WoW Mind Imprint - Am I Alone?

Ipcryss

I bought WoW in December 2004 as a Christmas request for my elder son. I liked it so much that I bought a second copy for myself. I played WoW for about 18 straight months; finally quitting when they took away the PvP ranking system, which I really loved. When I played I spent at least 2,500 total hours on WoW with many 12 to 16 hour marathons, and I started many different characters. (I bought Burning Crusade, but barely played it.) Now, it's been over a year since I spent any real time on WoW - but I remember every location in every region of that world just as vividly as any real life location I've ever visited. I spent so many hours in each place that, in my mind, they very nearly ARE real places.

It's disconcerting at times when a WoW location will just pop into my head when I'm not thinking of MMOs at all. I'll be working on some database problem and the troll/orc starting location will just appear in my mind, or I'll be diving in one of the lakes in the barrens looking for copper or silver to mine, or battling those viscious little Murlocs on one of the seashores or in Stagalbog cave in the Swamp of Sorrows. Right now I feel as though WoW will always be with me, and I'm not happy about it. It's not a life altering problem, but I don't think I'm going to play MMOs any more.

Does anyone else share this...um...pathology?

arctarus

I feel you bro. That's a time when  i'm introduce to a new friend that i look above his head for his name ... too much mmo imo

Kyleran

No, you're not alone. I didn't play nearly as much as you, but I played a lot.   I quit just before TBC came out (after I realized where WOW was going) so its been about 10 months since I last played the game (though my son still loves it).

But I can remember just about every nook and cranny of the original game world (I leveled 5 characters to 60, and raided on 2 through AQ 40)

Heck, I visited places many players never even find and like you....they still pop in my head from time to time.

But it doesn't concern me....i have pretty vivid memories of DAOC since I played that game for a long time as well.  Just goes in the collective memory pool (dwindling though that is) and I enjoy thinking about the good times I had in the game from time to time.

Shame the game design went down a road I couldn't follow...but that's ok too.....has given me a chance to play several other fun games.

observer

me not that kind of orc! 

Pappy13

I got a buddy who dreams about WoW, but personally it hasn't taken over my life.  What I'm really confused about is you said you loved the game, so why is it a problem that you're reminded of it sometimes?  Certainly you've had some good times playing WoW and nothing wrong with remembering the good times is there?

Morrowater

I know exactly what your saying.  I have played world of warcraft off and on since the game launched. It's not world of warcraft thoughts that has entered my mind as much as my first MMO, That being everquest.  When I played that game I was seriously obsessed,  I spent every waking moment playing or thinking about everquest for probally 2 years.  I can just be watching tv thinking of nothing then all of a sudden I will be thinking about the pathing of mobs in a certain zone, zone layouts or how bad ass the Iksar race was.  lol

Delphian

I know where you're coming from.

I bought WoW on it's release date: November 23rd, 2004. From then on, practically for the next year and a half, working part time and sleeping were usually the only activities coming in conflict with my WoW-time. My character had 60 days of played time (granted, a lot of that was idling, but it was still a tremendous amount of time). I finally quit after having farmed the hell out of Molten Core, then Blackwing Lair, and then Ahn'Qiraj 40. The upcoming release of Naxxramas was just too much.

The game was becoming purely unappealing repetition (not to mention, I grew to despise character development).

There's a lot of things about the game I can't forget, though. I, too, have had dreams involving WoW.

I could understand the idea of this being bothersome to a person, but for me, it's not. I think some people might feel regret that their time could've been more 'wisely' spent... So that they're more comfortable and more aware of the 'real' things going on around them, rather than a virtual world. But, I think sometimes an escape from the real world is nice. I'm glad I was able to spend the time doing what I enjoy, rather than being encumbered by responsibility and pressure found in the grinding of the real world XP.