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God, I think I need help. (An mmorpg thread.)
Lackadaisical
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I started playing MMOrpgs when I was quite young, I recall playing everquest as early as 6th grade. It swallowed up quite a bit of my life. I tend to become easily obsessed with things, especially games. (This carries over to all parts of my life, music, books, etc, but those aren't 'bad' things.)
Now, I've been playing WoW for quite a bit of time, and I've come to absolutely despise it. I mean, when I play it I want to not be playing it, and yet I keep playing it anyways. I've tried to quit many times and inevitably gone back to it an almost equal number of times. I canceled my account two weeks ago, and have yet to reactivate it (it ran out on august 1st) so I haven't been playing at all, but I want to play despite the fact that I hate it. How the hell do I not end up glued to my monitor sometime in the next couple of days grinding out honor on one of too many alts?
Now, I've been playing WoW for quite a bit of time, and I've come to absolutely despise it. I mean, when I play it I want to not be playing it, and yet I keep playing it anyways. I've tried to quit many times and inevitably gone back to it an almost equal number of times. I canceled my account two weeks ago, and have yet to reactivate it (it ran out on august 1st) so I haven't been playing at all, but I want to play despite the fact that I hate it. How the hell do I not end up glued to my monitor sometime in the next couple of days grinding out honor on one of too many alts?
It's a warm feeling when you realize that people share your views...
Sandra Lee and Rachel Ray raped food.
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it might sound obvious, but my advice is to replace it with another hobby that is way more fulfilling. learn a musical instrument, take up cross-stitching, write a stand-up comedy routine, take a good book to the park and read it in the sunshine -- just do something that takes your mind off it. soon, you won't even miss it, I promise.
I then realized how stupid I was for even playing that game. You grind and grind then they release new stuff which makes all your grinding useless. Everyone who plays the game knows this yet we keep going.
Find something else to do that'll fill your time. Hit the gym, go out with friends etc. You'll have way more fun that sitting and playing a chore.
This.
Or just make yourself stop playing it for a few days. For me at least it was surprising how hard a few days off made it to login.
Even if you delete them they are still out there in the ether, singing their siren song.
I actually thought of this, but I realized it was a trap. To delete my characters I would have to do the most dangerous thing I've ever done: reactivate my account. And in doing so, would I then be able to resist the siren's song? I would look at my characters, think about it, contemplate pressing the delete button but then make a dangerous leap: well, since I've reactivated my account with the intent of deleting my characters I should say goodbye to all of my friends, right? Hmmm, not all of them are on, maybe I'll do some battlegrounds to pass a little time. Log out
"I'll delete them tomorrow." followed by playing them some more and then deciding that deleting them, let alone quitting in the first place was an awful Idea and I'll be snared for another three months.
I second this as well. I played for 30 or so hours per week for two years. Have to find something else to fill the time that took. I joined a gym, and I found a significant other that couldn't care less about the on-line world. And I got a dog.
When WoW came out my husband and I were living in a shitty town, with little to do. We really liked it at first, but eventually got sick of it and dropped it a little before the first year came around. There, at the time, no one we knew played(going back years later my friends are hopelessly addicted...I've been there 2 times in the last 3 years with only a couple of days to see him and he wouldn't even log off to hang out. I had to talk to him between bosses on a raid he was leading).
Anyway when we moved to go to college it was a little harder to totally quit because we ended up with a lot of friends who played so we joined up again off and on for a year or two....but quickly realized we couldn't keep up with them because rarely did we want to play that much and soon realized it was a waste of money. I would start playing, and then log off 10 minutes later because I was sick of it and wouldn't play for a few weeks then my friends would be like "Oh! There is this neat new thing you guys have to try." Is part of your problem with quitting due to friends in game or out of game? If it's either I think this is probably the hardest reason to quit...you more than likely will lose all of those in game friends, and possibly some of the "RL" friends if they play more than they go out.
In the whole time I played I only had 1 character make it to 40 because whenever I played I felt like it was almost a chore to run around grinding and to get the good gear you had to get in a guild and raid and I didn't want to put in the effort, it doesn't seem you want to either. I'd rather put that effort into something like drawing, photography, school, friends, family, exercising...anything seems more productive to me. Make a list of things you'd rather do to improve yourself. Whenever you feel the urge to renew your account, pick something off of that list and do it instead.
It's harder to quit something like that if you're living somewhere that the only thing to really do is go walk around Wal-mart and bitch that there's nothing to do...hopefully you live somewhere more interesting than that. Before I wondered sometimes what I would do if I weren't playing WoW or whatever....but now it's more like I don't even have enough time to do all the things I want to, how would I fit it in?
Sadly, I still have a lot of friends who it takes up a huge chunk of their lives. Some have tried to quit and can't. It really is an addiction I think.
Spend all the time while you are there thinking how insignificant it is in comparison to how much you played WoW.
Think of it as "grinding" for your body, +14 sexual attractiveness +8 strength. Chance on hit: Hot girls on the treadmill.
That's what I did (no, seriously) and it worked wonders.
My friend deleted all his characters trying to quit. A month later he came back, and told a GM he wanted them restored and they did it. :-/ didn't have his gold he gave away, but still had all his gear.
Unfortunately, I live in a small community in the mountains. There's a lake, but I'm terrified of water (I don't even know how to swim.) I've never appreciated nature in any form and detest hiking along with most outdoor activities. I don't own a bicycle, a camera, or have interest in any actual hobbies. I stay away from the casinos (yes, there are casinos) for fear of gambling, and I'm currently unemployed while waiting to move for college, UC Davis might be better, I don't really know. I leave in one month so joining a gym is unrealistic, and, well, I can't think of anything else to add to this rant.
Seriously, I have a feeling a change in scenery will do wonders for you.
Go find something else to do. Take up jogging.
Otherwise, I bought a DS to keep up with my gaming habit but keep myself mobile. Wip it out, 5 minutes of sweet games while I'm bored and waiting for something, then back pocket and I'm free to roam. Even while bored and isolated its kept me entertained over the summer, but it wont tie me up when I get to school.
This. Oh god this. So hard.
When I stopped playing WoW for a while (The main reason I stopped was because I thought I was spending too much time on it) I just replaced WoW time with reading internet forums and my life was the exact same.
Anyway. I was pretty hardcore addicted to EverQuest back in the day, and the only thing that worked for me was going absolute cold turkey. I stopped playing, I gave my accounts to a friend with instructions to sell them (or at least use them and change the password), I stopped reading the EQ forums, I stopped scanning Allakhazam's for new equipment. I just cut myself off completely. Instead, I read a lot of books, and after a couple of months, I went back to school.
Go Ags!
*ahem*
I studied for a year at UC Davis, so I have a far idea of what's going on there.
The gym is free, and it's in a lovely newish sports centre on campus. Use it.
Because Davis is small and sort of isolated (Sacramento is not my favourite place, and you need to go to SF to find something really different the other way), you're going to find a lot of the stuff to do is on campus. There are a lot of clubs to join, and a lot of sports "classes" (I forget what you guys call them now... those 1 credit jobbies in archery or whatever) that you can take. Just like everything in uni, no-one will force you to do anything, so you have to step up properly and get into it.
The Ski and Snowboarding club is awesome and full of awesome people, so you should definitely join, even if you have only a passing interest. I went snowboarding with them on the All-Cal and then just went to the parties (it's a bit easier to meet people when you're the token English guy) and it was great fun. Join it if you can.
The opportunities are there at UCD to get out and do whatever you want, but you have to want it. You're a big boy now. World of Warcraft is great for filling in time, but when it starts taking time for itself, you need to be mindful of it and get out.
And remember, if you play WoW your entire first year, and meet no-one, you are going to regret it for the rest of your life. And I mean that. The first-year of university is so important when it comes to meeting people and making life-long friends. If you screw it up by playing WoW or doing something else solitary, you'll only have yourself to blame.
To get your gaming kick, consider getting a 360 and inviting friends into your dorm room to play Madden or whatever with you. You get games and make friends at the same time. Xbox Live works too. I know because I managed to get the Resnet guys to open the firewall for it back in the day (it was important for my thesis. Honest
A recommendation in the region of deleting your characters: bang your head on the keyboard till you have a ten character long string of completely random characters. Cut it from whatever you typed it in. Change it to your password. Do not save it anywhere, and do not pay any attention to what it is you copied.
This.
One "addiction" or time waster will be replaced by another and another... The key is to make that time waster or addiction something worthwhile to your future, OR, not allow yourself enough free time to be wasted.
When you start next month is your big chance, don't waste it.
Read some books, play some console games, etc. for a month. Do you have contact information for your roommate(s) if there are any? Hit them up, find out what they like to do. Try some of that stuff out, having a common interest or two with the person you'll be living with for the next year ain't a bad idea.
honestly, I don't think there's anything wrong with WoW or addiction. as Kate said, it's no worse than the TV zombies the other 95% of America is. it sounds like your real problem is lack of interest in anything else. just take some time to figure out what else is out there - music, movies, outdoors, whatever - and broaden those horizons.
I don't know who I am to talk. I don't really have any interest in much of anything either. It just so happens that my interest in MMO's faded on its own. Now I play Vanguard once every few days, but most of the time, I try to keep myself busy other ways.
if you're going off to college soon, sounds like it won't be a problem for long. especially if you already managed to cancel your account before even starting school.
Other then that. What everyone said above. You need to find something to fill the time you used to spend. Otherwise you find yourself sitting around bored and fighting the urge to resubscribe.