Massively

In my 3 years of experience with WoW, 20 hours a week was a light weight. I've known very few WoW players, and I've known many, who were casual. For most, it was less of a game and more of a lifestyle. They even play when it's no longer fun to do so because it's simply what they do.

I'm speaking from personal experience. I kicked the habit. One day it struck me how I was always playing but was rarely having a lot of fun and I quit WoW cold turkey.

I now play other games with great moderation. I don't want any one of them to be come all consuming again.

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wait till they start strapping on VR headsets and really getting "into" games. plop plop fizz fizz... meltdown.

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I'm a recovering drug addict and alcoholic with roughly 18 years clean and sober. I was addicted to MMOs on and off for quite some time. It took my wife leaving me for 6 mos before I was able to curb my MMO addiction. But once she moved back in I was back to playing WoW occasionally to quickly playing every day.

I've learned that the reason I drank and drugged;to escape, was the same reason I played MMOs - to escape.

I've been able to address my demons and search my soul for the reasons as to why I sought to run as much as I did. And I still play MMOs, I just control it as much as possible.

I beg the young people out there, the be careful. Eat right, exercise and take breaks. If MMOs were around when I was younger, mixed with my drugs and alcohol, I'd be dead.

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Some weeks I play 20 hours a week. But most weeks, I play a lot less... many weeks none at all. It is *not* wrong to spend time on the pursuit of what makes you happy- TV is mentioned, but people put just as much time into sports, exercising, etc, and no one complains about that. In the end, no matter what it is, it's about balance with the rest of your life. If you're ignoring your kids or your SO to play the game all the time, then it is a problem. If you play two-three hours a night and 4 hours saturday and sunday and still have meaningful relationships and meet your commitments, what's wrong with that?

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I balance this by having A LOT of addicting hobbies, so each one gets enough maniacle attention. I've got more motorcycle projects than I know what to do with, my masters degree finishes in 8 months, and I play MMO's. Seems like a good spread to me.

I know people that focus only on one thing, If it's MMO's or motorcycles, it just makes you seem weird to tohers, and become a social deviant.

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When I read this fall in my eye: "and thousands of dollars spent on software, in-game currency, computer hardware etc. "

So this guy was a gold buyer.... and I am not sure how he did spent thousands of dollars on software and hardware like WoW only cost like 19 buck and BC like 40 bucks maybe he did got banned a lot? Also Hardware??!! He talks about blizzard in his memo do not get me wrong but I think WoW runs ok on most old computers??

Anyway I enjoy play WoW (and soon Warhammer I hope) like a game and a game (Yep I quit WoW over 6 times in the pass and keep coming back like there is noting else around)is all it is people like this got huge holes in there life and start getting addicted to games.... he had no life to start with and starting give the mmo a bad name! And next to that with there lazy asses keep buying gold and where they take the money from no one knows?

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Hi, Brad from ExGamer.net here.

Thanks for the article. Your readers will have lots of questions that are best answered in the site itself. You can read my full story in the following post:

http://exgamer.net/blog/?p=106

We're also waiting on word from Los Angeles about an air date for an episode of the Dr. Phil show that we taped on September 16.

I'm grateful for your interest in the site.

Regards,
Brad, ExGamer.net

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What constitutes a "balanced life"?

If you can still meet your responsibilities to those whom you care about (and they probably reciprocate), there isn't a problem. If that means you can play a game for 40 hours a week without any sort of issue, then it's not a problem.

Show me in the DSM-IV where 20 hours doing something a week means you have an addiction.

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I call Hoax.

Guy's found a way to get his 15 minutes of fame, right next to the dudes who found Bigfoot.

I'm not saying there aren't people with addiction problems related to MMOs.

I'm just saying this dude isn't one of them. He's too interested in milking his story, if you ask me.

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Other things that fit under the blanket statement 'can and has been shown to cause addictive behaviour.' Television, the internet, caffeine, alcohol, transfat, high fructose corn syrup, sugar, gambling, sleeping, over eatting, not eatting, sex, religion. Should all of these come with warnings as well? We live in a sad sad society where people have given up their personal responsibility and instead simply yell "But I wasn't informed!". I understand that they're exist people with addictive personalities, but we can't pad the walls with rubber as it were with messages that will be largely ignored by the small minority they are aimed at.

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"and thousands of dollars spent on software"

And I thought it was just Adrian's name that was "Bott."

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Plenty of things can cause addictive behavior. Do we really want to label them all? No point singling out one thing if we're not out to label them all.

And the first thing that should be labeled as "may cause addictive behavior" should be the little lump of grey matter inside our skulls. Perhaps a stamp on our foreheads will do.

It's true. Some people do get addicted to anything. If there's a chemical imbalance in their brain that they can't help, then it could be that they need chemicals or some other drastic step like going cold turkey to offset that.

For others, our gameplay habits are within our own locus of control. It's our choice, subconscious or otherwise, how much obsession and priority we feed to the game we're playing, over our real life activities. Not everyone makes a good choice, of course.

Getting the endorphin rush of a 'win' or an 'achievement' can be easier in game, than dealing with problems, obligations, work, responsibilities, and other such "distasteful" words of real life. Especially if the game is designed to offer cookie crumb rewards like a jackpot machine, with selfish lessons to teach like grindy persistence pays off, or more time invested = I, me, myself deserve something good. (Sorry, there are reasons why I choose not to play WoW.)

But there are plenty of people who can play a game in moderation a couple hours a day, 1-3ish, and not fubar anything in their lives either.

Helps if you don't play a game with the peer pressure to stay logged on for 4-8 hours just to accomplish something, of course.

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Way to be biased about the way you focus your comments, Adrian.

I realize not all MMO gamers are addicted. It's true. But a much larger portion than should be are. A MUCH larger portion. How do I know this? Well, experience.

I was addicted for at least 4 years. In that time, at least 30% of the players I was in guilds with or on friends lists with put well over 20 hrs a week.. being generous.

30%... at least. Easily. Over 20 hours a week, at least, easily. That's addicted.

Honestly, you can write it off as a hobby. But it doesn't justify it. No one should spend THAT much time on one hobby. If you're a teenager, you should be studying and getting into College. If you're a college student... a GOOD one.. you and I BOTH know that college is more than a full time job. At least good schools are. If you're a working person who is single, you should be out there meeting people and trying to move on with the more substantial parts of life. If you're married, you should be spending time with your wife.

Maybe, just maybe, if you're married or dating, it's justifiable if both people play the game. But even then, it's not healthy.

Go ahead, compare it to television. People watch that much television per week, right?

Well that's wrong too. WAY wrong.

In the end, MMO's are games. That's it... nothing more. There are relationships to be had, sure. I don't doubt that. Trust me... I've played. But that doesn't justify that much time into one hobby. It never has, it never will. It's wrong.

I still play. I had to undergo a serious amount of self discipline to regulate it. I only allow myself one hour per day. That's it. Only one MMO at a time. That's it. I don't play other games at all.. it's kindof the price you pay to play an MMO. I still love it. I'm enjoying WAR a ton. It's so fun.

And before flamers come on here to attack me and make comments like "just because you're addicted doesn't mean we all are", yeah I know. I made that disclaimer. But for those players who play more than 20 hours a week in a game... the numbers speak. You can tell yourself you're not addicted, but that's way too much. There is absolutely nothing a person could do to sway me to believe that their over 20 hrs of gaming per week is justifiable. It's just not true.

Unless it's your job and you get paid.

Gamers have to just be aware and honest with themselves. Denial is just as addictive.

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