him meet you at your place. Tell him it's very important.
 
GDJustin said:
I just feel like he doesn't think she'll really do it. He sees her threats as idle.

Sadly, sometimes people need to hit rock bottom before they're ready to kick the habit, hear the truth etc.
 
Give him till 60, when he starts to realize he doesnt have much more to do perhaps. Swimming the coast for 2hours and finding nothing romotely added to game maybe just the ticket!
:lol
 
madara said:
Give him till 60, when he starts to realize he doesnt have much more to do perhaps. Swimming the coast for 2hours and finding nothing romotely added to game maybe just the ticket!
:lol

Lolol.

These weak trolls are so awesome it hurts.
 
i remember the first year EQ came out i almost flunked out that semester in college oh so long ago. i was part of the square root club at mid semester (where the square root of your gpa is higher than the original value)

mmorpgs are great values for the money because you can play the same game for years and not need any other game but they are horrible addictions.
 
CrimsonSkies said:
Tell him the truth. Just stop by with a case of his favorite drink and just flat out tell him. He may not want to hear it, but make him.

Edit - If you can't stop by his house then call him up and have him meet you at your place. Tell him it's very important.

Well, from the story, it doesn't sound like that will help much either. If he doesn't answer the phone and doesn't return messages ... makes the guy sort of hard to get a hold of.
 
I've been talking to her online and she's going to try to get him to sign on aim so I can talk to him. I think I might be able to lure him out with bunout 3 or something. He always loved 1 and 2. When I get him to my place I'll spring the moral talk on him and verbally smack him around and maybe let slip a little of what his fiance told me.
 
He needs some perspective. Get him and his fiance away from the temptation for a few days or so if you can. I highly recommend vacationing-even if it's just camping out or a weekend getaway-have him get some perspective on his life. A good weekend hiking or bicycling, coupled with movies and a good dinner for the evening, can do a world of good.

Talk to him in person. Some people need to be called out and have their addiction laid bare before it can get better. Get into his face a little, Zell Miller style, if you need to.

If you can snap him away from the game for a week or so, you'd be in the clear, I think, or at least on a path to balance.
 
play the opposing side on his server, and just PK him constantly.

corpse-camp his ass.

if he's playing, you're killing him.
 
That is a ridiculously sad story. But now I'm worried because my brother just bought WoW on Saturday after all his friends told him how awesome it was on New Year's Eve.

It's cool when a game can really affect you for life, but this is crazy. Talk to your friend and tell him what's at stake. If that shit don't work, shoot him. At least you'll make the news.
 
Being a gamer and having an outside life, especially a fiance need not be a struggle. If his fiance is going to classes or working while he isn't, that can be "game time." It's really not hard, it took about a month of living with my fiance for me to adjust to not gaming whenever I want. The upshot is you get things that are markedly better than games. Sex of course being the chief thing you recieve in exchange for turning your attention to something beside gaming.

My fiance informs me that she hopes your friend's fiance does indeed leave him, I guess she's not as forgiving as I am, but then again she's not a gamer. If your friend's fiance can't or won't plunge into addiction with your friend then things look pretty grim, as he doesn't seem to be the type to take reality over games.

Tell him his fiance will leave him, have her tell him she's going to leave him. After that the ball's in his court. Really the rock bottom idea was a good one, tell his fiance to leave him if he doesn't improve, if that doesn't work well then he doesn't deserve her, especially considering the sacrifices she's apparently made.
 
Euro beta by the end of this week hopefully WOOT. Just in time for the beginning of the most important exams of my life!!!! YAY
 
Why don't you and his fiance get together with some of his friends and confront him about his WoW addiction? Explain to him that it's ruining his social life and have his fiance tell him that's RUINING their relationship.
 
GDJustin said:
He lives at home with his parents (while he goes to college), and I'm not welcome at his house. It's a long story that involves dating his little sister. I'll tell it later, but this thread isn't really the place.
no. i think this thread is exactly the place for that story.
 
akascream said:
Life sucks.. sounds like your friend has found a decent distraction.

:lol

Fragamemnon said:
He needs some perspective. Get him and his fiance away from the temptation for a few days or so if you can. I highly recommend vacationing-even if it's just camping out or a weekend getaway-have him get some perspective on his life. A good weekend hiking or bicycling, coupled with movies and a good dinner for the evening, can do a world of good.

Talk to him in person. Some people need to be called out and have their addiction laid bare before it can get better. Get into his face a little, Zell Miller style, if you need to.

If you can snap him away from the game for a week or so, you'd be in the clear, I think, or at least on a path to balance.

Best advice in this thread, seriously.
 
It's a good thing I really don't like RPG's and MMORPG's at all, because I play Call Of Duty:United Offensive online for 2-3 hours every night, and it's been going like that for weeks and months now. Before that, I was addicted to regular Call Of Duty. I hate to think what would happen if I got involved in something like WoW.
 
Error Macro said:
It's a good thing I really don't like RPG's and MMORPG's at all, because I play Call Of Duty:United Offensive online for 2-3 hours every night, and it's been going like that for weeks and months now. Before that, I was addicted to regular Call Of Duty. I hate to think what would happen if I got involved in something like WoW.

Holy crap, ALL of my gaming time goes to these 2 games. WoW and COD:UO (awesome, awesome expansion). With these 2, there is simply no need for anything else.
 
Really sad story... even more so with the little sister part.

I can't offer any really good advise other than if he knows he's about to screw his relationship up with WoW and still keeps playing... It can't mean that much to him, maybe he needs to be reminded of how good being together with someone really is. Maybe they should go away for a week somewhere? Break the habit. Perhaps that's not a possibility, financially and with work etc.
 
So did Everquest. There are some pathetic, sad, easily-addicted individuals in the world, and I say let them destroy themselves. :lol If they're dumb enough to forsake their day-to-day lives, then it's Darwinism at its finest; survival of the fittest.

Of course any situations resulting in a death -- like that lady who neglected her baby to death -- will only raise more "are video games hurting society?" debates in the government and media. But whatever.
 
TheDiave said:
So did Everquest. There are some pathetic, sad, easily-addicted individuals in the world, and I say let them destroy themselves. :lol If they're dumb enough to forsake their day-to-day lives, then it's Darwinism at its finest; survival of the fittest.

Totally. He'll just fucking waste away while you're busy curing cancer.
 
akascream said:
Totally. He'll just fucking waste away while you're busy curing cancer.

Well there's a pretty decent chunk of productive things to do between curing cancer and playing online games all day. Even if you're not going to cure cancer, I don't think that's a reason to just give up and play WoW 16 hours a day.
 
AstroLad said:
Well there's a pretty decent chunk of productive things to do between curing cancer and playing online games all day.

I think theres a pretty decent distinction between playing online games all day and extinction. No worries though, TheDiave will carry the torch. Talk about perspective heh.
 
akascream said:
I think theres a pretty decent distinction between playing online games all day and extinction. No worries though, TheDiave will carry the torch. Talk about perspective heh.

Agreed.
 
Blizzard's games are too good. I actually had to snap my Diablo 2 CD in half so that I stopped playing it. It was bad, really bad. I was obsessed with that game, and I can totally understand how someone....even a "normal" person can get hooked on this stuff.
 
More importantly, I think what needs to be addressed is WHY he's addicted, not the fact that he is. What is it in these games that triggers something in us to feel the need to constantly play?

I've got a lvl 30 Undead Warrior that I've been lvling for the past month, my fiance things I'm obessed, (which I am a little) but at the same time, I'm playing with friends from work, they have girlfriends/fiances and still get shit done in real life, but I think there's a lot to say about most of the lvl 60 characters running around.... :lol
 
I understand its addicting,but after a few hours I have to give it a break,I don't really see how people get THAT badly addicted to where they just say fuck life :lol
 
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