How to Break a World of Warcraft Addiction
...can't...stop...The definition of "addiction" is the state of being enslaved to something that is psychologically or physically habit-forming (such as narcotics), to such an extent that to discontinue the habit or practice can lead to severe trauma. In other words, you love something so much that you have developed a habit of using it or playing it, to such an extent that not doing so leaves you feeling cranky or nervous; and you are becoming rather inept in other areas of life.
Some experts believe World of Warcraft can be "addictive". Here's a way to break your WoW "addiction".
Steps [edit]Admit you have a problem. This may be hard, but accepting that Warcraft has taken over your life is the initial step into overcoming your addiction.
Consider the following: Imagine the day that you first bought the game. If you knew everything you did now, would you still have bought it? Now the follow up question: Imagine yourself in two years, still playing WoW, looking back on today when you are making the decision to quit or keep playing. How do you feel about your decision to continue?
Find out what has caused your addiction. What makes World of Warcraft (WoW for short) so appealing to you? Is it the fact that it has different continents that you will never go to? Is it the fighting? Is it your unique role as a tank or a mage? Is it the happiness of 'pwning noobs'? Whatever it is, try to minimize this happiness in WoW, and make it a pleasure that you could also get in every day life.
Take a martial arts class. Many gamers are very interested in the martial arts, but never study it. Take up some sort of martial art that is similar to your character in WoW. For example, if you use a sword in the game, then take up fencing, Kendo, or SCA fighting.
Read. Novels have just as much excitement and adventure as WoW, but you can expand other skills -- such as critical thinking and vocabulary -- in addition to those that interactive storytelling and game play will build.
Play a different videogame. Sure, you might just find yourself in another addiction, but at least you're not paying 15 bucks every month.
Burn yourself out by finding the ways to cheat at World of Warcraft. Find a private server to play on, with ultra fast leveling/gold. Cheating through the entire game in an hour will get you burnt out very, very quickly. Some of them give so much xp they level you up 10 levels for discovering the first major city, and mobs start out dropping 5g each. (Though remember, playing on private servers is a violation of the Blizzard ToS, which can get your account banned)
Make it a joint effort. Ideally, find other friends who are trying to break a WoW addiction, and follow these steps with them. Otherwise, explain to your friends and family what you're doing, and ask them to help you stay on track. When you can't trust yourself to keep away from WoW, you have to trust someone else to stop you.
Set up parental controls for yourself. Make it so your play-time is limited, and use a complicated password that you are sure to quickly forget. Or, ask a friend or family member to set the parental controls with a password you don't know.
Schedule other activities with your free time, so you won't have time to play WoW. One of the most effective way is to get a part time job and book every free time you have to work. Hang out with your friends, play basketball, engage in extra curricular activities at school (such as clubs or sport teams) or volunteer. The important thing is that they keep you outside of your home, away from your computer. You can find that there are many things that are just as exciting as playing WoW. Remember, your "guild" online is no substitute for the company of real friends.
Sell your account. There are many players and lazy people out there, willing to pay for an existing account. This is a great way to stop playing, because then someone else takes your character, and you won't be able to control it any longer. This is a nice way to quit, because it gives you some bucks.
Sabotage your WoW future. Get on your character, destroy all of your items, and delete your character. Then go on the account management page, remove your credit card info, and change your password to a random string of text. Change all of your personal info, so it is impossible to retrieve your password. If you have your CD key that came with WoW when you purchased it, scratch it out, and throw it away, making it impossible to retrieve your account. If you feel that it is necessary, uninstall the game and snap the CD in half, too. Now, you officially can't play any longer, and if you ever somehow get back on your account, all of your in-game progress is deleted. This is the hardest of the steps to do, but is the most effective.
Tips [edit]Addictions to video games trigger brain activity similar to a drug addiction. So don't be surprised if breaking the addiction seems difficult at first.
People play games because they seem to find reality is less interesting, in reality, there are many more constructive things to do. Find ways to make reality more interesting, that will help.
Evaluate yourself to see if you are using your "WoW" addiction to escape problems in your life. If you have problems at work, see about improving your education (to get a better job). If you have family problems, see about improving your relationship with them.
You can also find support online. There are support groups on Yahoo and Google Groups, and the WoW forums can sate your desire to see what you're "missing" as you quit.
Track the amount of time that you spend playing WoW. Associate a dollar value with that time, for example: 6 hrs/day * 7 days = 42 hours. 42 * $10 = $420.00 per week. You can see that your time IS money, as even the most trivial computer repair or web page and graphics jobs can easily command $10/hr.
Get a stopwatch and measure how much time you spend waiting in the game (for guild members, flight paths, long walks, etc.) and compare it to the overall time played. You may find that close to half, or even a majority of your time is spent doing effectively nothing.
Calculate how much of your time you spend doing nothing each month against your monthly subscription fee, and see how much money you're throwing away.
If you use a router, block the port WoW uses to connect. This disables your connectivity to the WoW servers. You can also block this port with Windows Firewall or other firewall software, such as ZoneAlarm. You can find this port in Blizzard's knowledge base for WoW
Remember that all of your accolades and achievements in WoW are virtual and do little for you in real life. While your virtual life is blossoming, your personal life could be deteriorating. If so, that is reason enough to stop playing.
If you are doing something that could get you banned, or the only solution is to get yourself banned, make sure you have fun doing it. There are many, many ways to be banned; choose a good one.
Warnings [edit]Your payments continue even after you smash everything. Don't forget to unsubscribe.
Your account may be banned if you get caught selling it. Which in itself is a solution too.
27 Aug 2007, 11:25 pm
