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Wish me luck.. I'm going back to WoW..
zandion
Member Posts: 8
Hello MMORPGers, this is my first forum post though I have been a member for quite a while. I guess I never had anything to say.
I just wanted to share my current situation and see what people think.
So I have been playing WoW off and on since a few months after release to total maybe 10 active months. The last time I quit it was because I noticed, for the first time, the full extent of the detrimental effects the addiction had on my life. I have issues with attention and personal motivation and I am trying to motivate myself to pay enough attention to work on them. After I quit WoW I immediately noticed an increase in my overall productivity. But I had an unfulfilled craving.
Over time, the craving has shrank a bit with the help of my purchasing an XBOX360 since Force Unleashed was not to be released for PC. I have done pretty well with my overall time spent gaming but after I beat Force Unleashed and how slow Sith Master difficulty was going, I started to feel like I needed.. well something else. I dreaded the thought of going back to WoW so I thought I would try some other MMOs hoping I could play them more casually.
I tried EQ2 again.. no. I tried ROSE Online again.. was fun for a week or so. I searched MMORPG.com for info on Warhammer and AoC.. meh. I drooled over Darkfall's features.. fingers crossed. I resorted to renting a bunch of XBOX games thinking I could shift my interests.. Baseball was fun.. but.. none really filled the void.
I have tried days without any games thinking time would heal.. well maybe but that whole personal motivation thing is a killer. I have a few ideas for side projects to keep myself busy but that "need" keeps me distracted.
After thinking it over for a while today on how to get my life in order, I thought I might try a different approach to how I view gaming. I am thinking of treating games as a tool to feed the need just enough so I can get back to work. It is kind of like I need my fix and I am hoping that I will be able to control it.
So Ima log back into the World and focus my energy on just small, specific tasks that I really want. My plan is to not commit to raids (except maybe on weekends 
) or attempt to be the best dps or anything.
I expect to not do as well as I hope to do but anything better than before is progress that hopefully I can build on.
So wish me luck, I am attempting to play World of Warcraft ... casually.
Sheesh.. there are a ton o' updates.. download is taking forever.
Comments
Should tell a real life friend what you're doing and have them be your saftey line. That way if you lose control with WoW again they can drag you out.
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A work in progress: (Update: 08/09/10)Easily find your favorite type of MMO
I'm recommending you don't go back, cause everything in WoW takes a ridiculous amount of time, for very little progress. You can limit your playtime easily but you wouldn't get really get much sense of an achievement, neither if you play for 4-5 hours a day. I for once didn't. And the bigger part of the community (something that should be the main asset of an MMO) makes it even worse, it's just walls of QQ and loot whoring. I've had some fun times in that game, can't deny. But compared with the time spent in zombie grind mode it's just not worth it in my opinion.
There are a lot of good single-player games which take much less commitment and are more fun. Brothers in Arms - Hell's Highway, Fallout series, Mount & Blade, Warhammer series, Dead Space, DMoMM, Bioshock, Max Payne series, The Witcher Enhanced Edition - Just a few that i rotate between when i feel like playing computer games.
To fight the horde, singing and crying: Valhalla, I am coming!
On we sweep with threshing oar, our only goal will be the western shore."
You're in luck because WoW is being tailored to the casual player. All the pre-WotlK raids have had their difficulty reduced by 30% and can be completed with a competent group of 5 with relative ease.
Much of the new content that is coming out with the expansion will be aimed at 10 man groups, and Lake Wintergrasp will give people the opportunity to jump in and have some PvP action in whatever spare time they have.
Basically it was the same for me and my ex gf. We got so much into the game that even at work i was thinking about PvP specs of my chars. I had a tunnel-view, didnt pay much attention to my enviroment anymore. It was like WoW was a part of my life like food or drink. Great games ui usually would love to play i couldnt play anymore, i couldnt concentrate on them.
I found out by myself that i had to stop, but after a week or so i had the urge to go back, because "something was missing" and WoW seemed the most desireable game ever.
After i resubbed it was always like a letdown, it was dull as ever.
I learned to stop it the hard way; my ex broke with me and i couldnt stand the game anymore (memories...). It was like waking up suddenly...after a few weeks i played "normal" games again and i found it very entertaining again. I focus on other things again, work, friends and i feel very good. Thinking back to the grind WoW was doesnt affect me anymore.
I started warhammer, but its not much interesting, its more like counterstrike for me, you slip in and slip out again to do other RL stuff.
lol I'd love to see a 5 man ZA group that's funny.
Hey mate
I was in same situation with you only to find myself rolled down in the same amount of time played.
I came to believe that WoW should be a big no-no for me.
I don't play that much per day but I'm into it more than I play if you know what I mean.
I pretty much own most popular MMOs (WAR, Guild Wars with all expansions, LOTRO, WoW, EQ2, VG etc. etc.)
I kinda found playin XBOX360 more fun even If I play another RPG like Oblivion or even a more grindy like Too Human.
However I need to settle down to some MMO to play with my GF cause we enjoy that and lets face it, if you want to play a game with someone that doesn't like sports and fast paced action games then you're left with MMOs :P
I used to play wow quite alot about 2 years ago but went casual due to time constraints. I've had a few sabbaticals from it but usually end up going back. I too own most mmos out there ( as well as f2p mmos and single player pc games). I'm going to go back to wow for a bit to try out new content and chat with old buddies.
Lol, I know quite a few people that have way over 10 months of actual played time (e.g. the number you get by typing /played when in-game).
Thanks everyone for all the posts.
So I played a bit today, got a haircut, did some trick-or-treating, and arcane barraged a few baddies for the first time.
I must say that I now do not expect to find it as fun as I once did. This could be due to my guild having fell apart mostly. My community has dwindled in my absence and I am sure they played a large role in my enjoyment of WoW.
I might look for a Heroic or Headless Horseman run tonight or something to get a feel of a dungeon but I know I should put a bit of effort in... looking for a way to use this lack of enjoyment so maybe I can leave for good. But I'm not sure if that is really the best thing for me as some of my friends seem to think. What if I am just a gamer at heart.. and I should just accept that I'll be gaming my entire life.
But how much do I sacrifice by not actively looking for a way out?
Maybe I should sacrifice sleep instead of games
.
Anyone know how not to need sleep? I usually get 8+ hourse per night the way it is.. A friend of mine says he averages 4 hours per night. If I thought that was healthy I might try to adopt that strategy.
I feel exactly the same as the OP. I haven't played WoW in several months now, but WotLK seems to be beckoning me. It has opened up that hole inside that I thought I closed months ago. It doesn't help that I live in Michigan, and will soon have the winter blues, where I won't want to do much of anything. *Shrug*
I've been in the same boat as some of the people here. Wow is an addictive game. I've been off the game for two months now, and do have the urge to come back every now and then.
I've also quitted smoking for about the same amount of time. It's amazing how much easier it is to quit smoking while NOT playing Wow. Something about playing an addictive game makes your other addictions even worse.
Cold turkey would probably be best op. That void will soon be filled up with other more meaningful activities, like getting in shape, spending time with family and friends, reading, etc...
Best of luck!
Some people are just meant to do things. Goerge Washington was meant to start a great country. Genghis Kahn was meant to try and dominate the world. Babe Ruth was meant to play baseball. Maybe, just maybe you were meant to be the best dps on wow.
People will argue with me and say that wow is a game. But from a certain perspective, can't life be considered a game? And we all are pieces of the game? Maybe we were all meant to play the game differently.
What I think I'm trying to say is if you want to play wow then you should play wow. I get the urge to play wow, but I also get the urge to go bowling. Different things in this world please different people and whatever pleases you is what you should do.
Well, thats my way of looking at it.
I give no mercy
AWEG RJN
Hehe, i can feel your pain on this one, I left wow a good bit before TBC was launched, then walking around in stores and seeing adds for it , got me thinking of this game again. Midnight of its release i had my copy.
Now here we are again, expansion time just 2 weeks away, but this time im seeing it from inside the game with all the events and such gaining speed as WOTLK grows closer. I know its got me hooked for a while now (at least till 80) and there is always the looming idea of getting to face Arthas himself in a raid.
This games drives me completly nuts at times, and most times i find myself saying "i hate wow"
But here i, and alot of other people just like me are , still here and still grinding away waiting for WOTLK to sweep us away.
Well I think WoW tries to cater to all the players and somehow lost its shine...
And the constant changes kill the game imho...
I mean we paved our way to Illidan with tears last year and endless wipe tries and now my alt's guild downed him without clearing SSC cause the patch nerfed them all... That's just lame
I think they should keep the game in progression regarding raids so if you wanna go Karazhan you should clear Naxx even if it's lvl 60...That way people would get online level a bit go to their lvl 60 raid and by the time they're 70 they'd see all previous raids etc. so no harm done...
But thats not gonna happen
I could not disagree with you more.
How does it take away from your previous achievement that bosses are easier now? You can always say you killed him before the nerfs (well, not even true unless you're in Nihilum). The same goes for other bosses before and after Illidan.
I also killed Illidan over 6 months ago, but it doesn't matter to me if a lot more playerbase are going to see him now. Blizzard doesn't heavily nerf the encounters while the instance clearing race is still going on. The top guilds get to compete and all others come in after it's done to see the content.
If this change had been made ~4 months ago, then I would agree, however at this point of Burning Crusade it doesn't matter at all. I'm sure Blizz is very happy that there are more players experiencing the content they spent a lot of time to make.
I like your perspective. No predispositions, things are what they are. Who is to say what I am "supposed" to do with my life?
That being said, I do not wish to spend too much of my time playing games. I have big dreams and it will take a lot of work to get anywhere close to what I want from this existence.
I just had a meeting today where I was given two months to complete a database assignment that looks to be about 150+ hours. That would be easy .. if I didn't already have a full time job! So I have a new commitment now.. or should I say.. excuse to .. well, I don't want to use the term "quit".
I played WoW yesterday and some today. The Halloween stuff was fun-esque and the scourge event also. I like the thing how you can d/e the epics purchased with those crystals.. or shards dropped by the zombie types in EPL.
I am going to keep trying to have a casual approach to WoW. As impossible as it may seem. Because sometimes.. I wanna shoot fireballs at stuff. .. or more appropriately for my spec, arcane missiles
Thanks. I agree with you that it cold turkey would likely be the best course of action. I am just not .. ready. I have decided to give in to my vices this time.. as I have most always done. Kinda sad.. but what can I say, I am human.. or sometimes bloodelf . (I actually like the bloodelves least among all races but my friends on this server were horde.. and I have this thing about needing to look like myself as much as possible.)
When you have an addiction it's hard to do a little bit. That's like a heroin addict saying he'll just do a little smack. Just a little. LOL.
Thank God I already am finished with college and have a good career. My addiction ended with SWG's NGE. I guess they did me a favor, but here I am years later still searching for a game that I will like as much.
I used to draw, sculpt, study and write poetry, read a book or two every week and just do stuff. When I became addicted, playing my game was all I wanted to do. Now after so many mmo disappointments, my other interests are starting to come back and it feels good to start reinvesting myself in other things besides video games. Not that there is anything wrong with videogames, but I think it was making me more one dimensional and that is not good for me.
I was addicted to the game for quite some time 7+ hours a day for about 10 Months. It was horrible, I didnt want to leave the house accept to work (So I could keep playing). I ended up deleting my account with a 70 T6 Warrior and Shaman after It was gone I had no desire to start from the begining and do it all over. It felt kind of descouraging at times that I did that and at times I regret it but it was for the best I think.
NO!!! Don't do it!!! Wow has recently changed. They've gotten 11 million members, so there is no more customer support.
They installed a patch, and everything is still broken.
They totally nerfed Rogues, stole racial spells, added worthless spells, completely changed the ways pallys and hunters play.
They removed healing bonus completely, now yer specced for dps whether you like it or not if you're a healer.
They totally downgraded everyone's class to make room for "improvements" in the $40 expansion. So that's $20 for the orginal, $30 for the first expansion, and $0 for the newest expansion, plus $15 a month, FOR NO CUSTOMER SERVICE AT ALL, and encouragement to the gold farming and ganking griefers. I could get that for free in some game from Korea that encourages gold farmers and gankers.
Lag is terrible, and makes some servers unplayable.
They lost pets and mounts in the patch and haven't given them back.
Peope have characters in transfer limbo for 2 weeks or more!!!
There's no support at all on weekends, the in game ticket system is up to a 5 day wait, when your ticket just dissapears with no response, the phone system is a 30 min wait, IF you can get through at all.
And they've decided that in game world wide pvp griefer events are fun and will have more of them, evn though they lag the server so bad you can't play.
I was totally addicted for 3 years, and now the game has changed to the point where people like me can't play it anymore.
NO!!! Don't do it!!! Wow has recently changed. They've gotten 11 million members, so there is no customer support.
They installed a patch, and everything is still broken. Lag is terrible, and makes some server unplayable.
They lost pets and mounts in the patch and haven't gievn them back. Peope have characters in transfer limbo for 2 weeks or more!!!
There's no support at all on weekends, the in game ticket system is up to a 5 day wait, whenyou're ticket just dissapears, the phone systems is a 30 min wait, IF you can get through at all.
And they've decided that in game world wide pvp griefer events are fun and will have more of them.
Damn blizzard to relase lich king in the winter most pepole want to stay inside
I7@4ghz, 5970@ 1 ghz/5ghz, water cooled||Former setups Byggblogg||Byggblogg 2|| Msi Wind u100
You know, you can simply contact Blizzard and they will restore your characters. They do it all the time. No fuss, no muss, it's easy. I'm just here to help.
I have similar fears when looking at the new expansion. Not sure if I'm going to pick it up. I don't think wow is that amazing of a game (although, the 3 plus years of game time I have logged might disagree) but I really miss playing with the people I ran with in my guild. In the end that is what makes the game worth playing, the friends you make in game. Otherwise its just silly raids, grinding battlegrounds, frustrating arenas, addictive dailies, and drunkin' fishing (just like RL).
Definitely for the best. I mean no offense to you because gaming, especially this game, can be so damn fun.
But I've seen this happen to people before who just end up having nothing in their life except a game.
At least you maintained a job, I've heard of people who lost their job, house, and family because of mmos.