Hello citizens,
Like millions of humans out there today, I was one of those addicted to
WoW (world of
warcraft). I originally started playing the game when my best friend and another friend who had been playing it for some time insisted I joined them in the "fun". Here is my story, if you wish to know how I quit, scroll down until you see my tips, otherwise feel free to read the entire post :)
Like many others I decided to give it a try (I was never an
MMORPG fan myself) and downloaded the trial of the game.
When I started playing, I started a warlock but I quickly became frustrated at not understanding what or where to go for the quests, I would finally find what to get/kill but usually would forget where to return to complete the quest and get my reward.
This was quickly fixed when a friend introduced me to
add-ons. What a relief! I thought, now I could actually find the game somewhat more enjoyable. I was finally able to get around Elwyn Forest if I remember the name correctly and quickly leveled to level 11.
Once at that level I was bored and created a paladin, which would become my recipe for my addiction.
A year later I had managed to get to the last level at the time (level 70) and by the time I had gotten my epic flying skill I had played over 120 days. That is over 2,880 hours!
If I had been paid for those hours at Florida minimum wage I would have gotten paid around $1,400+ but instead I had already spent over $230 for the game + expansion and the monthly payments ($15). Not to count I had once bought about $150 worth of gold for the epic flying skill (I got the money back by later selling $200 worth of gold to other people, I do not suggest doing this).
So after all this gaming, my grades had dropped and my social life was in the toilet. Now not everyone takes it so deep... the addiction of course! So you may play less, you may have a girlfriend/boyfriend that keeps you on a decent track, but if you were like me or worse, hopefully still kept your job.
I once managed to quit the game by
uninstalling, cancelling the account and calling it a day. But this was not enough, I came back to the game when the
Lich King expansion was released and I was once again hooked into
WoW.
I quickly reached level 80, earned over 4200 achievement points, and had top level gear on the paladin. Then one day it finally hit me: All this time, all this gear and
WoW valuables, are only as real as the character, they are not real and they are not valuable.
All the time we spend getting all the rewards we could use it doing something better for ourselves. Tier 10 gear will not get us a good job, it will not make us
phisically (real life) stronger or intellectually smarter.
I could have used all the money I spend paying for this game to give it to a charity, or saving it for a much wanted vacation, but I had spent it playing this addicting game.
So May 2009 I finally made the decision it was time to finally quit once and for all. But to quit, you must understand first how you became addicted, and what about this game makes it so difficult to quit once you have given it enough time to consume you.
Here is what I can say cause the addiction and how you can manage to change your life and take it to a new level.
1. The game is constantly being updated, that is, the developers find things to "fix" every so often. When they do, they are usually trying to make some people happy, that includes reducing the requirements for usually hard-to-get rewards such as mounts or armor. You often find people that had quit come back to the game when they are told the requirement to get your first mount was reduced to level 30.
2. WoW has nearly endless rewards. As the game gets updated, so do the rewards and you are never the best in the game, there will be a new instance that will make your current gear obsolete, maybe not now, but a few updates later it will.
3. Earning rewards is not all that easy, so the more you have to work for something the more exciting it becomes and the more rewarding it feels. They make it specifically difficult to get the best items, and when doing raids of 25 people out of which sometimes there are 10 who want the same item, you have a very small chance of getting what you want when you want it.
4. The game is huge, with so many characters and different combinations you can start from scratch at a different location and get a new experience.
This is just some of what keeps you and others coming to the game, day and night, month after month, and since 2004 it has managed to stay alive and safely ruin lives.
Now how can you quit?No matter what your reason to quit is, you have to do this, it is for your own good, for the good of your social and professional life. Even if you believe it has not affected them, if you want to quit and haven't found an easy way, then it is a sign you must quit ASAP and for good.1. Begin by making the decision, don't just say it, do it, tell your "friends" in game, and your real friends that you are done with the game, that you are quitting the game completely and forever.2. Before you throw your PC out the window, log on for the last time in your game, and hopefully you made some good WoWlationships and have a person who you believe should quit with you, maybe your entire guild, let them know why you and they should quit and how to do it:3. Sell your gear to a vendor, disenchant it, or delete it. Give your gold to a random person open trade, put all your gold, hit trade, most people will not think twice and hit "trade" and then later say: "?" "Thank you?" and run away.4. If you are a paladin add someone nearby in a major city to your group, then do a Divine Intervention, but first yell: "I quit this piece of S*** game!" and log off. ( Your dead character might stay there for some time to remind people you made the decision).5. Delete all of your characters. One by one, you can repeat steps 2 -4 for all.6. Open a text file, type a set of random letters and numbers, copy them, then go to your WoW account and first cancel your subscription.7. Then change your password and use what you copied in step 7 as your password, delete the text file.Now you must be saying, this is not enough, you can always recall your account and have them retrieve your characters! Of course, there are more ways, you can find ways to get yourself banned, and after step 7 continue to step 8:8. Uninstall your copy of WoW in any computer you play it on, including deleting your favorites of any WoW related website. 9. Delete any installation file left over by wow, do a search for WoW and delete all this heavy stuff that is taking a toll on your hard disk space. Your PC will be happy. (Don't forget to do a defragment after).10. Find your box of the game, or if you purchased online your email and delete those WoW related emails. If you have your box and expansion boxes, find the CD key for each, peel it off and cut it into little pieces and throw it away. If you have more time and the materials or can ask someone for the favor, burn the box itself.Hopefully you did all of the steps, and did not skip any of them, which all will make it very difficult for you to go back to the game. And this is the purpose, you want to avoid even attempting to play the game. You can always begin a new account and go back to the habit, but you know better, and it will be one of the best things you have done, and the results will be almost instant.It can take some time to heal, you may have dreams of playing the game, or friends talk about the new expansion, but you can tell them you have grown past this and have found far more interesting things in books, in real life friends and activities, the kind of stuff you cannot earn by sitting at a computer for endless hours.I hope this was helpful, and I recommend you ask me anything about this topic, and comment,
or add your own thoughts and suggestions on how you or someone you know quit the addiction.
Also please feel free to visit these links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8hfK3RQs2ghttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VI82Kpd8hM4http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RV11p5QjKfE
